 Should we take a year off a Year sabbatical one full year. Have you ever taken one year off? I know as an Australian We love to take one year sabbaticals when we're when we're younger when we're kind of like we finish high school We finish university and we go traveling the world I've taken pretty much a year off. I did it about around about 1990 When did I do it? 1999 2000 2003's kind of like that where you just say I'm not working for like six months or a year I did it when I went down and lived in Buenos Aires for six months. I did it for six months I just went down there and it's very cheap to live down there cost of living is cheap So wasn't really spending much per day and I did a sabbatical and that was enough for me to come back to Los Angeles in 2010 refreshed and ready to quit drinking and Change my life around So we're gonna talk to someone today who is The number one best-selling Indian novelist whose first International book comes out in May. His name is Karan Bajaj, did I pronounce that correctly Karan? Yes James almost, okay? Yes, almost Karan Bajaj. There you go Karan Bajaj. Okay. Yes. That's perfect Welcome sir. Great to have you here. Thank you James. It's a pleasure now you take one year sabbaticals every three or four years Do you so just tell us why you do that? Yes, absolutely. So I follow something like a 3-1-3 kind of a rule for the last decade in which I work for three years and then take a year off and I what I found is that I've been Extremely effective in the three years that I work because of the one year that I take off and Like so that model is working really well because it's almost at the year that I take off is Completely antithetical to the way I live and work in the three years that I'm working So I think that kind of like so in the three years that I'm working. I'm extremely tight and goal-oriented and disciplined and very hungry for growth and in the one year that I'm off I'm Consciously go less. I don't plan a single day. I let lie let it flow I and and that I think that kind of like just loosens everything and it balances this left and right brain this rational and intuitive side I think that's like leading to very good outputs in work Okay, and so how long have you been doing this for? It's been about 10 years now So I've so in the sense that I've taken three sabbaticals of one year each every three years Okay, and so what did you do? What were you doing? Sort of before you took the sabbaticals and then what did you do during the sabbaticals? Oh, yeah, so I like basically the two things that I do when I'm I guess not Taking the sabbatical is that I have a corporate job. So I worked In Procter and Gamble the Boston Consulting Group. I'm now the chief marketing officer of a startup so I have this corporate kind of career and And I'm also I also write fiction and I've written three books two of them have been number one best in as an Indian The third one just comes out in May By random house, it's called the yoga of Max's discontent. So I work and I write and in the year that I take off The last sabbatical that I took I spent four months basically going from Europe to India by road without a plan then four months In an ashram in India doing meditation yoga and meditation and then four months in a artist retreat in Portugal writing essentially, yeah, okay and To the to the average certainly American listener, I would say American person. This sounds kind of like crazy Now, I know it's not crazy because I've done it. Yeah, I In 2009 when the financial crisis hit, I lost a PR company that I had on Sunset Boulevard here in in Hollywood and I ran away to Buenos Aires, Argentina because I'd read Tim Ferrara It's booked the four hour work week and I figured well, I'll just go down there and I didn't even have that much money Yeah, say, I mean I had some money, but I didn't spend that much money on us down there because I deliberately went to a I don't know if you consider Argentina a third world country, but I went to a country where the the peso was you know, the the the the the Argentinian currency was very You know favorable so I could have beautiful steak dinners and have good accommodation and Drink wine when I was drinking there and do things very very cheap. So yeah, and in that time during that time I read The book Never Eat Alone by Keith Farazi, which really triggered a change in all of my relationships Yeah, so I can really credit like my social my current social skills So having read that book and I can credit reading that book to having taken a you know, a six month sabbatical at the age of you know 30 34 30 34 35 so And also, I guess you could also I could also credit that sabbatical to helping me get a job as a sports center anchor on ESPN because when I came back from my sabbatical and I You know was fresh in thought I Decided to quit drinking and then because I quit drinking I was clear and thought and then I had a vision to go after this job And I got the job as sports center anchor on ESPN So I can actually look back and go well, you know what that's those sabbatical that's sabbatical really did Trigger a lot of amazing things in my life. Yeah Exactly. Is that how you is that how you have found it? Absolutely every time so the two questions that you asked which I think are very interesting The first one was that it's outside the zone of what an average American things But the surprising thing is that I've done it within the context of American corporations Right. So like so the three companies that have given me sabbaticals are Procter and Gamble the Boston Consulting Group and craft foods Which are as American as you can get in a way, right? And I feel like what happens is that we all reach points in our Mid careers or whichever where we want to make a change and then we just like quit and go start our own companies Or do something like that But like