From a life of chance, to a life of choice.
— Me
Hi, I'm Dharmendra.
Explorer, solo traveler, perpetual learner—and a data scientist.
I’m on a continuous mission of building a slower, intentional life—one where passion wins over money—and there is freedom of time to pursue everything I want to.
Here's my story.
I was born in Calcutta, India — the City of Joy.
For most of my early life, I did exactly what society expected me to do.
I was curious, excelled at academics, and was driven by the idea that achieving success means earning a lot of money by following a path carefully laid out by people who’ve walked before me.
“No matter what you want to do in life, if you get into an IIT, you’ll be able to do it,” my friend would say.
That one sentence brought me to IIT Kharagpur—one of the top engineering institutes in India—where I earned my degree, and then stepped into a Management Consulting career, telling my interviewer that I expect the job to be nothing less than Mad Men!
"We're flawed, because we want so much more. We're ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had."
Don Draper, Mad Men
For the next 2.5 years, I took more than 100 flights, drove impactful projects, worked with some of the smartest people, and checked off many of the boxes I once thought defined success. I was a “road warrior” living the proverbial “life out of a suitcase”.
Somewhere along the way though, things didn’t feel quite right. I didn’t choose my career, my career chose me.
I wasn’t particularly unhappy—but I wasn’t fulfilled either. Life felt fast-paced, scripted, and strangely disconnected from who I really was.
“Is this it? Is this what I was working towards all these years?” my heart questioned my brain.
There had to be more to life than this.
"The problem is, as achievement-subjects, not only do we burn ourselves out, but the meaning and value of our lives is always deferred. Once we have our dream job, the perfect home, a perfectly optimised life – once we are productive enough, efficient enough, successful enough – only then will we arrive at meaning."
So in September 2018—after six months of careful deliberation—I made a decision that would alter the trajectory of my life: I quit my job without a plan in hand and decided to explore indefinitely.
Madness—that’s what people around me called it. I was cutting off the roots of my career while they were just starting to grow, creating an unexplained employment gap in the process and a large hole in my savings account, all for no apparent reason. And they were right: I truly had nothing to show for the future.
What I did have though was a burning passion and a question that I couldn’t wait to get an answer for — what kind of life do I really want to live?
For me, that alone was enough.
"The best way to predict the future... is to create it."
Peter Drucker
I set out on a journey of solo travel, exploration, and self-discovery that lasted 15 months. I slowed down, used solitude for self-reflection, and gave myself the freedom to experiment with everything — ideas, interests, beliefs, career paths, and even identities I had never imagined for myself before.
From photography to writing to creating music, from freelancing to business to experimenting with startup ideas, I explored several paths. Some worked, most didn’t. But most importantly, for the first time, earning money wasn’t my primary goal. I was doing something just because I was passionate about it.
Sure, there was uncertainty, self-doubt, and fear, but there was also freedom, clarity, and a feeling of being fully alive that cannot be described.
At the age of 25—for someone coming from a conservative middle-class background in India with a shit ton of responsibilities—making a bold decision like that wasn’t easy. It transformed me as a person and paved the path towards one of the most rewarding periods in my life.
Not only did I realize goals that initially seemed vague and impossible, I also had profound experiences that I would’ve otherwise never dreamed of.
"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life... have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."
Steve Jobs
Since 2018, I’ve come a long way. I’ve made multiple career pivots, taken more career breaks, went on dozen solo trips, strategically found work I love, sought geographical freedom to live wherever I want, created and published music, and most importantly, spent countless hours on my personal projects (such as this website).
This blog is both a reflection and a product of that journey. It is built on the foundation that life must be intentional, and that it doesn’t come with a universal blueprint for all.
Stepping away from the “tried-and-tested” path of success gave me the space to define success on my own terms and to start building a life around what genuinely mattered to me: curiosity, creativity, health, balance, and meaningful experiences.
Here, I share my stories, lessons, and insights about taking career breaks, navigating pivots, traveling solo, and designing a life driven by intention rather than default choices.
In a world where fast-tracking the corporate ladder is the norm, I hope my journey helps you know that sometimes stepping away isn’t falling behind — it’s the intelligent decision you need to take to find the right direction before moving forward.