There’s this journey of mine which I haven’t shared much about yet.....

My journey with turning inward which started while I was still with the corporate.

"The longest journey is the journey inward" - Dag Hammarskjold.

Much before I made the switch from being with the corporate to moving to the mountains, I had started my journey inward. Looking back, I think this was an essential step towards getting me where I am today.?

It started with the usual question : What makes me happy? I obviously didn’t have the answer but, I had already gone through the phase of instant gratifications (retail therapy, recognition, etc) so I knew those were just short-term fixes so my search for the real answer began.?

I was in Bangalore at that time and looking around, cycling caught my attention. I jumped at it. I started with a basic pair of wheels and as I put-in the miles and started to join communities, I was drawn deeper. I kept pushing myself to go farther with this hobby and before I knew I had started to look at it as a sport, an endurance sport. I ended up bagging the title of Super Randonneur in my first season but in the process the glitz of the sport also rubbed onto me - fancy pair of wheels, fancy jerseys, oakleys, shiny shoes, matching socks and the works.?

I realised that I was getting carried away from the very reason why I started this quest. But, I also realised that the endurance version of this sport was giving me the ME time. Long hours of spinning transported me into, what felt like another dimension. It was meditative.?To disassociate myself from the glitz, I switched to a more simpler sport - endurance running. Again, to save myself from lining up a wardrobe of shoes, I further switched to barefoot running. The meditative aspect of the sport continued. I did this for a while and all the while continuing to understand myself better - the “who am I” and “what makes me” sort of discoveries.

Among many discoveries, one profound one was that I missed being around my family - wife & son. Be it cycling or running, I was up early, training on weekday mornings, so I had to hit the bed early. And then on the weekends, I was out for most part of the Saturday & Sunday doing the endurance. I had started to understand that my happiness primarily came from being around them. Strangely this realisation happened by being away from them. I tried incorporating them into my running / cycling routine but, they didn’t enjoy it.?

I thought hard as to what could I do where both of them were also involved so we get to spend all my non-working hours together. Sunita suggested Hiking & camping. So I dumped running

and got on with hiking and camping with both of them. This was our first real tryst with nature, forest & mountains. Running & cycling had gotten me quite fit so I could play the role of a facilitator for both them - carrying their bags, tending to their needs through the hike, etc. The inward journey had to continue so Sunita Suhas and I incorporated Yoga into our being.

We did this for over a year and our relationship got so deep that it was really becoming a struggle to stay apart (meaning me being away at work for the 9-10 hours :)).?We arrived at this realisation that one thing that was most important to us was to experience life together… nothing else mattered. We wanted to experience life in it’s truest form, live off-the-grid, live in the moment, live in the mountains. So without a plan, we packed our bags and moved.?

Aarav off-course has started to go to school now so he doesn’t spend as much time with us lately. But, Sunita and I spend all our waking hours together. It has been over 5 years and counting. We work very hard though, clocking 12-14 hours everyday for Indian Yards Foundation but, we do that being together. This has also helped us with our self-care goals which has kept us going without the risks of burning out or fatigue.

Sadhguru (Unofficial Page) says - “There is no path Inward. There are only methods to curb your wrong directions and turn you inward. When there is no distance, how could there be a path.”

While I started this journey thinking the path inward is the longest one, I now believe that there indeed is no distance to begin with. It’s just that I had drifted away, farther from my inner being, because of which I had to make that journey back.