MANDI, HIMACHAL PRADESH
Peace was always inside. Cities just made you forget.
Karma’s hands still show the faint marks of keyboard impressions after five years away from Delhi’s glass towers. At 34, he moves with the unhurried confidence of someone who’s learned the difference between being busy and being purposeful.
His transformation wasn’t dramatic – no sudden enlightenment or breakdown moment. “I just woke up one Tuesday and realized I hadn’t seen actual stars in three years. That night, I booked a ticket home to Mandi.”
His family thought he’d lost his mind. “My father kept asking, ‘Beta, you had everything – big salary, fancy car, AC office. Why throw it away?’ I tried explaining that having everything felt like having nothing, but he didn’t understand until he saw me after six months back in the mountains.”
The shift wasn’t just lifestyle – it was philosophical. “In Delhi, I measured success by how much I could accumulate. Here, I measure it by how little I need to be content. Turns out, the number is surprisingly small.”
He earns one-fifth of his former salary guiding travelers and running his family’s small apple orchard. “My bank account got smaller, but my life got bigger. I can tell you the exact time the sun hits my kitchen window every morning. I know which bird sings first at dawn. These might sound like small things, but they’re the difference between existing and living.”
When I asked what he missed about corporate life, he laughed. “The only thing I miss is thinking that life was supposed to be harder than this.”
Some people find themselves in meditation retreats. Karma found himself in the space between leaving what wasn’t working and discovering what was.
– Zara