Mridula Ramadugu has traveled 29 Indian States in 365 Days! “Travel opens your heart, broadens your mind, and fills your life with stories to tell. Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” With a similar belief, our today’s narrator Mridula Ramadugu decided to explore India through traveling.
She is one of the youngest travelers as she has explored 29 Indian states within a year. Her journey is a dream of many, but only a few dare to make it come true. For Mridula Ramadugu, this journey brought a bucket of experiences and many memories that no one can count on fingers. So today, HatkeStory is sharing her story to inspire all of you to travel the world. Let’s read her journey from her point of view.
Mridula Ramadugu – Her Story
I’m Mridula Ramadugu. I belonged to Chennai. I’ve graduated in Journalism, and I have worked in the same field since I was 18 years old. My mother started this business that I run currently, but I had to take it up when she passed away. Before starting this business, I had a job in Mumbai, where I worked for two years.
After that, I came back to Chennai and took freelancing. Mumbai is the beginning point of my travel journey, and it’s the reason why I felt so attached to traveling.
Because I started traveling when I was in Mumbai, I went to Banaras with my friends in 2015. Next year, I took another trip to Dharamshala. That’s how it all began. We mapped different things that we wanted to do. I was traveling with my friends. In 15 days, we covered 24 cities. One single place in each day, and that was huge.
I realized I wanted to continue visiting places in different states and not go back to the same place again. It was the time when I came to know that I enjoy traveling more than others. For me, it is not a break from work. I love discovering the world. I feel connected to it. So in between, I continued visiting more places in India.
In Jan 2017, Mridula Ramadugu made up her mind to travel more and more as much as she could. I had read a travel book Around India in 80 Trains written by Monisha Rajan. She is an NRI from the U.K. who decided to explore entire India. That book worked as fuel on the fire for me. I created a bucket list, putting up all the things that I wanted to do. In which exploring 29 Indian states was on the top. India has so much to offer, and I wanted to go through everything. I still feel I haven’t fulfilled half of it. I’m yet to see it ultimately.
2017 was a milestone in the journey. There were a lot of things I was doing single-handedly. I would go on trips and return to my job on Monday morning. I worked five days a week and traveled somewhere on weekends. Throughout the year, I visited Amritsar, Shimla, Jaipur, Delhi, and many other cities.
In December 2017, I picked a 25-day trip and covered a lot from the northeast. It was the first time I went to Kolkata, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, etc. Planning a trip was my favorite past-time. Most of the time I used to travel on trains and buses. I’d save my salary for these trips. I’d stay in PG or girls hostels to save money. It is essential to plan your trip, especially when you are wandering a lot.
Then Mridula Ramadugu fell sick, and her immunity level had dropped. The doctor instructed her to take a rest for a while. She would have finished the journey in 2017 just in 265 days but had to postpone it due to her health issues.
In 2018, I mapped out another 25 days trip to continue my journey. In that year, I finished all the states which were left. Uttarakhand was the last state, and Rishikesh was my last stop. It was an enthralling experience of working and traveling together. I had struggled a lot as nobody was sponsoring them, and I had to work on my trips, but I truly and deeply loved it.
If I tell you about my experiences in detail, even though I have wandered through each state, I still feel there is so much I haven’t explored yet. My grandparents lived in Shimla many years ago, and my grandfather specially told me not to go for it in winters.
Nevertheless, I still ended up there. It was the first time I saw snow, and I brought a 25 rupees ticket to get into the Shimla skating board arena, usually filled with snow. I slipped back into my childhood for a while. Nothing in the world could ever match the vibes of the place.
The Golden Temple was a beautiful experience, and I remember being a part of the Hornbill Festival. That was a massive thing for me, getting to know the tribal culture, tasting their food, and encountering locals. Those moments are close to my heart. Northeastern states appeared like a different world put together in a country.
I mostly travel by train, and some of the routes are stunning, and you can’t take your eye away. Connectivity in Northeastern states is significantly less, and I had to take taxis to reach the destination. Even the internet is not accessible that easily.
While flying back from Mizoram, I had missed my flight, and there were only two flights every day. If you miss one flight, the next flight’s rate is costly and can cost up to 25000 rupees.
I couldn’t afford that time, so I stood at the airport not knowing where to go. Going back to the city seemed a tedious and time-consuming task as I was present in a remote location. So one of my school friends introduced me to his friend, and he offered a stay. I didn’t have a choice, so I accepted. That person was very humble, and his entire family treated me so well. I spent the night in his house. The next day, he helped me out in getting the flight tickets.
Despite missing my flight, I completed the Leh Ladakh trip on the planned date. Experiences like these are the most precious memories, and I treasure all of them.
After coming back from the journey, I started a digital marketing company with my school friend. It was a hell of a lot of work, and I had to put a lot to make it what it is today. Currently, I’m writing a book on my travel journey. I hope to finish by next year and give it to publishing.
So to conclude I want to say “Once a year, go to someplace you have never been to before. You will discover a new side of life, and you need to work on your dreams to make them come true and possible. I have learned so much through traveling, and you will do it too.” That’s my message for you all.
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