On My Canvas. On My Canvas.

My travel tales and best ideas to live better.

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India

  • My Experiential Travel Guide to Hyderabad, The City of Nawabs (2) November 10, 2018
  • My Love and Hate Relationship With the Colorful India – A Story and Memory Postcards (7) September 1, 2018
  • Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary – A Day in the Winged Paradise (4) June 20, 2018
  • A One–Day Road Trip From Bangalore to Panchapalli Dam and Bettamugilalam Village – Driving Through Wilderness and Rejoicing in Nature (6) May 22, 2018
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  • Did I tell you how hard solo traveling could be sometimes? . I have been traveling alone for many years, on & off. Sometimes the trip is a few days long & at times I have traveled solo for as long as 10 months. No matter how much I travel alone, I have a really hard time some days. I mostly know what to expect on solo trips, what might upset me or put me out of my comfort zone, but knowing doesn't help, always. . At times not being able to be with your partner at the end of the day & discuss the hell out of what you did &what didn't work out is hard. A few times not having anyone for dinner when you want to just sit & enjoy & be with someone you love makes you feel incomplete. Some days things don't happen the way you plan them. A string of events might go their way. Like my music class gets delayed or cancelled & I plan my whole day around it & I try to be okay with the change in plans but at times I get zittery & disappointed with the whole thing. A travel friend plans to meet but then never shows up neither inform. Back at home people are mostly dependable & work in schedules, while traveling everybody wants to be their own way & sometimes without even thinking how that might affect their promises. . I am not saying you are alone when you are traveling solo. You meet tonnes of amazing people. But only a very few of them can make you feel as if home is right here with you.Esp when you have a partner who is your portable home but he can't travel with you for certain reasons nor can he always talk on phone when you need him the most. . . It's hard. You are scared when moving from one place to another or while walking alone at night on a hill while your feet are tipsy. You want to share a moment with a close friend. You want to know that you have warm company for dinner. Or someone to take your mind off things if they go wary. And this is only emotional stuff. The whole game of managing logistics yourself of your life & work & things you are doing is another challenge. . When traveling solo is so hard, then why do I travel alone all the time, even for months? . I will tell you in the next post for @instagram only allows so much text. . Do you travel solo, too?
  • A picture postcard from #Himalayas to remind you how beautiful #nature can be. . . Loving the #mountainlife here in my #hippie #village #bhagsunag in #himachalpradesh. #slowtravel and #livingmydream as a #writer keeps me busy and rejuvenated and going all day long. But then such colors and #himalayanlife around me stop me and remind me of how impermanent and tangible life is. Flowers today. Gone tomorrow. Windy now. Sunny the next moment. Raining suddenly. Then bright for hours. A moment of loneliness under the grey sky. Then child like joy when the sunflower sun shines. Hungry after yoga. Feeling bloated after aloo paratha and masala chai. . . That's how life is. Temporary. Agile. Fragile. Alive. Amazing how we never stop and think where will all this go. But when we do, let's not be sad. Let's think of how we can make the most of it. How we can be here. How we can help each other go through this thing called #life. How we can conserve the earth that will only last as a life planet as long we want her to. How to be responsible and nice and helpful not just towards our family but towards this bigger family of universe and planets and stars and humans and animals and soil and water and mountains. . . How to make the most of today and go to bed with just that feeling of satisfaction after a good day rather than thinking of what we have to do tomorrow. You know we can do so much without feeling a thing. If we just realize that all we have to do is give our best now and leave the rest. If we just see that life is temporary but still one of the most beautiful and ethereal things to happen to us. If we look at each other as one being, alive and thriving only to go one day. So why to be not nice? . . I sat to write a small post. But see what the mountain air can do. Also, a lot that I talked about the impermanent nature of life and being good stems from #vipassana, and, of course, mixed with my beliefs. . . Let's have a heart. Let's be nice. Let's live today ❤️ . . What do you think? Would you love to just focus on today? Would you like to treat everyone as one of your own?
  • Traveling on an Indian passport? . . When I started traveling with my Indian passport, the first thing I realized was that Indians cannot travel easily without applying for a few visas, no matter wherever we go. Whether I went to Southeast Asia or Europe or the UK, I spent days and months aggregating the required documents for a visa, filling arduous application forms, contemplating if I should hire a travel agent, requesting my employer for a NOC, asking the photo studio to print my ridiculous passport size photos quickly, rushing to the banks to get account statements, and still fretting if I would get a visa or not – I did it all. . . The process of getting visas for Indian citizens haven’t relaxed, but as I travel more, I understand the visa requirements for Indians better. Also, I have figured out that we can go to many countries which give visa on arrival to Indian passport holders (Thailand, Bolivia, Ethiopia, and more). Indians can also visit countries where they can go without visa – nations such as Indonesia, Bhutan, Nepal, Ecuador et cetera. Some countries also give either free entry or a visa on arrival for Indians holding a valid UK, US, or Schengen visa. . . My years of solo travel has allowed me to understand how to cross countries on an Indian passport and the places we can travel to while not feeling burdened by the visa process. I wanted to share this information with other Indian travelers. So I aggregated my personal travel experiences and a lot of research into a complete guide to visa for Indians covering all these different categories I talked above. . . My Indian #travel friends, the link to the blog is in the bio. Or read it here - https://www.onmycanvas.com/visas-for-indian-citizens/ . I promise you that by the end of this article, you will feel much more confident about traveling the world without much hassle.(PS: the guide is still work in progress) . So what are we waiting for? Let’s go. See this world ❤️ . What are some of your funny or embarassing or hard moments of #traveling as an Indian? . I will start first. I was stuck on the border of Bolivia and Chile and both countries refused to take me. Now it's your turn. 🐒
