Last year, i finally took my friend Kris up on his millionth attempt to take me overnight camping by the beach. He picked Kashid, a beach town on the shores of the Arabian Sea, in the North Konkan region of Maharashtra, India. Located 30 kms from Alibaug and 135 kms from Mumbai on the Alibaug-Murud road. I rode pillion on his motorcycle all the way from Mumbai one weekend and we arrived at 9pm. After picking a secluded part of the beach under the high coconut trees we pitched our tents in complete darkness and set a carpet in the sand under the starry skies to fill up on munchies and conversations. Catching up on each-others lives and relationships while bon-firing sausages for dinner and marshmallows for dessert and then finally retiring to our tents when we were ready for some shut eye. The minimalistic camping lifestyle 😉 That night i fell asleep with the stars above me and the sounds of the ocean and the wave’s singing a lullaby at a distance.

I was woken by sun-kissed cheeks and a sweat gripped tee. The others were probably up before me and when i peeped out to look for them, i found them cooling off with a swim in the sea. I followed and did just that. Nothing short of liberation. To wake up in a tent, walk to the shores and then dip yourself into cold water. I wished in that moment that it wasn’t the first time i was trying this out and that i should have taken him up on his camping trips long ago. For whatever apprehensions i had built in my head then and every time he had asked, were now an absurd reasoning, which i felt free from. And i realised that freedom only comes with courage and courage only comes with knowing that there is nothing to loose but so much more to gain.