here is a different model in which you can just Like take a break from your company and if you ask they do give it to you I think most people don't even ask because either they don't have the imagination to or they don't know what they'll do in the year So I think in one sense, I think it's much easier than people think it is in in getting that from your Company if you will and then the second points that you made are Absolutely excellent. I think what happens is that you end up living a completely different life In the year that you have off like so for instance if I thought think about that last sabbatical For the four months that I was I was like in an ashram in India Like meditating and like living or sleeping on a floor in the ashram and taking cold cold shards in the Himalayas that like willful poverty physically that lack of Emotional materialism in a way because I think what happens with people like us is that we are We are away from physical materialism like we don't think of houses and cars and stuff But we get into this emotional materialism of wanting Friendships and wanting to meet the right people always connecting growing constantly And I think that emotional materialism also leads to a lot of noise and in that year that you're off I just also let go of that need to hunger to grow all the time and like meet connections and do this I'm just reading one or two books and meditating and and then you come back with like completely Different perspective and then life changes accordingly, you know Like for me, that's what's happened is that I came back and I actually get promoted faster in my work I like so just things just start to happen because I'm much more silent inside, you know, yeah Yeah, it's very interesting. Um, it's funny, you know, because I I took a lot of mini sabbaticals I guess through my 20s and into my in my 30s like I did go off And travel and take a year off and I went backpacking through the u.s. Sorry through um Through the Middle East. I went from Cairo up through Jordan and Syria and Israel Lebanon up to Turkey to Istanbul I did that trip and then I was spent time in in Asia and Thailand and India where you're from and Malaysia and You know, I've been all through South America. I remember taking I think three three months off where I went so I started in in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil and then I went up through Peru and climb did the Inca trail to much much You pitch you I went to Bolivia and Then later on I would I ended up in Colombia and I ended up living in Colombia on and off for for a couple of years Which was kind of like a sabbatical in the sense that I was just working when I wanted to work But most of the time I was just doing whatever um You know what it was all those trips were amazing and it shaped who I am There is one this one thing. I'm still not completely sold on doing like a full massive sabbatical because I'm 40 years old and I feel like I'm playing catch up when it comes to my financial life In the sense that if I had not have taken those sabbaticals maybe But maybe I would have focused a lot more on wealth management and creating wealth and and and things like that so I don't know I like I absolutely see all the pros and positives of taking the year off and taking breaks and do that It's just it's shaped who who I am But I wish that when I did it I actually integrated Financial and wealth management learning into those sabbaticals because otherwise You know, I wouldn't feel like I'm like trying to like, you know, really focus and be really go orientated now So I can really achieve my financial financial. Yeah. Yeah. Think about that. No, I think it's a very interesting question. The economics of it are Like very surprising for me. So I'll give you a very tangible example, right? The 313 model helps me a lot for the economics of it because the three years that I'm working Like I'm working very hard and working on my job and working on my writing or whatever and I'm accumulating wealth during that time Right. So I'm conscious about saving because I know that the year is going to come when I spend money, right? So I think that helps a little bit to to know Going in that I'm about to Kind of like spend money without making it. So there's no objective to make money in the year off Having said that what I've seen very surprisingly is That I'm always richer after a sabbatical and I'll give you An example of just the latest one right two years ago when I was off I spent a year. I I spent only 25,000 and me and my wife went together. We spent $25,000 that year because Like honestly, you don't spend more than that when you're living in an ashram for four months and you're Staying like backpacking in hostels and stuff um, and then When I got a book deal from random house for a six-figure book deal from random house at the end of the sabbatical for the novel that I'd written And I've seen this consistent pattern that the growth that you have as a person Returns in some tangible outcome and in that way, it's a very tangible outcome that I wrote a novel that got a book deal With random house for six figures, right? So that's even more tangible But in in in general like I feel I feel that it's financially always paid out Even if it's a drain in the short term if you will You know, well, you'd have to say for me in my example Yeah, it panned out because I came back and I got my landed my dream job of hosting sport center on espn right after the sabbatical You know, that's led to many other things. So And that's happened to me consistently exactly because it's always happened that I don't know how exactly but when you come back it does Lead to because you've grown as a person and that has some value in the world Even if you don't know what it is immediately, you know And then I remember when I even going back a few years earlier in 1998 