There was a time when I used to watch travelers through a mobile screen.
Mountains, roads, sunsets, cafés, rivers, people exploring life — all of it felt like another universe to me.
A universe I could only observe digitally.
And honestly, for most of my life, I had not even traveled my own city properly.
So when I finally stood there myself — in a place where thousands dream of visiting — something inside me felt strange.
Not excitement.
Not shock.
Not even happiness in the usual sense.
It felt unreal.
As if my imagination and reality had merged into one moment.
I remember asking myself internally:
“Is this actually real?”
Even though I knew it was.
That feeling is difficult to explain unless you’ve spent years living more inside your mind than outside in the world.
For years, I consumed life through screens, stories, videos, observations, and imagination. I watched other people live the experiences I secretly wanted to experience myself someday.
And then suddenly, one day, I was standing inside that same frame.
Watching the mountains with my own eyes instead of through a YouTube video.
Hearing silence instead of background music.
Feeling cold wind instead of imagined emotions.
That was the moment I realized there is a very thin line between dreams and reality.
Sometimes dreams don’t feel magical when they come true.
Sometimes they feel strangely normal.
And maybe that is maturity.
Or maybe solitude changes the way a person experiences achievement.
Because interestingly, I was not reacting the way people usually expect.
No dramatic celebration.
No emotional breakdown.
No feeling of becoming “special.”
It felt calm.
Grounded.
Almost like:
“So this is life.”
And maybe isolation played a role in that.
Years of silence, self-observation, loneliness, emotional confusion, inner battles, and detachment slowly changed the way I experience things.
I think solitude removes a lot of illusion from achievement.
You stop chasing moments for validation.
You simply observe them deeply.
But one realization hit me strongly during this journey:
Nobody truly cares when ego enters the picture.
It doesn’t matter whether you are rich, kind, emotional, talented, or genuine. The moment ego controls people, humanity disappears. Everyone becomes busy protecting themselves, proving themselves, comparing themselves, or feeding their own inner insecurities.
Travel teaches this in a very raw way.
The world keeps moving.
Mountains do not care who you are.
Nature remains silent.
And strangely, that silence teaches more truth than most conversations.
Another thing that made this moment emotional for me was realizing that I am probably the first person in my family and relatives to make something like this possible.
Not because this destination is impossible.
But because our reality, environment, mindset, and life exposure were different.
For many people, traveling is normal.
For others, it is a psychological breakthrough.
And I think this journey became exactly that for me:
a psychological breakthrough.
A shift.
A turning point.
Not just in travel.
But in identity.
Because now my journey is slowly changing shape.
The way I create content will change.
The way I observe people will change.
The way I understand life will change.
This was not just tourism.
This was my transition from watching life…
to participating in life.
And honestly?
I think this is just the beginning.
Hitesh Mandavi
Founder of MonkModern
MonkModern