9 months of Unemployment

I have been unemployed for the last 9 months. Here is a detailed description of what I have been doing since then. As some of you may know, after returning from Africa in January 2014, I decided to quit my job and take a personal break. I finally quit in April that year and thought of starting a "women-only travel" company in India. The idea was in a nascent stage. Travel/adventure  was a completely new industry to me, after having spent 4 working years in Information Technology. I interacted with several big and small adventure travel agencies in India- some suggested that I should go ahead, many told me not to. My main insight from all these interactions was that this was going to take time, at least 3-5 years. In May, I took a 1-month mountaineering course in Manali, Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalayas, where we drank a lot of rum :) and also learned the basic techniques of snow craft and ice craft, crampons, rock climbing , and river crossing. I had so much fun and made some incredible friends! Check out the pics on link below ! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152549164436385.1073741842.516646384&type=1&l=e187f693dc I then spent the month of June creating my own website, http://www.outbey.com  and Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/outdoorsandbeyondadventures.   It took me that long since I made the website on my own, doing it for the first time. By this time, I had moved from the idea of women-only travel towards mixed group travel. Towards the end of June, I planned a Zanskar rafting trip in Ladakh, posting it on my website and Facebook page. However, this got me a single lead only and no participants for the trip. By mid-July, I was bored with sitting at home, with nothing much to do and my future looking grim. A friend told me that he was going to do a solo trek on the famous Darcha - Lamayuru route in Ladakh. I later found out that lots of French travellers do this 21-day trek, which was made popular in France by a famous photographer. He invited me to join, and I did. The trekking route, spanning the Zanskar valley, was absolutely spectacular and breathtaking! The views were astounding, giving us a flavour of one of the most beautiful places in India - Ladakh. For the first 8 days, I trekked with my friend, while for the last 6 days, I walked alone. It was a difficult and great experience for me, as I sometimes walked on lonely roads, for 8-10 hours a day, crossing high-altitude passes at over 5,000 metres. I have documented my journeys for the first time on my blog. The links are below (7 entries, please keep clicking next!) Darcha – Lamayuru trek Day 1 & 2 Day 3 & 4 . . Day 13 & 14 In August, as I turned 30, I managed to sneak in a short 4-day trek to Triund, Dharamshala :-). In the end of the month, I did a cycling expedition with two friends I had met during the mountaineering course in May. We biked from Shimla to Manali via Kinnaur, Spiti and Lahaul Valley. It was another totally crazy and very beautiful journey that tested our limits. We cycled 600km in 14 days, crossing high-altitude passes of 4,400 metres. A short documentary video (15 min) is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW0-_hjpH48. In September and October, I attended a 10-day wilderness first-aid course and a 21-day -Trip Leader course organized by the American outdoor school NOLS. Both courses were very inspirational and enjoyable for me. Learning in the outdoors is far more enriching, and has longer lasting impact on me than conventional classroom education ever did J. I learned the importance of outdoor education and would like to do more in this field in the future. During the courses, we trekked for 18 days across the Kumaon Himalayan range, which is one of the most pristine and beautiful ranges in India. The trek took us to remote villages, so remote that reaching the nearest road takes 5-6 days. The villagers had probably seen very few, if any, tourists. This, more than anything else, made it my personal favorite for future solo treks. Not only did I learn about outdoors from the courses, but also picked up interpersonal skills, which I shall be blogging about soon. Check out the beautiful places in pics! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152952674961385.1073741852.516646384&type=1&l=c0b4d5dbf6 I returned from the NOLS courses in early November. In mid-November, I went for a 1-week holiday to Cambodia and Thailand (as every unemployed person has to visit South-east Asia J). As you can guess, this was a very rejuvenating break after several months spent in the mountains! By this time, I had decided that I would not be continuing with my experiments in the adventure industry and would take up a regular job once again, in January 2015. Me trying solo rock climbing in Krabi, Thailand  In December, I went for a 1-week trip to North-East India - I had never been to this part of India before. This was an eye-opening experience for me! This was followed by a -2-week rafting expedition over the Brahmaputra River. Brahmaputra is rightly called the "Everest of Rivers", as it is the big Daddy of rivers, being as wide as the Nile in quite a few places. Our raft flipped a few times among the 30-foot high waves. To be very honest, I was quite scared in those instances, really very scared ;). These will be coming up in the blog too! One of the rapids on Brahmaputra River, Arunachal Pradesh In the last few months, I had so many diverse experiences and I discovered more about myself and what I really want from life. It helped me in making decisions about my future. I realized that I want to travel the world, which I could not have done had I started and become busy with my own company. I wish for variety in life. An adventure startup is still a cool idea to me, but I do not want to keep doing and guiding the same trips over and over again. Also, this is a low payback and high risk industry. These and many more thoughts led to changing my mind and deciding to come back to corporate life. In the last months, I also looked for jobs in outdoor agencies, but they do not pay much. I am really thankful to my mother and sister for being considerate, friends whom I met during my travels, and the last 9 months of unemployment for teaching me invaluable lessons; without me learning the hard way, had I started a company and burned my fingers and savings (which are vanishing fast :-))!

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