when I quit my job as a newspaper reporter And I went traveling for three months and then I arrived in london in the I think it was february or march of 1999 And I was sleeping on a friend's sofa for you know Four or five or six weeks and I had lost all my money. I spent all my money and the big town was very strong But then but then on day on week six I landed a job at sky sports as a as a Cricket and rugby reporter at sky sports Got a got a great job there So I guess you could say there's there's correlation And then I guess you could say the sabbatical that I took in columbia where I was there Just kind of hanging out learning some spanish and doing a little bit in there I was learning online marketing which kind of inspired me along the path to to build an online business Which then when I came back to los angeles, I met Tai Lopez who's now my my business coach and mentor You want to follow tai you can if you're listening to this you want to follow him? Just go to my website jameswanick.com forward slash 67 steps he has a program called 67 steps And so yeah, as we're talking now, I guess I'm seeing a correlation between Taking time off what you would call a sabbatical and then monumental change happening Exactly. Yeah, I mean it's uh, yeah You just have to surrender to the fact that you don't know what that changes like it's not a It's not such a goal-directed sabbatical that you know that I'm taking a year off to start an online business you're actually taking a year off to Do nothing or like, you know, just become completely go less. So there's that fall into the unknown but um But you do like end up like that fall into the unknown always Helps you land on your two feet in almost a better way. That is that's what I have found so far Right. Yeah, let me uh, let me play devil devil that advocate on this. Um, a little bit Ty Lopez who I mentioned just before is a very successful multimillionaire creator of many businesses says, uh, that his Mentor told him that if you need his mentor was a guy called Joel Salatin who's very famous in agricultural world here in the united states and Um, he said that he said if you need to take a a vacation from your job Then you know from your from your life, then you know, you don't have a very good life or you don't have a very good job like do What you would ordinarily do anyway? So he says do for work or do for for your job or do for money What you would ordinarily do if you weren't getting paid for it. So ty has been very successful in Uh, living a life now where he has a home in Beverly Hills uh, and he has world-class mentors coming to his home every single day to coach him in martial arts in basketball in poker in logic in business training in the piano in uh, yoga Chiropractic come so all of these world-class mentors come to his home Every single day and he films him Getting this and he pays them. He pays a lot of money for it You know thousands of dollars for these mentors to come and he builds programs and teaches people around the world and they pay him for it So his business is his life. So what do you say to the idea of? We shouldn't be trying to take sabbaticals. We should just be enjoying our life And integrating our work and our job and our money-making activities into our daily life, you know Anyway, yeah, I mean Should the two two kind of thoughts that I like I have One is a very practical thought that like as an A little bit as an artist as a writer Um, especially as a fiction writer as a novelist I do believe to an extent in the sex and cash theory if you will So the old sex and cash theory that what you do for Cash should not be what you do for sex. You should keep it separate in a way So like your true creativity comes when you are completely not Obligated to do it for any other reason than to fulfill your soul So and that so and I personally have found that that's been very very very effective for my writing When I compare to people who become full-time novelists in India like so to give you India as an example. I've seen that the moment people have turned the switch from becoming Writing the first novel to becoming full-time novelists Their quality of output has started to reduce because they've started to write to audiences and this and that And while I've seen that like since I've never relied on like writing for my income at all I've always been very pure to what has Been very close to my soul at that point and that's always grown and changed and I've never written to a genre or an audience So in some way I feel that my full creative expression is coming because my sex and cash streams are separated And I feel like in a way the same way about a little bit about the sabbatical is that if I'm not That I'm very pure and selfless in what I'm doing But I'm not linking it to money at all and and that leads to very good output So that's kind of one kind of thought and the second thought where I just like a little bit Have a different opinion than Tyler pays is that I feel we are very multi-dimensional people and When you tie your life to one dimension that you're working in and making money and I don't know if you're fully Even understanding and knowing who you are and what you're capable of versus If you just take a break from all of that and spend four months meditating I I can guarantee you that some part of you will Transform change become deeper and you'll figure out things that you didn't know about yourself if you will Like I didn't even know I'm an engineer a business school graduate. I didn't even know I could write a novel I mean, how would I ever know that like I've never had any training for that But it was after the first sabbatical that I started to think that I could Capture those experiences and it ended up becoming a number one bestseller in India The point being that I didn't know that those dimensions existed within me Right