Marko's Memoirs #1 - India
Reading from my very first journal - moving to India.
Welcome to an experimental new series.
I bought my first diary within moments of landing in Mumbai, India in 2008. I was 22 years old and had graduated from UCLA less than two weeks before. I’d accepted a job offer to work on a microfinance project in southern India and dove into the deep end. My first natural reaction was to buy a small leather journal and start writing.
That notebook eventually became an informal newsletter, which became a blog and eventually the dream of becoming a full-time writer. That dream then morphed into my decade-long career on YouTube, but here on Substack I want to take you back to those early days when I was still trying to find my way.
That journal I bought on the streets of Mumbai became just the first of dozens of journals I kept in the near decade and a half since. And as I begin the process of sifting through my life experiences to write my first memoir, these journals have become invaluable records. Like time capsules capable of transporting me back to moments in which I still didn’t know where I was going.
In this series (tentatively entitled “Marko’s Memoirs”) I would like to bring you directly into my creative process and allow you to help me shape the stories I’m going to write about. Like the 22-year-old Marko in Mumbai, I still don’t know where all this is going. But I’ll take a page from my younger self and trust in the process.
Here’s what I have in mind. Every few weeks I’m going to crack open a different journal and share some photos and excerpts from the pages within. It’s a chance to set aside the polished, perfectionist version of myself I typically present online and invite you directly into my most intimate and private thoughts.
I’ll then share the significance of that moment and go on to develop these raw journal entries into more polished stories. And you’re invited to witness the process.
I’m starting with that very first journal from the very first day of my travels. I’ll add in a picture of each page, type up the text, and record an audio clip of me reading it with bonus commentary included. Click ‘play’ on the audio file at the top of this post to listen to this one.
Please let me know what you think down in the comments! And do share some memories from the first day of your own adventures - whether it be your first solo trip, moving abroad, or starting a new chapter in life. I look forward to reading your stories!
— Marko
25 June, 2008
After 30 hrs of travel, I have arrived in Mumbai via San Diego —> San Francisco —> Shanghai, China —> Mumbai.
I completed formal graduation from UCLA a week and a half ago on Friday, June 13th, and have since left behind my family, friends, and my girlfriend to steer myself on a course different from the rest.
This morning, I realized just how different a course I am on…
First, the airline lost my bags and they think they accidentally left them in China. I pray they arrive soon but I see this as a lesson in patience.
After completing the necessary paperwork, I went through customs and walked outside to find my driver holding a sign saying “Nark [sic] Ayling.”
Looking around to ensure I wasn’t taking and “Nark’s” taxi, I greeted my driver and walked into the pouring monsoon with only my carry-on backpack.
Luckily I had filled my bag with all of my relatively valuable belongings including my laptop and camera as well as one month’s supply of malaria pills.
The driver drove me to the Somaiya Guesthouse on the other side of Bombay. It took three hours because of traffic!
We went right through the slums and I saw poverty like I never have before. People live on the sidewalk, with only a single tarp to protect them from the monsoon.
It was very wet and rainy, but no one wore shoes. One beggar came to the window and asked for rupees & sang “jingle bells.”
It was hard, but the driver locked the doors and told me to ignore her.
I must remember that my job here is to set up a micro-finance program that will help them “learn how to fish” as opposed to simply giving them a fish, so to speak.
The traffic here makes L.A. pale by comparison. There are simply too many people on the roads. And there are absolutely no rules to driving!
Everyone honks and cuts off others all the time. I thought I was going to die quite a few times. We finally arrived at the modest guest house where I will stay until I find my bags.
I share a room with the general manager of the plant at which I will work for the summer. I went to the office to meet my colleagues and went to lunch with the H.R. manager, Swanali.
She is very nice and she bought me lunch. Then I meet the CEO, a Cornell-and-Harvard-educated man named Samir Somaiya.
He explained that I will be analyzing data to see if their development program is working. He is very nice and I look forward to working with him.
I went out and got a new set of clothes, then took a four-hour nap, ate dinner and went to sleep.
Thank you for reading this experimental post. I’m still trying to figure out what form this series should take, so please feel free to weigh in on the following poll.
What would you be most interested in seeing?
Raw journal entries like this one with an audio commentary (like this one)?
Photos of these journals plus the early blog posts I crafted from them?
Polished stories based on these raw journal entries, showing my process?
Maybe start with raw journals and photos and take us through your journey how you became more polished. Thank you for sharing and I’ve never really “jumped off the deep end” so much. I am a first gen college grad and graduate school grad. I interned in DC on capital hill in college but nothing too crazy. I was not someone who people thought would intern in DC let alone go to college. Maybe I never believe that I could until I did.
Hi Mark, reading journals are always great.... memories remembered and relived! Sharing these make the memories travel like you did. :-) Thanks from Australia from a traveler who he now inspired to read her own journals.... :-)