Cyrus Sahukar: ‘Travel is a great teacher; solo trips make you receptive to the world’

In an exclusive interaction with indianexpress.com, Cyrus opened up about his love for travel, its significance, his biggest learnings, why solo travelling is crucial, and more. Edited excerpts:

What does travelling mean to you?

I think travel is a great teacher. For me, interacting with people and travelling are non-linear ways of educating yourself about life. I don’t think travel also has to be something amazing and incredible. During travel, I have had experiences where I lost my ticket, got left behind somewhere, couldn’t find my suitcase, etc. But also, I’ve met kind people and seen amazing places that I didn’t know existed. As such, travel is a form of education that everyone can have and which doesn’t belong to an exclusive group. You can do it cheap, harsh, luxurious, or any way you want. You really find yourself through travel. You may start liking yourself more and discover things you truly enjoy.

Solo travelling has picked up in recent years. What do you think about it?

I think solo travel is important. When you are travelling solo, you are more receptive to the world. The minute I am with a group, then it’s about each other. And of course, you make friends. There are many trips on which I made lifelong friends. When you travel alone, you go through a lot of stuff with yourself.

What has been the biggest learning from your travel experiences?

The best lesson I have learned on travel is that we all have different degrees of things happening in our life. But when you travel, you realise that across cultures, across different ideologies and across mindsets, we have so many similarities and we are going through so many similar things, emotionally.

What is your go-to place when you want to take a break?

I travel so much for work that sometimes, my favourite place can also be home. Sometimes, I want to sit down in the house and don’t move. Since my work entails me travelling all the time, I prefer staying home. If not that, a convenient place to go to is Goa because it’s easy and peaceful during the off-season, and gives you a chance to swim in the ocean. A lot of times I fantasise about sitting on my bed.

Tell us something about the new season of It Happens Only in India.

It’s a 10-part series which brings out beautiful stories from the length and breadth of India. What we’ve tried to also bring forth are inspirational stories and not just shocking ones. It discovers and celebrates different people in the world of science and technology, technology, local cuisines, myths and legends, strange and weird personalities, etc. India is such a crazy and colourful country with dynamic people if you look and travel. The curation of this is really interesting for people to watch and if you are a traveller who likes to explore something off-beat, it is a great show to watch and take notes. This season features lovely visual storytelling which will engage people with different narratives.

What has been your biggest takeaway from these trips?

During the course of the show, I met many inspirational people. At the end of every shoot, you come back feeling quite inadequate. In many ways, you also reassess your life. We all have a very preconceived notion of how life is to be lived. All of us who live in the city believe that we should hustle, work, do better, and move up in life. This is one way of living life. And then you come back to a place which is just 300 km away and you see people living a completely different life. In Loktak Lake, people have been living in floating small islands called phumdis. During Covid-19, they had no knowledge of the pandemic as they were living alone. They live a life which for you is so quiet and cut off from everything else. So I took away that you can live your life in any way with as much joy and sadness as any other form. Then, I also met Aabid Surti, also known as India’s water warrior, with whom I spent a lot of time chatting. He has saved almost 20 million litres of water by fixing people’s water taps for free. That’s his passion. He barely makes any money with this and lives in a small little room in a quiet place. What an impact he is making with his life! I can go on and on about the people I met. You realise there are so many different kinds of people living such unique lives. What’s common is that, no matter what you do, there will be struggle attached as life is not an Instagram reel.

What was the most unforgettable experience for you?

While the list is long, two things stood out for me. I didn’t know that India has the longest sandstone cave in the world and it is over 20 km long. It is found by a man who has been cave-hunting for years. We went quite deep into the cave and that’s the experience I absolutely loved. Also, I visited the Whistling Village of India. For every child born here, the mother composes a song about him/her and that becomes the baby’s name. Since they live deep in the forest, the villagers believed that if you sang it out, it will travel longer. Travelling through Kashmir and knowing how the Wazwan came about was another interesting takeaway for me.

If you were to pick two places that won you over, what would they be?

Most definitely, the caves of the northeast and the other places of the region including the Whistling Village and Dawki river. These were really fascinating. They made me realise that in another life, I could be living in these places, too, living this life.

Did you discover different cuisines while travelling, too?

We came across lots of different cuisines. Whether it was the Punjabi cuisines and their history, or the story of wazwan. We met Shaitan Waza who comes from a long lineage of cooks and they are credited for making this dish. They keep the spices in a safe and Waza has the key, and he hands out the spices when the dish is made. I love the history of food and where it comes from. As Indians, we lucked out in terms of food because we have such a diversity of dishes and cuisines. The history of Kashmiri food, wazwan and meeting Shaitan Waza were the food-related highlights of my journey.

📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!