Like every student, she was hardworking. Taking science for 12th, she shifted to BA Economics for her bachelors. After graduation, she got a good job and started work. The nine-to-five job was quite boring for her, but she kept going then. She had an average life that didn’t excite or inspire her.
Shivya Career
It started when Shivya Nath was working in a corporate job. She confessed to one of her colleagues that Shivya is feeling broken. A break was needed as she’s been working for two years. The colleague said that he had been working for 12 years and Shivya will get used to that. She didn’t want to be in a life where she will get used to it. Shivya wanted to experiment with life and that was where her journey actually began.
Sleeping under the Moon, in the high transformer layers of India, Shivya felt satisfied. She started to hike alone in remote villages, meeting different people and felt alive then. This led her to quit her job, as a social media strategist in Singapore and create her own definition of life. She did some freelance work, sparing every penny for travelling.
On her first Euro trip with a friend, they landed in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. This is probably everyone’s dream to be in a romantic city feeling poetic. But the visit to the Eiffel Tower nearly ruined Paris for her. Shivya found a number of people around the tower taking pictures and another crowd who sold different things. In those moments she realized that following the crowds is not really her idea of travel. She started to search for lesser known tourist destinations where she could connect with locals and really experience their life. Visiting Italy, she skipped Rome, Venice and Milan, but lived with an Italian artist in a small village in Umbria. The artist helped her to travel to local places on a bicycle. She got a chance to eat a traditional Italian brunch in a five hundred year old mansion. Shivya got closest to the Italian lifestyle. Even in travel, she kept her stand that it isn’t necessary to do what everyone else does.
7 Years of Travelling Without a Home – and Then a Pandemic.
In 2013, Shivya gave up her apartment, sold most of her belongings, and stored some in her friend’s car. A 25 year old middle class girl, from the small town of Dehradun, was going to live like a gypsy. Giving up everything, for an uncertain future was seen as crazy by everyone around, but was an inspirational driving force for her.
It has been eight years since Shivya started life without a home. She stays in one place for a few weeks and then moves on to another. One day, she wakes in the shadow of a volcano and another day she cycles along a valley.
Travel blogging is a mode to make a living for the girl. Being an uncertain track of income, that too gives a financial adventure. People can make a living from translation, studying yoga, running a marathon and so on. Shivya believes in being passionate and says aloud the message, one doesn’t have to do what everyone else is doing.
In 2017, she was featured by Washington Post, as a traveler changing the idea of our world. A great high for her was publishing her book, The Shooting Star in 2018, realizing that writing is something so powerful which can influence people make life decisions based on what they’ve read. As a travel writer or blogger she tries to inspire people. Shivya advocates for travel that is not just life changing but sustainable. Later in 2020, she won a Gold for best Communicator at the WTM Responsible Tourism Award, India.
A life of no regret
Travelling doesn’t only include exploration of places for Shivya. She does everything a regular person does, from working for a living – on the go. Technology has advanced much, that she stays connected with family and friends via her smartphone.
The people and encounters with them inspires her and keeps her going. As a woman, she observes that a built mindset is given to girls on what to do and what not to do. Breaking this is always a challenge.
Recently, she shared her journey of how she started journeying, on her Instagram. Spiti influencing her 11 years back is recollected with much gratitude. Her life story itself is told there in the reel. She posts serene pictures of her travels and writes in detail about it in every post. She even posted that she’s become disappointed at what travel and Instagram has become. Regardless of ‘influencing’ she just expresses herself and lives her own nomadic style.
