Rutavi Mehta is a young and talented women explorer and traveler from Maharashtra India. She is among the globally reputed travelers of India .Rutavi Mehta is a busy traveler always exploring new places and cultures. Rutavi Mehta is the founder of prestigious PhotoKatha (where if you break Photo means picture, and Katha is Hindi word, where it means “stories”). Pertinently, Idea came to her mind when she visited first time to the world famous festival location in the desert named as “Kutch Festival, Gujarat”.
In an exclusive interview with The News Kashmir Magazine , Rutavi Mehta talks to Rameez Makhdoomi.
1 Tell us a bit about your childhood days?
My childhood days was more spent playing outside like every other kid . Cycling, played hide and seek were my favourites. Being a Gujarati folk dancer , winner of many famous TV serial shows like Boogies Woogie, National Gujarati Folk Dancer Female Awards, dancing is something I grew up with. Learned many dancer forms as well like jive, sala, fox trot,etc but then Indian culture took sabbatical and then studies was give importance by folks.
2 How was academic life like?
Stood 1st in Maharashtra Board in 10th , been a good student throughout school, active about sports like basketball, Captain of my school was something I managed as well. Under graduation from Arts was from Mumbai Second Best College- Jai Hind College, where culture and arts were imbibed in each students. Then Bachelors in International Hotel Management from Institute of Technology & Management affiliated with Queen Margaret University , Scotland, UK where I stood second in the final year , being the only student to be trained in India’s Best Luxury Hotel –Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
3Where you always passionate about travelling?
I was always passionate about travelling, during school days and college days and would just go roaming around school alone sometime , or bunk college and go with friends to discover new places in Mumbai. Largely my passion about travelling touched new horizons when I did my first international trip to Italy , Switzerland, etc at age of 23 where for 30 days I realized I have missed so many great things in my life.
4 Tell us a bit about photokatha?
Photokatha – where if you break Photo means picture , and Katha is Hindi word , where it means “stories” came to my mind when I went first time to the great festival location in the desert names as “Kutch Festival, Gujarat”. I was invited by Gujarat Tourism to experience Kutch Festival, create photographs and send it across to them. During this visit, along with my team , we thought of many innovative ways how to convey these emotions, cultures, stories of places via photos we took to world. These paradigms became cornerstone of how “Photokatha “ name was initiated. Even with great brain storming with my team , the logo was again a mix of Hindi and English characters to keep the Indian culture intact.
With my great travelling experience to Europe, Srilanka, Qatar, I decided to quit corporate life and take sabbatical break to start Photokatha full-fledged with no support from market and no investment as well. Photokatha now creates great value for money personalised packages where I have shared my experience of stays and travel, backpakers, luxury trips depending on the review done by Photokatha team. Along with travel, sine the world is digitally active , Photokatha also runs social media campaign across India and international for companies like National Geographic , Standard Chartered, AXN, Castrol, Garnier, Turtle on the beach ,etc sector wise as well we manage their online campaigns and India, world trending activity as well.
5 What have been your favorite travel expeditions?
My favorite expedition is never one. As each place has its own beauty , where Ladakh is scenic and pure, then Rajasthan is full of colors and culture, while Qatar is mix of city and culture as traditions. However, given a choice I would love travel often to the scenic beauty of Ladakh, and dream destination for me is Antartica .
6 How was your experience with Kerala tourism g?
Wanted to have great understanding of Kerala culture, so thought lets try approaching Tourism to work with them. As matter of fact, they loved my presentation and gave me new portfolio to handle where we invited 25 International Travel bloggers to kerala and took them two weeks in branded bus to explore Kerala through the system of voting and judging Panel called Kerala Blog Express.
7 Who is your rolemodel?
Role model is anybody who like exploring the world. So all the great travel enthusiasts from National Geographic, CondeNast traveller are my role model.
Your message to travel and adventure enthusiasts?
Simple tagline “ Travel and Share Stories” . Your eyes can be somebody’s dream.
