rihla - the journey

The Million Message

2011-05-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

The Million Message March 2011 is a collaborative communication
campaign to mobilize community support and political commitment for
the Right to Health and Universal Access. It aims to reach out
globally to collect one million messages (by SMS or tweets) from
people in need of treatment and care (for HIV, Cancer, TB, Diabetes,
Hepatitis and other life threatening diseases) and their families,
care-givers and allies.

These ‘Voices’ will be amplified, disseminated and projected along the
‘March’ starting at the World Health Assembly in May, through two UN
High Level Meetings (HIV in June and Non-Communicable Diseases NCDs in
September), and other major health events. The Million Message March
will ‘arrive’ on Human Rights Day, the 10th of December, at the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) so
that the messages can ‘Speak-Up’ and be heard at the top of the UN and
its Member States.

We launched the Million Message March today from the Institute of
Palliative Medicine in Calicut, Kerala, India, The Institute, a WHO
Collaborating Center, is a global model for participatory community
based care, and a fitting starting point from which to begin the
March. First Steps: the 2nd World OPEN Health Assembly (WOHA2011), in
tandem with the World Health Assembly, 16-24 May.

WOHA features a non-stop global 'chat' and dozens of 'Speak-Up
Sessions', moderated live by partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and the
Americas, on diverse topics they choose. these partners include the
Institute of Palliative Medicine (WHO Collaborating Center), INPUD
(International Network of People Who Use Drugs), the Lawyers
Collective, the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, People's Health
Movement, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO),
Foundation for Hospice in Sub-Saharan Africa, African Palliative Care
Association, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (US),
Human Rights Watch, The International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS
(ICW Asia-Pacific), World Care Council and others.

The Million Message March to the UN (MMM2UN) is a civil society
initiative, spearheaded by the iMAXi Cooperative with the dynamic
participation of many partners. Together, we're forging a new tool for
social mobilization via social media. Open Minds > Open Source > Open
Health (Open to you, too!)

Join the Million Message March to the UN. Tweet @MMM2UN Follow
#Right2Health Starts May 16 with the World OPEN Health Assembly.
Tweet @WOHA2011 Follow #WOHA
SMS: +41 787597991, +91 8129094433 FB: http://on.fb.me/gxLyzl
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org

This 'open' and online event allows distant health experts and
activists to provide news, views and healthy commentary for launch of
the innovative MMM2UN campaign, with direct connections to leading
'actors' in Delhi, Chennai, London, Cape Town and from the World
Health Assembly in Geneva.

Twitter: @MMM2UN #WOHA
Skype: MMM2UN
Blogs: http://www.imaxi.org
FB: http://facebook.com/MillionMessageMarch

Media contacts:
Malayalam / English: saifsabil@yahoo.com +91 9846690490
English/ French: gordon@imaxi.org +91 8129094433 / +41 787597991
Hindi / Konkanni: menezes@imaxi.org +919673205044

Moment of kindness

2011-05-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

My tryst in South Africa was rather interesting. Even after being mugged, I continued walking and found myself closer to the city market. Immersing myself into the whole experience of what happened earlier, I was ‘shaken up’ by a shout.

‘Hey’

‘uh , Hi’

‘You shouldn’t be here’

Since I was surrounded by hundreds of people in the market, I asked him,

‘Why not?’

‘It’s not safe. You look innocent’.

Now, I have heard many things said about me in my life, but this was the very first time someone was telling me that I looked innocent. I smiled. Chris, who spotted me, was sitting on a crate on the footpath, selling locks and keys among several other tit bits.

‘Where are you from?’

‘India’

‘Let me drop you’

‘What?!’

‘It’s not safe. My car is here’ pointing towards a fancy Mazda parked straight in front of us.

‘But hey, please don’t bother. I am just walking to ICC and its not that far’

‘No worries let me do this’.

‘Don’t you have to do your business?’

‘It’s okay, nothing much happening. Let’s go’.

He packed all his stuff into the boot. Everyone there seems to know him. Kids were calling out to him and I heard a girl in a beige school uniform telling exaggerated stories on why she didn’t go to school last week.

When he opened the door, I wasn’t sure of what I was getting into. Guess I was either mentally and emotionally too tired with the experience I had just had a few minutes back or just wanted to go with my natural instincts about trusting another fellow human being and I got into his car.

‘Chris, How can you really afford a car like this?’

‘Oh, I work in the municipality. I close the roads here’. (I didn’t quite really understand but remained silent. He took a de-tour to show me some more parts of the city including some heritage buildings)

‘Here, the wages are quite low that I can’t lead a luxurious life I would like to. So I spent one hour everyday and the whole weekend in markets like this and earn some extra money’.

I couldn’t understand how he could lead a luxurious life by selling locks and keys. Anyways, I was too tired to think. Chris told me that being a foreigner, I should be more careful.

‘The streets here aren’t safe Gopi! You never know when you get mugged. People kill for even silly things like mobile phones. Please be careful’.

I didn’t know how to react. I was still not sure why he was offering me a lift, and I couldn’t get myself to tell him about how the two boys conned me into giving away my phone.

Chris dropped me in front of the ICC.

‘Chris, thank you so much. I don’t know how to thank you’

‘Gopi, you take good care. May be our lives will bring us together someday.’

‘I hope so Chris. How much do I owe you?’

He paused, switched off his engine and asked,

‘You really think that I gave you a lift because I wanted to make some extra bucks?’

I walked away apologizing and thanking him at the same time. This was a moment of kindness that I don’t want to forget in my life.

People like Patrick, another driver I met during the travel made a big difference to how I understood the destination South Africa

40 Rands and more

2011-05-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

‘Give me 40 Rands’
‘Why?’
‘We are poor. No money. You see I am eating this shit’ (holding two slices of white bread)
‘Sorry, but I can’t give you money just like that. Are you boys from Durban?’.
 ‘Yeah man, we are from Durban.’ 
‘This is my second day in Durban, actually in South Africa too. Think it’s a wonderful place’ 
‘He he, You are funny. So where are you from?’
 ‘India.’
‘Oh, You eat Chilly!’ 
‘He he, we do.’ 
‘I don’t like it man. It’s too hot for me’. ‘You have movies’
‘Yes, we have’
 ‘You dance’
 ‘Yes we do. For no reason sometimes (but only in movies)’  
‘How old are you?’
 ‘I am 16, he is 17.’
‘You don’t go to school’? 
‘No, but he studied still standard 9’
 ‘and then’?
 ‘Oh, I didn’t complete. Its shit man’
‘Are you working?’
‘Not any more. You see that supermarket (Woolsworth) over there? I was there. They asked me to leave’.
‘oh’.

