A Detour into Art in Bir

When I told people I was heading to Bir for the next leg of my learning journey, the guesses poured in. “You’re going to learn paragliding, right?”

Fair enough. Bir is the paragliding capital of Asia, after all. And as much as I would love to learn paragliding, that’s not what called me here this time.

I came for something quieter. Something slower. Something that’s been on my mind for a long time. I came to explore art.

Because I have told myself a billion times that – “I’m not an artist”. And I so wanted to change that.

The Spark That Led Me to Bir

I didn’t know that there was a thriving art scene in Bir.

In fact, it was a single workshop on Mindful Storytelling that put Bir on the map for me. It was conducted by Shivya Nath, a travel storyteller who has been my inspiration for years!

When I heard about this workshop, I immediately signed up. And then I got to know more about the place where it was conducted – Deer Park Institute. It’s not like anything I have seen before. It’s a monastery-turned-institution that’s trying to preserve the Nalanda tradition of accessible education by providing workshops, seminars and retreats on a donation basis. I was beyond intrigued!

I couldn’t believe how perfect this was for my journey – New Roads, New Skills. Especially considering my very tight budget.

So, I immediately dived into their website to check their program schedule. The next two workshops sounded very interesting: Chasing Rainbows (a retreat on reflecting on the goals and milestones we chase in life) and Art Alive in the Mountains (a painting workshop).

I signed up for both and looked at my calendar. The workshops stretched across 3 – 4 weeks. And I also wanted to slow down, so I decided I would stay longer.

It occurred to me that this would be the perfect time for me to explore art.

Letting Curiosity Take the Lead

I still didn’t have a clear plan of action or a specific goal. As badly as I wanted to establish it, I decided to let things flow with curiosity. Because after weeks of training my body in Kalari, I wanted to turn inward. To feed my mind and spirit in a way that felt open-ended.

Bir turned out to be the perfect place for that.

This town holds a secret that’s not immediately obvious—it’s a quiet haven for artists and dreamers. A place where creativity feels accessible. Gentle.

I wasn’t sure what kind of art I wanted to pursue. Maybe I’d write more. Or experiment with photography. Videography felt exciting—something that could support my content creation. And painting… well, painting always felt a little too far. Too “not me.”

The workshops in Deer Park gave me a peek into three of them – writing, photography and painting.

While it was easy to apply the lessons from the workshop into my already full-fledged writing practice, the next thing that I fell in love with was actually painting. And I have been pursuing that, not to become a great painter but to just have fun with colours and have fun learning tiny little tricks here and there.

But, each of these workshops shaped me in unexpected ways beyond art exploration—and I’ll be sharing more about them in upcoming posts (I’ll link them here as they go live).

How Three Workshops Changed the Way I See Myself

• Mindful Storytelling, where I reconnected with the joy of being fully present in the stories we tell and live.
• Chasing Rainbows, a poetic exploration of Buddhist philosophy and learning to chase things without attachment.
• Art Alive in the Mountains, a painting workshop that helped me stop saying “I can’t draw” and start saying, “I’ll try.”

So yeah, I came to Bir without a map. And that’s exactly why I found things I didn’t know I was looking for. When you let curiosity be your compass, the journey is never boring.

It’s alive. It’s surprising. And sometimes, it brings you home to parts of yourself you’ve been waiting to meet.