Kavya and Sangeeth don’t know but it was their dog Drogo that got them to Shibira around two years ago.
Shibira 2.0 had opened in April 2023. The land, which was put to sleep for months, had woken up looking so radiant that we wanted no strangers there. It was in this phase of By Invite Only that Sangeeth first messaged for camping space for “two humans and a dog.” We checked who they were on their Gram and it was the ‘dog’ who caught our attention. The American Bully looked big and cuddly like our late Labrador without his nervous energy. It felt like Gizmo who had been gone since 2015, was peeping out from the rainbow bridge, asking to come back. That’s why we said yes to this Pack’s camping at Shibira and they became Shibira 2.0 very first Campers!
These are the couple of reasons why this 1st Anniversary edition of Knowledge Hive is with humans of the pack and we lead with the Dog whose entry into their lives is why they switched to traveling on a 4 wheeler. It was the switch a little over three years ago, which shaped their life, now a rich tapestry of overlanding journeys and mostly joyful story telling. Their travails & travels influence lives of 100s of 1000s of their followers on the Gram and You Tube and this deep dive, we hope will provide our readers many resources and tools of what it takes to Live Intentionally and Mindfully.
Here goes –
Names are stories like words have meaning. Kavya means Poetry and is a name associated with Intelligence and creativity ; Sangeeth means music and is a name often associated with harmonious lifestyle ; Drogo is named after the passionate n intense, Khal Drogo’ from Game of Thrones, fiercely loyal to his tribe! No third wheel, Drogo , is a natural traveller, who knows the drill, enjoys his role of guardian of his Pack just like Khal Drogo, his namesake. Chill and relaxed otherwise, 100s of 1000s of people have seen this dog in his home, a Gurkha, happy with his Life on the Roads. When the Pack stops, Drogo takes on an advance pilot car avatar inspecting surroundings – Be it a garage, a homestay, a resort or just the great outdoors – letting his humans know if something is off. He settles down once the site passes his high ‘safe place to camp’ audit standards. Relaxed n friendly, he is a good guest, presents himself well and needs no behavioral training.
Drogo’s mom Kavya is a trained dairy technologist. Born in a small town in Kerala amidst 2 siblings, parents and grandmother, she moved to Karnataka for her post grad studies and worked in Bangalore as a research scholar in dairy technology. She led a comfortable life doing the tasks at hand, getting home and living each day nothing much to worry about.
Drogo’s dad Sangeeth is a sales n marketing professional. Born to farmers he grew up in Kerala too, a restless child, stubborn and often drifting in many different paths. Luckily for him his parents, who had seen hard patches, viewed his drifting ways kindly, providing him with a happy home filled with warmth and laughter. Sangeeth shifted to Bangalore and led a comfortable corporate life.
Kavya and Sangeeth met in their teens, dreamt of going beyond the boundaries set by the society and enjoyed breaking their own mental barriers. Introduced through some common friends at a cultural meet, the first year of their friendship saw them step out of their town to a city hardly 40 kms away and feeling absolute wonder in finding the possibilities. Emboldened their next steps were farther and farther away till they went off exploring strange lands in India for a month. In the process their world view formed together as they grew into their 20s, got married and started earning their bread and butter in Bangalore.
When Work Days feel Infinite our own AI (Alternate Intelligence) could help.
Kavya quit after two years. Not because working life was tough or the career made her unhappy, or there was a horrible boss at work but because her life had become mundane and too comfortable. “It just got boring I guess. Plenty of recurring moments of feeling lost in the rhythm, a fear of getting stuck in the comforts, a state of less creativity, less ambition, maybe for me those moments felt too scary. I think it happens to everyone but they pushed me to leave my career to try something that pushed my limits, something that excited and scared me”.
Sangeeth quit after four years. Not because working life wasn’t financially lucrative but because emotionally it started to drain him of his creativity and had started to take a toll on his mental well-being. “I felt I was changing into a regular rude old man, stressed out all the time and without dreams – someone I never wanted to become. The more clearly I saw that, the more was the urge to leave it behind and get back to the path I always wanted to be on.”
Did he see that path yet or did Kavya?