That’s when I got a call from home. I picked up the phone and we continued walking. The two boys were on either side of me, holding me, while we walked. I had met them ten minutes earlier as I was waiting for a taxi in front of Park Lodge Gardens on Berea Road in Durban. I decided to walk towards the trade fair venue where the INDABA was on. As soon as the boys accosted me and decided to walk with me holding my hands, warning bells from guidebooks to be careful while walking alone in South Africa and well meaning notices to avoid walking on freeways flashed in my head! But I guess they flashed a bit late!

As I walked with them, I tried to feel their hips to check if they were armed. I found myself smiling at the thought of how this sight might seem to the folks in the cars driving past- that of strange Indian tourist walking hand in hand, hips touching, with two black boys on the free way in gay abandon!

 ‘Hey, you have such a fancy camera and you won’t give us 40 Rands?’
 ‘Sorry?’ 
‘You are rich. Give me 40 Rands’ 
‘Boy, listen. Lets try to find a way through this’.
‘What you mean?’

 ‘I told you that I won’t give you money for nothing. I also come from a poor country. I also work with kids who find it difficult to study, earn. If I were you, I would be doing things in a different way. I told you that I am here for the first time and know nothing about your city. You seem to be knowledgeable and speak good English. So why not offer a walking tour for me, show me places and who knows may be I will be happy with your service and might even pay you more than 40 Rands’!  

‘haha, you are funny man. Things don’t work like that here’.

During this whole conversation, I recalled the many discussions I had about 'Our Responsibility to Children' with Vijayan IPS, the ex-Police Commissioner of Calicut, and Dr. Suresh Kumar of Institute of Palliative Medicine where we offered to train some of the juvenile delinquents the police department arrested for stealing smart phones and motorbikes. They wanted to rehabilitate them to mainstream through socially innovative projects. The Blue Yonder had offered to provide training and capacity building for these students to become guides and interpreters.   

‘That has a camera?’
‘Yes. It has’
 ‘Can you take a photo of ours’?
 ‘Yes certainly. Let the three of us be in it’ 
‘Nice, it’s really looking good. Can I see?’ 
‘Sure, here you go’  

He looked at it and shared it with his mate and gave it back to me. We continued walking and talking about India, and they kept telling me they don’t understand how Indians could eat so much chilly!   By now we were closer to an area I was a bit more familiar as I had been there on a ‘City Walk’ with Doung, a Durban based architect and artist in the previous days.

‘Can I see that photo again?’ 
‘Sure’.

And that was the beginning of tension. The moment he had the phone in his hand, the boy who looked innocent and curious transformed into a beast. His eyes were so fearsome. His body language was making me uncomfortable. He slid the phone into this back pocket and asked his mate to walk fast to the right of the pedestrian bridge. I held them both in arms and said,

 ‘Guys, let’s talk’
 ‘There is nothing to talk. You walk away now’. 
‘I am not walking away anywhere. We are going to talk’ 
‘Give him the phone man, let him go’ said his mate. 
‘You shut up’ (or I presumed this is what he said in Zulu)  
I kept on walking together with them and this time, both of them weren’t comfortable any more with the physical proximity.   

‘Why you walk like this? Go away.’ 

Confident (or being stupid as many said later) that they weren’t carrying any weapons, I continued talking to them. The boy with my mobile phone came towards me, came so close that I could smell his breathe on my face, said,

  ‘Take your wallet out’ 
‘You think I dare to walk around here with wallet in my trouser’ (stupid tourist blabbering !)  
‘Are you going to fight with me?’
‘Yes’ and I went towards him. He ran towards the left of the bridge. The other boy looked apologetic, and even said sorry. He very slowly retracted his steps and walked away to ‘Doungs’ territory.   I felt super foolish to have let this happened. I laughed at my own stupidity. I laughed again when I remembered that I was also a tour operator.

It took a while for me to realize that I had actually been conned so cleverly. In fact, I couldn’t figure out who had the phone finally! The boy who ran away quickly or ot the one who walked away apologetically?   I sent an email from the other phone to Doung,

  << I just got mugged and the kids ran into the same street where we came walking with you. In case you manage to see a fancy HTC Desire HD, well, that could be mine :) If your connections with the community can help you recover it, you may as well use it for your projects. Quality is quite good for voice,video and visuals. 8mpixel camera and video is HD.>> 

to which he immediately responded   <<Oh no this is terrible. I hope that you didn't get hurt. I will definitely put a word out there. Do you know which road it happened? Anyway yes lets do keep in touch and India is in my heart and I have been longing for her as soon as I left.>>

To let go the fancy phone was not so easy. But I continued walking feeling good about how I handled the situation. I didn’t panic, I didn’t become aggressive, I didn’t get shot at (I still do believe that they didn’t carry any weapons)  What surprised me the most was that I didn’t feel angry at all towards the boys or Durban or South Africa. Most of the time I was trying to put myself into the shoes of these kids with delinquent behaviour in Calicut and on how we could work creatively to bring them to mainstream. I felt even more connected to the idea of ‘compassionate city.’

Dirk Janczewski

2011-03-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

"I caught you smiling at me - that's the way it should be

Like a leaf is to a tree
So fine" - Led Zeppelin

Yesterday evening I went into Hall 4.1 to set up our stand at the worlds largest travel show. This place is so special for me because it’s in this one hall in Messe Berlin where I have met several wonderful innovators and people whom I thought could change the world we live in with a smile.

One such person was Dirk. We met Dirk Janczewski last year during the ITB-Berlin. An energetic, wheel-chair-bound, Dirk had a twinkle in his eyes every time he shared his vision with us about a barrier free world. Sunil, my colleague from Spiti Ecosphere and I spent hours listening to the man and decided to work together to explore the possibilities of setting up a ‘barrier-free-tourism’ business in India. We introduced him to many people including Andreas Heinecke of Dialogue Social Enterprise and fixed up an appointment between the two. Andreas is an innovator who has dedicated his life and work to make a difference to differently-abled people and we saw tremendous synergy in each others work.

Two weeks later, we were supposed to meet up again in Hamburg and he didn’t return the call. After all the discussions in Berlin and after finalizing dates for Derek’s visit to India, we were quite surprised that Derek never stayed in touch with us there after. On another call to Andreas, we came to know that he hadn’t met him either.

Before I left Germany, I made attempts to reach him several times. All messages went to his voice mail. Since emails weren’t bouncing back I was even more frustrated not to see a response from him. By then I had talked to several people and were already exploring opportunities to bring in Dirk as a consultant on some of the projects we were planning to start in India. He never responded.

Yesterday I went looking for Dirk as one of his friends had written to me asking for an appointment telling that he got my coordinates from Dirk’s business partner and would like to catch up. ‘Didn’t you know that he died two weeks after last ITB”, was the question I heard from a friend working at the fair ground. Dirk apparently fell sick immediately after ITB Berlin and passed away before achieving his dreams.

Hope one day, we will able to give colours to the dream of this man who inspired us so much.

