Travelling without money, this 28-year-old is setting new goals for happiness

Twenty-eight-year-old Ansh Mishra set out to travel to 24 states and four union territories with empty pockets and a simple belief — that there is more to life than just money.

Ansh has done an MBA from Allahabad Technical College and is a former software engineer. While talking to Deccan Chronicle, he said,

This is my quest to explore humanity, which can't be bought by money — just like happiness, memories, relationships, and experience.

Ansh, who thinks of himself as a nomad, began his journey on February 3, 2017. Carrying absolutely no money, he took lifts from vehicles on the National Highway, according to Times Now.

Through this journey, Ansh has been entirely dependent on the cooperation of people around him for accommodation, food, and travel, and his hitched rides with nearly 1,800 truck drivers. There have been times when he has slept under trucks and cooked and shared food with the drivers.

One thing he has ensured during this journey has been to visit places where he has no friends or family. Ansh believes himself to be a lost kid making friends with strangers along the journey. He is travelling with just the bare essentials and a few other things such as mobile phone, laptop, and camera.

Ansh has spent his nights in mosques, gurudwaras, temples, churches, and at the houses of friends he has made during the journey. Whenever people offer him food, he eats. However, he never begs and also does not travel on buses or trains ticketless.

Once, he did not eat for around 48 hours while waiting for a car or truck he could hitch a ride with. He told Deccan Chronicle,

I was travelling from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and had covered 46 km across the desert. It was my second day without food. I had just one bottle of water. When the sun set, I collapsed in fatigue. For the first time, I felt that I couldn't do it anymore.

However, at around 8 pm, Badal Khan, a chauffeur at Hotel Tokyo, offered him a ride to Jaisalmer and also asked him to stay and have dinner at a party which was going on at the hotel.

Finding a shining light of humanity amidst the desert further strengthened his belief. Ansh’s journey is a truly inspiring one and the immense happiness he has felt gives others hope to look beyond materialistic desires.

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