Are you a passionate traveller? Have you ever thought your passion for travelling could also be turned into a rewarding profession? Here is one young chap who has already found that travel and more travelling only define his life. Sujith Bhakthan, a Pathanamthitta-based travel blogger, has a unique story of chasing his passion. It all starts with ksrtcblog.com.
“I was very much interested in travelling, meeting people and in trying variety food. I started ksrtcblog.com during my graduation. My idea was to help people by providing necessary and sufficient information regarding the public transport vehicles in Kerala. It was eight years ago,” 29-year-old Sujith recollects.
“I had a pretty good number of followers for this blog. People used to tell me that it was very much helpful. But the KSRTC did not show any interest in the blog. Not only were they reluctant to provide any sort of help, they even sent me a notice asking to change the name of the blog site. Their argument was that using their trademark for private purpose is illegitimate. I got similar notice from the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation as well. Instead of battling against these institutions, I chose to change the name of my blog as I was already fed up with the sheer negligence my blog had been receiving from the KSRTC,” he says.
Sujith did not have to seek a second opinion when he changed the name of his blog to anavandi.com. The blog features articles as well as videos related to travel and vehicles. He then began another chapter with the introduction of his travel blog techtraveleat.com.
So was his journey from a travel enthusiast to a professional travel blogger a smooth one? “Not at all,” says Sujith. “My parents were skeptic about my decision to choose travelling as a profession.” Sujith is a BTech graduate in IT. “Besides, there were many obstacles like my lack of ability in properly presenting a written article on what I really feel about a place I visit. It was at that time I switched to videos where I could easily express all that I wanted to convey,” he says.
A YouTube channel with the same name is also being owned by Sujith. “This is where I post videos on the places I visit. Or I visit places to update in this channel.” Sujith’s YouTube channel has more than 24,000 subscribers. Tech Travel Eat has a very active Facebook page which flourishes with the presence of around 60,000 followers.
“I am happy with the advance in the number of viewers. I get at least 10 lakh viewers for a video uploaded in the channel. So now my parents are happy as I bring home some income I earn from this business.” Two content writers work for Sujith to feed content into his blog sites. His brother Abhijith often joins him in travelling.
“While choosing places to visit, I consider suggestions and tips from my followers. If 20 among a 100 people want to see Manali, I sure go there for a shoot. Viewers grew me up. Therefore I value their ideas. It’s because of this thought, I decided to do videos on resorts and short stay homes along with the places,” Sujith quips.
