My Janmbhoomi (Place of Birth)
I was born and bought up in Pantnagar (Uttranchal) which is famous for G.B. Pant University. The University has got its own campus and is surrounded by beautiful farms, fields and forests. Travelling during my schooldays involved trips to close by hill stations – Nainital and Ranikhet or visits to my grand parents in Lucknow & Dehradoon, during summer vacations.
After school, I moved to Lucknow for graduation. After completion, I did a couple of certifications in IT and ended with a job in Gurgaon (One of the IT hubs in India) and shifted to Delhi.
My Karmbhoomi (Place of Work)
I spent my next couple of years working for a couple of IT companies in Gurgaon and Noida. I used to work late night during US business hours (we are 9-13 hours ahead of US). I don’t recall much of travelling during this phase of my life.
I got married in 2005 with Liveena – who is from Delhi and is a teacher by profession. In 2006 and bought our first car – Alto, with comes with 796 cc engine. We learnt to drive on the busy roads of Green Park and Chanakapuri and soon realized that we both had a passion for driving. The first trip was to a close by hill station – Lansdowne. This was later followed by road trips to other excursions from Delhi. We realized that the experience from these trips is something we always cherished. The memories from past trips and the excitement of forthcoming ones kept us inspired and motivated to go through our busy professional lives.
Relocating to Pune
In 2013 I got a job opportunity in Pune for a UK based project. In addition to slightly better working hours (we are only 4.5 / 5.5 hours ahead of UK), Pune gave us the opportunity to explore the southern and central part of India. The city, in addition to having moderate climate around the year, offers multiple options to nearby excursions. We exchanged our car with a slightly bigger – Maruti Dezire (1197 cc engine) to fit in two growing kids and continue to “invest in experiences” by travelling and exploring new places.
Contributing Back
While planning our trips, I go to every minute details. I don’t go for organized tours because they restrict you to a schedule and kill the fun of exploring things on your own. For booking good budget hotels, check road conditions and best routes, I take inputs from various travel forums and blogs. Since all the information is not available at one place, a lot of time goes in researching on all the aspects. Via travel-memoirs.com, I would like to contribute back and share my experiences so that other travel enthusiast can benefit from it. The idea is to provide a “one stop shop” ranging from best places, itineraries, hotels, restaurants, routes, road conditions, expenses to visitors of this portal. I look forward to your queries and suggestions to make this platform a better one.
Happy exploring!
Regards,
Shekhar