Travel to the Wild (Me and My Bharat Bidi)

I am surprised by how much this travel has changed my outlook towards money and life. Before I got on this journey, I would have never thought I would be doing today what I am doing.

Although this post is written a few days before the posting day, I don’t think I’ll make any changes at the time of posting.

Unlike how I usually traveled within Nepal, this time, I looked for where backpackers stayed rather than looking for what would be comfortable for me. This led me to the place, “My bunk bed”. At around INR 250, I got a bed in a dormitory and a puri sabji breakfast. There’s no AC, only a table fan and a ceiling fan. But somehow, I am more at peace here than I have ever been living in hotels worth 20x and even more.

The day before yesterday, I got a box of Marlboro for 300 something, but as soon as that finished, I bought a pack of “Bharat Bidi”. The INR 10 packet is still giving the same enjoyment or even more than the box of Marlboro had ever given me. Instead of going out for tea and coffee, I bought INR 12 packets of instant milk coffee. A saving of a mere 8INR per cup is felt adding up.

Anyone who knows me personally would be surprised at what I am doing. The man who would spend over a lakh a month while living in Nepal has not even spent 1k a day while traveling in India.

Today I also cut the ticket to Kolkata (while I keep the date unannounced), it is for a sleeper class ticket that is about 400 rather than an AC bus costing about 1000. Even something like selecting a night-morning train instead of a day train so there’s no need to spend for accommodation for the time would absolutely surprise the Appropriate\_Snow before this journey.

This life of being frugal, thinking about how I can lessen my spending rather than sacrificing my money for comfort has definitely brought a new perspective to my life. It has forced me to ask myself questions, had I approached my life wrongly? Did I not need to work so much so I could afford coffee at expensive places? Today I definitely understand more of what Ajay Devghan said in Shingham, “Meri jarurate kam hai isliye mere jigar me dam hai.”

Thank you for reading my random rambling.

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