A Trip Through Memory Lane with Roots and Leisure as 2018 Comes to an End – and a Personal Note from the Team!

2018 is coming to an end, and the year has been amazing. We have had a great time discovering and writing about talented people around the world. Today, we sit down and take a trip down memory lane as we go through our posts, thinking back to everyone and everything that made our journey so meaningful and fruitful.

From the lovely chats to exploring delicious cuisines from across kitchens to covering the most happening events across the country and discovering the best local spots from across corners, we are indeed richer as a whole family.

So take a seat and get comfortable as we go through our year in 2018. As a team and community, we have covered a lot during this year, and here are a few of those which has helped us grow as a family.

Team R&L: Amen (Left) and Tiaren (Right)

People We Met

Through our extended family of contributors, we met so many interesting talents – from artists to travelers to entrepreneurs to what not! Through them, we have expanded our circle of inspiration and we feel so blessed to have met them all.

People We have met in 2018 | Roots and Leisure Family

Food We Discovered

We’ve had a wonderful troop of foodies – from across the country share their favorite local recipes .. from the spicy to the savory to the sweet treats! We are indeed lucky to have this ever-growing family of passionate foodies to help expand our taste palettes – and at the same time, enabling us to bond over our common love of good food.

Food we discovered in 2018 | Roots and Leisure Family

Places We Discovered

And oh the places we discovered! Such a treasure trove that expanded our horizons like we had never even imagined in my minds. From the valleys in the small corners of Nagaland to the ones in expansive Pakistan to the unexplored places across the world.

Places we discovered in 2018 | Roots and Leisure Family

Events We Covered

Year 2018 was a year of exciting events: NAJ Cosfest (Nagaland), NH7 Weekender (Meghalaya), Ziro Festival of Music (Arunachal Pradesh), Kpop world Festival India (Delhi), and the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland. These festivals provided an exciting arena not just for the music lovers and Cosplay fans, but for the whole R&L family to learn about various cultures and talents across the world – and of course, have lots of fun too!

One of the events that we covered this year was the largely successful Cosfest in Kohima which is held every year and is organized by the Nagaland Anime Junkies. It was an amazing event, filled with out-of-this-world cosplays from all over the country. We witnessed the talented otakus and their passion – and we got to meet some like-minded folks from Japan too!

Winners of Cosfest day 1 2018 with the Judges.

Winners of Cosfest day 1 2018 with the Judges.

KPop World Festival India Grand Finale in New Delhi

KPop World Festival India Grand Finale in New Delhi

Ziro Festival of Music in Arunachal was another great outdoor music festival where we got to see live performances from many musical from across the globe – in the backdrop of the natural scenic beauty of Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

NH7 Weekender festival in Meghalaya was another fun fest where the team the opportunity to hang out with the coolest music talents and festival-goers from across the country.

We also got a unique opportunity to tour Wokha district in Nagaland during ‘Tokhu Emong’ – post-harvest festival of the Lotha tribes in Nagaland. The team toured across Wokha – with stopovers in Pangti Village and Doyang river to witness the roosting of the migratory birds ‘Amur Falcon’

Another highlight of this trip was getting to experience the organic beauty and hospitality of the place through our stays at ‘The Woods‘ cottage in Pangti Village and ‘The Hammock Resort‘ at the New Wokha village. Indeed a memorable trip that further fueled our excitement to explore such local gems in Nagaland – and beyond.

Amen and Tiaren during their Wokha tour.

Then finally our live coverage of the biggest festival in Nagaland – the Hornbill Festival of 2018 was one of the biggest highlights of the year. Dubbed the ‘Festival of Festivals’, it’s an annual festival that happens every year from Dec 1-10. It’s a full 10-day festival of bonding, dancing, music, food and cultural extravaganza where the Naga’s celebrate each day of the fest with great pomp.

It’s not December without Hornbill festival – and definitely not a celebration for the R&L fam without us bringing live coverage 🙂 So the team didn’t disappoint (our readers have confirmed through their massive love and response to our event posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We covered it live from day 1, and in case you missed it, you can always read about the event on our blog post about the Hornbill Festival.

Naga Morungs at the Hornbill Festival 2018

Naga Morungs at the Hornbill Festival 2018

Night Market in Kohima Town during the Hornbill Festival 2018

Night Market in Kohima Town during the Hornbill Festival 2018

Perhaps one of the most exciting concerts we attended this year was the K-pop idol group Mont’s concert. It was widely anticipated by fans and it did not dissapoint – to say the least. The team was at the venue to cover the live performances for our Kpop fans from the fam; and to say we all had a blast would be such an understatement!

Rootsandleisure_Kpop band _MONT Nagaland

MONT love at the HIMF | Hornbill Festival 2018

We also had an exclusive interview with Mont where they talked about their upcoming debut and shared their views on Naga food and more.

Roots and Leisure’s exclusive interview with Mont..

