A Social Vacation: To relax your Social Being!

Vacations are meant to relax a person from their daily routine and provide a break from the daily chaos. But what about the social chaos that a person feels and which keeps building up in you. How to get that one sorted out? Are donations to NGOs or spending a day at elderly homes or orphanages enough for that? Maybe not, not for me at least.

Some beautiful scenic views you can't overlook.

These solutions are designed to make you feel good but they don’t really make you satisfy that social drive as you are not helping them in a real sense. What could be done for that then? One way to answer this question is ‘A Social Vacation’.

The basic idea of a social vacation is to visit places and experience the life of not-much explored places in the country. It helps to promote tourism at those places whilst at the same time boosts your social media likes as the places have never been seen before.

Coming back to the social drive, how is that addressed here. The idea is simple, the revenue generated from the visit goes back to the local people and also makes them feel a part of the country as well.

The Nostalgia of going back to the schools

As part of my experience, I visited the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. In scenic beauty, it is no less than the other places of the same state such as Shimla (the pictures tells that themselves), but what additional things it has to offer – the local food (you keep eating till you stomach starts to say, “No more please”), fresh air (something which we have almost what it feels like) and peaceful environment (free from worldly worries, for a short period at least).

Local stay and food.

Now the question is how you book such a vacation? One way is through NotOnMaps. NotOnMap is a handcrafted, socially driven initiative that helps travellers around the world to experience comfortable stays, culture and food (https://www.notonmap.com/about-us). The team consists of local people who are socially motivated to do something for their region and the way to do that for them is to promote tourism and spread the word about their culture through such vacations.

The journey with a group of wonderful people.

What I achieved in this vacation – a chance to explore remotest areas of the state and live the rural life, enjoys simple and sumptuous local food, breath fresh air in a peaceful environment and free my mind of all the worries for the time being.

The view which makes you stand stunned and amazed.

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Bairagarh and Shiv Temple

Bairagarh is a village on the road that connects Chamba to Killar. It is quite small, and not a very touristic place. But this will allow you to experience the local food at its finest. The food bought at the local eateries that you will encounter on the road was delicious: we had exquisite parathas and chai for breakfast and ate bananas bought from the local fruit shop. Continuing uphill on the road, you will encounter beautiful Shiv Temple, that is also a good viewpoint to see the valley. Next to the Temple is a building in ruins that is accessible from a staircase and can be explored to get an even better view of the valley. You can find the exact location of the village on Google Maps by clicking on the link.

Shodh Yatra - A journey to the unknown yet most beautiful places in Himachal Pradesh

A group of 28 IIM Ahmedabad students set out on a journey of self-realization and social awakening. We call this course “Shodh Yatra”. We went on a trek to the beautiful mountains of the Churah valley in Himachal Pradesh. Well that’s an irony!! Mountains of the valley. Our journey was - Full of unexpected experiences and events. But amidst all of that we got a taste of the vastness of nature, the beauty that resides in the landscape of our country and the tremendous love and care that people from the region had in stock for us. We reached Pathankot on the first day and took a mini bus to Bhanjraru, our base station. The next morning, we started our picturesque journey towards Devikothi, which is called the Jewel of the Churah valley. The day we started the journey, we had no idea what the next few days had in store for us and nor did I know that I would not forget this day all my life because of what was going to happen. All set to conquer the mountains Headi...

A day in Churah Valley.

A day in Churah Valley. The first day of Shodyatra began with climbing up the hill to Bhanjararu for breakfast. It was a steep hill. On our way we could see in far away distance mountains which were covered with lusty green trees. Below these mountains we could see dried river covered mostly with small rocks. The entire day was spent on walking up and down the hills on virtually deserted roads. Finally, we reached Devikothi village late in the night. We spent the night in one of the schools. Since we were very tired because of the day long trekking, we slept off immediately after having dinner. On our way to Bhanjraru for Breakfast I woke up the next day to a beautiful sight of the mighty Himalayas and found myself sipping tea with friends amidst the cold breezes. During the day, we had an interaction with a herbal healer from whom we got to learn ancient ways of healing and curing various illnesses. This individual had been doing such practices for years and his kno...

IIMA Shodh Yatra Aug-Sept 2018

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