I’ve been traveling/living in India for four months now, with the most recent chapter closing after a month of backpacking through the north and west of India. It was an eventful period - I practiced meditation during the final days of 2022 at the Osho ashram in Pune, sat with locals in Nashik for glasses of tea and sugar cane juice, had close calls with mischievous monkeys in the hill forts of Maharashtra, explored the massive Chittorgarh fort riding doubled up on a local’s scooter, saw Jodhpur through the eyes of American ex-pats, and relearned how to play “Durac” (“Idiot,” in Russian) in the holy city of Pushkar with a man who had cycled there from his home in Germany. I traveled by third-class rail tickets (19 hours direct from Delhi to Pune alone), government buses that probably should have been scrapped years ago, and passed a sleepless night on an AC-sleeper bus that felt like I was traveling in a refrigerator.
Finally back in greater Delhi, at this cozy haveli in Mehrauli, it hit me today that it has been exactly four years since my first visit to India. And coincidentally, I am staying in the exact same home that I arrived at late at night after an exhausting day of travel with my friend Nathan four years ago. At that time, I had recently left my corporate job to pursue music and travel full-time and had just started this travelogue to document my life, with no idea where it would lead. At that time, I had never spent more than two weeks traveling at a time and only dreamed of being able to turn my hobby of photography into a serious profession. So it feels significant to be in the place where this journey began and to reflect on what I have accomplished in the past four years. It’s as if some type of cosmic cycle has been completed.
Hanuman Ghat, Udaipur, Rajasthan | Shot on Sony
A pattern I have noticed in my life is that phases/cycles tend to last four years. School, my 9-5 job, my tenure as bassist for the Fuss, and lastly, traveling to learn about myself - all of these had four-year durations (though the last one may continue in some form all my life). And each period has been an important stepping stone in helping me transition into a new direction or cycle. So that begs the question of what these next 4 years will hinge on. In the last four years, so much has happened: Multiple Himalayan adventures in Nepal, a year grounded during the pandemic, living in an English school in Morocco, three slow trips up and down the Balkans, beginning to land commissioned jobs for photography, and finally, publishing my travel writing. Before these last two, I had lived in a cycle of polarized work and travel. I would bartend or serve tables for months on end to build up savings and then travel for months until they disappeared, thus alternating between life at home/work and life abroad. Once I figured out a way to bring in income while traveling, it meant that home had to also become a place within myself, as it’s been longer and longer between my returns to that physical space (going on nine months now). Perhaps these next four years are about depending solely on my craft to sustain myself. Not living off of the generosity (gratuity) of bar patrons, but by patrons of my photography and writing. Though I’m approaching a bank balance that would have made me anxious years ago, I’m strangely confident that I have all that I need to live well, and will be able to forge my own path ahead despite this. Perhaps these next four years are also about living close to the pulse, down to the marrow, up against the bounds of the unknown.
Here on the four-year anniversary of my first journey to Asia, I’m soon to be transitioning out of India after nearly five months of living here. I leave tomorrow for another travel photography assignment with my Indian friends, Global Himalayan Expedition, in the wild Northeast of India. And from there, transitioning back to Nepal (my third visit) to do another job for them in March. I’m excited at these upcoming opportunities to push myself to go further with my craft, and at the potential for gathering/harvesting material for stories to be told. Some of my commissioned writing will be coming out shortly in the next couple of months in the UK and Australia, so I am excited to celebrate those occasions while in the groove that I will be in while traveling and working on these projects.
Sanjay Van | Forest near Mehrauli
Whatever the next four years may bring, my plan, for now, is to stay focused on the small things: Writing and meditating every day, keeping my heart open to new connections, relationships, and opportunities, and just flowing with the path that is laid out for me.
-Delhi, January 29, 2023
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Thank you for reading,
M.
