KAMIYA JANI : The Curly Tales

“I always want to do something, be out there and not ever be complacent. I don’t think I was ever comfortable with just quitting.”

1. When and how did you take the plunge from a TV anchor to a travel blogger? 

I think it was in the year 2017 and I had almost completed good 10 years in the corporate world but yet I felt that I need to do a lot more in my life and I was passionate about travel, so decided to give it a shot for at least one year to create travel content and see how it goes. If I don’t succeed, my plan B was to return to the TV industry and be a TV anchor maybe not at the same organisation but the different organisation. But the plan was to apply back again but fortunately for me plan B didn’t arrive.

2. What one thought birthed the idea of starting “The curly tales”?

I don’t think there was one single thought but an accumulation of a lot of pentapromotions since many many years and I remember the particular instance where I was meant to travel but my organisation told me to cancel my trip overnight. The only time when I feel extremely excited about my life is when I am travelling and when the trip cancelled I realised that I was too shattered to not go for the trip and that time I was like okay and maybe this is about I find the most happiness in, maybe I should pursue this and within a week of my trip being cancelled I put my resignation. I would say that was probably a trigger point but not one idea, I always had this in me that’s why I decided to start a blog I didn’t know I would name it curly tales or anything else but I just knew that I want to do something on my LETS ME TRAVEL and that was the whole idea and then of course slowly and gradually we are seeing curly tails the way it is and it has seen a lot of transformation in the last few years from the time we started of till what it is today. It’s been four years and so much evolution, so much learning, a lot of things have carved the shape of curly tales.

3. Since everything has its own pros and cons, what are some drawbacks of being a full-time travel blogger?

There are many pros and cons but many pros, fewer cons. Pros that you can travel for yourself, sometimes get paid to travel, you can literally be your own boss, it doesn’t feel like work because you are doing something that you totally love. Obviously, you get to meet a lot of people, it brings a whole new perspective to your life. In terms of cons, I would say that there are literally no holidays, travel blogger maybe travel all the time but it’s usually for work. It’s very difficult to disconnect even when you going out for a burst of holidays because you would still want to create content and then tell a story through social media so that’s definitely one downside because everybody deserves a holiday.  Travel blogging in India isn’t that good. I would say internationally travel bloggers are paid a lot more than what it is in India but I do see the changing slowly and gradually in terms of cons a lot of physical hard work. It literally means you moving around from place to place sometimes carrying types of equipment, sometimes it could be starting your day 5 in the morning and you may wrap it up like around 12 or 1, so physically it is very very exhausting that’s the only drawback I can possibly think of. I love my job.

4. What inspires you to travel and create content consistently?

What inspires me to travel and create content consistently is the fact that I love to travel, the fact that I am so passionate about it. You know these two things that every travel blogger should be passionate about and I am not saying every “traveller” should be passionate about but at least a travel blogger, because only when you enjoy creating content while travelling then you can be a travel blogger. Don’t confuse, being a traveller, somebody may enjoy travelling a lot and seeing these places with your naked eye but the difference between a travel blogger and a traveller was that travel blogger is that travel blogger will always want to document the journey, travel blogger will always be carrying a camera and sometimes there are the very blurred difference between what one is experiencing at that point of time versus capturing at that point of time, you maybe use your phone or maybe camera to capture a moment and a traveller wants to enjoy and sees the moment through his heart, his eyes not necessarily on camera and it is not important the two of them will get along very well, so that’s why I feel if you ask me to go on a trip without a camera or without my phone, I wouldn’t enjoy travelling as much, you know I want to capture every other moment that’s happening, which is what inspires me because I want to reel those moments again and again even though I am not there physically there. That’s what makes me or pushes me to go create content. 

