The year 2020 was good, bad or ugly for all of us. Some said that this year gave our family a chance to come together during the lockdown period, while for many it was the year which resulted in job loss, business getting affected, and for many, it was ugly, as they lost their love ones.
For me, it was good & bad, but not ugly. Good, as I became a father, and bad as I had like 75% business loss. But now, life is changing, as 2021 has brought some good & optimistic news.
First, the Indian government has started COVID vaccination, & we can get our elderly vaccinated, either in March or later, as I am getting vibes that private pharma firms will start vaccination in mid-2021. And business is getting a light push forward, as people have begun planning trips (I also run travel business)
In this post, I am trying to get inside views of bloggers, about their Good, Bad or any Ugly experience of 2020, and what they think of 2021. I have shared mine, and soon I will update their’s below.
Till then, stay safe and healthy.
1. Me Jatin Chhabra, from JatinChhabra.com
My last trip outside Delhi was Bangkok, where I went on a business trip, and when I came back at Delhi Airport, on 24th Jan’2020, my dad, wife were there, which was surprising as I told then that I would catch a cab for home.
Bangkok airport
So, when I asked them, what are you doing here, they showed me a news byte on youtube, stating that a new disease from China has spread, and few of its cases have been reported in Thailand, it was three at that time.
June was the lousy month for me. From March to May, I stayed at home, and in June, I had to quarantine myself (from 15th June to 5th July), as wife was pregnant, mom dad are above 60 & I was tested positive of COVID 19.
Getting a COVID test at home was an impossible task back then in Delhi, & I know how that I arranged a home sample collection of RT PCR test (COVID gold standard test) for me from Prognosis Lab Delhi. So, June brought some distressing memories for me.
Me & my son :)
In October, I had one of the best news of my life: I am a dad now as my wife gave birth to a baby boy, so October was like the best month for me in 2020.
And finally, December, the last month of 2020 realised me that I need to make grand changes to my business as things will change in 2021, as 2020 has transformed the people’s mentality. Like I am from car rental business, and I am sure that self-drive will get a significant boost from 2021. So we are trying to get a Self-drive car licence.
So, this was me in 2020, I plan some trips from April 2021 to various states in India, starting some writing campaign, and this time, not just travel.
2. Anuradha Goyal from IndiTales.com
Anuradha Goyal
I had a very productive 2020. I published 3 books and one more is in pipeline.
Of these ‘Unusual Temples of India’ and ‘Bharat Ke Anokhe Mandir’ are self-published on Kindle and Lotus In The Stone – Sacred Journeys in Eternal India has been published by Garuda Prakashan.
I also started my Podcast – Detours with Anuradha Goyal which is available on all major podcasting platforms. I have been wanting to study astrology for a long time.
Pandemic gave me that one block of time that allowed me to study the subject and I am enjoying reading charts these days.
Before lockdown, I had an excellent trip to Odisha. I am still writing about it. I also spoke at two conferences, one in Ayodhya and the other in Chandigarh. So overall, it was a very productive year.
In 2021, I started walking around Panaji, the city I live in, and slowly started visiting little known places in Goa. I would still wait and watch and do very selective and slow travel this year.
Checkout Anuradha ji awesome blog at inditales.com
3. Dev from Footloosedev.com
COVID-19 affected travel businesses in a way that no global recession ever did. In a recession, some people still travel. In COVID, no one moved.
At the time when India went into lockdown phase, in March 2020, I had several projects lined up, including a trip to Selangor, in Malaysia (invited by the tourism department) and to the Northern Territory, in Australia, and they all got cancelled.
Initially, just like everyone, I thought it is a momentary freeze of the world, but almost one year later, we are still in the same phase.
Before COVID, I was getting an average of at least 1 Media Trip every month. Since COVID, I have got none! The last Sponsored Blogging Trip I had was in March 2020 with Jawa Motorcycles. Since then, I’ve only been travelling on self-sponsored trips. The time reminds me of the 1st year of my blogging stint (the year of 2016) when no one knew about Footloose Dev and all I had to do was plan my own trips and travel!
But it doesn’t mean 2020 had only sad things to offer. Because of COVID I managed to fulfil a dream that I was long planning for — of shifting my base to the mountains. In December 2020, I leased an old Kathikuni style Himcahali House near Manali and gave up on whatever little time I used to spend in Delhi. Shifting my base to Himachal Pradesh and living out of the mountains was the best thing that happened in 2020.
Here’s a 1-min Instagram Video of my new life in Manali: https://www.instagram.
