Journeys Beyond and Within…

…an Indian woman’s life-changing travel adventures by Priyanka Gupta

A personal review

‘Journeys Beyond and Within…’

by Priyanka Gupta is a beautifully written book that reminds us that travel can:

be immensely life changing and deeply transformational.
have the power to open our hearts and retrieve our souls.
help you, find YOU.
help you find meaning in your life.
show you that the magic of life is all around you, every single day (we just have to slow down enough to see it).

Priyanka's book Journey from beyond and within on colourful Indian fabric — Journeys Beyond And Within…

Discovering Priyanka’s Writing

A non conformist blog

I initially came across Priyanka Gupta’s writing a few years ago on her blog ‘On My Canvas’. Her writing is different to your average travel blogger, she steers away from pithy snap shots of places, with must sees and dos; instead, she favours long, in depth vivid reflections of her journeys intermingled with her thoughts on personal growth. She currently lives a nomadic life as a writer in India. I admired her general lack of conformance, which spilled unapologetically over into her blog writing and email newsletters.

When Priyanka announced a few months ago, that she was publishing a book I was both excited for her and also a little intrigued.

However, I must also say that I was a little bit reluctant to actually read it. Why? Well firstly, I guess there’s a part of me that’s a little jaded from being told how amazing travel is. I already knew and my life revolves around travel and whilst I enjoy reading country specific travel books, I didn’t feel much desire to read about someone else’s general travel stories.

Secondly, I’m 51, newly single and struggling with a health issue after a very difficult break up and emerging from depression. Did I really need to read a book written by a younger, healthier Indian woman, who I perceived as smarter and with a partner? My go to reading for the past couple of years has been self-help, spiritual and the odd strictly non romance novel!

So, I almost didn’t read it.

But how glad I am that I did!

It proved to be just the tonic I needed and such a lovely reminder of why travelling can enrich your life in so many wonderful ways. I decided I wanted to review and write about the book for this very reason.

It was also a stark reminder to myself not to be closed off to something just because I think it won’t be relatable! A lesson to get out of comfort zone reading.

The dedication pulled me in

a dedication to Sagar

It was the dedication in ‘Journeys Beyond and Within…’ that initially caught my attention and then compelled me to read further.

Priyanka writes:

For all those who have ever been scared

And for those who wonder if there is more to life

For those who feel they do not belong and that their own don’t understand them

For those who dare to venture beyond the boundaries they are told not to cross.

I read those words, and then re-read them, and could immediately relate to them.

Perhaps you can too?

Breaking free from expectations

a universal theme

From an early age, Priyanka knew that something different was pulling at her heart. She tried to do what was expected of her, to please her parents and the community she grew up in. She was the good Indian girl who worked hard, got the best grades, got into the best university to study computer science and indeed got a very good job.

Then all she needed to do was get married…

And yet, something from within was cajoling her into taking trips that her parents didn’t approve of, often alone and often without a plan. Her trips started out as short jaunts to nearby locations and then gradually as she found her travelling wings, further afield to Europe and eventually South America. Every step of the way, she was confronted by her parents disapproval and was indeed told countless times that she was causing them ongoing distress and ruining their lives. Indian women simply didn’t travel the world solo.

I felt upon reading, that Priyanka’s story of breaking free from expectations is a theme felt by many, regardless of background, age and culture which is what makes this book a great read.

Unlike Priyanka, I didn’t grow up in India in a family with very clear expectations of what a woman should do. I come from the UK with parents that were very open to the idea of me travelling and yet, the self-imposed pressure of conforming was always there.

The societal expectations of what we should achieve by a certain age are all pervasive, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle. The expectations of the job, the relationship, the house, the material possessions, the pension, the kids and so on, it’s there whether we like it or not, and carving out a different way of living is not easy. You have to confront your own personal issues of self-doubt and also those ingrained beliefs of ‘this is what I should be doing…’

However, when you’re driven by something deep within, when you know there is something else to see or do, or when a different way of living is whispering away at your soul, the palpable frustration is always bubbling away internally.

I knew those frustrations well. I felt them throughout my 20s and 30s. They led me to leaving my marriage at 40 and creating a freelance career so I could shape my life around travel.

Perhaps you have your own bubbling frustrations?

More than just a travel memoir

‘We may begin again. When a door closes behind us, hundreds open in front. One way leads to another’. Priyanka Gupta

Like all good travel books, Journeys Beyond and Within, gives you food for thought. I frequently found myself pausing after a sentence, staring into the space in front of me, sometimes simply for an ah ha moment or for some deeper reflection and personal revaluation.

Here are some of the things I particularly loved about the book:

Personal Discovery

‘the earth was mine, the whole of me, was recognisable for the first time’.

The theme of self-discovery flows throughout the book.

Through Priyanka’s travels from the hippy shores of Goa, the wine bars of France, the immense sense of freedom felt in London, the warm hearted hugs from the people of Chile to the streets of Mumbai and the rainforests of Malaysia; we’re as readers not only treated to wonderful vivid descriptions of the places she visits and the people she meets, we are also given beautiful insights into her personal insecurities and how she moved through them.

We learn how each trip moved her into a deeper sense of her own self.

