How it all panned out…

In the closing years of the last century when I perchance applied for a job with an automobile magazine, I did so only because I wanted to drive fast cars.

I was giving up a secure corporate career, taking a cut in my earnings and stepping into the dark. I had no clue about the fantastic experience that lay ahead. Over the last 18 years it has been a journey so incredibly heady that it seems hallucinogenic. Fast cars led to exotic travel, stunning photographs, divine food, extreme adventure, crazy explorations and cross-continental driving trips. I have driven some of the world’s best roads, jumped out of aeroplanes, dived down to sunken wrecks, kayaked with whales, hiked across a glacier, looked a grizzly in the eye and made friends all over the world.

Fortunately, my stories that have appeared in most of India’s major publications on travel, automobiles and lifestyle have been hugely appreciated and have inspired and tempted readers to visit places that I have written about and partake in the experiences that I have recommended. Through all this the motorcar remains my favoured mode of travel and hence a lot of my writing ecourages readers to go hire a car and discover the joys of a self drive holiday. The explorative freedom and flexibility that come with a self-drive trip cannot be bettered. But, I do not restrain myself to that genre. Writing about history trails, food and drink, stories about seeking out places I have read about in books, entertainment and lifestyle, personal encounters and adventure sports can be just as interesting and rewarding.

This TEDx Talk that I gave at MICA tells my story in my own words and voice.