Jeetmal Kumawat — Travel Writer & Founder, PunyaPaths

About the author: Jeetmal Kumawat is an Indian travel writer based in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, who founded PunyaPaths in 2024 to publish honest, first-hand travel guides for Indian readers. He has personally completed 25+ pilgrimage and international trips since 2018 — every itinerary, budget, and timing on this site comes from real visits.

Who is Jeetmal Kumawat?

I am Jeetmal Kumawat — the founder, editor, and primary travel writer at PunyaPaths. I was born and raised in Bhilwara, a textile town in southern Rajasthan, and I still live and work from here. PunyaPaths is the travel publication I started in 2024 because I could not find practical, India-centric travel guides that did three things at once: tell the truth about prices, respect a vegetarian’s eating needs, and treat pilgrimage routes with the same seriousness as international itineraries.

What I have actually done

I am not a paid influencer or a travel agency owner. I write from places I have walked and trips I have funded from my own savings. Since 2018, my personally completed trips include:

Pilgrimage circuits across India

  • Amarnath Yatra via the Pahalgam route — twice (2022, 2024)
  • Char Dham Yatra (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath) — 2023
  • Vaishno Devi via Tarakote Marg — three times
  • Tirupati Balaji darshan — Sarva and Special Entry both
  • Mahakaleshwar Bhasma Aarti at Ujjain
  • Shirdi Sai Baba
  • Haridwar and Rishikesh — multiple visits
  • Ayodhya Ram Mandir (post-consecration)
  • Rameshwaram and Madurai

International trips (Indian passport)

  • Thailand (Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi) — 2 trips
  • Bali, Indonesia
  • Vietnam (Hanoi, Hoi An, HCMC)
  • Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice) — Schengen route
  • Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville)
  • Bhutan (Paro, Thimphu, Punakha)
  • Nepal (Kathmandu, Pokhara)
  • Maldives (resort + local island)
  • Kenya (Masai Mara safari)

What I write about

My guides at PunyaPaths cover three buckets:

  • Indian pilgrimage routes — registration walkthroughs, helicopter booking links, real darshan timings, dharamshala vs hotel choices, what to wear, what is allowed in sanctums.
  • International itineraries for Indians — visa application step-by-step, flight cost realities from Indian metros, vegetarian food where it actually exists, hotel zones broken by neighbourhood.
  • Honest budget planning — three-tier budgets (backpacker, mid-range, premium) in INR with date stamps, so you can adjust for your trip month.

What I do not do

I do not accept paid review trips that require positive coverage. I do not write affiliate-driven content that pretends to be advice. I do not use AI to generate trip plans — every itinerary on PunyaPaths is what I actually did or what my closest travel-circle friends did on trips I helped plan.

How to reach me

Email: info@punyapaths.com (read at least once daily)

For corrections, factual updates, or trip-planning questions, just reply to any article via the contact form on the Contact page.

Editorial standards

Every cost figure on PunyaPaths is from a real receipt or a verifiable government/operator source. When I cite a hotel rate, it is what I paid or what is published on the hotel’s direct site for the same month. When I cite a darshan timing, it is from the official temple trust portal. When I update a guide because something changed (a visa rule, a fee, a route closure), the publication date is updated and a “last updated” line appears at the top of the post.