with those two thoughts. I have a little bit of a different opinion that like you're Like I think life is not just one stream of constant activity, but Like a series of like deep explorer deeper and deeper explorations within you if you will, you know Right Yeah, yes, it's uh, it's fascinating. Isn't it because there's so many different ways we can choose to live our lives That's that of course is true. Yeah, I mean we can live it We can take a nine to five job and work Monday through Friday and have the weekends off and be happy with that Yeah, we can work for ourselves from home Make our own hours and work. Yeah, you know a certain time of the year and take one day off a week We can integrate our work into our life and never take a day off ever and and love that and enjoy our life We can Work for three years and take a one-year sabbatical with the goal of doing absolutely nothing Yeah, I'm living off savings and uh, or investments or whatever Yeah There's we can get caught up in the in in what I would you know describe as the American Dream which is work work work make make make money make money make money Buy nice things but start a family and you know live a nice life that way or we can uh work For a few months take off a few months work for you take off a few months. Yeah Take off a year. Take off. Yeah It's really quite a fascinating life that we can live life whatever we want But the issue is is that even you suggesting that you would take a one-year sabbatical to some people would be just So confronting and so overwhelming and so like out of the realms of possibility They would consider it out of the realms of possibility because their environment has always been work Weekends work save up for a mission and and so forth So we have this societal pressure. No we we have this This uh These social norms. Yeah, wherever we grew up whatever our parents did whatever our friends do That kind of dictates how we think about that. So how do we really? Break out of whatever mindset we have on this And actually take The plunge now in this example We're talking about someone who works and then is like how do they take the plunge of like literally taking a year off We can use that as an example, but it might be the same mentality for someone who's a slacker And yeah, we eat and plays video games all day and never gets anywhere And that's their life and they want to break out of that norm and actually build a business Yeah, and focus on building, you know Take a break from taking a break. You know, yeah People can you can go too far down the rabbit hole and yeah quite lazy and unproductive So how does someone really break the norm? I guess is And take the plunge in in taking a year off or or something. Yeah. Yeah. I think uh, james. I think it starts with building the muscle In in smaller spans So what I see the problem is that when people take vacations From their work or whatever they take a vacation and they'll go to a beach resort And then it's some kind of a physical vacation, but it's not truly a Like a mental like you're not truly taking a break from your mind. It's the same person who's going to a Different environment in a more relaxed setting where I start with is that if you start building the muscle of taking these 10 or 10 day breaks which are deeper more meaningful and away from your Uh, I guess from the physical materialism kind of of your life So for instance a 10 day vipassana meditation retreat, which is a silent meditation retreat I've done that. Yeah, you've done that climbing Kilimanjaro for a Like you're so so you're so Involved and absorbed in that activity that you're doing that you forget yourself if you will and you forget your conditioning And you start building that muscle in 10 day increments, which is possible to everyone instead of going to Bora Bora or whatever somebody can go to like a Like like a like a remote vipassana retreat or climb Kilimanjaro. All these are very accessible what starts to happen then is that you start to Declutter a lot and you start realizing For instance, when you're climbing Kilimanjaro or like, you know, hiking the Camino de Santiago You start realizing that This is all I need like, you know me with the backpack And walking And and I guess that's complete and I think all the other things that I've set up around myself are not perhaps necessary So I think you start building the muscle with small activities that are very accessible to everyone Versus taking even a like so unconventional vacations lead to I guess slowly starts leading to a more unconventional life. I think Okay That's one approach and then my second idea there is James is creation I think the act of creating something Whatever that be writing music painting art your business online business, whatever the moment you start getting Moving from a consumption mode to a creation mode. I think that opens up very new channels in your life Like for me, for instance, the moment I started writing a novel It started opening this idea that in order to fill the well, I had to need I needed more experiences And then I sought more experiences and then I needed to constantly replenish the well with more experiences So the moment I moved to creation mode The the imperative to have more depth as a person became very high Right So I think that's what I recommend again like anybody can start creating something And that like opens a whole new door that you didn't know existed You know, so I think creation indications is what I would say I would suggest if if anyone listening or watching this is is young like the finished college or whatever I would say go and take a year off and just travel around the world Wherever you are like whether you're in america or canada or austria or england or wherever you're listening or watching And you're still Young just take a year off. It was the best thing that happened to