I walk alone !!

Tripoto
1st Jul 2015
Photo of I walk alone !! 1/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 2/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 3/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 4/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 5/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 6/7 by Tanya Matta
Photo of I walk alone !! 7/7 by Tanya Matta

Born and Brought up In Delhi ,India. A very mollycoddled single child .I always had too many people around me , who loved me and cared for me and were there to do almost everything for me or at least accompany me in it.
I had never learnt or experienced to be seen alone in public and being alone or going somewhere alone or just being by myself for a while , that was just not acceptable in my world.
I always had these stupid thoughts crossing my mind , that if seen alone people are going to think i am a loner or a freak and nobody likes to hangout with me and i was just too scared to be judged about it.
Pretty dumb right ? i know !( Its okay you can laugh at me )

So i started thinking i was incapable of going out alone and i would just never do that.
But one fine day i turned 18 and graduated from school and i had to choose a college now. I was always into photography and all i ever wanted to do was be a photographer , so decisions made , admissions done and i flew off to Milan ,Italy for my further studies in photography.
I think that was the start of my life in the reality.
I had no options except letting go of my fear because i was no longer surrounded by the people who were so over protective and caring for me .
And days passed by , college went well , i made friends , but it just wasn’t the same.
For the first few weeks i would just not walk an extra step from college to home if i had nobody to accompany me. But slowly the realisation dawned on me that I cannot always depend on people to go and do the little things or i will become a caged bird.


So one day my college got over early and i just didn’t want to head back home yet , and there it was my first step to let go of my fear.
I went to this cafe nearby my college , ordered some coffee and cake and just sat there alone staring outside the window and looking at the rain droplets run down the glass. I hesitated at first but the longer i sat there , somehow the more i was at ease .

I started hanging out alone more often , wandering the cold ,rainy and windy streets of Milan just walking for miles and miles and doing what i love ,photographing the little moments , discovering new places to eat , trying new dishes everyday , experiencing the new things and then i realised that i was in love with the idea of being by myself.
I had time to think about things with more clarity and i was a calm and collected person.
I now had my favourites and i would go to those places almost four times a week by myself , sit there , complete my projects or read a novel or just have a drink and enjoy the music.
Most of these cafes were near my college near Via Pompeo Leoni and since it was near a college , these cafes were always really jammed but funny thing i started feeling at peace at these little cafes or bars.
So this is where my journey started and i became independent and i knew that i just need myself and my optimism and i could go to any corner of the world alone and find my happiness.
It wasn’t easy but i made it possible and now what people would think doesn’t bother me because spending time with myself is my new favourite thing to do.

In the past 2 years, I decided to travel around the world. I went to Germany , Switzerland and France all by myself ! I decided to explore these places with zest and curiosity . I went to cafes, bars , historical monuments. I obviously had troubles because of the language and cultural differences . But I loved getting to be a part of other cultures and meeting new people, learning about different people ! And since I'm a big foodie , I tried different dishes  . I travelled across India too and i also learned to  survive in extreme temperatures from being rainy to extremely cold to extremely hot . I tried different foods , saw cultural differences and explored new places and loved every bit of it , even the difficult bits because they just made me stronger and a better person.. All these experiences in turn made me realise that I have a love for travelling and capturing my memories and moments and therefore decided to be a travel photographer.

So last but not the least !

"Go where you are drawn and where your vision does wonders "