The countdown has begun for Jatin Adlakha. He is in Hyderabad right now and will be here for three weeks before the travel bug bites him. In fact, it is the same feeling at any place. “I need to change air; nobody knows how it feels. It is like small ants driving inside my body,” he laughs.
For four years now, Jatin has travelled the length and breadth of the country, covered 19 states and Bhutan and Nepal and biked around 70,000 km.
In Hyderabad, Jatin has his itinerary chalked out. If a few days ago, he was sharing his story with a group of people at Phoenix Arena, on March 24, he will take centrestage at Lamakaan to present a ‘semi-philosophical-and-semi-comedy’ talk titled ‘The Life of Full-time Travel’.
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A computer science engineer, Jatin calls himself, ‘an outdoor enthusiast.’ With a banker father, the family went on regular LTC trips. And, then when his father bought him his first motor bike, he instantly fell in love. “I discovered this thing called weekends and began exploring new places on my bike. However, I was never following a convention like a biker or an adventurer. I was a nature lover and visited places but avoided the touristy or crowded ones,” he shares. While working he went on weekend getaways for almost four years and once he went to four states for weekends in a month. He is also not a hurried traveller wanting to see as many places as he can. “I like to stay at one place, spend time to absorb its culture,” he shares. And, when his love for outdoors outgrew the financial stability of his desk job, he called it quits.
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Nomad life
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It has been 10 months since he quit his job and sold his belongings. With a new motorbike and laptop, his first trip was to the Himalayas. “I did a solo bike ride and stayed there for three months within a tent. I would find good places to relax and probably sit next to a river sit and write. It was just not about riding. I went to Barot and Parvati valley and spent about 20 days in each valley.” His solo backpacking trips mostly to Gujarat and Kerala were to prepare himself for Everest base camp, which he did all alone.
Speaking about how he prepared his parents to accept his present lifestyle, he states, “I never directly told them that I would quit my job one day but showed people who quit and doing what they wanted to do. From, telling me ‘You have gone mad’ ‘You are stupid; it is not gonna happen,’ to now wishing me, “All the best’ has been a three- year journey.”
Now Jatin, who runs his own travel company shares he is more of a Hyderabadi and South Indian at heart! “I studied four years here and also the only job that I did began in the city. I spent six years in Hyderabad and the place has had a major influence.”