From Crafts to Travel

My journey and aspirations as a storyteller.

I want to start this newsletter with gratitude.

Today, I opened Substack and saw that I have 100 subscribers! I started my newsletter just after my birthday in the last week of December 2024, with just one simple New Year Resolution - “Travel more”.

And it is because of the support of you amazing readers that I tweaked it to

- “Write more. Travel more.”

Thank you for reading my words! Thank you for subscribing to my publication!

You genuinely encourage me to be a better writer.

A short flashback about me:

I am Namrata from India, who has a decade-long experience working in the craft sector of India through my artisanal slow fashion label - Kaizen the label.

I am a fashion designer by education but I have always considered myself a misfit in the industry!

I’m not excited about who wore what on which red carpet!

I’m not interested in wearing or buying the latest trends! In fact, I dislike “trends”!

So why did I study fashion?

Because I wanted to do something creative since high school and I saw fashion from a creative lens as a child.

My favourite subjects in fashion college were related to design processes, the history of fashion, and handmade crafts.

As I joined the retail fashion industry, I realised that my vision of creativity was not truly connected to reality. One needs to create within the brackets of dictating trends - even if you do not stand for it. And I was not ok with it!

That’s how I shifted to crafts!

It let me embrace the creative side of fashion - the beauty of handwork, its history and legacy, defying the short-lived obsession of trends.

It also made me aware of the environmental impacts of regular fashion businesses, in contrast to the sustainable processes followed in artisanal work.

But beyond the obvious points mentioned above, it introduced me to meaningful travel.

Visiting artisanal villages gave me glimpses of not just the crafts but also the rural lifestyles, their food and way of life!

These research trips went beyond crafts and often turned into a combination of “experiential travel” and “community-based travel”.

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Experiential Travel vs Community-led Travel

In the last two years of working at a travel startup, I’ve learnt these terms and can now clearly differentiate between these two concepts.

Experiential Travel prioritizes the traveller.

It is about me having immersive experiences rooted in culture, heritage or adventure. It makes me fulfilled as a traveller, with enriching activities that go beyond typical sightseeing.

However, not all of these activities benefit the local community and sometimes can be misconstrued with words like “local” and “authentic”. All experiential travel is not sustainable and poses a risk of exploitation or over-commercialization.

Community-based Travel prioritizes the local communities.

It ensures that the tourism activities directly benefit the local people, socially and economically.

The experiences provided to travellers are spearheaded by the communities of the region, where genuine interactions take place with care for the environment and local culture. There is a much lesser risk of over-tourism with community-based travel as the local people can control the influx of tourists and use resources responsibly.

I’m not a perfectly responsible traveller yet, but I want to be!

And I aspire to write responsible travel stories that do not reveal “hidden gems” and put a region at risk of over-commercialization.

I have seen a lot of places in India ruined and destroyed due to over-tourism. And it breaks my heart! My current residence is a remote village in Goa and my quiet walking lanes for the last 3 years are getting littered. It is slowly getting popular, due to the innumerable (and irresponsible) reels and blogs revealing the place as the “secret of Goa”. Is it so wrong to keep a location secret or hidden from the masses?

When we expose a secret location and geotag it - we are revealing it to everyone - including people who are not responsible travellers and are disrespectful to the environment and local communities. That’s why, you will rarely find me revealing exact locations in my writings.

As a storyteller, I bring stories of travel, crafts, communities, sustainability and my creative journey! I hope to get exciting opportunities and amazing readers - but will it be okay if I do not reveal the exact locations? I want to be unapologetic about it but let me know what you think.

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I am Namrata Gohain, a designer-turned-storyteller, writer and content producer. I document stories on responsible travel, crafts, cuisine, slow living and my creative journey.