Inspiring stories: Potters of Aruvakode in Nilambur

2011-03-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

Unrated

'Kathakali depicted on terracotta. Designed by artisans and potters trained by social entreprenuer Jinan

My journey into the world of the rural artisan communities was not with the intention of ‘developing’ them or educating them. I went to them to regain that which I had lost in the process of getting educated; to learn from them. Having escaped ‘education’ and ‘development’ they were still original and authentic and were holding on to the culture and world-view, which sustained them for centuries. I perceived the rural / tribal communities as being wise and evolved; and recognised that only by learning from them could we lead sustainable lives.”

This is the story of Jinan, a rebel, activist, designer and a wonderful human being. More over this is the story of all those people’s life that he touched and changed positively for ever. Read more here

Being Responsible

2011-02-26T00:57:00.000-08:00

One of the first TBY-Vayali micro-credit beneficiary

Last year at the World Travel Market in London, one of the leading destination management companies from Cochin asked us this question. “All your talk about responsible tourism is fine. It’s easy for a property to be more responsible than a tour operator like us. They can make simple changes like install energy saving bulbs or setup rainwater harvesting in their property. They might purchase local produces. Even if we had aspirations to be a responsible tourism operator, frankly we don’t know how to do this. Do you have some suggestions?”

This kept me thinking and here are some observations posted on The Blue Yonder blog

Social enterprises redefining sector boundaries?

2011-02-26T00:55:00.000-08:00

“I am investigating the possibilities of creating awareness of non -malignant palliative issues among various communities and to encourage community participation, and would like some ideas and advice. Thank you very much”

 We are quite certain that not many travel companies will receive enquiries that are unrelated to holiday planning! Especially something like the one above. This was a message The Blue Yonder team received from a pathologist in South Africa recently. For us, this is a proof of what an impact a maturing relationship between two social enterprises can create. One- working to spread the community owned palliative care to rest of the world (Institute of Palliative Medicine) and the other- a sustainable tourism operator using tourism as a tool to bring attention of the world to successful and inspiring initiatives like Kozhikode model of Palliative care (The Blue Yonder).  

Read the complete blog here

Revisiting River Nila in search of music...

2011-02-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Picture:A plaque announcing the inauguration of the foundation laying ceremony by David Stott from Australia.

David is a frequent visitor to India. It's a country that he calls home. Two years ago, David had to 'agree' to 'lay the foundation' of an innovative experiment in Kerala. He inaugurated the construction of the campus dedicated to the memory of legendary musician and spiritual nomad, 'Njaralathu Rama Poduval' who is credited for bringing out the temple related devotional singing style of 'Sopana Sangeetham' out to the public.

When The Blue Yonder designed a musical trail with young musical prodigy Harigovindan, the idea was to give voice to many unconventional musicians of lower strata of the society along river Nila. This half a day experience became an instant hit among travellers from around the world. Conde Nast traveler called our trip one of the '8 Great Trips' that give back to destination based on the content of this experience. As Harigovindan, who took up the role as a key interpreter says, "This initiative gave self-respect to our musicians in the region. It was a wonderful experience to have music-loving travellers coming to enjoy the unique music style of River Nila and its people'.

Harigovindan was 17 years old when his father, Njeralathu Rama Poduval died. Hari used to accompany his father occasionally during his travels and performances at various temples and public arenas in Kerala. Troubled that the “Idakka” that was his father’s life, lying unused after his death, Hari taught himself how to play the instrument to keep the memory of his father alive.

Soon he realised that his father's name and devotional songs were fading away from the public memory. He came across many other musicians whose voice were not even recorded in their whole life time. He had the foresight that a generation might live without ever experiencing all those magical voices. He approached the Government and many cultural stalwarts of the state proposing to build musuems and art school to preserve their voices digitally and give recognition to up coming artists. Other than hollow promises and unnecessary controversies, it didn't result in any thing productive. However Hari fought the system, got attention from the public and international travellers like David Stott.

Lecture demonstration of various drums including Idakka and Chenda at the Kalasramam

Exactly after two years of laying foundation for the music campus, David Stott along with a group of travellers interested in music and yoga came back to River Nila to see the developments in the location. Seeing a fully functional music school and museum with an open air auditorium and audio library, all David could say was "WOW"! This is solely an achievement of Harigovindan though he humbly acknowledges the generous support he received from ordinary public and travelling community for providing inspiration and energy to go after his dream.

"I didn't set this up because I wanted to do something selfish related to my father. I wanted to do something like this precisely for the reason that many such artists memories were fading away from our memories. For those people who spent their whole life dedicated to music and enriching our traditions, this is the cruelest thing to happen. Representing this generation, people like us have a responsibility to respond to our surrounding. This was mine and I am glad I didn't give up' Hari says.

Picture above:
David Stott and a group of music loving Australian travellers in front of the newly constructed temple dedicated to music. Instead of a conventional idol of God or Goddesses, the temple has the 'Idakka' which was favourite musical instrument of Njaralathu Rama Poduval. What better way to pay respect to a man who spent his life dedicated to music, especially devotional songs?

Networking in Palliative care

2011-02-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

18th International Conference of Indian Association for Palliative Care just concluded in Lucknow with a call to explore adopting social media as one of the tool to network amongst peers and share knowledge to bridge islands of excellence.

Delegates from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Singapore, UK and USA along with their Indian colleagues attended the conference organised by Cancer Aid Society. Two sessions ran by n i i t i consulting on the importance of social media networking for promoting palliative care across the world received enthusiastic response. Except for the handful of delegates using twitter or facebook, rest of them were mostly using email as a tool for communication.

Case studies show-cased on the power of social media ranged from :

Recent campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the role of social media in accelerating the downfall
How sustainable tourism companies used facebook as a tool to network and raise funds online during the crisis of Cyclone Aila in 2009
How footprints initiatives get support from innovative micro-funding model of worldnomads
Real time results of how users of #IAPCON11 manage to network with peers in Australia, US, UK and rest of the world.
Max Coop - a network promoting 'Open Health through Open Source
Ushahidi platform on how effectively it was employed during Kenyan riots of 2008
Nila foundation facebook campaign crowd-sourcing sketches for its publication

While the sessions ignited interest amongst novices to social media, many 'I-have-twitter-but-I-don't-use' delegates were urged to explore the potential of social media, while the 'converts' were urged to build up a palliative care wiki to encourage collaborative content creation about various experiments going around in different parts of the world.

Will be interesting to see some of the recommendations given to set up the next conference in Kolkatta is implemented.

Second part of the workshops specifically involving student volunteers and core team of Institute of Palliative Medicine will be on 19th Feb in Kozhikide.

