“Pooch ke mera pata, waqt zaaya mat karo..
Banjara hu mai. Kya pata, kaha jaunga..”
Hello, Lovely People..
My Name is Shashwat and I have always loved to share stories. I have one single dream. And that is to TRAVEL the whole wide world and WRITE about it. To share the experiences, you know.
Someone once told me something that stuck to me. He said, “Everyone shall have at least one thing. A habit. A passion. An Addiction. An escape. Just a thing you can turn to when your world is a mess.“
I guess I’m quite blessed to have two of these: Travelling and Writing. These are the two addictions I have. My escape. From Reality. From this world we live in. From everything and everyone.
Why an Escape is Important?
Well, it is an incredibly complicated world we live in. It is beautiful, and amazing, and marvelous and also pretty messed up. So we need to have an escape from time to time. From this world. From our own little worlds. To just anywhere. An escape from the loads of stress the work is giving you, or maybe just for a little cut-off from the responsibilities piling themselves up one by one.
An escape could be anything for any person. An escape is anything you find your peace in. It can be travelling. It can be writing. It can be photography. Maybe to sing, or dance. To meet friends, even. The most special ones. The ones who are just your kinda crazy. Anything you do or anything you turn to find peace, to find a few minutes or hours or even days to find yourself and to calm your demons – is an escape.
Everyone needs an escape. And everyone deserves it too.
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How TravelSole came to be?
The first time it occurred to me was during my Khajuraho trip. To create a blog. For travel. A space to share my travels. And also my stories. I have always loved writing. About anything that happens or comes into my mind. Maybe I got it from my Mom. She writes too. Small snippets mostly. Mostly when she’s really happy or really sad. Because that’s when the “artist” in you comes out right? As they say in the Novels and the Movies, “To be an artist, one needs to be a little broken inside.” That’s where the emotions come from. The brokenness. The extreme feelings. The happiest moments. The worst memories. Whenever anything extreme strikes into the deepest corners of the mind. That’s when I turn to writing.
Well, so that all happened, and I began writing my stories and to share them in my own little world.
The “Travel” part, I guess, was always deep inside me. You know, when I was a little kid, my parents took me and my elder sister to Manali, Himachal Pradesh. I was an age where kids do not actually remember stuff. But I don’t know how or why but Manali has always stuck with me. In my mind. The snowy mountain ranges, the Beas river flowing, and everything heavenly in between.
It just came to me that I shall just start sharing my stories, my travels with everyone around the world. To reach out to people. To tell. And to listen. And hence, TravelSole was born.
TravelSole is quite basically my baby steps towards my dream. Towards everything I want to be. And towards everything I want to achieve.
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Y-J-H-D
You know that movie, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. Before you judge me, YES. I am obsessed with this movie.I cannot thank the man behind the movie- Ayan Mukerji and the character of Kabir ‘Bunny’ Thapar for just coming into my life at the correct time. That movie changed me. And that is when the Travel-bug inside me went all looney tunes. Just like Bunny, Adi, Aditi and Naina, I want to be free, young and wild. To travel to the most amazing places. To hold my “Naina’s” hand while standing at the tip of a mountain and scream our lungs out. All I have since wanted from life is – “Raftaar, Pagalpan.” I too, like Bunny, want “to fly, to run, to fall – and to never stop..!!“
I knew then, deep in my heart and soul, what I want to do with my life. I want to travel. The World. From the Mountains to the Beaches. And every-damn-thing that comes in between. And maybe even beyond space and time, if that’s ever possible.
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I will keep on sharing my stories and my travels with all of you. Read ’em and you’ll ‘Know Me Better’. Also, I am here to listen to your stories as well. You can ask any question or share just anything with me through our contact page. Even if you do not have anything particular to say story-wise, and you need someone to just hear you out, feel free to just reach out and shoot it all out, my friends.
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