TRAVEL | CULTURE | DIGITAL NOMAD

My Experiences Exploring India Through Workations

How I managed a full-time job by exploring places on my wish list and discovering myself

I was a kid with a nervous leg. My parents worried that I would never sit still at one place for more than five minutes. As an adult, I set into the corporate mould and looked at evening rain through shiny, polished glasses and felt tiny, little deaths, every day. Deaths of my wishful impulses. 2021 was a year of major upheaval in my life. So, I decided to travel. The initial reason being to simply abscond from the city which was responsible for so many of my miseries. I had a full-time job as a software developer and had no option to take a break to center my thoughts. Sad as it might sound, but the idea of a workcation was a fresh breath of air.

I saw India through different lenses in the period that followed. It is a beautiful country with all forms of geographical beauty — hot water springs, high mountains, deep valleys, musically flowing rivers, hard-to-reach waterfalls and enchanting forests. You name it, we have it (only a slight overstretch 😛).

I had begun to despise my living situation and wanted to move out of the country much like all my undergrad friends had. I felt lonely and miserable. I did not like how the taxes I paid never contributed to any tangible infrastructural development. This activity of exploration came with an understanding that we do have plenty of problems and it would take a while, but I can still love the country. While one of my friends would always tell me this, I had to see it through my own eyes to believe it.

I would work on weekdays and explore nearby places on weekends. I stayed with locals in the place, either in Airbnbs or homestays, ensuring the places had great internet connectivity and a power back-up (for context, certain places in the country get power cuts owing to the weather, so it is a good idea to ask for power backup to be able to charge your devices and have smooth internet connectivity).

I also aligned the workations with extended weekends, if possible, to absorb more of the culture of the place. India has so many subcultures that workations were the perfect way to spend a part of your life assimilating in the place, drinking what they drink, eating what they eat, running in the fields they go to and seeing the place through someone else’s eyes. They get the happiness of you experiencing a place for the first time, while you reap the benefits of their experience. What a beautiful, symbiotic relationship.

Did you know that Himachalis make this grand feast in their weddings called dham? Or that the famous ghost pepper is found in the northeastern part of the country (interestingly, I saw someone sell it in a Sunday market in Budapest at exorbitant prices. Oh, my spices 😛). While I learnt about my country in a new light, I could recollect parts of my childhood that I had left behind. The silliness in small towns where people know too much and help more than they can. It has its own boon and bane. But it keeps you so grounded.

You grow through all this to value the better things in life, but you forget to credit your journey along the way. Now you buy your colorful plates from IKEA to match the color theme of your modern interiors, while all those old ladies smile through their wrinkled eyes selling beautiful ceramic pots and plates, braving the weather and wading through realities we are estranged from. Nothing has changed after all these years, still so much has changed. Try being around these places during a festival and you get nothing but absolute joy, from the beautiful rangolis to the brightly lit diyas and the decorated shops; it is a visual pleasure.

Some workations would be tougher than others in terms of deadlines on projects. But the charm of new places made the projects less hectic and the inefficiencies in the team less off-putting. I traveled solo on all these workations and there were days where I questioned a lot of my existence and motivations. The best answers were found in transits. I learnt to appreciate my idiosyncrasies as much as I accepted someone else’s. I was often told how I would be miserable since I had fleeting attention and wanted everything in life. I learnt it is not bad to want everything, so that you can up-skill and upgrade yourself in the pursuit.

You learn to relinquish control since not always things go according to your desires and unknowns can lead to beautiful discoveries. I am a socially awkward person and do not like a lot of human interactions. This was perfect for me, since I would know people for a brief time and only see the positive aspects of their lives, thus providing me the optimism I needed desperately at that point in life. It taught me to appreciate the flavors in transience. Short bursts of happiness that form pretty memories and serve as a crutch to hope in one’s life.

I have worked from several towns in the mountain-clad state of Himachal Pradesh in the north, to Shillong, in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya, with its multiple waterfalls and sacred forest, to Wayanad with its beautiful spice gardens and hills in God’s own country of Kerala in the south. Multiple workations later, I am nowhere close to finishing my exploration of the country. The tiny uphill lanes of Kalimpong with its numerous monasteries or the secluded town of Tehri, all had their own charms and still invite you for another sojourn.

I am looking forward to writing useful pieces with practical tips around places I have explored across the world. Please let me know if this article inspires you to start traveling and exploring. I will share a portion of your courage in my life. I will end this article with one of my favorite images from the town of Dharamshala.