Touching the chords of your inner life

2011-01-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

pic: @Alvin Vimal

'Kumbhar' in Sanskrit means 'the one who creates'. You see 'Kumbhars' all over India. They create magic out of clay.They are potters of the country. Various reasons including droughts and the urge to travel led many 'Kumbhars' from Andhra Pradesh come and settle down on the banks of River Nila in Kerala several hundred years ago. Like many cultures that blessed the banks of this auspicious river, Kumbhars brought along their rich legends, folklore, skills, lifestyle, language and festivities to this river.

We take travellers from all backgrounds to interact with some of the few remaining potters' communities along the river. Travellers mostly leave exclaiming how magical the experience was! Some of them go into silence as if they are meditating, some of them request if they could try their hands on creating 'something' out of the clay. Once the wheel starts turning, and their hands feel the earth and water, many commented that they are touching the chords of their inner life. They are guided by the 'Kumbhars'- the creators.

The paradox of all this is how 'Kumbhars' are perceived in the Kerala society. 'Kushava' is how a potter is known in Malayalam and it's also used in our day to day life in quite a 'de-meaning' or derogatory way. As a kid, I remember being called a "Kushava" by relatives, when I used to do something really stupid. I am not a historian, nor do I have the knowledge to trace the history and perception of languages and colloquial usages. Wonder how such a beautiful word in Sankskrit meaning a creator, transformed into a derogatory 'Kushava' in Malayalam. Or at least the word 'Kushava' came to be understood.

What prompted to write this much is the news that one of the first potters that we engaged in the village of Arangottukkara stands a risk of not being able to use his hands as efficiently and skillfully as he could earlier. He had a stroke and left side of body including his arm and thumbs are finding it difficult to respond to his 'commands'. From a struggling potter to be someone who could earn a decent living out of local work orders and sustainable tourism initiatives, Gopalan potter has come a long way. However, the recent hospitalisation and lack of ability to work makes his future livelihood uncertain. The Blue Yonder along with it's partner Vayali Folklore Group in Arangottukkara within its constraints are supporting the artist by engaging him in running workshops where some of his relatives are guiding those wanting to learn the art and skill.

Rather than giving a donation or raise funds from well-wishers to support the artists, we are attempting to create an income generation for Gopalan and some other artists by providing them employment opportunities through sustainable tourism.

We are launching a series of 'skill based workshops' in River Nila to highlight the skills and creativity of artists like Gopalan. Please write /call us if you are interested.

Venue : Arangottukara village, Thrissur district in Kerala

Dates : 29-30 Jan 2011

Intake: max 10

Activities: learning workshops in pottery, bamboo weaving and indigenous hand-crafts.

Extra: One can also combine this as a weekend holiday that would include legend trails and folk expressions. Longer duration workshops are also possible.

Contact: info@theblueyonder.com | +91.80.4115.2218 or +91.98860.53286

posted by GP

World Green Tourism conference in Abu Dhabi

2010-11-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

First ever event of the nature and scale, Abu Dhabi witnessed the gathering of global experts at the World Green Tourism conference on 22-24th November 2010. United Arab Emirates isn’t the place that many would relate to any thing ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ considering the opulence and wealth that the region has witnessed.

“Considering the fact that the Emirates subsidises 50-80%of its consumers electricity bills as of now, the reasoning for a green tourism business isn’t much a financial incentive for the hospitality industry. “ says young Jad Frangieh who is the green champion at One to One boutique hotel in Abu Dhabi. On a site visit to the property, he was particularly keen on explaining that “we are not a Green hotel. However, we have decided to join the Green Hotels initiative of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and implement sustainable practices in our properties. It’s high time we that we all wake up and realise that maintaining a green patch of grass in a desert isn’t green and that is in fact the anti-thesis of anything green. We are glad that this conference brought in many innovators and entrepreneurs and practitioners of sustainable tourism”.

Abu Dhabi's electricity rates of 15 fils per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for expatriates and 5 fils for Emiratis are among the lowest in the world. Subash V Puthenveetil, Hygiene and Safety Mangaer from Anantara said,“We are all aware of the fact, there is so much to do in this region when it comes to sustainability. Our management is keen on being the leaders in this segment and we are ready to go with Abu Dhabi tourism in this direction”.

The conference saw experience sharing from regions as varied as Sweden, Thailand, India, Ireland, UK and UAE. Some of the speakers included, Prof. Harold Goodwin from ICRT , Mary Mulvey from Green Box in Ireland, Mansoor Mohamed from City of Cape Town, Arnfinn Oines from Six Senses Resorts and Spas in Thailand. Key note speakers included Bruce Poon Tip of Gap Adventures, Newyork Times Journalist and Author Elizabeth Becker and George Hickton, former CEO of Tourism New Zealand.

Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, Director General of ADTA is keen to take the sustainability initiative to a new level. ‘We have launched the pioneering Green Hotels programme, and also have initiated the Environment, Health and Safety Management System covering the entire tourism sector. We have made only small steps, but we are certainly keen on learning from other destinations to become a globally recognized, sustainable tourism destination.’

Organisers have already announced the dates for next GreenTourism conference on 5-7 December 20100 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi. Prof. Harold Goodwin, Director of International Centre for Responsible Tourism and one of the speakers at the conference said, “For once we are seeing a serious government backed intervention to make the industry more sustainable.”

The Blue Yonder presented two case studies on its experience of working in India in a round table on Green Tourism for Hotels and tour operators as as well as in a session "conversations with industry experts:operating with a commitment to sustainability in the tourism industry.

For more details check World Green Tourism conference site

WTM musings

2010-11-12T01:36:00.000-08:00

Four days at the World Travel Market in London can be exhaustive. Meetings, networking, product launches, dinners, drinks and further socialising. It's a world on it's own. It's a place where in the last five years we have come across some fantastic people, who inspired our initiatives, gave us more strength to pursue our dreams, when we thought we had no more energy to fight it out in the tough world of business.

2010 WTM in London was special in many ways. The Responsible tourism networking on the 8th at the 7 Dials club was a super hit. Even when it was organised on the first day, there were many people who rebooked their flights so as to come and attend the event. During the ICRT alumni networking on wednesday I came across a person who said, "Oh my! it was so wonderful, all 23 of us were camping in a room just to watch the pitches of new initiatives". The live feed had some technical glitches. However, I guess the event will be known for the enthusiasm amongst participants wanting to be connected to a network they believe would change the way we understand travel and sustainable development.

The event also resulted in forming new partnerships and alliances. University in Liverpool to ITB in Berlin, to small NGOs and community based tourism initiatives were seen building networks and exploring ways to work together. One of our partners beamed, "Looks like more business actually happens over networking with you guys than sitting in a stand and waiting for buyers to come by". I can imagine that to be quite true. Responsible Tourism Networking simply rocks. Thanks to Sally from Tripbod for the never ending enthusiasm to co-organise such fringe events.

