Seven Years as a Full-Time Writer, four of which I have spent on the road<\/h2>\n
On My Canvas<\/em> turned seven in August. I couldn\u2019t publish a post on its anniversary. As I\u2019ve repeated in my newsletter Looking Inwards<\/a>, a big project kept me busy. Soon that project will be out in the world and see the sun. Until then, I\u2019m here to write about these seven years of full-time writing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Along with the blog, I have freelanced, written poems, penned down stories, and so on. I\u2019ve been on the road for four of those years, with all my things in the car. Yeah, my partner has been with me, too. I\u2019m sure you have read about our itinerant journey in this massive post<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So how about the seven years? What has mattered the most? Or gone wrong? Would I go back and do it again? Do I repent something? Are blogging<\/a> and writing working out? Am I able to get the message across to my readers? Would I rather be doing something else? Am I a successful blogger? Do I make enough money? How do I keep this lifestyle going: writing and traveling constantly and not having a home? Where is On My Canvas<\/em> heading?<\/p>\n I\u2019ll share everything but in seven succinct points,<\/p>\n 1. For me, creation<\/a> is the focal stream in which I pour all my learning, energy, and positivity. Everything I read, see, and receive is channeled towards creating. That\u2019s my purpose<\/a>, on a micro level. On a macro level, being a human is my purpose. I\u2019m here, and I look at this sky and feel this wind in my own unique way. That\u2019s enough meaning. I don\u2019t know what I would have done if I wasn\u2019t creating. Just reading<\/a> and traveling and making money by some means? No. I want to share. Writing is the best way to do that, for me.<\/p>\n 2. The world is such a wonderful, complicated, colorful, joyous, harassing, polluted, verdant, rich, and unbelievable place. I try to find its pulsating veins, what keeps it beating and thriving and rising. What does a walker say to a cyclist when she pushes past, how does a leaf tremble as it falls, and how does the earth begin when the sky ends. Everything I want to know. Traveling puts me in streets and situations where I wouldn\u2019t have been if I was at home. My journeys enable me to see, listen, and laugh. My pen helps me record everything. Put together, my adventures and my writing are like shades of grass. My experiences when fresh are green. I think about them, let them ripen, and process them into narratives I publish. By then, all of them have turned copper and bronze, like the grass ready to be cut here in the Himalayas where I am now.<\/p>\n I\u2019m able to get across the intent.<\/p>\n 3. I wish I had more readers. Maybe I would have called myself successful then. Or, if my blog paid all my bills consistently, I would have considered On My Canvas<\/em> successful. That\u2019s the traditional way of thinking about things.<\/p>\n Am I not successful for going on<\/a>? Am I not successful for being proud of what I write? Am I not honest?<\/p>\n I am proud, content, and truthful. As long as I am happy with what I create and write what I want to write, readers will come. On My Canvas<\/em> will continue to be that source of inspiration and joy which anyone can dip into when they like. That\u2019s the hope.<\/p>\n I usually run many projects in parallel. On My Canvas<\/em> is not the only thing I do. Concomitantly I don\u2019t publish on it as much as I want to and as much as I have to say. At least a hundred drafts are waiting for me to be polished and put online. But I can\u2019t sit for a hundred days and push them all out. For sure I have done so in the past. For the recent project, too, I let go of everything else to focus on it. But I can\u2019t do that right now for I have other work as well.<\/p>\n Life is not a linear incline. It is a tree. A tree grows through its branches, tiny leaves come, the trunk rises, more branches shoot out. Everything grows together. At some point, there are fruits everywhere. All my projects will shine. My writing will nurture along with all these buds and leaves. When we will look at this tree, we will feel it\u2019s rising slowly. We won\u2019t see fruit on one branch just because that one is getting more sun. All of them are connected to the ground through the root and are under the same sky. All I do is rooted through me. I have to nourish myself, and my work will fruit, in the season, at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n Money is important, to live, eat, commute, and pay for services. I freelance, and my blog creates money too. I also invest what I already have. Make money with money. All good.<\/p>\n 4. The years have been hectic<\/a> but also relaxing. I can\u2019t use one single word for this complex period. Can we ever for any of our time? As many shades have colored the years as the sun throws at the sky. As many as are splattered on a paint tray of an artist. As many as are in the scarf hand-knitted by an old mountain woman.