‘Life on Weekends’ came into being more than eight years ago in November 2015 and since then, one thing that has stayed constant in my life is travel. Well, that and my travel partner, my husband, Prashant. Nothing could come in our way. We have travelled through it all: family emergencies, long work commitments, extremely busy schedules, Demonetisation, pandemic, ill health…you name it.

These past eight years, we travelled through the length and breadth of our country and experienced unique aspects of India everywhere we went. We experienced India that’s proud and shining in its 42 World UNESCO Heritage sites. We witnessed India that’s ancient in its culture and heritage & modern in its thought and expression. We saw the incredible India in its age-old mountain ranges, rich flora and fauna, grand palaces and temples, engineering marvels, mouth-watering cuisine & splendid clothes in every direction we went.

In 2023, I began to look backwards on this journey and came up with a beautiful blog series titled, ‘Rediscover India, Incredible India‘.

Happiness ❤️ in a Jungle Safari. In Sariska Tiger Reserve;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Somewhere near Pangong Lake, Ladakh;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Inside a popular cafe of McLeod Ganja waiting for my hot chocolate to arrive;
Pic Courtesy: Life on Weekends

Gulmarg, Kashmir. One of the most beautiful places on the face of this planet;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Rediscover India, Incredible India

This blog series introduced six themes viz., heritage, beauty and rich culture of Incredible India, one blog post at a time.

Through the blogs, I tried to capture the essence of India. I chose six themes for the blogs and wrote a total of 23 blog-posts, each one laboriously penned by me, echoing my adventures during past eight years. The list of the themes, and the link to few of the special blogposts is given in the end of this post. Do go through them. You will not regret, I promise.

The encounter that everyone looks forward to in a jungle safari;
Pic Courtesy – Prashant Chaudhary

Pushkar Mela, Rajasthan;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Woman in Wild:

2023 was a year of discovery for me, where I realised life is so much more meaningful and purpose-led than we think it is. I usually travel to places that are famous or offbeat, click a lot of photographs and post some of those on my blogs. But when you do that, you spend a lot of your energy in composing the pictures and spending time in clicking those. Last year, I clicked minimum pictures and spent maximum of my time in experiencing the places that I visited.

In 2023, I spent a lot of my free time including most weekends in nature. Watching the Sunrises, bright afternoons, getting drenched in monsoons, feeling the strong breeze in the cool forests, listening to the rustle of the dried leaves, watching the trees sway, observing the tiny birds go about from one branch to another, chasing bears, dhole, leopards and other wild animals in the forests & occasionally sighting Tigers and the mighty Lions. 😀 🙂

While spending time in nature, I felt that there was absolute peace and quiet in nature, and I realised that travel doesn’t need to be an escape from your life.

Travel can be your life. It’s a part of you that stays with you forever in the form of memories, experiences & stories. Last year, all the trips that I did were planned to recharge myself & not to escape anything that was bothersome during the weekdays.

Because as long as you are living, worries will be there. Only the dead have no worries, but more about that later!

The Royal Bengal Tiger;
Pic Courtesy- Prashant Chaudhary

Other interesting creatures of forest such as this monitor lizard;
Pic Courtesy- Prashant Chaudhary

Zone 10 of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in monsoons;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Silent and gruelling treks to the wonders of nature;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Atop the mountains, inside the monasteries:

If you are a regular reader of ‘Life on Weekends’, you would know that we love mountains and altitude. There’s an irresistible charm in mountains and only a few things can come close to that experience.

Watching the rising Sun, soaking in the afternoon sunlight, listening to the chirping birds & enjoying the pure, unadulterated strokes of nature over cups of tea, make my heart full. In those moments, I really don’t want anything more from life. All the greed for more…more labels, more titles, more money in the bank or more travel around the world, cease to exist. Nothing more matters! Many before me have said this. And Many after me will share similar experiences. I know of so many folks who left their high-paying jobs or businesses and made their way towards the mountains permanently.

Near Tezpur, Assam;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Near Shergaon, Arunachal Pradesh;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Cherry Blossom;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Snow dance 💃 near Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Arunachal Pradesh, the land of the rising Sun in India

In March 2023, I went to Arunachal Pradesh, the land of rising Sun in India and home to many high passes with freezing temperatures at the same time. This was my first long vacation of the year after having completed a really huge, global project at work with non-stop long working days that began early mornings. After 4 months of constant hustle, we delivered the whole thing, and I went on leave happily. Amidst all of that, the news came that our India facility is getting shut down.

