The Woman Who Chose Experiences Over Destinations

Some people are born with roots. Others are born with wings.

Lakshmi believes she belonged to the second kind.

Growing up in Madras in a bustling joint family, she was the child who could never stay still. Her mother often joked that she had "wheels in her feet." Every outing, whether it was a temple visit, a family excursion, or a trip to the zoo, filled her with excitement. Travel was never a luxury in her eyes. It was simply a way of understanding the world.

Those childhood journeys became even more magical because of her grandfather, a coffee planter whose stories transported her into the heart of the Western Ghats. Long before smooth highways connected hill stations, Lakshmi travelled through winding forest roads to coffee estates and sacred temples. Listening to tales of elephants, leopards and tigers, she felt as though The Jungle Book had stepped out of its pages.

Those early experiences quietly planted two lifelong passions: storytelling and exploration.

Books were her first love

Literature came naturally to her, and school competitions in essay writing, public speaking and creative writing became familiar territory. While pursuing her degree in literature, she found herself drawn towards journalism at a time when neighbourhood newspapers were just beginning to emerge.

The early 1990s were a very different world. There were no smartphones, no Google searches and no social media. Lakshmi often laughs that she belonged to the generation that stood patiently at STD booths late at night to call home.

As a college student, she and a classmate were entrusted with almost every aspect of producing a neighbourhood newspaper. They gathered stories, interviewed residents, wrote articles, helped with page layouts and learned the mechanics of publishing from the ground up. It was journalism in its purest form.

That experience opened doors to internships with leading publications and eventually led her into television and radio. Over the next fifteen years, she built an impressive media career, climbing steadily from content roles to leadership positions. She helped launch radio stations across South India, led large teams and became a respected media executive.

By every conventional measure, she had succeeded.

Yet success can sometimes become its own prison.

One morning, Lakshmi realised that while she was helping build powerful brands, she had forgotten to build herself. Her professional identity had grown so large that there was very little room left for the person behind the designation.

Walking away from a secure corporate career in her mid-thirties was neither fashionable nor easy. It meant giving up financial comfort, status and certainty. But it also meant giving herself permission to begin again.

The decision changed her life.

Travel, which had quietly accompanied her since childhood, became her full-time calling.

Long before the word "influencer" entered everyday vocabulary, Lakshmi began writing travel blogs. The blogging community was still small and intimate, built around conversations rather than algorithms. Bloggers visited one another's websites, exchanged ideas and celebrated authentic storytelling.

Her writing soon found readers across India. She was an original (OG) travel blogger working with over 100 brands in paid collaborations. She was also a travel writer with bylines in leading publications. She collaborated with tourism boards and brands, and travelled across nearly fifty countries. Yet she refused to reduce travel to numbers or checklists.

"I don't do destinations," she says. "I experience them."

For Lakshmi, places are remembered through people. Every village, every local tradition and every untold story matters more than famous landmarks. She believes cultures are preserved not only through monuments but through the lives of ordinary people. That philosophy shaped her work as a travel writer and storyteller, making her a strong advocate for slow, mindful and responsible travel.

But while the world saw beautiful photographs and inspiring travel stories, very few knew about the invisible battle she was fighting.

In her mid-thirties, Lakshmi was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and adenomyosis, conditions that would change her life forever.

At that time, very few people in India had even heard of endometriosis. There was almost no awareness, very little understanding and hardly any conversations around women's chronic pain.

The disease brought relentless physical suffering. Multiple surgeries, invasive procedures, hormonal treatments, infertility and years of uncertainty became part of her everyday reality.

Unlike a visible injury, chronic pain rarely announces itself. People often cannot see it, and therefore struggle to understand it.

Lakshmi experienced that invisibility firsthand.

Society often teaches women that severe menstrual pain is something they must simply endure. She wants that mindset to change.

"No one should have to normalise unbearable pain," she believes.

Speaking openly about her condition became an act of courage. She realised that sharing her story could help other women recognise symptoms earlier, seek medical advice and feel less alone.

The diagnosis also transformed her relationship with travel.

Travelling now required careful planning. Medication became as essential as her passport. Food choices mattered. The fear of pain accompanied every journey.

Yet instead of allowing the illness to define her, she found healing in movement.

Travel became therapy.

Every journey reminded her that life could still hold beauty despite uncertainty. Every new landscape became a quiet affirmation that pain and joy can exist together.

Today, Lakshmi speaks about endometriosis with remarkable honesty, not because she seeks sympathy, but because she hopes awareness will spare others years of silent suffering. She believes conversations around women's health deserve far greater openness, compassion and understanding.

Looking back, her life has unfolded across two very different worlds.

She belongs to the generation that witnessed India's transition from handwritten letters and analog technology to smartphones and artificial intelligence. She has experienced the evolution of journalism, media and digital storytelling from the very beginning.

Yet through every technological change, one truth has remained constant.

Stories still matter.

Whether she is walking through a remote Himalayan village, speaking with local artisans, writing about forgotten communities or sharing her own health journey, Lakshmi continues to believe that stories have the power to connect people across cultures and experiences.

Perhaps that is why she never measures travel by the number of countries visited.

She measures it by the number of lives touched.

Her own journey has been shaped by forests, newsrooms, airports, operating theatres and countless conversations with strangers who eventually became stories. Along the way, she has learned that life is rarely about reaching a destination.

It is about remaining curious enough to keep exploring, resilient enough to keep moving and compassionate enough to carry the stories of others along with your own.

Lakshmi's life reminds us that courage is not always found in dramatic moments. Sometimes it is found in quietly choosing to begin again, in refusing to let pain silence your voice, and in continuing to see wonder in the world despite everything life places in your path.

For someone who has spent a lifetime travelling, perhaps her greatest journey has never been across continents.

It has been the journey back to herself.