Bloom and the Big News, finally here

no more beating around the bush, pictures from the Himalayas, celebrating 7 years of writing and of my personal growth and travel blog On My Canvas

Nov 05, 2024

Dear Reader,

Thank you for being here. I hope you’ve had a brilliant start to the week.

Okay. So here it is. I have beaten around the bush enough. For two years I have been apologizing for not sending the newsletter on time because of this “big project” I’ve been working on. I couldn’t give you more details because I wasn’t even sure if the project would ever see the daylight. Now when I am close to completion, I don’t want to keep anyone in the dark anymore.

The BIG project is my FIRST book.

CAN’T BELIEVE IT!

Though I have been writing Journeys Beyond and Within since April 2022, I still can’t believe that I’ll have it out soon.

What’s the book about?

Journeys Beyond and Within is a travel memoir. The ten tales span more than three decades of my life.

From a small city, I had a simple story. I studied, got into the fabulous college IIT Delhi, and started working. I wasn’t happy. I shifted gears. I tried different jobs, brainstormed many careers, and began exploring around, first on shorter trips and then on months-long ones. There was also a time when I said no to travel and outings. Then something changed when I visited Southeast Asia solo. As I had been laid off, I didn’t have to return by a fixed time. I had no end date. I went to Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, alone. Those six weeks were hard but they showed me a new world. A world of travelers. I met backpackers and tourists who traveled for months with a bag and a zeal to see. Every day they set out with curiosity, excitement, and joy.

This, this joy, was infectious.

I had already signed up for a volunteer program in Chile to teach English as a second language. The program was four months long. I told my family it was six. I wanted to travel and explore. There was no turning back then.

To say the book is a collection of travel stories wouldn’t be enough, or appropriate. These are tales I lived, breathed, thrived in, and in some cases, survived. I went to places beyond and far and close by and next-doors. I packed, unpacked, commuted, checked-in, got lost, saw, left, suffered, enjoyed, and laughed.

A lot of people ask me—Why do I go away from home so often into a strange world where I don’t know anyone?

For me, the pleasure of travel is finding my way in an unfamiliar land amongst unknown faces. My eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue, and mind all churn, sense, and discover as if it’s their first time alive. They would like to know this new world, they whisper. I ask: What do you see? They all chatter at once.

I witness scenes I passed every day but didn’t notice. Like a garbage collection van parked in front of every house, its loudspeakers blasting a catchy song on cleanliness. I hear, even the faint cries of little kittens climbing in and out of the neighborhood home’s window. Also the loud yelling in the ground-floor home where an old mother and her single son try their best to live together. As I stroll on the sunny rooftop, the appetizing fragrance of fresh garlic being fried in strong mustard oil washes over me. My tongue demands the dish, which I promise it I will give. I also smell the pungent fresh paint which the households are being pasted with in preparation for the festival of lights, Diwali. When I wake up in a thick duvet with all my body hair raised, I realise September has turned into October, and I will have to ask the guesthouse host for a thicker blanket.

I’m overwhelmed. It is not my world. I might not be here tomorrow. But I like this world. I venture into every nook and turn into every alley. I want to hear this space breathe.

That my travels transformed me is an understatement. To say, I’ve just learned something would be undermining this school of life.

I stood at the summit of the volcano I was sure I could never climb. I had been standing in my way. The limits I had set for myself were habits, some luxuries I could afford, some customized by society. I wanted to break those boundaries.

All the trails I wanted to be on. All the challenges were now mine.

For me, the universe is to explore, to marvel at, and to understand. How the birds sing, how the crabs crawl out of the sand, and how the trees hold hands. I would love to know it all.

This book is about those many, many months and weeks and years I have lived looking. I’ve tried to capture the struggles and joys of each of these journeys in the pages. There’s also a little bit about how I did it all while being instructed to behave like a girl.

So that’s Journeys Beyond and Within for you. A book I’m so passionate and confident about that I ditched the regular publishing route, rejected the offered contract, and decided to go for self-publishing to keep my copyrights.

I hope to get the book out by the end of this month. OF COURSE, I will inform you of the launch date and from where to buy it.

This is me in the early years of exploring oblivious of what was to come

this is me trying to write from a mountain, turning my head at every little rustle and sound, afraid the leopard who lived in the ravine below finally climbed up to eat my partner and me. Summer of 2021

For now I want to ask: Are you looking forward to read my book? Do reply to this post and let me know.

For this week’s letter,

Some of my writing,

quotes I love,

things to read,

things to watch,

and

travel tips.

Article of the Week,

7 Scintillating Years of On My Canvas

I've been writing full-time for SEVEN years and so my personal growth and travel blog has turned seven too. For four of those years I've been traveling with my partner in a car around India. Can't believe any of it.

The post, broken into seven succinct points, talks about creativity, the definition of success, work-leisure balance, trade-offs and rewards of this life of constant travel and writing, and the plan ahead.

Thank you, all readers, for coming along with me and always encouraging me to write. This one is for you.

Read the article now. Or Pocket it for later.

Quotes I Love

“We don't have to circle the world in order to find beauty and fulfilment. After all, most of living has to happen in the mind.”
Ruskin Bond

“To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.”

Marcus Aurelius

“You should be able to see who I was from who I have become.”
Yours Truly

What I’ve Been Reading

I’ve been reading short stories, books, articles, and so much more. I can’t possibly list all what I have read in the past week so I’m putting down the things I found most relevant and worthwhile.

This one is definitely going to get you hungry: Afghan refugees’ stories of food – and home : For me food is home and home is food. I love not only to eat but also to cook, buy ingredients, and pluck fruits and vegetables from the fields. So I really enjoyed these memories of Afghan refugees who talk about the food they miss from home and how do they satisfy their cravings.
The Clean-Out by Yasmin Adele Majeedy: a beautiful story encompassing three generations and how they cope with grief.

I’ve been reading a lot of miscellaneous things too. Updates on the US elections, the wars, stories, travel books, and so on. Will put them down in the next letter.

What I’ve Been Watching/Listening

that’s worth mentioning

I have mostly been busy watching the birds and Diwali celebrations around me :)

And for all adventure lovers!

pictures from the Himalayas where I’ve been for the past two months

only those who have starved know the value of a full plate of delicious and healthy food. Red kidney beans aka rajma rice in Joshimath, Uttarakhand

look what all they make on Diwali. Do you what these are?

how can I not share at least one photo of a vibrant vegetable store

old buildings old temples bright colours. breaking the no photograph rule. Joshimath, Uttarakhand

the oak forest i wil never forget. Nanda Devi National Park.

a bit too focused. must be manoeuvring a hard mountain turn. Also unaware that my partner is clicking yet another closeup when i look weird. I'm not ashamed about using his photo though.

Diwali in joshimath with laddoos that my mother remember from her childhood. She is from a village in Uttarakhand, but then it was part of UP, my home state.

from yesterday’s afternoon walk. Alaknanda river, Rudraprayag

Happy Diwali and Happy Halloween. Belated :)

Thank you for reading!

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Let me know what you think about this letter. Press reply.

Yours,

Priyanka

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