“Travelling – It leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller.
– Ibn Battuta”
And this is what happened with me…
I am Deepika Patnaik, a travel writer and travel curator based in my hometown, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. I was born in Madhya Pradesh, where a major part of my early years were spent. Apart from our annual Odisha visits, my father ensured that we also experienced other states, which developed a keen interest in travelling since childhood.
Creating a professional life in Delhi was the perfect pretext to explore the nearby places. Deep down, it was leaving me inquisitive to find out more about these destinations. Unfortunately, a full-time corporate career didn’t support my kind of travel dreams.
In June 2019; I finally decided to take a leap of faith, leaving both my corporate career and Delhi to move home. I was neither formally trained nor held a degree either in writing or tourism, but I knew, this was exactly what I wanted to do. I started documenting my earlier travel stories through my blog, “A Merakulous Life” while applying to volunteer with hotels and homestays.
My journey took me from the deserts of Rajasthan to the mountains of Uttarakhand, scouting remote locations, exchanging my time and skills, and learning the nuisances of the tourism industry firsthand. All this came to a halt during the dreaded pandemic. With no travel, I shifted my entire focus back to my writing. This was when I got the opportunity to co-author a book, “A Postgraduate,” the story of Dr. Priya’s chronicles as a PG medical student. Gradually, I started getting freelance content writing projects too.
Almost two years after I started initially, my outlook towards travel changed. It was a result of prolonged exposure and spending a substantial time with local communities. With this newfound perspective, I decided to redefine myself and mindfully “travel with a purpose”.
”. In January 2021, several brainstorming sessions led to a small start-up called “Soulful Voyage” with my friend Angel Rongmei. The idea was to work directly with the local resources and curate meaningful, personalized journeys for our voyagers to provide a seamless experience. Last year, we also launched our community development project “Jhalkiyaan – Glimpses of Childhood” in education. We conduct small workshops for rural school children to provide them with a learning opportunity beyond their curriculum.
Meanwhile, I have taken on varied freelancing travel projects as a writer, community manager, guest relations, led heritage walks, worked with artisans, participated in clean-up campaigns, and so on. Each role presents an opportunity to discover more about myself. I realize that travel is not merely about taking a temporary break from the mundane or being somewhere to tick-off your bucket list; it is about real-life learning.
The journey so far has been nothing less than a roller coaster ride. The world of travel, as we mostly see through the new-age social media, is not always the complete truth. It could be highly deceptive, and the reality is sometimes way too crude. It has made me question my own beliefs; however, I thoroughly enjoy this process to understand the depth of each destination – the place and people.
Amidst all, I continue my solo outings into unexplored, known yet untrodden paths. I aim to travel the length and breadth of India – experience different cultures, cuisines, historical ruins, learn about local crafts, customs, traditions while capturing them through my writing and spreading awareness about India as a wholesome destination to the world.
Thanks for reading about my travel journey so far…
Deepika 😊
My personal travel stories can be found on my blog: “https://amerakulouslife.com/”