It brings home the message of why travel can be immensely life changing, and why it is also so important to me. With each journey I take, I learn more and more about myself. I feel myself open in new ways, and time and time again, I am surprised by the profound impact travel has on me. With each chapter of life, travel gifts me something new. From helping me feel the real authentic me, building my confidence and more recently, in helping me to heal.

Travel gives us the gift of seeing the world around us, and also within us (as the title of the book suggests).

Travel and the joy of simplicity

‘My travels must have taught me to slow down and feel and explore the space around me’

One of my favourite sections of the book was Priyanka’s return to her home country India after spending a year in Chile. In part, I think this is because I would love to go to India, so the lively descriptions of crispy crunchy samosas, soft rotis and spicy yellow lentil dhal captured my imagination.

However, what I particularly enjoyed was that on returning from Chile, a country so very different to her own, Priyanka began to see India through the lens of a tourist, rather than as a native. She remarks that she takes photos of the sprawling animals, the food, the pouring of tea – like those taken by backpackers, and she feels that for the first time she is really seeing.

She writes:

‘I devoured a Kerela fish thali on a fresh banana leaf. The tamarind fish curry, thick red rice, crispy fish fry and dry vegetables were exotic. My mouth on fire from the spice, I licked my tangy fingers and broadcasted the before and after photographs to ten friends’‘

‘Vendors wearing lunghi, the long cloth tied around the waist, mixed steaming tea or coffee using two steel tumblers. Holding the glasses at a great distance from each other, they poured the beverage from one to another. I watched fixed to my feet, my eyes tracing those long brown streams’.

This was what travellers took pictures of, ‘why was I doing it?’

She had realised that through travelling her skills of observation had sharpened. She smelled, saw, heard, touched, and tasted everything like it was new. She gives many wonderful examples – from soaking in the intoxicating fragrance of rain soaked earth, marvelling at budding pink lotuses studding a lake where nose-ringed women washed and chatted, to the joy of her mother’s cooking…I would love to write more, but you should probably just read the book!

I promise, a delight to read.

She comments ‘…earlier, habituated to my surroundings, I’d missed the details….now I wasn’t so absent- minded.…’

These observations reminded me of one of my other favourite books on solo travel which I highly recommend, Alone Time. Here, the author, Stephanie Rosenbloom, through her travels in Paris, Florence, New York and Istanbul writes about the art of savouring in order to enhance our present moment awareness, and general appreciation of the joy of life.

Presence, simplicity and my own healing journey

This section of Priyanka’s book and her return to India, really helped to shine a light on my own understanding of how important simply enjoying the moment is. I remember a couple of years back, I wrote a blog post on how to kick start mindfulness with solo travel and at that point, it felt very real and integral to my life but I hadn’t fully grasped the incredible healing power that presence bestows.

After my partner broke up with me unexpectedly and chronic neurological issues presented themselves overnight, I plummeted into a depression that I could never have imagined I would ever succumb to. The colour completely drained out of my life, and my senses felt so incredibly dulled.

It was only when I began to make a concerted effort to be completely present in the world around me and to be mindful of my unhelpful negative dialogue that my healing began in baby steps.

With intention I started to approach my travel experiences with my senses wide open. This began in the majestic highlands of Sri Lanka where I dedicated myself to being mindful, like an artist dedicates themselves to a painting – obsessively. I wanted desperately to see the colours again, the muted shades and the vibrant flamboyant bursts of life giving colour.

It continued on a trip to Morocco, where my senses danced at the sights and smells of the bustling markets – mounds of fresh garlicky olives, preserved lemons, mint and rose geranium intermingled with freshly baked bread and incense. I breathed it all in. I felt a slow sleepy reawakening. I visited hammams, where my body became alive and sensitised whilst being scrubbed, soaped and cleansed – the vestiges of pain, trickling away across the warm hammam tiles. And then back to Sri Lanka, where I sit writing this review, after spending three weeks on ayurvedic retreat with nothing to do but be present.

I’ve began to understand, like with anything in life, the more one practices mindfulness, the easier it becomes.

And so, Priyanka’s joyful observations of savouring the delights of the world in front of her really resonated with me. I was sat on a beach when I read her words. I paused, put down my kindle on the sunbed, watched the ocean and felt my heart smile from within, with the realisation that the colour had come seeping back into my life.

Beautiful People Everywhere

‘If you have seen and truly felt the beauty of this world, and its people, you are never alone again.’

Another aspect of the book I loved was learning of the people Priyanka meets on her journeys, from the warm heart Chileans that embraced her with welcoming kisses and show her how beautiful she is, a Dutch man keen to escape the tourist trails, an Indian woman who cuts down a fresh fruit for her to sample to backpackers in Malaysia who are amazed she is travelling alone, and many many more.

Priyanka’s descriptions of the people she meets and the impact they have on her, show us how people all over the world mainly want to help us. We want to learn from each other and show kindness and love.

We are all much the same, we all have our own insecurities – yours might be different to mine, and Priyanka’s but we all have them. We all just want to feel safe, to feel loved and to feel accepted.

One of the questions, I’m often asked as a solo traveller is, aren’t you afraid? And no, I’m not because like Priyanka I have time and time again learnt that people mainly want to help a visitor to their country.

There are many more things I could tell you about this book that I loved, but I will stop there and let you discover it for yourself.

I wholeheartedly recommend it. Priyanka’s personality shines through on every page. It’s down to earth, honest and often humorous.