Not really. Sangeeth says that he was pretty much into everything with wheels from a very young age, learnt driving on an old Maruti at 14, going on solo rides since he was 18 and absolutely loved driving. Kavya was not crazy about driving though she loved technicalities, learning about the specs and mods. She had learnt driving also on an old Maruti at 17 but had found she enjoyed being a co-driver more. Kavya’s sweet spot was navigating, finding best routes, planning the overall drive and making sure travels stick to the plan. In fact, unlike Sangeeth, Kavya’s dreams were not made up of traveling. “My dreams were different. I always dreamt of moving to a different place, experience life there as an outsider”. She often tended to separate herself from her surrounding. It was a habit of viewing things from a third person perspective that naturally to her which made her take to a Life on the Roads with Sangeeth.
Married life in beauty and beastly terrains
So two people who met as teens, walking off into the many sunsets and sun rises of their travels with their dog sounds like an epic Love Story. To us maybe. Not to them !. When we asked them to narrate it they won’t because they find the concept a cliché. “There was no one special moment where we realised we loved each other or decided to get married or proposed.The only thing we have done intentionally is not let go of the dreams we have, even when the path seemed hard and unforgiving. Marriage happened naturally without us forcing it. says Kavya. Our connection has always been with our thoughts. More than a romanic partner we find in each other a companion, a best friend, a travel mate and a support system. We are grateful we share a bond in that regards and found each other at a very young age. I think every one feels the same way about their partner”, says Sangeeth.
Not everyone does Dude. No! In fact Not everyone marries or stays married for those reasons but then who are we to opine, this is the life they have manifested with the tools and resources that are unique to them that they nurture !
Technically their first long road trip together would have been a honeymoon even though they had traveled together since college. Versus that one month bike trip, the “honeymoon” trip was a year long ! Does this kind of initiation into coupledom makes one independent or dependent? It can also make you hate each other but we decide not to suggest that! “When your partner is the only familiar presence in a completely strange surrounding, the connection grows into a strong sense of belonging. At least that’s our experience, and it has made our relationship grow into something more than just a romantic partnership. Since we started very soon after getting married, we figured out the dynamics of being a married couple on the move. Travelling has played a huge role in shaping our relationship, from two 18 year olds to the team we are now, it has been pivotal. It would definitely be the time we have spent away from home, on the roads, in unknown places, that built the trust and understanding between us as partners”, they both share.
Gender Bender
Sangeeth is not your regular ‘husband – a provider because he is a man. Kavya is not a regular ‘wife’ – a housewife and nurturer because she is a woman. Traveling has given them different but clear roles and duties that they each do without the need for counsel or validation from each other. Its made them more independent as individuals in their day to day activities. They cook this basic meal once a day, mostly for dinner and have it for breakfast as well. Interestingly the person who cooks, cooks for all the right reasons – and that’s Kavya. She cooks not because she is a woman or wife but because Cooking makes her calm and is a way for her to unwind and relax after a day on the road. She hears no complaints about her cooking and that’s good enough for her. “My meals range from a simple rice and dal, to a full blown biryani, if we feel like it. It all depends on the camping space we are in, the availability of materials, and how tired we are’ she says.
Probably lucky that the husband doesn’t come home from work and ask Khaane main Kya Hain ? We think but we don’t tell her that because she shortly adds, “ Sangeeth doesn’t cook much, even though he can make really good meals, but he doesn’t enjoy it as much as I do.”
Finding Self & Silver lining in Life’s unromantic, Tiring and Lonely phase
Contrary to what we generally see in social media where everything looks so easy, constantly traveling can be a very stressful way to live. It takes an overwhelming chunk of energy to plan, finance, pack and execute this kind of life, not to mention the Time. Setting up a camp in the middle of nowhere, after a long day of driving and when every part of your body is sore is unromantic and we at Shibira can say this with a lot of experience of traveling and camping. The joy for them, is in the small moments, one gets along the way – watching a magical sunrise alone – nobody other than your partner and entire universe as witness ; or the deep conversations or meaningful silences – while driving the open highways. These interludes make up for the stress of daily unpacking and packing , cleaning up of a space before setting up camp, or getting stuck somewhere because the planning was not right or did not go as per plan.
It is lonely and one cant help but feel lonely after spending so much time away from everything one has ever known – family, friends and every kind of support system . It is in human nature to question our own choices and decisions, especially when they are completely opposite to what people normally choose to do with their lives.
Sangeeth and Kavya had a phase of those doubts which would have them completely go on a downward spiral of negative thoughts. They tried, to get out of that negativity phase, by sharing their travails and travels on social media. It’s a risk they took as the Gram has a dime a dozen travellers sharing similarly. But it paid off for them !