What that meant was that I might not have a job to come back to after my leave. 😂 No early morning logins. No late nights. No weekdays. Nada! Whole life could be an unpaid vacation as the role was going away. 🤣🤣

With absolutely nothing to look forward to, I had a lot of time to think about work and life on that 10 day long vacation to Arunachal Pradesh. Had I known that the role was going away, would I have still put the same effort and energy into the project? If yes, why?

As I was thinking about my own purpose in life, we reached Sela Pass on our way to Tawang, and the temperature dropped to minus 7 degrees. In that biting cold, my body almost froze & I started getting altitude sickness. I couldn’t keep my eyes open or my head straight. In that moment, my mind took over and diverted all the thought traffic to one place – how do we stay alive in this cold?

For the next three days as we moved from Sela Pass to Tawang and then drove to Bumla at an incredible minus 10 degrees Celsius amidst a snow blizzard, I didn’t really care about work or larger purpose in life.

All I cared about was – how do I stay alive…in that very moment. 😄😄

After Tawang, we stayed in Bomdila, Shergaon and Orang. I went to many monasteries in and around Dirang, Bomdila, Shergaon and Tawang. There was a different world out there, and a parallel universe inside the monasteries.

In that extreme weather, little kids, elderly and adults were dressed in robes and went about their business inside the monasteries. They woke up early, did manual labour everyday, ate mindfully, meditated, debated and led their lives with discipline, every single day.

They were not worried about how to stay alive. They were there…alive…in the midst of such harsh weather.

It took me a while but I realised the significance of the old saying:

“If you can solve the problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you can’t solve it, then what is the use of worrying?” – Shantideva

There’s more to life than worrying about results, impending events and troubles in life. There’s more to life than to worry about the losses, failures or have-nots.

If there is, what is it?

It’s a beautiful life…only if you remember to stop & notice.;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Snow ⛄️ and a blizzard 🥶;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Near Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Dirang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh;
Pic Courtesy- Life on Weekends

Leading from within

Other than trips to forests, mountains and monasteries, 2023 was also the year where I rediscovered Yoga. I travelled to places that were linked to any of the eight branches of Yoga.

What did I learn?

A great deal including the fact that years of lazing around makes you so inflexible that it takes time to resume Asanas that were easy for you back in the childhood such as Halasana (Plough pose). By the way, I am still trying to decode how to ease into Chakrasna (Wheel pose). Any tips on that will be highly appreciated! 🙂🙂🙂

Regular Yoga, Pranayama and Meditation practice helped me in keeping calm most of the time…but I wasn’t able to manage my anger, fears and anxiety.

There came about a time last year when I would remember random things from the past & get mad. Incredibly mad…right in the middle of my Yogasana practice. 😂😂 That was both funny and stupid. And on days when I could let go of my anger on ‘what happened’, anxiety or fear about ‘what could happen’ will take over. And if that wasn’t enough, the constant talk of layoffs in the industry and an impending doom on our India business at work was enough to keep me in that thought loop.

Something wasn’t right. And that’s when I read this:

“If terrible things have happened to you, you ought to have grown wise. If the worst possible events have befallen you, you should be the wisest of the lot. But instead of growing wise, most people become wounded. In a state of conscious response, it is possible to use every life situation—however ugly—as an opportunity for growth. But if you habitually think, “I am the way I am because of someone else,” you are using life situations merely as an opportunity for self-destruction or stagnation.” – Sadguru

I began spending a lot of time understanding what Yoga means, how you can find the union between your work, life and purpose. With each passing day, I realised that life is much more than titles, rewards, appreciation or critique. One thing led to another and I enrolled in the Inner Engineering program of Isha Yoga centre. I think that was one of the best decisions of my life till date. With regular practice, I began to lose my anxious self and started seeing more reason and meaning in simply living. In September 2023, I got the opportunity to attend Bhav Spandana Workshop at Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore, and with that my quest reached a significant milestone.

Adiyogi, Isha Yoga, Coimbatore;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

Chamundi Prashala, Isha Yoga Coimbatore;
Pic Courtesy – Life on Weekends

2023 taught me that it takes incredible effort & energy if you continue to try to manage your responses to external events everyday. But if you draw your attention inwards, it becomes easier.

With that, my year ended with multiple short and long trips to many parts of this incredible country. And all these years of travelling, blogging and conversations with friends have taught me that you indeed can find the answers to life’s questions within a forest, under a tree, atop a rock, on a mountain or inside a monastery/ temple.

The place doesn’t matter. All that matters is what you are willing to experience and to what extent are you willing to travel the distance, for that?