One month before May, I was looking for volunteering opportunities in Rishikesh for a secret project—testing a concept related to travelers and travel. Why Rishikesh? Because it’s a hub for travelers from around the world, and it’s known as the yoga capital of the world. With this in mind, I started applying to different hostel chains like The Hosteller and GoStop. However, they weren’t looking for volunteers at their Rishikesh properties because their properties were already established there. I found out that most new properties look for volunteers or want unpaid employees to do specific tasks. Also, if you have a good social media presence, know multiple languages, or have a lot of travel experience, it’s much easier to secure a volunteer position at well-known hostels.

But my journey truly began in May when my mom left for our village to attend a wedding. At that moment, I decided, “Forget about volunteering, let’s just go to Rishikesh.”

I packed light—just two t-shirts, two pairs of track pants, two pairs of underwear, and… no condom (just kidding). That night, I left home and took a bus from Uttarakhand Parivahan to Haridwar, and then onward to Rishikesh.

But this post isn’t really about that journey; it’s about three months of travel with volunteering. So, I’ll skip the two weeks I spent in Rishikesh and move on.

After Rishikesh, I went to Dharamshala, as most travelers were heading there due to rising temperatures in Rishikesh (thanks, global warming).

Getting into the First Volunteering Opportunity

As I mentioned earlier, I was testing a concept related to travelers and travel, so I followed the trail to Dharamshala. After days of exploring, talking to travelers, and staying at a hostel called Mitra Hostel in McLeod Ganj, I found some of the best people in the world—tourists, backpackers, a real community of travelers. I even sent a LinkedIn DM to the founder of Mitra Hostel for a volunteer position (since my pockets were reaching Nirvana).

I didn’t get a response, though. To be fair, the founder owns six hostels and is probably super busy managing them. I also told Himanshu (another volunteer who was shooting social content and pictures of the property) about my situation. One day, the manager of the property went to Delhi, and we were left with just one intern, Tapan, who had joined that day, along with Himanshu and me. And this was during peak season!

Tourists were pouring in to escape the summer heat in the mountains. So, it was just the three of us handling the entire hostel.

One evening, a big, loud Punjabi family arrived. They had booked different dorms for individual family members—one in the female dorm, one in a six-bed dorm, and two in a twelve-bed dorm. But the guy who made the booking thought Mitra Hostel was a hotel! I had to help them cancel their booking. After a long call with MakeMyTrip’s customer support, where the verification call kept going to the owner instead of the hostel phone, we finally got the booking canceled after 45 minutes.

While all this was happening, another Punjabi family came in for a walk-in booking. The hostel had one private room available, and they wanted it. Just as we were about to create the booking, someone booked it online, paying right away. We had no choice but to tell them the room was no longer available. They got furious. With every property fully booked during peak season, they had nowhere to go.

They started shouting at us, and we were trying our best to explain the situation. But they wouldn’t listen. Just then, the owner’s girlfriend (who was from Messi’s country, Argentina) arrived and asked them to speak in English and to stop shouting. And, in response, the loud Punjabi aunty yelled, “We are not shouting!” At that point, I couldn’t help but sarcastically think, “Yeah, Aunty, you’re definitely not shouting.”

After a lot of effort, we finally managed to resolve the situation. Himanshu, Tapan, and I even touched the feet of an old lady from the cancellation group to receive her blessings at the end of that wild episode of that day.

Next day, himanshu came to me and Said you’re food and stay is free..

The Cafe, The community, And The Friends

After that, I started helping with everything—making beds, serving in the café, attending to guests when no one else was around. The best part was making friends by talking to the guests, suggesting the best places for them to visit. For tourists, I’d recommend popular spots, and for backpackers, more offbeat places. I also enjoyed learning about the challenges they were facing.

Those recommendations taught me sales—or what I call serving others. If I knew the veg sandwich at Mitra Hostel was the best, I’d suggest it to guests when they asked. If someone asked for affordable food, I’d recommend something budget-friendly that I found tasty, explaining the flavor or what I liked about it.

I also recommended places outside the hostel, based on their food preferences. For example, if someone wanted the best thukpa, I’d suggest a restaurant where I tried it and loved it(A small local Tibetan restaurant on Tibetan Road).

Problem Solve

While dealing with this, I also found out that the water pipe at Mitra Hostel was clogged. The government provides two water pipelines to every property, but one of the pipes at Mitra wasn’t functioning, and no one was fixing it. So, I decided to find a solution myself. I went to the neighbors to ask how the water lines worked and met a retired army man who runs a café with his wife. I explained the situation to him, and he told me that water comes between 6 AM and 9 AM, so we should be ready in the morning. The next morning, we went to the pipeline junction where all the neighborhood’s pipelines are located.

The biggest problem was that no one know which pipe belonged to Mitra Hostel. People had marked their pipelines, but Mitra didn’t know which one was theirs. So, we started testing the pipes by opening the screws for cleaning. We cleaned each pipe that seemed like a possible match for Mitra’s, but we still couldn’t figure out which one was clogged.

The problem was that one of the pipes didn’t have a screw for cleaning. The army man also told me that the property next to Mitra Hostel used to be owned by someone who might know about the pipes. However, the challenge was that he was rarely at his café. I also learned from another neighbor, who works behind the Mitra property, that the hostel had been getting water from outside since their pipes weren’t working.

Then, one lucky day, I saw the old owner on Mitra’s roof working on his café’s water tank. Out of curiosity, I started talking to him. I found out he was the previous owner and asked him about the pipes. He was a helpful man and showed me Mitra’s pipeline. I marked it with black tape and finally figured out the problem. The pipe didn’t have a screw and was tied with a piece of polythene, causing all the water to spill onto the street.

I went to the market in Dharamshala and bought a screw. Meanwhile, a new manager arrived at the property. When I got the screw, the manager took the plumber to the pipeline junction. I wanted to talk to the plumber, but the manager seemed to be handling everything. So, I gave the screw to the reception and asked them to pass it to the manager. The next day, the screw was in place, and the problem was solved.

That event taught me an important lesson about hacking and the Alexandra-Gordian knot event

Gordian knot is a legendary knot tied by Gordius, the king of Phrygia. The story goes that whoever could untie the knot would become the ruler of Asia and cut by Alexander the Great with his sword )

Sometimes, the best way to solve a big problem isn’t through complex code or complicated methods, but something as simple as “Talk”. Small hacks like that can help change the world and get a Girlfriend😄