me. I mean I went I went through europe. I saw, you know, like italy greece spain. I went through through You know, like I saw the places in syria now where no one would ever go because because of isis and all the drama there I actually was there. It was wonderful. Now pal mera says anxious ancient city I went and and explored that beautiful that beautiful Those beautiful ruins there in syria. You can't go there now isis actually captured it and and and damaged it And blew up some of the some of the monuments there and But you know, that was a wonderful experience and I remember there were days where I had a lot of solitude for a couple days I didn't really talk to anyone else. I was living staying in a little hostel and I didn't I sort of kept to myself Those experiences really shaped your personality and you it shows you that you can just do whatever Truly lots of different situations, you know Even when I was in What happened even when I was in Trinidad and Tobago I got I was watching the cricket. Australia was playing the west indies in the in a cricket cricket game at Can't remember what the name of the park was anyway I drank too much beer and I got too much sun and I had I ate too much food And I got food poisoning and I ended up in a hospital Uh in Trinidad and Tobago and even that as bad as it was in the moment Was an experience that I thought I'd laugh about now and joke about and now if I get into a similar situation I know exactly what to do because I have experience so You know, you obviously don't wish that upon you, but there's something about being in a foreign land And being in a different culture Where even if seemingly bad things happen to you in the moment Like you get so much experience from getting out of those situations situations We agree because subconsciously somebody registers subconsciously that like if I can survive a hospital in Trinidad I can definitely start my own business. I mean like I don't know like I think if you have so many such experiences I think it starts to shape you in terms of what level of difficulty you can handle Well, you know what even the even me doing that 10 day silent meditation. They're a passioner. I did it in a place called I think it's nine palms. It's just outside of the Joshua chewy area about two hours from Los Angeles And I did it there in September 2013 In fact, if you're listening or watching and you want to see I did a video on it Called my 10 day silent meditation You can just go to my youtube channel, which is James swanick and type in My name James swanick and vipa ssa na and you can see I do a little six minute video of me going in and then I I secretly took a sneaky little photo on one of the days And then on the last day when I on the last day I took a video of me coming out of there and you can see the transformation in me when i'm going in i'm kind of like Stressed and anxious and when I come out i'm like super relaxed and chilled But even that 10 day silent meditation really was like a reboot like a reset for me And gave me a lot of clarity on what it is that I needed to do once I got out of that 10 day meditation. So Is it is a 10 day sabbat? What's the shortest sabbatical that we can take to be effective? Do you think? Oh, no, I think 10 days is wonderful. I think anytime the principle is that anytime you're taking a Vacation from your mind if you will Oh that I like I feel like if you just go from like a Like luxury to luxury you're not truly deconstructing and breaking as a person So things like this vipasana for 10 days or climbing Kilimanjaro for five days or machu Picchu in country you mentioned These are like small bursts of activities that are So absorbing so completely absorbing that you are Deconstructing what you know for that period of time and as a result you truly come back with a You know for the lack of a better word with a different perspective. So I think that And and while when you're not pushing yourself to that level you're just kind of like changing a physical environment, but not truly taking a Break if you will a sabbatical if you will so any length of time that's I that's what I feel Yeah, it's a break from your mind really it doesn't even have to be a break from your physical location Exactly. Yeah, although breaking from your physical location By its very nature will give you more creativity because you'll be in a different environment. It's good to do a different environment so But really it's a break from break from your mind. I mean, I know I got a lot of things going on I don't got a I got a podcast. I got a 30 day no alcohol challenge program I got a business called swanis where I sell blue bucking glasses. I I do sales Balls for Tai Lopez. I am I speak on stage at his events. I Have staff who work for me in different different time zones around the world I mean, I got a a lot of stuff going on and even having this conversation is making me realize man I want to actually now. I want to go and take a damn sabbatical, you know But I enjoy like what I do I enjoy but I am very much driven right now by Building those businesses. So when is the right time to say? Stop building for a while or put structure and system in place where it can do okay without you And when's the time to say no, you know what? I got to keep going now Yeah, I mean that's why for me that three one three or four one four Whatever your system works a lot for me because it's very at least I'm very left-brained as I said I'm an engineer It's like it's very I am quite analytical. So it's almost like I know the start and the finish time So in during that start and finish time, I'm never questioning My place in the world. Am I working too hard? Am I do like it's almost like I'm very clear that it's a very defined period of time that I'm going to give it all Because I know that there is a about to come a period of time that I'm not