<\/p>\n I do try to define my evenings and days in terms of how much I could do, or rather how much I could not. That\u2019s a very complicated way of analyzing time. The easier is to plan your day and do your best<\/a>. The years have been, how they should have been, like all life, a bit less a bit more, a little happy a little sad, a pinch busy a pinch free, like a pot of khichri.<\/p>\n 5. Writing while traveling<\/a> has been hard. A college senior recently asked me on Linkedin. \u201cIs this life of traveling and writing as cool as it sounds? Must have many tradeoffs.\u201d I told him it\u2019s cool for the one who wants to do it. If you are in it for show and to look cool, you will be doomed. I replied that it works out for me because I want these things.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t take enough time to tell my senior that this is not a life of traveling and writing. This is my life, regardless of how much I doubt my decisions, how many times I want to run back to a home, or how I wish I had a stove on Diwali to make mathri, the fried snack my partner loves. Beyond all cravings, difficulties, and inertia, I am here doing it. I\u2019m here.<\/p>\n Just a couple of hours earlier, my partner and I were climbing up a stone-paved gulley in a small mountainous town of Uttarakhand. We had visited an old temple. As we trudged upwards, we were overwhelmed by the fragrance of food being fried. We thought it was mathri. Further up, a man was frying something in a wok. I climbed up a step to his shop and peeped into the wok. He was making pakoris. Glistening yellow batter-wrapped potatoes were sizzling.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you have mathri?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, only pakoris.\u201d He smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThirty rupees a plate.\u201d<\/p>\n Wow! Looks delicious too. <\/em>\u201cPlease give us one plate.\u201d<\/p>\n The pakoris were the best I have had in a while. They were crisp and hot. I dipped them one by one quickly into the fresh mint and coriander spicy chutney and shoved them into my mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he has made fresh chutney too.\u201d Mouthful, I turned to my partner.<\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cUnlike being a thick layer of batter and no potatoes, like most people make them, potatoes are thinly wrapped.\u201d<\/p>\n I nodded. \u201cIt\u2019s very tasty, like homemade,\u201d I said to the shopkeeper.<\/p>\n \u201cReally? Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo one gives chutney these days, you know. They give ketch up,\u201d I told him. I grew up in a good time. A time when fresh hot snacks were always served with fragrant hand-pounded or mixer-grounded chutney made with fresh mint, coriander, raw mango, lemon, chilly, salt, ginger, garlic, etc. I lament about that chutney more than I complain about the rising prices of petrol or that even international flights now show no baggage fares.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d He was smiling profusely by now. \u201cOr they give that green chutney.\u201d He was talking about the bottled chili sauce popular with noodles in India.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople take shortcuts these days.\u201d I should have been born a hundred years ago.<\/p>\n He continued smiling. \u201cIt takes less time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I used to get samosa for two rupees which was so good and now it\u2019s fifteen but not good.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded and knew exactly what I was talking about: the quality of things being compromised though prices are soaring.<\/p>\n After two plates of pakoris with two plates of chutney, we were back on the street. My eyes sparkling, I said to my partner, \u201cHow many rewards do we get from this life! There are trade-offs, yes. We can\u2019t cook on this festival but what we receive is worth much more than the sacrifices.\u201d He agreed. He knew it all along.<\/p>\n I am not standing with a weighing balance. This is our life. Our way of living is not the conventional, society-accepted way. One doesn\u2019t naturally leave a home and shift into a car, staying in guesthouses every day. I might have chosen this lifestyle while I was lost admiring the nomadic travelers of the world. Over time, we have customized it enough to say how we operate is exactly how it should have been for us. Whatever life gives, I take, and whatever it needs, it draws from me. I can\u2019t have it easy or harder. This is it.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> How to live a creative life<\/a><\/p>\n 6. I am thinking about what kind of space I want to make On My Canvas<\/em>. As it is now, more narratives, or more bullet lists on growth ideas? More travel tips or more stories? How frequently shall I write and publish? Should I post more on social media or keep going like this?