  • Doing my usual stuff, hiking & wearing red & admiring nature. . Everything feels ethereal in the mountains. Profound. You can never be not mesmerized by them. They stand tall. Blinding everything behind them. Making it all look insignificant infront of them. . This post is not about how people feel over & above life when they are in the hills. In my last post where I spoke about how we can do anything, some of you asked me how do I keep myself motivated & find the courage to jump, knowing that it will take me sometime to land. . Though I will write detailed articles on motivation & courage, let me give shorter answers here. . Mostly people are scared of letting go of the known to fall free in the unknown. It is SCARY to leave what you have been doing for what you want to do and think could be your calling. It wasn't easy for me to just quit my investment banking job to write full-time. For a while I felt that there was no ground under my feet. I still feel that way sometimes, and it is okay. . . But once you let yourself believe, only a little bit, you start thinking about bringing the change. Your passion motivates you. You know what you want to do when you see yourself constantly thinking about doing something & making the time to do it in your busy schedule. I was super excited to write & travel & add value to people's life & leave the superficial banking job behind. Now even when I have worked for the whole week, I still write on some sundays. Like now I am sitting at this beautiful cafe right in the Himalayas, but first I want to write this long Insta post. And I am not even close to complaining. . After finding your calling, you jump. But when you jump, you only think of falling. You forget that you will FLY. And when you open your eyes & let your heart & the wind of life guide you, you see how joyful & thrilling free flying could be. . Believe me. I FLY, HIGH. I am not saying I don't get intimidated by my choices & a constant zeal to do things my way. I am saying that life is impermanent, and you have only so much to lose. So try. Learn. Amend. . Give yourself a chance ❤️ . My article on starting over - http://bit.ly/2MEuhBI . What do you think?
  • When dogs have such views here in the #himachal, then can you even ask me what I see and explore and learn every day? . . For the longest time I have wanted to come to the #mountains and live here. And now finally my work as a #writer and a #blogger and my lifestyle of a full-time #traveler has allowed me to #travel as slow as I would like to. A lot of people ask what does a full-time traveler mean. How do you earn while being on the go. Etc. Though I have written a lot about my #nomadic lifestyle on my blog #onmycanvas and you are most welcome to go and read, I will just give a short answer here. . . I #write as a #freelance writer for a living. I started my blog about one and a half years ago, so I still don't earn much from it. But I am on the way and still not even thinking about making money from the blog. For I have to first add value to the lives of people and then I am happy to get something in return. I want to help people to #livebetter and #faceyourfears so that we all can push ourselves to our maximum potential and do what we are capable of doing. . . That's all about it. I am doing fine. A lot of people and #newwriters and #bloggers ask me how did I start #writing. My answer to that is I used to write and rhyme poems as a little girl, too. But my writing sucked pretty much until I started taking it more seriously and attended a workshop and then kept writing and editing. I learn all about the things I do a little by little every day. And every day I am a bit better. . I wanted to do this post to tell you that we can do what we want, if we want it bad enough. The universe comes together to help us, you know. When a small town girl like me can go on a rollercoaster journey of being an engineer and a banker and then a writer, then you can do it, too. I still have days when my family tells me that why do I need to burden myself with things like meditation and I must be stupid to spend money to learn flute, but I stay focused on my path and #keepgoing ❤️ . Whatsay guys, let's do it? Tell me the 1 thing that you want to do but have been scared of. . . PS: my #writingtips guide for #thenovicewriters is up on the blog. Link in bio. Go check it out.
  • These mountains that you are carrying on your shoulders, you were only supposed to climb. . . I might look like a daredevil in this photo and to everyone who reads my story of taking the jump, but the truth is I get as and sometimes more scared than everyone else. I fret. I fumble. I overthink. I hesitate. I cry. I question myself. I place myself on the lowest platform more often than you can imagine. . Then the dawn breaks and I wake up. I get out of the bed. I run. I power through. I push myself to do what scares me the most that day. Sometimes I am sceptical about simple things such as driving and swimming, and the other times I worry about my living as a freelance writer, blogger, and how things will be. On days I wake up at home fretting over an article that I want to be good, then on some traveling days I wake up thinking about the difficult hike that I have signed up for. . Things to do always come and go. But I keep walking on the path that seems right for my purpose. Even though sometimes I am shaking. But you can't see that from far. . . And then I see the summit I have been aiming for. I have a break through. I become little better everyday. I let go of the ground and float. I rush through crowded lanes towards my destination without a GPS. I complete the article well enough to say that it could be my best piece. I hike to the point further than I had thought. . Then I see a new summit I have to reach to. And that's life, my friends. . Doesn't matter how hard it seems, keep going. Face your fears. One day you would have to. Keep walking. Do your work. Push through. For every night breaks with a rising sun. Every storm comes to rest. Each doubt is only in our head. . Don't get influenced by everything good that you see happening around you. Especially on social media. For in pictures you can only see people at the shiny summit. But you can't see the sweat under their arms. You can't hear their growling stomachs. You don't know for how long they walked to reach there & the times they slipped. . I will repeat. . These mountains that you are carrying on your shoulders, you were only supposed to climb ❤️ . More coming your way from #Himachal. Stay tuned.

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