A JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION

Here is a short story of 2 young men of 27 years old and MBA graduates named Dinesh and Shobhit. They were the area sales managers for a telecom company, drawing a salary of Rs 1 lakh plus a month. A year ago, these two guys embarked on a journey of discovering themselves, chucking (or quit) their Rs 1 lakh-plus per month jobs to explore remote villages. They lived the great Indian middle-class life with responsibility until the dawn of November 15, 2011. On that day they quit their jobs and embarked on a journey with no plan, no time frame and no money. They began their journey from Rajasthan , Dinesh's hometown, and ended it in Dehradun, Shobhit's home.

To fund the trip, they decided to take up daily jobs and accept food and shelter as wages. Each carried with them 3 pairs of clothes, a sweat shirt and sweat pant, a tooth brush, a tube of boroplus, a scissors to trim their beards, a sleeping mat, a map, a bottle of water and a tiny bit of guilt for having lied their parents as the duo felt their parents wouldn't understand them :) so they told them that they were employed by the NGO to travel across the country to teach the students in the villages and they were paid for it. They carried no food, no soap and no cellphone. They had one ATM card with Rs 30,000 in the account for the medical emergency. They quit their well paying job and went on a journey with no destination and no money. They said that they were living a good life but it was "I, Me and Myself kinda life" and it was when they were struck with "Who am I ? What is my life all about? I was born to do something else, not just for myself but others too".

During their journey, they avoided cities and always went to the villages and remote, unknown lands, went to the local village school and taught the children for which they were paid in kind. Sometimes they did odd jobs which would pay for their travel and one rupee soap for their bath. Sometimes they would carry water as their work . The pair traveled from west to the far south to the east and to the north of India, from the vast Thar desert to the great Indian Ocean to the enchanting Garo and Khasi Hills and to the mighty Himalayas. They hiked, traveled by local trains (mostly without tickets), buses and in the back of tempos. They walked through the deserts, valleys,mountains,seashores and plains, met villagers,fishermen,young and old.

Sometimes they spent the night in the local temple or even at the railway station until the sweeper of the platform woke them up in the morning. Though the villagers gave them food and shelter, they went without food sometimes for 24 to 30 hours because they were travelling from one village to another and they didn't have any money. They usually made do with 3-4 cups of tea and a pack of Parle G biscuits between them. They never stayed in a place for more than 2 days except in one village in Bihar for 10 days enjoying the hospitality of the landlord.

Journey, even one without a destination, will have to end, so new journeys can begin. Dinesh said "....... though we were still discovering new places,people and experiencing the unknown, it had reached a place where we had to think about how we were going to  take this forward ". And Dinesh continues "....if there's one thing that our journey taught us it was this, Indian in the villages have really big hearts. In some places they wouldn't even ask our names, instead they would ask us, 'Have you eaten?' "

Their journey came to an end on September 23, 2012 after a travelling for 309 days, 22,589 km and 24 states. Their life have changed. But their parents hadn't. Now that their sons have had their adventure they hoped the youngsters would return to their "old normal lives. But we can't go back to our old lives, we just can't " says Dinesh.

After meeting thousands of people they says "Our hearts somehow became bigger." Both Dinesh and Shobhit are now working with NGO that seeks to develop rural education through vocational training and skills. They plan to start a school in a rural area after this. They are preparing a platform through which they want to reach out to as many rural students as possible.

Moral: “One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. Give freely to the world these gifts of love and compassion. Do not concern yourself with how much you receive in return, just know in your heart it will be returned. Give yourself entirely to those around you. Be generous with your blessings. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”