Homeless

Homeless.
I have used this word more in the past month than I have in the past year.

Why?

I’ve just quit my job to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

What I also ‘quit’, is my home; By that I mean that I vacated my house in Bombay, and don’t quite intend to get another place.

Am I high?

I want to be homeless. I am choosing to be homeless.

Well not the exact connotation of the word — I do have a home in Greater Noida, which is where my parents live.

I mean this in a sense that I don’t intend to get a stable place of residence in Bombay, which is where I am going to be based out of.

(And yes, I’m two beers down.)

How?

The plan is to crash with friends and folk who will happily take me in for two weeks or longer. To be able to do this, I’ve given away a lot of my possessions — to charity, to friends, and to strangers who are now friends.

All I have now is my laptop and a suitcase. This is all I want to survive on, per se.

I plan to be a nice house guest, cook the occasional breakfast, help with house work, and a part of household expenses. I don’t intend to stay at any one place for too long, for two reasons.
First, so I don’t get on anyone’s nerves; second so that I remain true to the spirit of what I’m trying to do — stay homeless.

I do have 4–5 ‘solid leads’ right now, of friends volunteering to host me, so that’s a great start!

[If you’re willing to host me, do let me know — I will be more than grateful. You can drop me a line at abhishekaggy@gmail.com]

Why?

There’s two parts to this — a practical aspect stemming my efforts to bootstrap (or my baniya roots) and an emotional aspect stemming from the grand summation of all the baggage and experiences I likely carry.

0’s and 1's

I intend to continue to be based out of Bombay for the near future. As any person familiar with city will tell you, the cheapest you can find a place of your own for, would be about INR 15k, across most locations. A paying guest accommodation isn’t quite an option because of the hours I’m likely to keep and because I do quite like that occasional drinking night.

Add to that INR 15k a few basic living expenses (maid, electricity, internet etc.) and you’re easily dishing about INR 20–25k per month. That money easily gets me another member on the team.

The Rest

There are a couple of reasons here:

• I want to try and lead a more minimal lifestyle — doing away with those possessions I didn’t quite need any more is a part of that.
• I wish to not have an anchor to anything physical / material in my life. I believe this will help me form more meaningful anchors — my work, my relationships, my friendships and most importantly, myself.
• I want to connect more to (new) people, and people I may not be that close to — and I think living with them would be a great way to accomplish that.
• I want to test and push myself — my adaptability, my comfort with uncertainty, my interpersonal skills and pulling through in difficult situations

Have you ever lived a nomadic / homeless lifestyle? How was it? What were your reasons?
Do you have any tips for me as I embark upon this journey?