Responsible tourism awards has become a main stay of world responsible tourism day celebrations at the WTM and looks like it's getting tougher and tougher to win an award there. This makes me happy to see two of our friends Ishita Khana and Sam Raphael from Ecosphere and Jungle Bay Resorts in Dominica honoured by Virgin Responsible tourism awards.

WTM sponsored responsible tourism networking also brought together many like minded people and it was wonderful to meet many old friends still working with such amazing passion, that you feel that you have not even touched the tip of ice berg that is sustainable tourism. Catching up with Louis D'Amore (IIPT), Fiona Jeffrey (Just A Drop), Dr. Lars R. Lindkvis (Base Camp Foundation), Justin Francis (responsibletravel.com), Dr. Lotfi Kaabi (Planet Art Exchange) and Luke Ford (Gunyah) was very inspiring. Watch out for these people in the next few months for some really inspiring news.

To see Social Tours, Help Tourism, Ecosphere and The Blue Yonder doing business on the platform of The Green Circuit for me is one of the real highlight of this World Travel Market. Looks like industry is heeding to such initiatives positively. The fact that The Green Circuit stand were always busy with one meeting or the other compared to numerous stands in Incredible India pavillion that was empty might be a message for the future way of doing trade shows. Towards the last day, while rest of the exhibitors were running for their flights or a last minute city trips, the GC partners were seen evaluating the trade show on the spot and planning for the next one. How to forget the wonderful evening spent with the whole team?!

Instead of sharing another positive news in this post as an icing on the cake, I am leaving World Travel Market with a bad taste due to some comments we had to hear from buyers and trade partners and many strangers about the attitude of Incredible India. While exhibitors like Indonesia were going out of their way to promote their local coffee ( probably one of the best coffee I had in many months!) and inviting anyone and everyone to join them, Incredible India caterers were rude, cold and even arrogant enough to refuse drinks or snacks if they were not exhibitors of India pavilion. Apparently they had "instructions" from above that the food / drink services should be provided only to the Indian exhibitors.

The staff at the counter were bluntly refusing tea and coffee to people who come by to take a sip. It was funny to see some of our friends were refused drinks because they didn't look like Indians! (Isn't that sort of racist behaviour as well?). If the catering service was only for Indian exhibitors, why on the earth did they maintain an open cafeteria and ended up gaining bad reputation for a brand that seems to be proud about Athiti Devo Bhava ( Guest is our God!).

Other than the poorly constructed stands at Incredible India pavilon, the ignorance of whoever decided to take such a stand was the most embarrassing momen. Some of us were profusely apologising to those people who brought this to our notice! Not sure if that had any impact to change the negative perception of the tourism department.

Local heroes : inspiring musical trail stories from Kerala

2010-09-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

First batch of students getting their training in 'Idakka'

Njeralathu Rampoduval was a very pious man. He had devoted his life in the service of the Goddess in 'Tirumathaam Kunnu', and touched many lives through his melodious music. The depth in his singing, his mastery over the unique percussion instrument“Idakka” and the spirituality he evoked had hundreds of thousands of people in Kerala who listened to him, connect with their souls. It was no surprise then that when he passed away in 1996, Kerala wept as if it's soul was taken away.

His style of singing, a mellifluous blend of tribal, folk and classical styles, called 'Sopana Sangeetham' was traditionally restricted to being rendered within the temple sanctum sanctorum. Njeralathu made it his mission to bring this form of music to the common man and towards the end of his life, 'Sopana Sangeetham' was commonly heard outside the temple sanctum.

Hari Govindan was 17 years old when his father, Njeralathu died. Hari used to accompany his father occasionally during his travels and performances at various temples and public arenas in Kerala. Troubled that the “Idakka” that was his father’s life, lying unused after his death, Hari taught himself how to play the instrument to keep the memory of his father alive. Soon his mastery over the instrument and his renditions of the “Sopana Sangeetham” won him several fans. Six years ago, a group of Nila admirers who had gathered by the banks of the river, urged Hari to recite a few of his father's legendary compositions. I still remember Hari singing for the River Nila, with tears in his eyes into the night. He had composed one particular song about the river on his way while sitting in a bus!

MP Virendra Kumar (MD of Mathrubhumi) paying a visit at the temple with the Idakka. Kalyanikutti Amma is seen 4th from L, in the background is the house she stays and the land she donated

Two years ago, Hari started campaigning with the Government requesting them to provide funds or build a memorial for musicians like his father. It wasn’t uncommon to see talented exponents of traditional music dying in penury for want of patronage. Hari's idea was to record audio clips of these musicians while they were alive so that the new generation could also experience these rare voices and melodies, while giving them an opportunity to perform. He dreamt of a school where students from all segments of the society could come and learn traditional folk music and especially learn to play the Idakka, experience and spread this unique music and folk culture.

Frustrated with empty promises made by politicians and Government officials, a dejected Hari decided to auction the musical instrument of his father to raise funds to keep his memory and art form alive. The reaction from people across Kerala was extreme. Cultural stalwarts were shocked at his decision and accused him of selling art for money without really understanding his objective. But there were others who shared his anguish and deep desire of building a memorial for his musician father and providing an opportunity for similar musicians to have a place in society to be recognized. Many friends and admirers donated liberally and a wonderful campus was born where students from nearby villages come to learn traditional forms of music for free. Hari also built an impressive digital and non-digital archive of traditional music forms and musical instruments and an open-air theatre. The campus also boasts of a beautiful temple where the idol isn't just another stone sculpture, but the Idakka that his father used to play!

Crowd that gathered for the inauguration of the Kalashramam

This campus also has a small house in an obscure corner facing the hillock. This house belongs to Kalyanikutti Amma, a woman in her late 60s who helped Hari achieve his dream when the Government or the rich landlords in the region failed to do so. It was her generous donation of all her land to this cause that helped Hari build this unique memorial of art that is inspiring hundreds of youngsters today to keep traditional art forms alive. Hari didn't forget to renovate her old house within the campus for her comfortable stay.

In its own small way, The Blue Yonder worked in parallel to support Hari through bringing the attention of national and International media to his laudable initiative. David Stott, travel writer, photographer and editor of Foot Prints handbook for India inaugurated the campus, which got it a lot of well-deserved publicity. When James Newton of String Films, well known UK-based filmmaker visited the campus and saw public reaction to this initiative, he had only two words to describe it. "Mind boggling!"

'Njaralathu Kalasramam' (Kala = Art, Asramam = A learning campus), as the campus is called, is where The Blue Yonder organizes the musical trail for our travellers. In addition to experiencing musical styles of central Kerala, our travelers enjoy living in the beautiful campus as well. It gives us immense pleasure that we were part of the journey Hari started, a journey that proves that ordinary people can be the change makers, and accomplish extraordinary feats!

More on how Njaralathu Hari Govindan became part of The Blue Yonder in the upcoming blogs. Watch this space.