<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t been punctual with social media. I can\u2019t be because I don\u2019t like social media. Once I wrote a long post on how social platforms could be addictive<\/a>. Today, I say I don\u2019t have a natural tendency to share things online. I might be having the best crispy dosa in the cold mountains or the best rajma chawal I have ever had but I won\u2019t go online and post it. Flowers on rocks, great books<\/a>, bright markets<\/a>, and wrinkled old faces<\/a>, I see and read many every day. I won\u2019t tweet about them. That\u2019s neither work for me nor fun. Picking up the phone to post a photo or thought online for a virtual audience who might or might not be listening is just something blah, meh. I rather stay in the present moment and soak it all in. That\u2019s the crazy me. Because while I try to put something on Twitter<\/a>, a bird flies by, and I miss it. Or when I open the Instagram app<\/a> to see how many likes I got, I lose track and find myself on a celebrity or ex-boyfriend page. A one-year-old can control herself better. Now I am burdened by the ex\u2019s pregnancy and the shimmer of a celebrity\u2019s dress who is drinking twelve-year-old Rothschild wine. Meanwhile another bird flutters by, and I miss it too.<\/p>\n This is a very blunt way of looking at things. I can always log in, do my thing, and leave. People love to read short-form writing, and I\u2019m always told to keep posting on Instagram. Sadly, I can\u2019t ever just get in and get out. So, I\u2019ll accept my limitations and do the best I can. Post on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin on and off, and more regularly on Twitter. My newsletter<\/a>, Looking Inwards<\/em>, will always be the best way to get my ideas and new articles.<\/p>\n On My Canvas<\/em> will grow along its current trajectory. I\u2019ll be organic. What I think, feel, observe, and practice myself will go on the website. Nothing forced. More stories and more inspirations. Please expect a few posts every month going ahead.<\/p>\n 7. The road runs on. It has its ups and downs. One must go on.<\/p>\n Right?<\/p>\n Update August 2025:<\/strong> The EXCITING, BIG news is that my first book, a travel memoir, Journeys Beyond and Within\u2026, <\/em>was released earlier this year. Yes, that was the big project I was working on. Read what inspired me to write my first book<\/a>. It has been doing really well, every day the messages from readers overwhelm me, and I would love for you to read it too. All the stories that I haven\u2019t shared here on the blog are in it, and I\u2019m very proud of the travel essays that helped me make sense of some of my wildest adventures.<\/p>\n Journeys Beyond and Within\u2026<\/em> is available on Amazon worldwide in ebook, paperback, and hardcase. You can find the purchase links here<\/a>, or search for the title on your local Amazon. The travel memoir is also available in all book stores in India. So chose an independent store if you can.<\/p>\n Let me know when you grab a copy. I have a special gift story to send \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n *****<\/strong><\/p>\n My much-awaited travel memoir<\/p>\n Journeys Beyond and Within\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n is here!<\/p>\n In my usual self-deprecating, vivid narrative style (that you love so much, ahem), I have put out my most unusual and challenging adventures. Embarrassingly honest, witty, and introspective, the book will entertain you if not also inspire you to travel, rediscover home, and leap over the boundaries.<\/p>\n Grab your copy now!<\/strong><\/p>\n Ebook, paperback, and hardcase available on Amazon worldwide<\/strong>. Make some ice tea and get reading \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Or, read a Chapter first. Claim your completely free first chapter here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n*****<\/strong><\/p>\n \n*****<\/strong><\/p>\n \nWant similar inspiration and ideas in your inbox? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter “Looking Inwards”!<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"pink](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-flowers-on-the-ground-1.jpg\" "\\"7")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/there-will-be-fruits-on-all-branches.jpg\" "\\"7")
![\"rolling](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/some-gentle-slopes.jpg\" "\\"7")
![\"red](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/food-that-warms-your-soul.jpg\" "\\"7")
![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/the-road-runs-on-i-must-go-on.jpg\" "\\"7")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nAn exciting, BIG NEWS is on its way. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive the update. Or watch out this space. <\/s><\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/a-woman-sitting-holding-best-book-about-travel-to-read-in-her-hands-in-clay-color-dress-the-book-title-shows-journeys-beyond-and-within-it-is-a-green-cover-and-in-the-background-you-can-see-plants.jpg\")
What do you keep walking for? Tell me in the comments.<\/h3>\n
![\"mockup](\"https:\/\/www.onmycanvas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/journeys-beyond-and-within-mockup-white.jpg\" "\\"Journeys")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n