that I'm just going to completely And you never take time off because like if you're driven, you are driven You just take time off from your life as you know it and you I guess channelize that driven energy into I don't know a different pursuit that Like writing or meditation or whatever, which is very I guess a pursuit of the soul if you will versus a pursuit of the world But I but since that timeline is very clear in my mind It makes me very present in every moment Um, you know, so I think that helps versus a lose. Maybe one day I'll take time off That's too like, you know, that's too Like uncontrolled for me if you will, you know how much um, how much money do you think we need in order to to Take a year off and You know, what tips do you have in terms of doing because obviously if you're going to take a year off and money is a concern You don't want to be heading to london. For example, right exactly Or new york city if you know if your finances are a concern So how how much money do we need and where should we go if we want to really extend those? Yeah, so, I mean, I know the developing world very well obviously thailand india all of that stuff you live on a I like a fraction of the money that you live here like so for instance the last one I'm talking about three two and a half years ago in goa in india We had a villa by the beach for six hundred dollars a month And a cook who was making food for us for three hundred dollars a like a month. So you're talking a total living expense of 1500 when you live like a king a month Right, so you're like and that's living like I think you could really cut it down. I'm just saying And especially if you like for now, we went with the family So like we have two kids now So two babies really and we're going to spend four months in cost Rica four months in spain and Four months he had defined but in philippines and again, we are looking at a budget of about two and a half 25 hundred dollars a month With the family so I think for an individual it's about 18 000 for the full year 1500 a month is what I think you should budget for And and for a family I would budget for 2500 or 3000 36 000 But again, if you just if you push the numbers because like You're you're still looking at something like a 25 000 to a 40 000 investment individual or a family Which I think is is a lot but again you Again, if you're focused on working for the three years you do accumulate Thing and then I've again seen again and again that it pays back to me like Like it doesn't pay back in that immediate moment, but at the end of the year 18 month it always comes back. Yeah, okay So it's access places. I mean, I can tell you're living in South America. There's some wonderful South America is some some terrific places to live there argentina and columbia Probably wouldn't suggest venezuela at this point. Um But certainly argentina and columbia chile certain parts of chile are terrific Thailand is always super cheap India is still very very cheap if you're going there with your us dollars and go I mean, I I stayed two weeks and go I go as a The if anyone who's never been the goer in india. Um, there's a scene in the born Supremacy, it's the second movie in the in the jason born movies That's where the movie starts off where jason born's running down running along the beach and The bad guy finds he and his friend and chases him. That's That's goer. So it was good enough for jason born. It should be good Exactly, but I remember I was there and I ate beautiful indian meals every night And I got massages every day and I spent You know a very little amount of money and then I was in remember I went to egypt and I was I can't remember where I was in each is a dahab. I think it's called dahab. It's a little Little coastal town. I was there for a couple weeks that I recall in about 2002 and You know, there's a lot of places in the world We're pretty amazing where you can get by on not much not much money truly Um Tell us a little bit about your your book your books and what book you have coming up and and how you've written those books You know fitting into your sabbatical life if you like Yeah, I mean like it's been a So the new one is called the yoga of maxis discontent. It comes out on may 3rd with random house worldwide and It's about an investment banker who becomes a yogi in the himalayas and it's like a part a adventure through You know hidden night markets and caves and ashrams in india and part of it is obviously a spiritual transformation Um, yeah, I think like again the act of writing through the sabbaticals has been a For me, it's been the biggest thing is been This stripping away of emotional materialism because I've seen that I have a tendency to become very Emotionally materialistic when I mean by that is I'm constantly seeking growth and learning and reading a lot and and I think what's happened with this novel for instances That I for the year that we were off. I just read two books Again and again. I didn't have a kindle. I didn't have a phone. I didn't have a computer. So I Like I think I just kind of tapped into something within myself versus Aggregating ideas from the world. So I think it's been a journey of like simplification purification stripping Stripping life off and trying to find my answers within myself, which has led to I think a very Honest book like the reviews are saying that also again and again the reviews are very are much better than any of my previous novels Like it's very very good reviews and they're all I think it's come because I was very silent while I was writing it and not hungry for Emotional growth if you will I was just okay. I was complete within myself and I think that came led to a very honest effort if you will So the book that you have coming up the yoga of max's discontent Yeah, it's inspired by your sabbatical. Okay, and and I see you got a pretty