Utkarsh Srivastava
Travel Blogger working with brands as a budget backpacker, photographer and sustainable travel promoter
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If someone asks me why I travel, the first thing that breaks out of me is this – to collect stories. To breathe in the world of someone else’s memory and charm. In all honesty, ever since I was put to sleep with the tale of The Little Red Riding Hood, I have lived stories. I have spent many childhood days, with my quilt around my neck, twirling it about like I was the little prince of the of the world with all of my kingdom unseen, but yet within my grasp. Stories give you that kind of thrill and power. With capes and inexhaustible faith in yourself comes the dream of being the invincible Superman. You want to fly around the globe and save people. Only that, the only way I knew of giving someone a safe haven was through stories – tales of lands faraway filled with a mystic charm of their own.
It wasn’t until my 9 to 5 corporate job, which are systemic in sucking the life out of you, that I realised that Batman is the cooler superhero and that dreams don’t realise on their own. You have to set out into unexplored horizons and see the world in an altogether different light. In one of the best decisions of my life, I quit my job, packed my bags and ventured “into the wild”.
Soul Trails is just one of those dreams that have planted themselves on the ground and are breaking into leaves and flowers and all things beautiful. It is my way of hoarding stories. Here, you will find not just about places and what to do but also about people, their traditions and cuisine, their myths and tales – with a twist of my first hand experiences and the stories about how the roads are not just means of journey to places, but a way to travel within and touch your soul!
So hi, I’m Utkarsh from New Delhi, India – an ex-corporate hamster, an environmentalist, an adventurer and a traveller. I believe that travelling can bring forth who and what you are, because, lamely put, wanderlust is a gateway to your own soul.
In the old days, the city’s only crematorium was walking distance from Chiman Lal’s and the shop used to get big orders from the families returning from the crematorium. As per Hindu mythology when Lord Vishnu incarnated as Krishna, lord Shiva wanted to see Krishna in his child form. However, when lord Shiva reached Krishna’s door, Yashoda (Krishna’s mother) asked him to stay away because of his different and unique appearance as the child might get scared. From the Agra fort railway station to the 19th-century Havelis, there is so much more to Agra’s heritage than just the popular monuments.
With the formation of BTAD in the Bodo accord between the Bodo leaders and the Government of India, in February 2003, this struggle came to an end. It is believed that Bodo people are descendants of the demon (asura) warrior Ghatothkach. The main food of Bodo people is rice, which they most graciously mix with Oma Bedor (pork meat). Interestingly, Bodo people are believed to be the first people to produce silk in India.
When I travelled to the beautiful village of Mayong in the Morigaon district, all my qualms about witchcraft came to rest. Mayong, over the years, gained a lot of attention and has started to attract a lot of tourists, history buffs, and curious travellers. Popularly known as the ‘Birthplace of Black Magic’, Mayong is one of the very few places in the country where black magic is not only accepted but is also celebrated. *a plural of money, any medium of direct/indirect medium of exchange On our trip to the village, we came across Ronendronath who is a Bez and also claims to possess knowledge of Black Magic.
Ambassadors of Bodoland is an initiative by Root Bridge Foundation in partnership with Assam Tourism and Bodoland Tourism to promote and develop tourism in Bodoland. It includes elephants, rhinoceros, water buffaloes, barasingha, tigers, leopards, clouded leopards, Asian golden cats, golden langurs, hoolock gibbons, smooth-coated otters, sloth bears, barking deers, and black panthers, etc. Manas National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site but its Bhutanese counterpart called the Royal Manas National Park is not. Just when we were about to exit the Manas National Park and had lost all hopes of spotting any rare animal, we spotted a Rhino.