14 Countries In 3 Years, This 59-Year-Old Hodophile Has Made Solo Travelling The World Her Second Innings Goal

Aruna Venkatesan, 59, a travel lover took travel as a passion post-retirement and travelled solo for the first time three years back when she was 56. Since then she has visited 14 countries, all alone and here she intricately pens down her travel experience for us.

I grew up in the Defence services environment and because of my dad’s frequent transfers, adapted easily to new places, people, languages and cultures. I studied in seven different schools in my 11 years of schooling. I am a Maharashtrian but can speak many languages.

When I was 23 I started working with the Airports Authority of India as a ground hostess. I worked in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai airports. Mine was a job that worked in shifts making it quite strenuous. Life went on, I enjoyed it, but was always busy managing the family, kids and work. Then something shifted. When I was 53 I took voluntary retirement as I thought 30 years of routine work was enough and I needed to do things I liked and spend time the way I wanted.

For the next three years, I got busy taking care of my daughters as they were in college. Meantime I also did my Diploma in Counselling from Banjara Academy, Bangalore which gave me a boost and I started seeing life from a better perspective. I started enrolling in group activities, attended classes of my interest and enjoyed the time I had with my girls. We even went on a few trips together.

My first solo trip was at 56. I went to Sikkim which was very interesting. I landed at Bagdogra Airport, drove to Kalimpong, checked into a hotel, freshened up and sat in front of the TV with some food. This was at 9 pm and just then our honourable PM Narendra Modi started talking about demonetisation. I just remembered I had only two notes of Rs 1000/- with me and my card. I was totally shattered. With all that chaos going on, I still managed five days in Gangtok, did my sightseeing, with the help of local people who just wrote down the expenses and sent it to the hotel owner I stayed with, which was settled on the last day I left Gangtok through a bank transfer.

This trip taught me so many lessons. I got the confidence to travel more and felt that enjoying with the locals and being one of them is the best way to see a place rather than staying in luxury hotels and having a perfectly planned trip.

I have visited 14 countries and many states in India since then. The child in me takes over, curious to know about things, not bothered about others or what they may think. I truly enjoy the ups and downs of each trip. It’s a great way to learn. The only disadvantage of a solo trip is relying on a selfie stick for photographs and also missing your loved ones when you enjoy or see something very beautiful.

I am not a very tech-savvy person but I learnt to book my stays online and manage everything by myself while travelling. Being a vegetarian I sometimes had food issues but managed with fruits and coffee.

I am 59 now and have started living my life doing things I love, like acting in a few promotional shoots and two short films, dancing, painting, cooking and following a healthy lifestyle. I wish to live life with no regrets so that towards the end, I must be able to tick many, if not all of my bucket list wishes. I believe that we should never get so busy making a living that we forget to make a life.

I am happy to be a member of Silver Talkies which has helped me make new friends, learn something new and keep me young at heart. I would specially thank my daughters for the support and the change in my attitude towards life rather than society.

I keep my travel simple and safe. I always keep some local people in the country I’m visiting in the loop and take their guidance if required. Travelling has given me immense happiness and I have started enjoying life much more. Looking forward to many more trips once Covid-19 is over.