To forgive is human, too

2010-09-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Rev.Dr.William G.Sinkford has spoken extensively on Iraq war, marriage equality, immigrant rights, environmental justice and Darfur to name a few isues

A simple search #Koran /on twitter will reveal the amount of venom and hate that is spread online related to the unfortunate and provocative statements from Pastor Terry Jones. The first time I saw a google alert on attempt by the Pastor to burn Koran on 11 Sept, my heart sank. I felt concerned about the humanity. It takes ages and massive steps by leaders and common man to build trust after all those untoward incidents that happened over eons. Once you think slowly things might be getting back to normal, from the middle of nowhere, jokers like Terry Jones turn up to destroy harmony in the world.

The media was awash with stories of Terry Jones. Washington Post few hours ago featured a story on Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer commenting that incidents like attempting to burn Koran to protest would "change the nature of what we can allow and protect." Closer to Sept 11, BBC News said, 'Koran burning would be a disaster.

Editor Vir Sanghvi in his tongue in cheek report in the Hindustan times wrote about 'small-town weirdo to global champion of redneck ignorance' . There were no dearth of news on hate, religous tension, clash civilisations etc. The very next day when the Pastor decided not to burn the Koran, I was invited by my host Joel to attend a Sunday service at the First Unitarian Church of Portland. For the small community of 1500 families, 12 Sept 2010 was special as it was the home coming of Rev. Dr. William J Sinkford .

In his soft but assertive voice, Rev Sinkford reminded the gathering about the importance of the month September. He said that the month was about forgiveness. Especially during the time of people like 'the pastor of a tiny church who decided to burn Koran'. He said, September is not only the month of forgiveness because of Sept 11, but also because this was the month of Ramadan as celebrated by Muslims.

I left the church with goose bumps after hearing the choir singing “Come, come, whoever you are,” words written by Rumi, a Muslim mystic. While the media is busy featuring the 'clash of civilisations', they care not to feature beautiful stories like people behind First Unitarian Church. These people pray everyday for all those people who died in war. They don't just pray for all the American soldiers who died in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. They pray for all. For all the human beings who were killed and wounded in the war. How religously some of the church associate peace groups were maintaining the statistics of Iraqi civilian deaths had to be seen to believe.

Mission statement of this distinguished church Portland reads they covenant :

To create a welcoming community of diverse individuals;
To promote love, reason, and freedom in religio;
To foster life long spiritual growth; and
To act for justice.

It's people like this that make the world a better place to live.

King of good times: can you help us?

2010-08-31T02:10:00.000-07:00

flying the bad times!

I remember the first time I flew Kingfisher on a Bangalore - Delhi flight. The appearance, attitude, service, they were a notch above most airlines I had flown so far. Then they launched the BOM-LHR, which was so fantastic. We said, yeah, look India has arrived in the flying business!

Where there was a chance, I flew only Kingfisher, recommended it to friends. Almost all of them thanked me for recommending them. I did the same thing to my partner as well. When she asked which flight to book, I suggested Kingfisher to Delhi en-route London. Who would have thought that decision would make our live so difficult?!

It's been 43 days since we lost our baggage, the customer service couldn't go down such levels that we had to reach out to the Chairman's office. Yes, we did get several calls, but other than repeating the same thing again and again that they don't know where the bag is and they will report back in 24 hours, we haven't heard anything.

On 27 May 2010, we booked a Berlin-London-Delhi return ticket for 17 July 2010 on Make My Trip. The Berlin-London leg was operated by British Midlands(BD846). My partner checked-in her luggage all the way to Delhi airport. She flew Kingfisher (IT021) from London to Delhi and on arrival realised that her baggage had gone missing. So we filed a Property Irregularity Report (PIP - DEL1810706 / Luggage tag LH106562) at the airport itself and the Kingfisher executives said that they will send the bag across to our next destination which was in Spiti Valley !! Knowing that is not going to happen considering the difficulty even for us to reach the remote part of India, we told them to handover the luggage to our friends in New Delhi.

The PIP report was acknowledged by an executive called Amit Soni / code - 6089 / mobile number +91.9650883131. He suggested that we also call up BMI, which we did. BMI said, the ground handling in Berlin is done by Lufthansa, so requested us to call them. We did that too and Lufthansa employees were quick enough to check if there were any un-claimed luggage in Berlin TXL. None! So they suggested that we should claim compensation from Kingfisher for the delay / lost and Kingfisher can in turn claim the same from Lufthansa.

Except for once, there wasn't a single call / email from Kingfisher to update us about the lost luggage. During our working holidays, we were most of the time calling them for details and irrespective of the reference number, every time we had to repeat the same story again and again much to our anguish.

Since nothing much was happening other than all the time we spend on phone talking to Kingfisher executives, we decided to write a senior officer in their Mumbai office who asked us to report everything as it happened in an email to him. He acknowledged the email over phone, and said he has ordered an enquiry for the lost baggage. He also added that the moment he has an update on the baggage, his office will call us back. Now on this 43rd day, we still haven't heard from anyone.

On 7th August, 2010, I happen to be on another domestic flight of Kingfisher where I wrote about the above incident in the feedback form they distributed. Surprisingly, that worked and I got a call from their customer care office asking me if I have received the baggage or not! Interesting. This was followed by an email from Krunal Suryawanshi - Guest Commitment King Fisher. So I spent next two days talking to these guys (have to admit that they were prompt in calling back, but with no news on the bag, but reminded that the responsibility stays with British Midland and we should call them!). They suggested to write to chairman@flykingfisher.com with the scanned copy of PIP report. We also kept a cc to guestcare@flykingfisher.com and the senior officer referred earlier in Mumbai office.

The attachment wouldn't go through and all emails bounced back. Later we sent emails with all the information on a separate email, for which we still haven't received any response. Last week, I complained on twitter @flykingfisher and today I got a direct message "Regret yr exp.If not yet resolved pl write with dtls incl PNR/Flt/dt of travel to guestcare@flykingfisher.com to enable addressal of concern"

How many more emails do they want me to write to the same email id that doesn't even care to respond? So I tweeted on the following handles.

@flykingfisher baggage lost 43 days ago. Still no news, no compensation. shame on you Kingfisher. Till I get my bag u will see my post here

@TheVijayMallya for last 43 days I have been trying to get a response from ur staff 4 the lost luggage. It's a shame we hv 2 reach u 4 help!

I don't know if this is going to help. But I have decided to write every single day to these two twitter-handles @flykingfisher and @TheVijayMallya.

Till we have news about the lost baggage and we get rightly compensated we will tweet. Let us see if that will wake them up! Any ideas to push this further? Thanks!

