Project Enroute: My Unfinished Journey Through Northeast India - 150 days. 7 states. 60 villages.

In 2018, I was sitting in a quiet 'chai dukan' with a notebook. On a blank page, I wrote a single line in big letters:

"Project Enroute"

That was the beginning of a dream to wander through the villages of Northeast India not as a tourist passing by, but as a temporary villager. To wake up with the rhythms of the land, to sit in classrooms where chalk runs out, but hope doesn’t, to hear folktales whispered by elders around woodfires.

I didn’t want to just visit the Northeast. I wanted to belong to it.

The Vision

The plan was both audacious and simple:

- 150 days on the road, split across the seven sisters: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura.

- In each state, spend time in 8-10 villages, not rushing but living alongside people - sharing meals, helping in fields, learning local crafts.

- In each village, visit at least one school. Not as an outsider with solutions, but as someone trying to listen. What do the children need? What do the teachers struggle with? Could I support in small, meaningful ways, be it donating notebooks, arranging a football, or simply giving them a platform to be seen?

- Document it all. Not in glossy brochures, but in raw stories and photos, so that others could see the Northeast not as an exotic “destination,” but as a living, breathing community.

I called it Project Enroute because it was never meant to be a neat, finished journey. It was meant to be a flow, a road that would keep surprising me as long as I kept walking.

The Struggle

But dreams, especially ones this big, aren’t light.

The logistics were staggering. 150 days meant funding for stay, food, transport, and supplies. Reaching remote villages meant navigating roads that often don’t exist on maps. And then came the self-doubt: Was I strong enough? Was I capable of carrying this through?

So, while the plan sat beautifully in my notebook, the reality didn’t take off.

At least, not in the way I imagined.

The Fragments That Happened Anyway

Over the years, I still found myself in random villages, a few in Meghalaya, a few in Assam, and Arunachal. And every time, the same thing happened:

I’d walk into a school and see a teacher managing five grades in one room.

I’d see children sharing torn textbooks but still smiling wide when you asked them to read aloud.

I’d sit with an old man telling me how rivers used to flood less when the forests were thicker.

I’d be invited to a meal where rice and salt were offered with the same pride as a feast.

Each village had its own lesson, its own warmth, often shared with me over steaming cups of chaai. That spirit of learning and sharing eventually found its way into Chalk and Chaai, a space where I continue to tell these unfinished stories.

And in those fragments, I’d be reminded: the dream is not dead. It is waiting.

Why It Still Matters

We live in a world where travel is often measured in passport stamps and Instagram grids. But Project Enroute is my resistance to that.

It’s a reminder that travel isn’t about moving fast, it’s about moving deeply.

That the Northeast is not just “waterfalls and treks” but a mosaic of people, stories, and quiet resilience.

That sometimes, the greatest souvenirs aren’t photographs, but friendships with strangers who treat you like family.

That as travellers, we don’t just take, we can give, even in small ways, if only we pause long enough to ask what’s needed.

The Future

Project Enroute hasn’t happened yet - not in its full form. But it will.

I’m still gathering the courage, the funds, the right partnerships. I’m still sketching routes and imagining mornings in villages I haven’t seen yet.

And maybe that’s the point. Some journeys aren’t meant to be rushed. They’re meant to sit inside you, grow roots, and wait until you’re truly ready.

Until then, I’ll keep visiting villages whenever I can, keep telling their stories, and keep reminding myself that this unfinished dream is also part of the journey.

Closing Note

Project Enroute is not a failed plan. It’s a promise. A promise that one day, I will walk those 150 days, across 7 states, through 60 villages, and come back with not just stories, but seeds of change.

Because travel, at its truest, is not about where we go.

It’s about what we give back.

This is just the beginning of Project Enroute — an unfinished journey I’d love to share with you. Follow along here: @chalkandchaai