STEP 1: FOUR CHAPTERS OF MY TRAVEL STORY# SNDBOX SUMMER CAMP QUEST

When I came know about SNDBOX SUMMER CAMP QUEST, I was not really sure should I participate in it or not because I was not sure whether, am I traveler or not? Because never thought about my travels in that way. I self analyzed my memories or my past journeys up to my current life then I became sure I am also a traveler by soul. So I divided my major travelling experience of life into four major chapters of travel.

Every person has his or her different motives, tastes and faiths behind their travels. For instance a folklorist would travel from village to village to collect folk tales or a nature explorer would love to travel to a forest, mountain or any other place where can get closest to Mother Nature. For me travelling is to communicate with people to hear about how they live, what they grow, cook or eat, where they work, what they work etc. I am interested in a social phenomena of class division, how is that society always divides itself into different classes economic basis (Rich or Poor), Caste Gender or anything else. Through communicating with people I try to find my answer on individual levels. This cannot be said about two early chapter of travel of my life because chapter one took place in my early childhood and second unknowingly, but in third chapter I found it (my motives and passions for travel) and currently in fourth chapter I am working on it.

Chapter 1:- Trips to my Mother School (only memories left alive)

I was born in a small town in central India, my mother was a government school teacher in interior tribal region of Rajasthan (She is still on job). My earliest memories of travel that I remember are my visits with my mother to her schools. At that time I was 4-5 years in age, schools in which my mother worked were generally about 40- 50 km away from our town in interior villages. To reach their we had a journey of about 1to 1.5 hour through highway then we had to take a walk sometime 1- 2 km on foot sometimes on bullock cart and even in some in school we had to use boats for reaching up to them.

That was first time I had my first interaction with tribal people of Bhil community. I came to know their tradition, way of living, fearlessness of children and their love for nature. Till today I have many memories about those schools. My favorite ones are how they taught me how to jump in a well; they made touch a monitor lizard.
This chapter continued till I was 8-9 years. Then my schooling started and home work also. During this period travel were mostly to my grandmother house or to some relatives in metro cities. A small part of my journey started when I got my bicycle (and later motor cycle) and then roaming around rivers sides, highway rides, windmills etc with my friends.

Then I went to do my graduation in engineering, in my second year of course I became desperate that technical field is not meant for me. This was the time I become interested in literature some of my early influence were Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradbury, Albert Camus etc. Through their stories I came to know
about how the life of people transformed after the journey. So I had planned with a friend that once is finished engineering is over we will also take a long trip on foot.

Chapter 2: Round the river.

About 150 km away from my home town a river named Narmada passes. It is the biggest river of Central India, during my engineering also I visited many times to its river banks. There we came to know that there is a special tradition in which people travel around the river which is about 3200 km of journey which is known as Narmada Yatra or Parikrama. Yatra in Hindi language means travel and Parikrama means taking moving around something. But depends upon wish person how much kilometer or for how many days he wants to travel.
But there were many strict rules to follow during this Yatra:
1. One has to travel as much as possible banks of the river (Not follow roads or highways) and only on foot.
2. Not to carry any money, all our requirements are provided by people who live in villages we pass through. There are ashrams (shelter houses) where food and shelter were provided. But sometimes in many small villages sometimes we have to also sleep in courtyard of temples or villgers houses.

At time of yatra we did not had a camera with us, as we were afraid we can looted but nothing like that happens. These are some images by different people who carried camera with them ( I am using these pictures just to share visual beauty of beauty river Narmada)

Source: http://gparikrama.blogspot.in/2013/04/my-narmada-parikrma-it-was-amazing.html

Many incidences happened with us during our journey which I will remember for my whole life . Once we were sleeping on floor of a small ashram, a hermit was also sleeping there. Daily we used to travel about 30-40 km on foot so we were usually very tired at night we slept early.There were total three rooms we were sleeping in second room. He woke us up at about 2 am at night told us to shift our bed to third room because in first room there was snake it was trying to go out but was afraid of us. He moved his bedding to third room and slept. We were afraid to our bones and could not sleep whole night such events took place daily around us. We traveled about 300 km in period of 14 days. Then I got a muscle rapture and had to return from journey.

