TRAVELLING solo is fun. It’s one of the most wholesome experiences that one can avail in life. Travelling solo is not only a daring adventure but also a pathway to one’s inner self - where one can truly meet one’s intrepid self.

In the West, the culture of solo travelling has been a thing for years and it has been part of their bucket lists irrespective of their age or gender.

in our South Asian culture and especially in some of the communities here in India, I am a witness of many parents letting their children travel only after getting married and pronounce the ‘trip’ as “Honeymoon”. It’s a painful story about most of the Asian households and this is one of the reasons where we lag behind when it comes to development at grassroots level, i.e. for the discovery and regeneration of self and for the learning, unlearning and relearning of tons of unhelpful traits that all of us have been carrying for generations.

A few reasons for people being sceptical about solo travelling in India are- safety concerns, loneliness issues, and boredom which often becomes a hurdle for many people here in our society. And this fear often leads them to not see the other side of the coin - which is pretty liberating! Recently, I came across with one such experience, in a Zostel in Ooty, Karnataka, with a man who later on became my good friend and travel buddy.

I was having my dinner at the dining space of the Zostel, and I got an appealing hello and an offer by a man to have dinner with me who happened to be a software engineer in a fast paced city. He confessed that his routine job left him annoyed and frustrated with himself and he came here to release the built up stress and heal his body cells amid the fresh woody air in the mountains. “You’re so lucky to be on a vacation in hills and that too exploring it on a Royal Enfield hunter! Didn’t your parent say anything out of concern,” I asked in excitement.

“Dude! They didn’t even know till I reached here. They get scared, they panic, their heartbeats fluctuate,” he said in a low tone.

From this very recent experience, I realised that over concern prevails in most Indian households and its astonishing to believe that it can happen with a young man who is in his thirties. If we observe it closely, it’s a sad reality which often destroys relationships and bonding between parents and kids.

And especially with women, it’s way more challenging for them to even aspire for solo travelling given how they have been struggling with years of toxic masculinity and gender inequalities on a daily basis.

But in today’s globalised and technologised world, one needs to step up and view the other side of the coin.

A ship is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what ships are built for?! Travelling solo makes us discover our ‘self’ and it makes us realise that we can be more self-reliant, self-sufficient, self dependent and self-confident. It makes us learn to trust our valour. Without anyone else being involved in your decision process, one learns to trust his own gut. It makes us build patience, going solo to a new city, a new place, one may face loneliness initially or may even take some time to get comfortable/adapt, but the more you let loose, the more you step out of your comfort zone, the more liberating it gets. It increases your capacity to see the world through different lenses - of colour, culture and dreams! And nothing can be more worth experiencing than that.