The year 2018 has indeed been memorable – meeting new people, learning their stories, and experiencing so many events, what a journey. It is the closing day for the year and the team has all send in messages to our readers. We would not be here without you and we hope to go further with you alongside us. Here’s us sharing our 2018 journey with the fam – and our wishes for the New Year.

Tiaren, Co-founder, Roots and Leisure

Tiaren

“2018 has been a year of transition and growth. Both for Roots and Leisure as well as for me personally. As a community we have grown to 8000+ strong, covering local cultures, events, people, supporting local entrepreneurs across India and across the globe. But we couldn’t have done it without you, the community. Thank you for your continued support and believe in us. Our goal at Roots and Leisure has always been this. To tell stories that you connect with, inspire, put a smile on your face, to showcase local delicacies or recipes, share and learn about each other’s culture and support local entrepreneurs.

I hope that we continue to do this in 2019 and more. I am so excited about the new year. We have a lot of ideas and so much more to achieve. All I will say is watch this space for more! As we go into the new year, my challenge to you is this, take a moment to explore your passion, find out what drives you, take up a hobby – you will never know where it may take you.
Happy New Year!”

Amen, Co-founder, Roots and Leisure

“So much has happened over this past year, and I am ever so grateful for the wonderful team working day and night to put together all the amazing stories daily to keep the R&L spirit alive. Not forgetting the entire community of well-wishers – from our readers to our contributors to our featured guests and everyone who has in their own way contributed to the R&L dream.

On a personal front, it was yet another roller coaster ride where I got to experience so many new things and met plenty of interesting people along the way. All of these, in their own ways, have contributed to making Roots and Leisure pipedream a reality – day by day. Here’s hoping I get to experience the same – ten times over – and more! And sending heartfelt gratitude to everyone reading this for making this journey worthwhile for the entire R&L community. Do not go anywhere, because we have just started the journey, and we are all in this together!”

Toso, Delhi | Social Media Manager

Toso

“2018 has been completely chaotic and went by so fast, I didn’t even realize that the year was ending, but the one major thing I did was join the R&L Team. Looking forward to a New Year with hope and positivity!

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and eat some fine food and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

Shanmi, Imphal | Content Manager

Shanmi

“After I left Delhi for good in the winter of 2017, 2018 has been a year for me to reconnect with my hometown, with the local people and the local church. Being with my parents and receiving all the unconditional love and good food is keeping me at my happiest self 🙂

Moreover, the most amazing experience of the year was getting the opportunity to join the R&L team. Seeing you guys work with so much passion and love has taught me a lot. I get to hear so many inspiring stories of people from different walks of life each day and this really makes my day going. I would like to thank R&L family for guiding me throughout and I wish you guys the very best in the years to come. Keep up the great work!”

Megumi, Mumbai | Editor cum Social Media Manager

Megumi

“2018 was rather weird… A year full of big ups and low lows in my professional & personal life. Taking about the highs, on the personal front, I’m super thankful that I got to travel to a new country, Spain, for the first time ever and experience a lovely music festival – Womad Caceres – with my best friend. We explored the ancient city of Toledo and got to eat some yummy Paella, gammon & churros and made some amazing new friends too!

I also got to sneak in an amazing trip back to Japan with my mother to visit my grandma and we saw a whole new city of Hiroshima together. It was great to take in and get to know a little about this historical city, despite so much adversity, it’s now one of the most beautiful and most visited cities in the country. It’s always great to go back to the homeland particularly cos of the amazing food.I got the chance to visit Manipur for the first time and worked on the Shirock Festival as a tour manager for one of the headlining bands – Steelheart.

Adding to that, as a rock and live music fan, I was blessed to see some amazing shows LIVE right here in India. I got the opportunity to meet my life long rock idols – Incubus this year when they came to play at Supersonic in Pune. It was particularly amazing to share this experience with some of my best friends all together!

On the professional front I was happy to have found a new work family with not one but two fantastic companies – at Games2Win, a Bombay based mobile gaming company – and with R&L of course 🙂 For the next year, I hope we all have a healthy one. And with all the nonsense political and environmental news we’re always hounded with, I hope we can all find some way to move on and make this country and world a safer and peaceful place to live. Wishing everyone a lovely and prosperous 2019 full of amazing music, food, happiness, laughter and hydration 🙂 remember to wear sunscreen.

Lots of love ♥️

Meg “

Nara Longkumer, Hyderabad | Content Manager

Nara

“2018. What a year! It was pleasant and one to remember. I guess this year was a year of finding myself. I entered a new university, joined Roots and Leisure, found new friends, new interest. 2018 is going to be etched into my mind, since I didn’t let this year pass by without achieving anything.

Here’s to hoping 2019 would bring us all good fortunes and good lessons to learn. Live well, live healthy, and don’t forget to learn something new every day. Good luck, and ‘in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.'”