For the past few years, I have been doing my year end reviews as per the traditional Indian New Year, which falls right after Diwali. Now we are in the 2nd day of this new year and I am sitting down with my various year end reviews.

Year Review: Vikram Samvat 2076 & Vir Samvat 2546 (Nov 2019 to Nov 2020) what calendars?

Places explored: Coimbatore as a new citizen (& during lockdown), quick but interesting Saurashtra trip in Jan 2020, spent Diwali in Dada Bhagwan Foundation ashram outside Ahmedabad. Enjoyed overall.

Blogs written: 19 (less than last year, but this year I blogged a lot more on my other blog Inspirituality)

My Move to Coimbatore & The Lockdown

Usually, I start these reviews with most prominent events. And I think for most of us, this past year is about the Lockdown. Totally unprecedented, unimaginable, uncertain times around the world in recent history.

From Twitter & Sadhguru I was aware in late February that some kind of lockdown is required. But I thought a lot of us will have to do it on our own. I never imagined India would pull off the kind of lockdown it did. And for so long!! Max I had thought it would be for 1 or 2 or 3 months. But nothing more than that. (Obviously, the economy has to function!).

However, even in September end when I left the city, there was still a fairly serious lockdown situation. Most public transport options for inter-state travel were suspended. Not even accessible via e-pass, just suspended. Tamil Nadu that way has leaned towards a more restrictive lockdown in their COVID response, I feel neighbouring state, Karnataka’s response was better.

For a solo traveller like me, such changes are a big deal. Because I cycle or I take public transport and rely on the hustling bustling community environment to get help with whatever. Now I have to take a private taxi and ensure I have everything I need with me, because a lot of taken-for-granted services may be closed or unsafe.

My lockdown time was spent productively and definitely it was a novel experience. I was totally home alone. It was difficult but also really interesting. Read about my home alone lockdown.

Since, I was still new in Coimbatore, I didn’t have that many city friends. Pre-lockdown I had one foot in the Isha ashram most of the times. So, I had only partly setup my Coimbatore eco-system (vendors, social circle, doctors etc..). So when the lockdown kept getting extended, I felt quite isolated in the city.

I never imagined Isha Yoga Center will seal itself for such a long time. Even now they are in a highly restricted entry format. As a volunteer and meditator with the organization, I had expected some access for their local volunteer community. But there was none. Setting up a Coimbatore base was a trial and some dependency on this ashram was assumed. Now, finding myself completely on my own for so long in such a pandemic situation, I am reconsidering keeping it as my base especially as the COVID situation seems likely to last another year.

On the bright side, I loved the Coimbatore city. And in the latter part of the lockdown a few of us Isha city friends have become closer, that has been really nice. Plus, the weather was amazing!

Pictures from Isha Yoga Center

I spent quite some time at Isha ashram before lockdown. Here are some pictures,

Here are some pictures from the Adiyogi trip after the lockdown.

Saurashtra, Gujarat Trip

The one “travel” trip I had in this year was the 2020 Jan Saurashtra Trip. It was a road trip with family, so not my usual intrepid solo travels.

Ahmedabad – Sassan Gir – Somnath – Girnar – Dwarka – Ahmedabad – Surat.

Sassan Gir: we got to see lionesses from quite close up. It was amazing. However, the resort and forest guides element felt a little commercialized and not as homely as I would like.

Somnath: amazing place! I only knew there was a Jyotirlinga. But there are many more powerful temples and spots including a Triveni Sangam and Krishna’s dying place.

Girnar: amazing land. Powerful mountain. An impromptu pilgrimage to various temples on the mountain route happened.

Read about the Aghori Jhuggi

Dwarka: very well maintained. Reminded me of those Greek, Spanish towns with all white houses, which gives it a special feel. Similarly, here everything has to do with Krishna. All shops are called Gopal, Madhava, Kanhaiya, Murali and other names of Krishna. It was quite amazing. Would like to spend more time here and delve deeper.

Lots more to explore in this region. I was with family in this trip so I couldn’t travel in an immersed-in-local-culture way as I usually do when I am solo.

Back to Gujarat for Diwali at Dada Bhagwan Foundation ashram

After spending the lockdown months in Coimbatore, I headed back to “native” land – Gujarat. First time I spent my Diwali & New Year in Gujarat (I am also a Gujarati though born and brought up in Mumbai & Pune).

It was quite an amazing experience because I got to try out many different sweets, snacks and traditional Gujarati festive stuff like ghoogras, mathias, cholafali, ghaari and so on.

All the local folks including domestic help and shopkeepers have their New Year too, so everything is closed. One can’t even plan a house party because – no domestic helpers 😀 It was interesting.

Our apartment is part of an ashram complex of the Dada Bhagwan foundation. Earlier, during the Navratri festival there was an amazing Zoom Garba program. Really enjoyed this Bhakti sadhana!

During Diwali, this ashram community continuously arranged to bring in varied snacks, sweets from around Gujarat. They also had other programs to ensure the festivities happened though with social distancing and precautions as needed. I was really happy to find out there was a rangoli competition with some spiritual theme. I chose one “Live Lovingly with Everyone”. And made the following Rangoli:

Enjoyed it 🙂 I think this might be one of my best Diwali experience to date. 🙂 One reason is that after the long lockdown in solitude, I am able to enjoy social interactions much better 🙂

Going through my photographs from the past year, some memorable ones:

What’s Next?

It has become common that whenever some relatives speak to me, they ask me about my next trip. It’s actually funny cause they even do this when I am just back from a trip 😀

“So how was your trip?”

“Good… blah blah…”

“So what’s next? Where are you heading next?”

“errr… I just arrived!!” 😀

This trend continued in this lockdown also and that is a bit weird, because dynamics are so different now.

Anyway, next for me is to figure out my Summer base. I don’t want to stay in Ahmedabad for Summer (too hot!!). So considering a few options. Coimbatore is one option, however, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t have a set eco-system there – vendors, local staff, amenities and so on.

And mainly, healthcare – I don’t have a good allopathy doctor and other healthcare doctors identified in Coimbatore. In these COVID times, this becomes tricky as one doesn’t want to rely on random folk.

Let’s see.

How have your travel adventures been this lockdown year?