About (Archived 2010)

My name is of Indian origin but my ancestors are of Irish, Scottish, Polish, French, English, Lithuanian, and Native American decent. Since I grew up hearing stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabarata, I relate with the Indian culture more than any other.

My grandmothers' nickname for me has always been "flying cloud", a name that still describes me perfectly.

My primary goal is to be a source of inspiration and motivation for anyone interested in getting more out of life, obliterating the status quo, or doing something to change the world.

The Early Years of My Life

Although I was given an Indian name and raised in a family that was oriented towards the culture of India, my ancestors were of Irish, Scottish, Polish, French, English, Lithuanian, and Native American decent.

I grew up in a small American town about forty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. I was home schooled my entire life and I have no formal education. was raised a strict vegetarian (no meat, fish, eggs, or poultry).

  • Raised Buddhist/Hindu, strict vegetarian
  • Home schooled, self-educated, no formal education
  • Entrepreneurial (currently run a web hosting business)
  • Software Engineer, Technical Support, operated my own IT consulting business with serving both Residential & Small Business clients, many of the early posts on this blog had strong orientation to technology
  • Was a landlord for six years (2003 - 2008) where I handled all real estate management, rental repairs, and property maintenance for 12 rental units (I lost all three properties in the mortgage crisis of 2007)
  • Passion for fitness, health, and pushing physical limitations
  • Love for raw nature, animals, oceans, mountains, jungles, and deserts, Earth
  • Thirst for exploration, travel, adventure, discovery, and acquiring new perspectives
  • Philosophical, spend a lot of time thinking about the greater meaning of life, how we're all connected

Raam on 2010-04-19Greetings traveler and welcome to my little corner of the Internet!

My name is Raam; that's pronounced with a long "a" like in "aardvark", not with a short "a" like "Ram".

Although I was given an Indian name and raised in a family that was oriented towards the culture of India, my ancestors were of Irish, Scottish, Polish, French, English, Lithuanian, and Native American decent.

I grew up in a small American town about forty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. I was home schooled my entire life and was raised a strict vegetarian (no meat, fish, eggs, or poultry).

I write with a vision and a life purpose of promoting sustainable abundance through living and working purposefully.

I can also be found writing on a variety of other topics including entrepreneurship, technology, health, fitness, nature, philosophical questions about life, and most recently about transitioning to and living a nomadic lifestyle.

If reading isn't your thing, you might be interested in listening to a thirty-minute interview I recently did for the From Bottom Up blog.

Nomadic Exploration

In mid-2009 I began selling all my possessions in preparation for the transition to a minimalistic, nomadic lifestyle. The following January, I left my apartment and my job in the IT industry to officially commit myself to changing my lifestyle.

Then two months later, with no prior travel experience outside the United States, I flew to Bangalore, India with all my belongings in a 30 liter backpack to begin the lifestyle of my childhood dreams. The plan? Spend six months living like a nomad, traveling through three countries, on a total budget of $3,000 (that's $250 per month).

If you're new here and you'd like to follow my journey, please subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for the email newsletter.

I'm passionate about many things. To help you get a better idea where I'm coming from, here are a few details about some of the topics you can find me writing on:

Entrepreneurship

I definitely inherited my parents' entrepreneurial spirit. Both of them have been business owners for most of my life: I've seen my dad work as a freelance technical writer and my mom grow a retail store chain from a single pushcart to over a dozen retail stores spread across three states. I watched them start an international wholesale distribution business. Then I helped them run it.

At age sixteen I started my first business. At age twenty-one I went into real estate and became a landlord for six years where I managed ten apartments spread across three multi-family homes. I handled all the rental management and repairs myself, including plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and even roofing.

Currently, I own and operate ActualWebSpace, a small but successful web hosting business. I'm also exploring new avenues of generating income online as I transition to a location independent lifestyle in 2010.

View all posts filed in Entrepreneurship

Life Philosophy

From a very early age I was questioning the purpose of life and our existence. Those questions have stayed with me and I continue to look for answers. A lot of my writing in this category reflects philosophical questions about life and the way in which I perceive the world around me.

My passion for a healthy mind and body, combined with my love of nature and technology, are a constant source of inner turmoil and conflict. I spend a lot of time trying to balance mind, body, nature, and technology in a harmonious way.

View all posts filed in Life Philosophy

Health & Fitness

Through most of my late teens, I was very out of shape. When I turned twenty, I realized the importance staying in shape had on my long-term health. So, using the Internet, lots of experimentation, and sheer willpower, I taught myself about fitness and lost 70lbs. The experience, and the new body, profoundly changed my life.

I love the outdoors -- running, hiking, connecting with nature, mindfulness, walking barefoot -- and finding new and creative ways to stay healthy and push my physical limitations. I was raised a vegetarian, spent six years as a non-vegetarian, and finally went vegan in 2008.

My health philosophy is simple: You are what you eat; you become what you do; you manifest what you think.

View all posts filed in Health & Fitness

Personal Development

As a child, I wanted to be "everything". As an adult, I still do. My life still revolves around the pursuit of knowledge and I strongly believe in life-long, never ending improvement, both physically and mentally. I'm constantly looking for new ways to improve myself or enhance my ability to understand the world around me.

Under this topic you can find me writing about life hacking, self-improvement, learning, productivity, managing enormous amounts of information, and plenty of inspiration and motivation.

I'm a perfectionist, an introvert, and an idea machine. I have an internal compass that often guides me and I've been told that I see the world through a strangely unique lens that allows me to easily inspire others.

View all posts filed in Personal Development

Technology

I'm definitely a geek. I started tinkering with computers from an early age when my dad brought home a computer to use for his technical writing job. By age nine I had built my first computer and by age twelve I was dabbling in computer programming.

When I originally started this blog, a large portion of the posts were tech how-to articles. I've since started another blog for the more technical how-to type articles. You can still expect to find new posts on this topic, although they will probably be less technical. I've been a geek my entire life and that's certainly not changing anytime soon.

View all posts filed in Technology