It is your “Point’ of View” that makes you find and own your life story
The response from others to their “point of view” made them fully grasp the gravity of what they were doing. Once they embraced it fully, their social profile started to grow. “It was and is an amazing feeling to hear complete strangers express their love and support to what we are doing.”!
What their growing legion of followers may not realize is effort and emotion behind the content they put out about their Life on the Roads. Intellectually they both live up to their names and connect most to stories of nature and humans living harmoniously with their environment. Their efforts to make content that’s not just another titillating data dump on the internet, turns this traveling couple into explorers, documentarians and story tellers. They are acing the expertise of packaging a good story in just 60 seconds telling it to people they haven’t met or seen. That in itself serves a kind of a purpose in the digital age we live in. For them to know that in some ways they are inspiring at least a handful of people to take a step towards their dreams, gives a great purpose to their life – ” far beyond anything we ever imagined to accomplish”.
However not for a select few who “follow” them and want to be witness but not with a sense of generosity towards Kavya and Sangeeth or with the intent of inspiring them back to keep going. These people show up once in a while. Because often the things they talk about on the Gram are unconventional and trigger people in ways they did not imagine their content could. What follows is all kinds of drama, hate comments and messages, which can be hard to handle.
If one spend five minutes studying their page , what indeed would anyone understand as their purpose we ask them. “A little bit of happiness in the midst of hurry, stress and judgments in our very fast paced world. I guess if someone can take away a bit of joy and add it into their every day from our content, then that’s a win for us.” So they remain steadfast in their approach of start with an intent to share a happy thought, help break some mental barriers and bring another perspective into the small things in life that often go unnoticed.
Cynics would say that’s your purpose ..really…then how to do you feed yourself ? Indeed how but the answer is no mystery either.
Balance passion with income for Roti Kapda Makaan
Kavya and Sangeeth have now made their expanding digital audience count by making their footprint into a source of revenue. They are now legit influencers who do what they love and you are invited to vicariously watch from your couch if you are a cynic and/or be inspired if you are mentally open to learning from influencers who genuinely care about a cause, lifestyle or community.
Monetizing their content is definitely a big help for them to keep travelling, It has given them more freedom and less financial stress. In future they want to see monetization as a means to fuel their idealism and will protect against making LifeonRoads a completely marketing page with only paid content. This effort to strike the fine balance between monetizing and keeping the essence of what they aim to do shows up in them representing only brands that align perfectly with their niche and help the community that they’ve created in the last four years.
Nobody’s Life is immune to disappointment, ridicule and fear.
We at Shibira have been witness to at least one super ugly trolling last year and the shallowness enraged even us, quiet followers of their page ever since they first messaged about camping in Shibira in 2023. We saw them post content acknowledging their hurt and thereafter pivot their entire content. While doing this Knowledge Hive we asked them about the pivot but they shrugged it off as a trial content strategy that worked so they are keeping it. We left it at that as its none of our business. What is our limited business is to shine a light for those similarly injured on social media on how this couple escaped the toxic net of the Internet and that’s what we are doing in this anniversary special of Knowledge Hive
“We have felt disappointment, fear, helplessness and embarrassment. We have got stuck in places that are not ideal to travel especially with a woman, or have mechanical issues with the vehicle. We have had to interact with people who are just rude and those with not with the best of intentions. Once a group of people approached our camp with weapons and sticks. Drogo who looks intimidating slowed down the group that was approaching and we used that window to pack up and leave”, Sangeeth shares. Leave but go where for succor while moving away from danger? Towards home ? Nope ! Unlike those of us with a Life on “Land” this Pack who chose to live a Life on “Roads” , their “mobile home” is often very very far away from their “home”.
Do they really want to go home? Does home give them peace? It does and having a home is an anchor for them like it is for us but when we dig deeper we find that that too is not a permanent feeling. Why ? Because it is entirely possible that people like Kavya and Sangeeth and them in particular Love to Move. They find it hard to stay at one place for long, be it their own home. The movement is essential for them, almost like a necessity. If they stick around somewhere for too long, they tend to become restless and start to feel as if something is lacking in their life and it starts to affect everything they do.Do they really want to go home? Does home give them peace? It does and having a home is an anchor for them like it is for us but when we dig deeper we find that that too is not a permanent feeling. Why ? Because it is entirely possible that people like Kavya and Sangeeth and them in particular Love to Move. They find it hard to stay at one place for long, be it their own home. The movement is essential for them, almost like a necessity. If they stick around somewhere for too long, they tend to become restless and start to feel as if something is lacking in their life and it starts to affect everything they do. Kavya and Sangeeth have owned this dichotomy and made it into something that gives them sustenance and joy and built in their 30s what many would call a “dream life”
Dream Life yes but a successful one…hmm
It is a relief to hear that Sangeeth and Kavya have met people who respect & admire them and others who choose a different path in life. The kind of People who are not narrow minded. People who see beyond their own safe bubbles and who are not conditioned by the patterns that anything apart from a fat bank account, a 3 BHK or a few luxury cars is failure.
