Hi! We are Navdeep, Sona, Shaiyar, and Kavya!
Navdeep and Sona started this site as newlyweds in the ancient times when social media was not a thing and our phones were only used to make â dramatic pause â phone calls! It was 2006 when we co-founded IshqInABackpack to keep our families updated during our six month backpacking trip through India over twenty years ago! Navdeep grew up traveling and spent two years teaching in China and another year gallivanting through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India, eventually returning to America with even itchier feet than when he’d left. Sona had only gone on family holidays to India where she wasn’t allowed to eat streetfood. Two weeks into our first trip together: a cooking honeymoon in Mexico, followed almost immediately by what turned into a six month honeymoon, we realized we didn’t want the honeymoon to end. Two kids later and we are still not ready to hit the pause button.
So What is Ishq Anyway?
Ishq is one of our favourite words that poets and writers across the Indian subcontinent have attempted to define and still a hotly debated subject. It’s a very specific type of love that is often simplistically translated as passionate love, but it’s really much more complex than that. Ishq is not the kind of love you fall in or out of, and like us, the word is not concerned with practicalities and logic. It’s the kind of love where you jump headfirst into, and continues to perfectly capture our goals for this site.
This is more than a travel blog, it’s a love letter to ourselves and the world. It’s for people who appreciate slow travel centered on FOOD. We’ve done a lot of fun things, from floating above the clouds of the fairytale-like cappodoccia in Turkey, finding the coolest bookstore in Venice, Navdeep’s solo adventure in the wilds of Northeast India, and Sona’s solo trip to Abu Dhabi.
Not only can you read about our travel adventures on this blog, you can also watch our travel video series over on Ishq In A Backpack Youtube Channel.
MEET TEAM ISHQ!
Sona Charaipotra loves chai, polka dots, and cozy pajamas. She is a New York City-based author, editor, screenwriter, and avid traveler, who somehow still manages to get her work done in pajamas. Best known for Tiny Pretty Things, now a hit Netflix series, she also penned the Young Adult novels, How Maya Got Fierce and Symptoms of a Heartbreak, earning praise from Entertainment Weekly, NPR, and People. As an editor at Scholastic, Sona has held high-level editorial roles at major outlets like People, Parents, ABC News, and MSN, and regularly contributes travel stories, lifestyle features, and entertainment content to The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Teen Vogue, Vulture, and The Atlantic, among others.
Sona loves exploring the world, from cruising through the Mediterranean, wandering the tea plantations of India in Munnar with her reluctant mother. Alongside her writing, Sona earned a Masters in Dramatic Writing and South Asian Diaspora studies from NYU, where her thesis script was developed for MTV Films. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing and founded Cake Literary, a high-concept book and IP development company, publishing over 30 titles during her tenure. In 2024, her pilot, Symptoms of a Heartbreak earned finalist status for Disneyâs Mentorship Matters and Tribe.
When sheâs not exploring new destinations, writing, or making videos, Sona is likely cooking, reading, or chatting about her latest book and TV obsessions.
Recent Posts
- Ms. Marvel Is a ‘Celebration’ for Brown Families, Says Co-Creator Sana Amanat
- Moments Matter: Building In Downtime In Puerto Rico
- 7 Tips for Booking a Vacation Rental Instead of a Hotel
- 6 Reasons to Celebrate Thanksgiving At Disneyland
- Plotting Puerto Rico — And Tips for Planning a Family Vacation
When he’s not busy writing or traveling, Navdeep Singh Dhillon is teaching creative writing and literature at City University of New York. The author of the Young Adult novel, Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions, Navdeep is a VONA and Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project alum. He earned his MFA in fiction from California State University at Fresno, and recently had the pleasure of serving as keynote speaker for their 2024 Young Writers Conference.
Born in England, raised in East and West Africa, the Middle East, and the United States, Navdeep is a California Punjabi boy at heart. Always chasing an adventure, he was a linguist in the U.S. Navy, where he served for eight years, has taught ESL in China for two years, traveled extensively throughout SouthEast Asia, and speaks several languages well enough not to accidentally order tongue, hoof, or buttocks. But not well enough, apparently, not to remember that Tartare means “raw” in French. Navdeep has traveled by donkey, camel, rickshaw, truck, elephant, a really bumpy yak, 4th class train, moped, scooter, motorbike, and in recent years, a limo, and a helicopter. But he still enjoys the thrill of riding in the back of a freezing cold cattle truck in Tibet, with five men who insisted he was from a region in China called Xinjiang on account of his ability to grow facial hair.
Recent Posts
- The Snacking Avenger Strikes Again: A Dad’s Guide to Having Fun With Your Kids At New York Comic-Con!
- Cosplaying With My Kids Helped Build Our ConnectionâHere’s How
- RAVE: Honeymoon Hotspots
- A New York City Late Night Papa-Daughter Outing for Indian-Latino Tacos at Taco Mahal!
- That Time My 75-year-old Dad Spent All of His Vacation Time in Puerto Rico Reading, “Tiny Pretty Things”
Meet Kavya â a 15-year-old travel writer, vlogger, and book lover with a serious case of wanderlust. Heading into 10th grade, sheâs already exploring the world one story, snack, and city at a time. Whether she’s sipping rose earl grey tea in a quiet cafĂ©, chasing sunsets in new places, or getting lost in a good book, Kavya is always on the lookout for her next adventure. Sheâs passionate about Broadway musicals, bold coffee, and discovering new foods everywhere she goes. She has written articles published in Parents. Through her writing and videos, she shares the magic of travel, the joy of reading, and the beauty of curiosity.
Recent Posts
At just 12-years-old, Shaiyar (rhymes with FIRE!) is already making waves as a passionate travel journalist with a love for discovering new places, cultures, and stories. Whether itâs discovering a new pizza place in the NYC area, camping in Yosemite, or glamping it up in Turkey or blasting into worlds unknown at Space Camp in Atlanta â Shaiyar is on the scene! Shaiyar enjoys swimming, drawing, animating, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and is a cosplay expert and New York Comic Con veteran!
Recent Posts
- Kid-Friendly NY ComicCon Eats Near Javits Center in New York City
- 6 Tips for Planning Your NYC ComicCon Adventure With Kids
What We Blog About
IshqInABackpack is for anyone who appreciates the written word, the spirit of wanderlust, and is interested in the most important part of travel: THE FOOD. We devour street food like maniacs and when we’re at home pining for the tastes and aromas of past adventures, we attempt to replicate those dishes. We provide a sense of cultural immersion and place through our writing, peppered with videos, and photography. We want to get you excited about experiential travel, whether you’re a couple, a family of well seasoned travelers, on the road, or sitting at home thinking about going on an adventure.
