Reflecting on our experience, I realized the importance of conscientious tourism – an approach that seeks to support local communities rather than exploit them for personal gain.

The mango showers are perhaps my most favorite natural phenomenon. The light pre-monsoon rains help in ripening the mango from its raw sourness to its golden sweetness – the very essence of the summer in India.

When someone’s cuisine is picked on, they don’t just stop bringing their ethnic foods, they try to reject their culture and it’s similar to beauty standards.

Traveling can’t solve your problems, but it can allow you to gain a different perspective. And at the end of the day, it is you who needs to take that final step towards a life that is full of happiness.

I find myself on a journey akin to a lotus emerging from the murky depths of nostalgia and familial ties. Leaving behind the comforting embrace of home, I tread a path strewn with marigold petals of acceptance and thorns of isolation, each step echoing the bittersweet melody of shared experiences.

In my eyes, this world is dazzling in a myriad more ways than its elemental makeup - although that, to the right person, could be considered dazzling too.