Pujarini Mehta

Travel Mom Blogger - My Soul Travels

“An army background and a corporate career of seven years had instilled the love for travelling and work ethics in me, and when Motherhood happened, I did not think I had to give in to the notion that travel needs to take a backseat once you have a family.

My story begins with these 3 aspects – entrepreneurship, stability and motherhood. Travel was my passion and to turn that into a job as a travel blogger seemed adventurous. When I had my son, I realized how tricky the situation is with parents and a baby. As a challenge, I decided to take a road-trip with my month-old son. I feel travelling at a young age provides avenues to children to be more independent and adapt better to unforeseen circumstances. It has also been a learning experience for all of us as we get to observe closely the culture of other countries and communities and learn from, as a family. Travel-mommy-blogging was not a field yet discovered when I had started.

I was at crossroads to take blogging on as a full-time career. The stability of a job I had held for 10 years., the comfort of a home when raising a child, the apprehension of a parent was an internal battle.

As a mother, the responsibility of a family and taking a personal decision for the future seemed colossal.

The journey of believing in entrepreneurship and mustering up the courage to change a whole mindset toward online content career gave me the independence to be okay with taking a chance.

Today, MySoulTravels has a social media reach of 80k+ and my followers range from travel enthusiasts to parents, to travel companies and everyday brands. I have been a major contributor to Google’s Touring Bird App and I am a regular contributor to ASEAN tourism website. I have been approved as the Blue Badge Pathfinder by Lonely Planet, been awarded as 2020’s Rising Digital Lady. Our travels have sponsorships and benefits that we had not imagined!

As a family, we have had to make sacrifices along the way, we have been travelling with our son since he was just a few months old. And honestly, it hasn’t always been a cakewalk. But with a lot of planning and preparation, we make the most of our family travels.

Every profession for a working mother is guilt-ridden but it does not necessarily need to be! It takes time, effort and planning to get our lives to a point where we might find a sense of balance. We need to compile our skills, strengths and passions and build something stronger with it. Looking at the support and recognition that one decision has given to me, I feel empowered to be in a position to call this my enterprise.”

Interviewed and transcribed by Maryam Syed