Two Are Better Than One: How Family Travel Changed The Lost Mumbaikar Forever

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor… and a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

I have travelled to more than 90 countries, and most of those journeys were solo. For years, it was just me, the road, my thoughts, and the strange comfort of getting lost. Before airports, visas, and immigration counters became routine, India was my first classroom on two wheels. My bike was freedom, and my highways were therapy. Long rides across states taught me more than any book ever could. Dusty roads, roadside chai, broken maps, and instincts stronger than GPS. That was where travel truly began.

Back then, I believed the road belonged to those who walked it alone.

Then came Sunitha.

At first, it was our frequent trips to Goa, simple escapes that quietly changed everything. Then life moved from Qatar to Dubai, and somewhere between that shift and the restless roads ahead, I truly became The Lost Mumbaikar.

The first international journey may have started with Dubai from Qatar, but the real transformation began when life became a shared adventure. When Sunitha became my permanent travel partner, and later when Julius and Jordan entered our lives, travel stopped being only about destinations and started becoming about belonging.

What began in 2012 with our Egypt trip during the tension of the Arab Spring slowly turned into a family story written across 40 countries.

Travel was no longer about checking places off a list. It became 10 to 12-hour road trips with no fixed plans, old songs playing endlessly, random exits taken because they simply felt right, children sleeping in the back seat while mountains passed outside, and memories created somewhere between petrol stations, sunsets, and roadside cafés.

But family travel is not only postcards and perfect sunsets. It is also the setbacks that become stories later.

I still remember losing my DSLR in Croatia while Sunitha stood beside me, hiding her tears behind dark sunglasses as the police questioned us. I remember standing in Rovaniemi, Finland, frustrated after denting the roof of my RV while chasing the Northern Lights, feeling like I had ruined the trip. And then my own children became my teachers. They comforted me, laughed it off, and reminded me that the journey mattered more than the damage.

That was the moment Ecclesiastes stopped being just a Bible verse and became real life.

Two are better than one. Not because life becomes easier, but because burdens become lighter. Victories feel bigger when shared, and failures hurt less when someone stands beside you. Storms become survivable when someone refuses to let you face them alone.

Solo travel taught me how to discover myself. Family travel taught me why coming back matters.

I still love the silence of solo roads, but I have learned that the greatest luxury in travel is not business class, five-star hotels, or perfect itineraries. It is having the right people beside you when plans fail, roads break, and life tests your spirit.

Countries may impress you, but family changes you forever.

The Lost Mumbaikar way:

“Roads are beautiful when traveled alone, but storms are survived when someone walks beside you.”

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Traveling With My Kids: How the World Became Our Classroom of Love, Courage & Growing Up