nice review here from the daily telegraph in the uk Which called it the greatest adventure of our generation. That's nice, isn't it? Yeah, some good reviews are like, you know, I've had very positive reviews with this one Yeah And what were the what were the names of the other novels that you had? The first one is called keep of the grass that was way back in india in 2008 The second one is called johnny gone down there indian there in india only and this is my first kind of like worldwide novel Yeah, okay And what's the theme the theme then of the yoga of max's discontent? What's the theme of that book? The theme like all my novels are in a bit man on a quest Which I think people like us will relate to a lot because we're all on quest but I think I've always this one is a good example in which there is a The the metaphorical quest if you will is very well packaged within a physical quest Through which is an adventure through india like, you know through night markets and Like hidden ashrams and all that stuff. So it's a very so it's a story of a man Being completely transforming But with a physical backdrop like so it's very heavy on a physical hiking and Like hiking through mountains and climbing so it's like it's it's the physical adventure leads to an emotional transformation Yeah, which makes a very page turning and yet deep in a way, you know Which part of india are you from karan? I grew up in the Himalayas so in Shimla, which is a small town in the mountains. Okay. That's where I grew up And uh, yeah, but you know like since then I lived in many parts of india before moving out Yeah, so you've you've experienced it all you lived in new york city and the hustle and bustle and then you Backtrack backpack from europe to india and then you've learned yoga and meditation in the Himalayas like you had a well rounded Life that seems like it's very important to you Yeah, it is, you know, like I hope I hope to be able to continue that and I think having kids has given another dimension to it now Like it's uh Because we are not letting go of the sabbatical life. We are just thinking of it now differently You know how to pull the pull it off with kids So that's the next challenge if you will how is that how is it different doing the sabbatical with kids So the frame like earlier we would like for instance the last one we went uh, we we made no Booking at all right we landed in we just took the cheapest flight to scotland because that was cheap and then from scotland we For four months we just didn't plan even a single day like so we ended up in Bulgaria for two weeks now with kids You can't do that with two babies. So now we're thinking of like four months in one location Four months in an orphanage like so we kind of just planning experiences around them So like we want to learn Spanish as a family for four months and then In four months like work with our hands in an orphanage so that they can like, you know Like otherwise they grow up in new york, you know, they'll hail ubers and you know Life is very Simple and I think it'll be good to work in Cambodia as a whole family and work with our hands for four months together So we want to do this stuff now like move to more Uh, like things that would make sense in their lives, you know, versus just uh Let's backpack and travel like, you know, because I mean you're four years old Backpacking through like, you know seeing new things doesn't make much sense. You want to have a consistent predictable routine in your life and we want to give them routines that are Helping them grow but also like, you know Just make give them a consistent predictable pattern for the day. Yes. Okay. So yeah Well, this has been very interesting Even even that last point there it's like, you know Do you get to the point where you like you try to get your financial house in order to have kids and prepare for it And then you have kids and then you stand in one place and You know versus do you just take your kids traveling with you and you take a sabbatical? It's like so many different ways to live our lives, aren't there? It's it's fascinating But yeah, but traveling with kids is your definition of fun is very different from theirs. I think, you know, that's Like seeing a new Waterfall in Africa will have no Like for them, it's like it's boring, you know, not just like a waterfall and not like, oh It's a wonderful sight and like, you know, they they take pleasure from very different things So you gotta like customize your life a bit, you know Well karan, thank you so much. Where can we find out more about you? Uh current bajaj.com Which is my website has a blog on meditation and writing and stuff. So that's uh That's a very good place and and then obviously all the usual stuff if you real current bajaj on twitter and instagram Author current bajaj on facebook. Yeah, i'm gonna spell it out for the listener here as well karan bajaj, which is k a r a n b a j a j k a r a n karan bajaj b a j a j Dot com i'm on your website here now says modern life through a yogic Prism which is cool how to meditate for passionate meditation how to get Published worldwide there's some cool things on here Thank you. Yeah, try to make it informative. Yeah, and uh So yeah, congratulations karan very uh happy for you and uh, thank you for sharing your your story about uh, You know taking a sabbatical it's something that i'm Now you've reignited the sabbatical in me I should go and take a few more even though i've done it consistently I should do a bit more of it, right? Yeah, you've done a lot though To give you credit like you've done most than anybody would do in one lifetime, so Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate it No, thank you james. This has been a pleasure and um, you know, thank you for your generosity in In interviewing and being so open. Thank you. Thank you karan. Take care. Bye