Destination stories : the unique fund raiser

2010-08-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

N GopalaKrishnan with PM Narayanan Image courtesy The Hindu

This Saturday, Malayala Manorama newspaper featured a story about a gentleman called N. Gopalakrishnan who is involved in fund-raising for Institute for Palliative Medicine.

We had met Gopiettan, as we call him, about 5 years ago when The Blue Yonder had just started taking travellers to remote areas along the River Nila. He spent about a week every month in his traditionally-styled cottage called 'Vaappikudi', facing the river, mostly sitting in the portico reading and writing. His house was named after the slave his forefathers had as part of old-age feudal system in Kerala. For the occasional traveller who came visiting this region, Gopiettan makes for an ideal company. A man of letters, a close friend of writer M.T Vasudevan Nair, he entertains them with his wit and intellect while sharing anecdotes about his life in the IRAS (Indian Railways Accounts Service) and in Kolkata. His love for the railways is so great that even the gate to his cottage is designed like a level crossing! The name board written in Malayalam, Hindi and English reminds one instantly of the yellow-black railway sign boards!

A Kendra Sahitya Academy Award winner for his translation of 'Oriya classic 'Sri Radha'', Gopiettan has also translated 'The Insider', a political novel authored by earlier Prime Minister of India, P V Narasimha Rao. Malayalees though remember him for his beautiful translation of K P Ramanunni's 'Sufi Paranja Katha' (Story told by the Sufi) to English.

Sufi Paranja Katha has been made into a feature film

We met him recently again at the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM)). Like many citizens of Kozhikode, Gopiettan spends a few hours every week at the in-patient section at IPM. Seeing the impact the palliative care movement was having on thousands of people with terminal illness needing end of life care and the community of volunteers alike, he decided to do his bit to raise funds for the movement. He was then discussing how he planned to go about the fund-raising. When we met him after a week, he had actually traded a place with a beggar in the city as the 'spot' looked promising to 'beg'!

Rather than ask his friends for donations (which would have been far simpler and easier for him!), Gopiettan in his unique way decided to get the local community participate in this process. Elegantly dressed as always, resplendent in his royal - waxed moustache and the gold-trimmed walking stick, he cut a majestic figure as he walked about non-descript streets with a small white card requesting the public to donate Re 1 in support of the palliative care movement! Curious and amused, passers-by not just gave him the money he asked for, but impressed with his commitment and humility, many gave a lot more. In the last few months with just a few rounds of his “begging” tour, Gopiettan has collected more than a hundred thousand Rupees, in addition to raising awareness among locals in the city about the movement. With the steady inflow of small amount of cash that Gopiettan brings, IPM has now set up a separate bank account that goes by the name of 'thendu fund' (thendu means “to beg” in Malayalam).

Kozhikode Palliatve care movement: 'a beacon of hope' according to EIU report

In a world that seems bankrupt when it comes to compassion, people like Gopiettan fill us with hope. While India ranks amongst the lowest in the list of 45 countries surveyed in the recent Economist Intelligence Report on end of life palliative care, the same report highlights the palliative care initiative in Kozhikode as a beacon of hope.The report says "With only 3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India’s palliative care services"

It is volunteers like Gopiettan and a movement like this that can perhaps help us dream of a 'compassionate city'.

Master carpenter of River Nila...

2010-08-25T23:53:00.000-07:00

The village of Panniyoor on the banks of River Nila (Bharatapuzha) once decided to build a temple complex that would be better than the ones even in Heaven! The onus of building this marvel fell on their master carpenter, Perumthachan.

With a team of fine carpenters in the region, Perumthachan started the work and soon the news spread to the Heavens that the architecture of the temple complex in Panniyoor village had the potential to overshadow the splendour of the Gods. As insecure as only he could get, Lord Indra, the King of Gods himself, set out on a journey to the village to find for himself if there was any truth in these rumours. Once he saw the brilliance of the work in progress, he was overcome with envy and started plotting against the carpenters’ team.

Read the complete post on legends of Nila...posted on The Blue Yonder. blog

September 2010 newsletter from The Blue Yonder

2010-08-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Blue Yonder newsletter for Sept 2010 is released. It carries destination stories from Spiti Valley, Kerala and some beautiful legends behind the origin of Onam festival. One can also find out the travel schedule of The Blue Yonder team whom you can meet in India, Europe and the USA. Read it here.

If you wish to subscribe to TBY newsletter, click here.

Airtel's shoddy customer care

2010-08-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

impatience is becoming the virtue of customers!

On 10th of August Airtel disconnected internet connection in our office without any notice.On calling customer care, they said that there are unbilled amount for exceeding three-months-cap. This was surprise for us, as we had signed up for a unlimited download connection, which we had been using for last 4 years or so.

So we filed a complaint with Airtel Customer care on 11th, for which the customer care executive responded that he can't do anything from his side. Suggested we wait till 19th August 2010. Great!

We called various other numbers, same response. Though we requested them to restore the connection and solve other issues, they were so callous in their response and said they are helpless than requesting us to wait till 19th August.

Office functioning became difficult except for those carrying their black berries and other USB internet sticks.

Finally on 13th Aug, we decided to approach a friend who forwarded our complaint to the chairman's office introducing The Blue Yonder and the work we do etc. So within next few hours we got a call from Customer Care in charge of South India acknowledging the complaint and apologising profusely for the inconvenience caused. In no time they replaced the internet connection and suggested that by Monday 16th Aug, they will sort out the pending issues. Later on Saturday, they even sent a knowledgeable executive to check on the connections and related services in office.

Though we have the connection right now, we are still in dark about why they disconnected without even a warning ( and for what reason any way?), we still haven't heard from Airtel with a solution. We should admit that this morning we did receive a call from Airtel Customer care in Bangalore asking if the 'problem we reported is resolved?". (that too after a week!). They were not even aware that the connection was restored. So much for internal communication!

If for every single, simple issues, one need to go to Chairman's office and use your networks and connections to find solutions, we are worried about the future of customer care in this country. As a friend in telecom industry commented, "they don't care losing a client as they are busy getting even more clients as half your population are on mobile phone and probably by 2020 India will have a billion mobile connections!"

At least in those days of only one telephone company and one brand of ambassador cars, there wasn't much to expect. Now with all 'Indian shining and international customer care at your door-step', how can you blame a person for expecting some basic customer service?

Compassionate City - Gandhigiri by City Police

2010-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Police in the City of Kozhikode in Kerala were flooded by complaints of people who lost their motor bikes over the last few months. Many had also lost gold, computers and mobile phones. The Police department was in for surprise, when they arrested more than fifty nine teenagers who were from lower middle class families and some of whom who were as young as 13! What was even more interesting was that many of them were selling it for silly amounts of Rs 3,000.

