Hello everyone! My name is Rajiv Chopra and I definitely hope that my microphone is recording. It is recording. I haven't done a podcast on Substack for a very long time. I would say it's been over a year since I've done a podcast here, and I intend to stick to my plan to make this as extempore as possible without reading through a speech, because I just can't do that. That also means I'm going to make a few grammatical mistakes. I'm going to make a few ums and ahs and a few pauses, but live with that. My intent from this podcast is also to make a few recordings from the street, and the idea, or the thought behind that is to bring you something live in terms of what I am seeing and what I'm experiencing and what life on the street is all about. And it's not just the streets, but it's also about my travel photography. I've changed the name of the podcast from a tramping podcast to The Dusty MC Chronicles, and the reason I did that is because somebody posted a comment on my YouTube channel pointing out that in countries like America, the common perception of a tramp is a loose woman. I had actually taken my inspiration from Mark Twain and his book, A Tramp in Europe, or something like that. I thought, that's a wonderful book and a fantastic travelogue, but that's just the way that life is. So I went to Deep Seek and I asked Deep Seek for a few ideas, and we worked on Deep Seek gave me the idea or the inspiration to work on the dusty road, because when you're traveling in India, you are going to be on dusty roads.
You don't have these pristine, beautiful roads like you have in most of Europe and parts of the USA because, well, in the USA you do have a few deserts, so you do have a few deserts, but. For the most part, the roads there are quite nice and dust free, which is a stark contrast from India. So here I am. Now the plan for this podcast is to make short 5 to 7 minute episodes. Not longer than that, because I don't think anybody is going to have the patience to sit and listen to me drone on for 10 or 15 or 20 minutes. I sometimes listen to podcasts when I'm driving and often I tune out, so I think 5 to 7 minutes is good. And why 5 to 7 minutes? Because I've been listening to the Heroes of Thought series from Lenswork Brooks Jensen, and he keeps his daily podcasts to about 5 to 7 minutes. These are nice, bite sized little episodes. My plan is to talk about photography, about life in India, and to talk about everything on the streets, travel, landscape, whatever. This also means that sometimes when I travel, I will record a few episodes and I will then post them when I'm back. So the tramp has gone as far as the podcast is concerned. The tramp has gone as far as the YouTube channel is concerned, but the tramp still lives on as far as the blog is concerned, so I won't change that. I will just make. I will just keep that or retain that as tramping Jumping in India. And why not? Tramping in India is a great way to talk about travels.
Life in India and in a certain way, a tramp while being very screwed in a certain way. A tramp is free. That's just what I think, because a tramp is only constrained by his or her economic and social situation, but is not constrained by all the rules of society that most of us have to adhere to. We just say, oh, screw you, man. Let's move on. So that's why I like the tramp. I like the figure of the tramp, the carefree tramp. And the other inspiration, apart from Mark Twain is a little book by Enid Blyton, actually, where a king actually came up or walked upon a brownie sitting under a tree, lying under a tree, and the brownie asked him if he could wear the King's shoes, and the brownie wore the King's shoes and became the king. After a year, after a day, not even a year. After a day of going through the king's life, he escaped from the palace, went back where the king was lying happily under the tree, his fried egg and toast next to him, and he kicked off the shoes and told the king, sire, I appreciate you, and I appreciate everything that you do, but damn, I am not going to live your life. You jolly well go back to being a king and let me be. And let me live my life as a brownie. And I will cheer for you whenever I see you passing by. So the tramp lives on as far as the blog is concerned. But for the rest, it's the dusty road. Or in this case, the dusty MC Chronicles. See you next time.
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