About

About The Good Life With IQ

The inspiration for this blog was a trip to the Lakshadweep islands in early 2017. We had a really tough time trying to figure out how to plan our trip, and the fact that there wasn’t really much useful information on the net was really frustrating. When we got back, I decided to write a post on how we planned our Lakshadweep trip, so that other travellers could be spared our frustration.

My vegetarian travels in India

Once I got started, it was difficult to stop. We had travelled so much in the previous ten-odd years that I had more than enough material. But ultimately, after writing about all sorts of things, I decided to focus mainly on travelling in India—this vast, beautiful, mysterious, chaotic country—and on vegetarianism. And since India with its varied vegetarian cuisine is probably the best place in the world to be vegetarian, I think it’s a match made in heaven!

So if you want tips, tricks and insights on travelling and being vegetarian in India, and from someone who’s been there and done that, then this is a good place to be!

(Oh, and the logo is inspired by our beagle Max and the cap I usually wear while travelling.)

Other things I do besides blogging

I do lots of other things besides travelling and blogging on The Good Life With IQ. Here they are:

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About IQ

I’ve always been serious about enjoying myself. In school and college, I studied just enough to get by because I thought the extra effort needed to get top marks wasn’t worth it, and I would much rather spend that time doing stuff I liked.

Things didn’t change much once I grew up and got a job. I resented the fact that I had to work all sorts of hours for the same pay, and without having much time for myself. So six years into my ‘career’, I decided the whole thing wasn’t worth it. I was married by then but, with my new bride’s backing, I quit and turned freelance. I made less money, but had more time to do what I wanted—whether that was trekking to a remote monastery in Bhutan with my wife, going on a 2,000-kilometer road trip to Kolkata with a bunch of bikers, or just sitting at home in Hyderabad playing video games for hours.

That was in 2008. Things haven’t changed much since then, either.

So this is me: Hyderabadi, freelance writer, communications consultant, traveller, vegetarian foodie, rum enthusiast, animal lover, sporadic biker, armchair musician, blogger and amateur photographer.

Irfan Quader (IQ)

P.S. The Hyderabad I live in is the one in Telangana, India. Not the other one.

Published work, features and mentions

• Travel + Leisure India online: Ditch the Charminar and Explore These 3 Hidden Gems of Hyderabad Instead
• Shubh Yatra, the in-flight magazine of Air India: Secrets of Bundi (PDF) and The Secret Isle of Thinnakara (PDF)
• Photo feature on The BBC Travel Show: Kalimpong, West Bengal, India
• Photo feature on LonelyPlanet.com: The #myepichike Instagram wall
• Lonely Planet Magazine India: Sea-side Paradise: Thinnakara Island, Lakshadweep (PDF)
• Featured on IndiBlogger:
  • 20 things you need to know while visiting India
  • A rejuvenating break in Malindi, on the coast of Kenya
  • Our Kenya safari: Up close with Africa’s incredible wildlife
  • Bundi, a town lost in time