This was journey which taught me many things about majorly about caste system in rural India. Still in many villages in India people from higher castes reside in center villages while people of lower castes reside in outskirts of village. We were lost our paths many times during our journey, we bathe in river daily, sometimes we love river but at night were scared of it.

Chapter 3: Animal Market (Bazaars or Haat)

After coming back from Yatra I don’t how and why but decided to be filmmaker. So I moved to Mumbai and started working assistant director and also a part time editor. I did a travel show Epic channel of India Named as "Sharanam" in which I traveled 20 cities all over India.

(My real world name is Nikhil lama)

After that I decided to take a break and to shoot something for myself. At time there was beef ban in many states of our country, so I decided to cover or document consequence of this illogical action by our ruling government by travelling and shooting in animal markets** (or** Hatt** in hindi). So with my Dslr canon 5 D Mark 3 and zoom recorder went to my home state and covered around 20 such weekly markets for about 3.5 months. During this visits of mine also got an opportunity to visit amazing and very rare Donkey market and Buffalo fights. I have shared about them in earlier posts,

https://steemit.com/donkeyfest/@innocentabroad/tales-from-donkeys-mouth-part-1-donkey-festival-of-central-india
https://steemit.com/donkeyfest/@innocentabroad/tales-from-donkeys-mouth-pat-2-father-and-son

https://steemit.com/donkeyequalswisdom/@innocentabroad/tales-from-donkeys-mouth-part-3-makeup

https://steemit.com/donkeywisdom/@innocentabroad/stories-from-donkeys-mouth-memories

https://steemit.com/travel/@innocentabroad/bull-fight-indian-style

https://steemit.com/story/@innocentabroad/stories-from-donkeys-mouth-part-4-donkey-tales-from-india

I collected in all audio visual data of something around 100 G.B data.
IMG laptop

This was chapter of my life which made me understand my motive and tastes of travel. I came to know how even a small unplanned decision by ruling government can affect life, health or social status of ordinary beings. How majority suppress minority.

Chapter 4: Current Landing in Mankhurd slums.

After month of January all animal markets slowdown in my home state and are empty. So I decided to return back to Mumbai to work in December 2017 and earn some living. This was time I started using Steemit, recently in month of January I came in association with non-profit group called as Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NABHAS), they run awareness campaign in Mankhurd slums of Mumbai suburb which has population of about 10-12 lakhs. They have been running many awareness campaign in slums area to make people aware about their right. I am attached to them as their as there video maker (camera, edit and final output).

I work with them twice a week. I also shared a detailed post on Mankhurd slums.
https://steemit.com/photography/@innocentabroad/visit-to-mankhurd-slums-part1-children-of-slums-and-an-introduction-to-mankhurd-mypictureday

By travelling through this slums I came to know about living condition of working in metropolis. Many people have no employment those who employment work on very low wages and unsafe condition. There are no safety equipment for labors and no insurance in case of injuries.

About future:
I am about to start creating V-blogs, A.V. and writing blogs on life of people residing in slums.
Once rainy season starts will again go back to animal market in near my home town to complete my documentary (I am planning to complete a feature documentary by end of this year) if I can crowd fund or find some producer.

Also me and my fellow steemian buddy @dpatcher are about to start a video channel exclusively for Dtube in which we will interview budding artist who may be painter , installation artists, filmmakers, mural artist etc. They may be from any background like from an institution, independent, tribal etc. The content of our channel will be designed in such a way that even person who have very little understanding of art can understand feelings, emotion and expression of an artist behind a particular artwork. We would love to create a platform for budding artist. Our venture would named as "An Art scooter".

At last I would thanks @sndbox community, @guyfawkes4-20, @voronoi, @hansikhouse and all other who brought such cool Summer Camp Quest for US to participate and provided an opportunity to try to become member of @sndbox community.

thanks

Innocent abroad