Lockdown has been challenging for everyone, but even tougher for the wanderers and itinerant. The past year has been rather terrifying and the places that were once populous and major tourist spots are now isolated. The spread of the deadly coronavirus has unpredictably brought the usual life and travel to a complete standstill. But not for Nikhil Chawla, a food and travel vlogger documenting food, cities, countries, and life of himself as well as that of those around him on his YouTube channel ‘HMM’.
“Owing to the lockdown across the world, the travel and tourism industry is left impacted, and has left millions without a source of income. We have always supported Inter state tourism and our local food is one of the attractive feature and we all should support street vendors”, believes Nikhil Chawla.
As a vlogger who’s hardly indoors, having to spend months at home in isolation seemed overwhelming to Chawla at first, but that couldn’t stop him from planning his next steps and coming up with ideas on how to not lose connection with the external world as well as his subscribers. The only motto he abided by was that the show must go on; rest of the things will fall in place. In no time, he took this quarantine as a challenge and made a resolve to leverage his platform and online presence for the betterment of his country by promoting local street vendors and small businesses whilst also endorsing interstate tourism.
In a bid to execute this initiative, the young vlogger commenced a new series on his widely-followed YouTube channel, which would solely document his ongoing initiative. Keeping the safety protocols in mind, Chawla, with his team, began this journey and made the first visit to the “pink city” – Jaipur-Rajasthan! With oximeter, sanitizers, and other essentials, Chawla and the team left on a voyage that would potentially contribute towards improvement in tourism in Rajasthan. Ever since, they have, individually as well as together, covered cities like Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Ajmer, and Pushkar.
At present, the team HMM is focused on promoting the interiors of Madhya Pradesh and Chennai. It’s interesting to witness how young vloggers are mapping India through YouTube!