5. How supportive was your family when you made this a career choice? 

Honestly, all of us including me looked at it as a sabbatical, as a break from my corporate life so when I started off, I don’t think so there was much discussion about it and people usually consider content creation or social media as just one of the fun things. People don’t consider it as a full-time profession at least not four years ago maybe. Now yes I feel this place is extremely crowded but back then honestly even I didn’t take myself too seriously and I would assume that even my family did not. There were like ohh let her enjoy but I was very very driven I just wanted to do something. I just constantly wanted to prove to my own self that I am productive, I am useful, so I always want to do something, be out there and not ever be complacent. I don’t think I was ever comfortable with just quitting. I had a  lot of insecurities when I quit my job, sometimes thinking that it wasn’t really a wise decision to do so because that is a quite respectable job, that I was in but I was like no let me do this. I don’t think a lot of us took me seriously in the beginning,  it was only after a year and a year half and I was consistently doing it and started getting a few brand collaborations and I was like ohh okkay this place had some potential, I didn’t want to invest so much in it because I wasnt where I am going but ya eventually it all worked out 

6. How has life changed after having a daughter, how do you cope up with your work?

So when my daughter was born I was still working with a news channel. I did have fix timings I woke up at 5 in the morning, leave for work, get there by 6 then she was sleeping, but she started sleeping with my mother in law because obviously, she would be disturbed. I only resumed work after she was 6 months old and by then she started sleeping with my mother in law in night and when I woke up in the morning she will raise until 7:30 unless my in-laws would wake up, feed her with milk or anything else that was required. I would come back home by 3 or 4’o clock and after that, I would be with her. I would take her to the park, I would play with her in the evening, to delay in the night but not very late because I have been married in the army family, in the defence family there are very disciplined about the timings. I think routine sort of really help taking things forward and which is why a lot of support with my in-laws, my daughter grew to be 3 years old when I quit my job and it was easier by then because she was very used to live with in-laws and not always with me and she was pretty alright. When I was travelling for work but I would say that when I was in a corporate job it was easier to disconnect with my work life I would do live shows, I Would do shows on the stock market so once the stock market closed, I returned back home I would get 0 phone calls from the office which I think was the best part of working in the organisation versus being an entrepreneur. You literally get never disconnect yourself, the other thing that happened when my daughter was born is that for 3 years I was really stuck in this routine wherever I had every day of my life exactly the same and I felt that I was experiencing less in those years. Of course, motherhood is a lot of joy and I literally enjoyed that but I still felt that my inner calling was to do more, experience more and I questioned myself. I was pretty young when I became a mom, I was 27, I don’t know if it is young. Looking back I feel like I was pretty young, I was like I want to do a lot more and even on her birth it was a Push me like that do more if not now then when else. I literally felt that I had nothing to lose to be honest

7. Are you a beach person or a mountain person?

100% a beach person. I left mountains because the only thing that I was so motion sick that from driving on the mountain I feel really sick by the time I get there,  so I love the sea breeze, I love the sound of the waves, I love that salty sticky, the grass I really love the beach. I think it just makes me feel truly alive. I love the mountains too but sometimes the mountains get really cool and really hot, sometimes uncomfortable but of course the beauty and the view that mountains have to offer, I don’t think any other part of the world would have but I am more of a beach person.

8. Your take-home notes for people who desire to travel more, create content, and start their own journey of exploration?

As I said earlier if you are a traveller go out there, you don’t really need anything with yourself, just go out there and experience the world. Of course post-pandemic or after you are vaccinated and 100% sure to go out for travel and it’s okay to do so, go out and do it but for a travel blogger the journey is long because then you are possibly relying on the creation to make a career out of it and in fact I do aspire to share my knowledge, my experiences, my earnings, my mistakes, my experience with the people who aspire me in this industry. There are so much I feel like a lot of us, a lot of travel blogger only scratch the surface of this industry, there is so much more to do and I would say that don’t wait for the big moments to go and create content. Even when you going for a weekend getaway, even when it is anything that in your neighbourhood that you want to explore go out there with your mobile phone and a selfie tripod and shoot and see how it goes. I feel like social media gives us so many opportunities to be out there, to be seen and you will only learn from your mistakes, you will know where to go write, you will know what way is going wrong but the order is usually very very responsive to where you put out there. So don’t restrict yourself, go out there and you will know at some point. I would wish to do a master class or content creation guide which a lot of creators can be a part of and I am not saying that I know 100% but all the rules of the game but I feel like my experience will definitely, they can learn things which I would share.