By Nitin Gairola
I am Nitin Gairola and I was born in our very own Dehradun or the ‘Doon’ Valley as we love to call it. Growing up, I was an incredibly cut-off and reclusive teen who used to endlessly write poems, and this carried into my early twenties. During this time, I had a very limited access to or understanding of our planet, so that begs the question as to how can I now even claim to be the ‘Most Travelled Indian’ (of the natural world). In fact, what does it even mean to be called the ‘most travelled’ and how does it benefit you. So hang on, as I take you briefly through my past…
record certification
Long ago, something had suddenly happened to me at the age of 27 when I woke up to the realisation that everyone I know will move on and this life would pass me by so fast, with me not having anything to show for my time here. To add to that, the father of a childhood friend (who was very well travelled) told me that if I wished to see the world too, then I should do it now else it will be too late, as his own travels were slowing down due to his advancing years. At the time of hearing this, I had not stepped once out of India, barring Bhutan, where I had lived for a few years as a kid.
If these triggers were not all, Richa, my travel partner and now wife, had gifted me a book called ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson. It is through this book that my eyes finally opened to how much is out there. The book talked about all things that have got our planet and us to this point in time – from the ‘universe creating’ big bang event to cosmology, geography, plate tectonics, volcanology, ecology, zoology, paleontology, archaeology, history, anthropology, etc. I was hooked, I was fascinated with the real world and little did I realise then, that nothing was going to stop me now from studying and learning about my world first-hand, through travel.
I wanted to see this entire planet and catch up with lost time. And not just see the political division of the world (i.e., seeing all countries) but the natural division of the world as well (i.e., deserts, forests, mountains, grasslands, etc). So, my travel guides became the yellow-bordered National Geographic and the purple Lonely Planet. I honestly never cared for all the shallow and commercial travel content on the internet that told me ‘how to travel’ and ‘where to travel’, since I was clear that I wanted to know ‘the why of travel’. The destinations were very purpose driven from there on and not random holidays where I got ‘flight deals’ or I visited the ‘flavour of the season’ places. I just kept this noise out and looked inward on what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. World travel was to be the story of my life, not just a mere collection of vacations.
It was a matter of chance that my first proper international trip happened when my elder brother, Amit, relocated to London for work. So, at the ripe old age of 27, I remember taking a Kuwait Airways flight to London, which had a stop-over in Kuwait City airport. Just that landing into Kuwait opened my eyes to the desert world that was outside my airplane’s window and it was in complete contrast to the lush green fields I saw while landing in London. That was to be the first hint that the world was not just culturally diverse, but ecologically diverse too, with very different climates leading to very different natural conditions in these two places. And I realised that in this golden age of jumbo-jet travel, the world could actually be seen in one lifetime, if planned well. It was an opportunity that all of humanity didn’t have just a few decades earlier.
This trip was going to change my life as what followed in the next 15 years was not just a visit to every continent, every ocean and over 100 countries, but also some travel related records such as becoming the first Indian to visit every Biome in the world (biomes are biological eco-zones or the natural division of the Earth which include all types of deserts, ice & tundra landscapes, all types of forests, grasslands, etc.). It is in fact these fascinating places of the natural world that I most would like to bring to you and to my home state- Uttarakhand. I want to give you authentic and unfiltered firsthand experiences to every major desert, every major forest, longest mountain chains and largest plateaus and the stories from every continent, sub-continent and country on Earth.
To sum it up, I travelled the world for 15 years, mostly under the radar, but now my mission is to bring the world to my home and to inspire everyone here – young or old, to travel the world, to have fun, to embrace and rejoice diversity that we have on this amazing planet….and to not let this opportunity to see the world, pass us by.
Frankly, if I could see the world, anyone can. Just Dream, Plan & Go!!!