We at Shibira are one of “those people” they’ve met and this is why we’ve invited them to our sacred grove for sharing their mental, emotional, travel and camp planning skills & resources. Life on Roads does not fit into the success paradigm of society that respects anything that does not look like an upwardly mobile curve of money, house, leisure and luxury. Kavya and Sangeeth get questions from random people about how they have planned out their future, how much financial security do they have to live like this – traveling on the road, or even worse, some assume that they are spoilt rich kids having fun, irresponsible and misleading the younger generation.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. They are both from modest backgrounds and have studied to become professionals, given up daily working life to be travelers, they freelance when the opportunity arises to keep their professional skills sharpened.
Letting go of comfortable life, as they have, to reach for what lies beyond imaginary boundaries one creates for oneself shreds the fear of change when everything different starts to feel scary including our own advancing age.
Their experience matches up to how society also feels about aging – the most inevitable and irreversible process of tissue, muscle and cells degeneration. The mind tends to resist the changes that makes things even more complicated.
The Mind can’t stop working so Put it to work.
Mind often keeps monkeying around two extremes – Worrying about an un-happened future or Mulling over an already happened past. To take the Mind out of this most corrosive past time and center it in the Now is a humongous effort even for Yogis! Traveling teaches our mind stuff it cannot learn in higher education or in the routine of coming back to same home every day after a similar..ish day at work.
Kavya and Sangeeth have learnt to physically live with less and clearly are pros at skills to connect with strangers. We are however more keen to understand what their minds have learnt from their unique lifestyle. These are the few things they share about what their minds have learnt to understand, see and be trained for : –
- How resourceful a human can really be when living with limited resources
- How creative a human can really be when Living with no scope of getting help.
- How the brain gets trained towards solutions and strategies over freezing with fear.
- How the brain lets go of beliefs and opens up to experience life from another person’s viewpoint.
- How the brain learns to act and think like others, making blending into a new community possible.
- How small and insignificant we and our “problems” are
Very interesting, as you can see, traveling is the Prompt to the brain. It is also more evidence that we can use our mind in two ways, one like the majority uses AI apps like ChatGPT – to brush up on their content vs second like some use it to create business plans, start-ups or art ! It’s all in the prompts!
The Life on Roads Grand vision
What if their travels end tomorrow, is there a particular story they would want to be remembered for?. Nope! Pat comes the reply because humility Is in understanding, as they do, that by travelling and telling about it on social media they are doing nothing ground breaking to be remembered for.
Au contraire , Kavya and Sanjeeth are happy if the people they know and have connected with, remember them as “kind people who gave them a joyous energy and peaceful presence.”
God willing, completion of their mission of planting of 1 lakh trees during their travels and for those trees to survive and grow by God’s grace under the care of humans they’ve inspired on their travels would definitely be a feat to be remembered for – Conserving the Environment and Creating an Environment of Conservation.
In the interim it looks like they are happy Living the Dog’s life – loving sticking their head out of their Gurkha, sniffing every smell the wind brings into their camp enjoying their breaks, putting their body to endurance tests, planning for only one ‘perfect’ day at a time, sharing their ‘weird’ thoughts, knowing 100s of 1000s watch them and don’t feel so alone in this ‘weird’ world.
Our Teachers Day Sept 5. 2025 edit is up.Read How to gain Agency over your life and develop a High Agency Mindset.
On June 30th 2025 we published our 1st Anniversary Edition . Click here living-intentionally-can-make-all-time-a-quality-time/
Don’t miss our Feb 14th 2025 Valentines Day edit Make Space for All Kinds of Love – The Doctor Orders
Read Knowledge Hive’s first Christmas Post December 25th 2024 Click here to Read about tools & resources to use Fear to fight fear and Health Anxiety
Don’t miss our Third Post Click here to Read Live Life Gool Size – mental health resources & tools to age & fade away gracefully
Don’t miss our Second Post. Click Here to read A Zoe to Life – resources & tools to care for Aging Dogs
Shibira The Camp, Sakleshpur 