Ever Tried A Brain Vacation?

Creatives across India are opting for holidays that can juice up tired batteries and reset the brain. Megha Mahindru finds out more about the trend of rewiring with wanderlust

- Megha Mahindru

For a generation that is equally celebrated and critiqued for its multitasking abilities, there’s new research to suggest that millennials are finally feeling the burn. In her book Can’t Even, journalist Anne Helen Petersen goes on to call them a ‘burnout generation’. But who is to blame? With increased screen time, always-on notifications and the daily challenges of modern life—to land the perfect job, have the best social life and exhibit a banging body on social media—we are all feeling woozy brain fog, much like a tired laptop with too many browser tabs open.

HOUSE OF HOPE

Bengaluru-based Jay Ahya was looking at the bigger picture when he launched The Beach House Project (BHX) in 2016, a unique travel and rejuvenation programme designed just for creatives. “It brings together 14 people from different backgrounds, places and stages in their career, who intend to chill in a nice villa with martinis by the pool, but at the same time help in each other’s growth,” says Ahya, before cautioning, “I’d say we are a ‘conversations’ company rather than a travel company.”

It’s not serendipity that brings together this cohort of artists, filmmakers, start-up entrepreneurs, musicians, hackers and designers. Since 2016, the BHX team has been diligently sifting through hundreds of entries to hand-pick creatives for each of the 20 editions it has hosted so far.