In 2010, I was earning around ₹34,000–35,000 a month, plus conveyance. I wanted another backpacking trip through Europe. I kept looking at routes and planning holidays for friends, even though I couldn’t work out how to pay for my own.
One of my clients was also a good friend. He asked for help with the media plan for a mobile phone launch called G’Five. I put the plan together and shared a few contacts. I thought I was helping a friend.
One day, I was sitting in his office when he took out his chequebook and wrote me a cheque for ₹1 lakh.
I asked him why. He said, “For the work.”
I told him I had done it for our friendship. He said he had earned money from the project and wanted to share it with me. I wasn’t expecting a rupee. Suddenly, I had enough to start planning.
The next day, my laptop was open and I was putting together a twenty-day trip to Europe.
It was another backpack trip: hostels, Maggi, ready-to-eat food and tap water wherever it was safe to drink. I saved on meals so I could spend my money on being there. I also carried a letter from work that helped me get entry to some churches and museums.
Spain was a big part of the trip. I went through Barcelona and Madrid, finding my way around even when I couldn’t speak the language and the people I met couldn’t speak much English. In a Barcelona hostel, I shared a room with three Americans. We got talking, and they were surprised by how much I knew about the United States when I hadn’t yet been there. That is one of the things I loved about hostels: you could start the day among strangers and end it with stories from three different countries.
In the evenings, someone would come around the hostel offering to take people out to bars for five or ten euros. I went along a few times. Those nights were part of the trip too.
By the time I reached Amsterdam, my cash was running out. At that age, I didn’t have a credit card to fall back on. I went to a cybercafé and messaged a few friends: could anyone send me ₹5,000 or ₹10,000 to help me finish the trip? Some did.
I remember sitting there in the middle of Europe, working out how much money I had left and where I could go next. It felt like one more part of the backpacking adventure. My friends helped me keep it going.
Looking back, I remember the cheque and the hostel rooms as clearly as the cities. My client paid me for work I had thought nothing of doing for him. Later, my friends helped me finish the trip. In between, I got twenty days on the road that I still hold close to my heart.