ABOUT NIVEDAN
I didn't begin with a business plan. I began with travellers.
I was 19 when I first found myself responsible for helping a group of international travellers experience India.
I had very little confidence speaking English and no idea that this unexpected opportunity would eventually shape my career.
What I did understand was people.
I enjoyed solving problems, helping travellers feel comfortable and showing them a country that was completely familiar to me but completely new to them.
More than a decade later, that instinct still shapes the way I work.
2011 — WHERE IT STARTED
A train journey that quietly changed my life.
I had just finished school when I was asked to accompany six international travellers across India to Goa.
The train journey should have taken roughly 32 hours.
It took almost 50.
Our seats were scattered throughout the train, my English was limited, and I was trying to work out how to keep everyone comfortable during an increasingly unpredictable journey.
So I did what came naturally.
I spoke to passengers, rearranged seats, solved problems as they appeared and gradually stopped worrying about whether my English was perfect.
Somewhere during those long hours, we stopped feeling like strangers.
When we reached Goa, I stayed with the group for a couple of weeks.
At the time, it simply felt exciting.
Looking back, I can see that I was learning the foundations of what I still believe good travel requires today:
attention, adaptability, curiosity and the ability to make people feel looked after without making the journey feel controlled.
LEARNING FROM PEOPLE
Travel became much more than moving people between places.
The opportunities continued.
I began working with international student and volunteer groups across Rajasthan, spending months in places such as Lalsot and working alongside schools and local communities.
My role often sat somewhere between travel coordinator, cultural translator, problem-solver and friend.
I helped international students understand where they were.
I helped local people understand who these visitors were and why they had come.
And I began seeing how powerful travel could become when people stopped simply observing each other and started spending time together.
Those experiences still influence the way I think about cultural travel today.
A meaningful encounter cannot simply be inserted into an itinerary.
The conditions for it can be created — but the human connection has to be real.
INDIA → NEPAL
Responsibility came before confidence.
My work eventually took me to Nepal, where I became increasingly involved in coordinating international programmes, community relationships, travel logistics and experiences for visitors from different parts of the world.
Living and working there forced me to understand travel from more than one perspective.
The traveller needs to feel safe, informed and looked after.
The local partner needs to feel respected.
The itinerary needs to work.
And the experience needs to make sense for everyone involved.
Nepal taught me that good travel is rarely created by one impressive hotel or one spectacular activity.
It is created by hundreds of small decisions made well.
BEHIND THE JOURNEY
Eight years taught me what travellers usually never see.
For the next chapter of my career, I worked behind the scenes in international travel.
Instead of accompanying travellers every day, I was working with customers, teams, airlines, bookings, disruptions and the operational side of travel.
It was very different from my early years in the field — and equally valuable. I learned what happens when flights change.
When plans fail.
When customers are tired or frustrated.
When different suppliers need to work together quickly.
And when somebody simply needs to take responsibility rather than explain why something isn't their problem.
Today, I understand both sides of a journey:
the experience the traveller sees and the work required behind the scenes to make that experience feel effortless.
I wanted to return closer to the traveller.
After years of working in international travel, I realised that the part of the industry I valued most had always been personal.
Understanding somebody.
Designing around what mattered to them.
Being present when things changed.
And seeing a traveller leave India feeling that they had experienced something genuinely worthwhile.
That became Anagh Routes.
I am not trying to create the largest travel company.
I would rather create fewer journeys and remain personally connected to the people trusting me with them.
My approach is simple:
Listen before planning.
Recommend what improves the journey.
Allow flexibility for real moments to happen.
Be there when something needs solving.
And never forget that for the traveller, this may be a journey they have dreamed about for years.