Kozhikode City Police says, “Police recovered 15 bikes and seven personal computers stolen by the juvenile group from different locations. Besides, spare parts worth Rs 1 lakh was also recovered by the police. The teenagers used to steal new motorbikes with prices ranging Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and put them up for sale at cheap rates ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to their friends. Many of the juveniles belonged to low-income groups and broken families, but the buyers were from middle-class families. The culprits were utilizing the money received through theft for enjoining costly food, dress and mobile phones. Police will carry out further investigation and are expecting to recover more material evidences”

If the police were to follow regular procedures, they would be taken through routine course of questioning, lock-ups and year-long trials. In a typical loop of social branding as criminals, there is a hardly a way for any of them to be part of the main stream social life. Instead, Police Commissioner P.Vijayan who is credited for starting many new innovative initiatives in social policing including Student Police Cadet Project has turned a new leaf in the history of Kerala Police.

Today saw the most unique intervention of police to explore the possibilities of bringing these arrested youngsters to the mainstream and hence avoiding the near sure destiny of bring criminals of the future. Engaging the likes of palliative care movement (Institute of Palliative Medicine), few City Rotary Clubs and IMHANS (Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) along with a group of socially active citizens, the City Police is attempting to bring the youngsters back into main-stream with social acceptability.

Dr.Jairam Ramakrishnan, consultant Psychiatrist from UK also has been pitched in to provide expert service to the youngsters. Dr. Suresh Kumar, founder director of Institute of Palliative Medicine, popularly known as “poor men’s Doctor” considers such initiatives with public private participation is a beginning to build up a “compassionate city”.

A one-room initiative that was started as a ‘pain clinic’ fifteen years ago in an anesthetist's dressing room in Kozhikode Medical College for bringing in relief to terminally ill patients has now grown into a movement comprising more than 25000 trained volunteers. Self-sustainable 300 palliative centres in Kerala is now spear-heading a social movement, not just restricted to palliative care. No wonder that such a movement is approached by various stake holders to take larger roles in the society.

Follow this space for more on ‘compassionate city project’.

Marriage proposal at 4200 MSL

2010-08-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

'Make no mistake' leader of the group seems to be convincing our driver

We were on our way after a volley ball game with young lamas of the monastery in the picturesque village of Komic, when we came across some women who came and blocked our way. Women in Spiti Valley are quite social and confident. Since we have heard several stories about their empowerment we were more than curious to know why they would block our way.

These women refused to let our driver go. They even sat on the bonnet for a while!

We were driving from Kaza to Komic and back en-route to Langza. The Komic at an altitude above 4000 MSL is amongst one of the high altitude villages in the Himalayas.

Initially we couldn't figure out what was happening. All we could notice was that the women, especially the older ones were quite happy about blocking the road and talking to our young driver. There was also a young girl who was shying away when we looked at her, but 'making strong' statements to the driver.

volley ball with lamas in one of the highest villages in the world.

Even after ten minutes, when we realised that they had no intention to let us pass by, we got curious and asked our driver if every thing was okay! He blushed! Once again we weren't sure if we read the expression on his face correctly. By this time two women were already sitting on the bonnet while other engaged in conversation with the boy. It looked more like a cajoling towards the end, but we were totally lost on what exactly was going around.

After half an hour, our driver tried to move the vehicle slightly which was vehemently opposed by the group. They refused to let us go! Later in the afternoon when we managed to pass them, our driver told us that the women were trying to convince him to get married to a girl in their village! No wonder he was blushing. Apparently a proposal had come to him couple of months ago and he was not ready to get married at 23, and the women refuse to accept that. So every time his vehicle passes through the village with travellers, he is under siege! Poor thing.

Lucky - the musician of Kaza

2010-08-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

The best thing to do after arriving in Kaza for the first day is to-do-nothing. Especially for those coming from the plains, acclimatisation is the key to survival in high altitude regions like Spiti Valley. For those who are visting to have a ‘look’ at Spiti Valley, they lose more than 4-5 days just to reach and exit. As there is so much to see and do in the entire valley it is gross injustice to plan a holiday for a week. But that’s exactly what we ended up doing in the name of a ‘working’ holiday!

Along with my fascination for local food, another adventure I get into in Indian destinations is to try out the traditional head massages. Except for the last bit of cracking of neck, I let them do everything in a way they want to do. Every time they bring in their palm closer to my neck I ward them off as evil. The idea of a broken neck scares me away from these guys.

After swallowing the bad taste of ‘croissant and cinnamon rolls’ from the ‘German bakery’, I was looking for an avenue to entertain myself. For all the ‘almost-broken-bones’ after the previous days twelve hour journey from Manali, I didn’t want a ridiculously priced breakfast croissant ( not to say of its taste!) to spoil my mood. It was then I noticed ‘Lucky’ hair dressing salon right opposite to the eatery. Lucky, a fashionable (if your fashion taste belongs to 70’s) young man who comes from the plains, spends five months of ‘season’ in Kaza and the remaining time in his village like all business people who work in Spiti Valley.

Lucky has a way with your head! Moving his fingers in a unique way, he is not the typical road-side barber who ‘champissage’ you by drumming his way with your head. He respects the person in front of him, he feel their energy levels and rhythmically move his fingers, palm and fist in such a fascinating way on your head, neck and face. If you observe him carefully, you can see how he treats each customer differently. Like a bass player he picks out his own notes that fit the chords like a ‘walking bass line‘.

For me Lucky was one of the best barbers I have come across during my travel in the country. If you ever visit the small town of Kaza, don’t miss out on the ‘Lucky’ experience. This humble and warm person can make a difference to your Spiti experiences. Lucky could be the improvised soloist playing his jazz in the cold desert of Spiti. If one still feel the rhythmic massage on tired neck even after a week’s time, that’s when you realize that the massage wasn’t just a jumbled up bunch of notes, but certainly a magician who can multi-task as a drummer, soloist and chord-player!

And to the customer who loudly commented that she felt her head was put in a washing machine for a while, well, all I can say is that it’s quite ‘un-Lucky…’

To the middle land

2010-08-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

en-route to Kunzum pass

Altitude sickness, head-aches, nausea are familiar even for seasoned travelers by the time they reach Kunzum pass. It is a routine for the tourists to stop over at the Ghonpa at Kunzum pass on their way to Spiti Valley. For the locals, it’s part of their Buddhist rituals to pay respect at the Ghonpa that is visible once you start climbing from the valley. For the un-initiated, the rituals look more like a thanks-giving for offering safe passage on the wretched, narrow roads that’s been chiseled through the mountain ranges . For the tourists, this is the perfect gateway to Spiti Valley, where they also take a break and stretch their knackered-body after several hours of tideous journey from places like Manali.

road to no-where? ice formation from last winter on the 'road'
'
Soon after crossing the village of Rangrik and the extremely ugly looking hotel called Spiti Sarai (why on the earth do they ever want to build such a building when local architecture is so beautiful and efficient for their climate?. It shocks even more when you know that it’s been built by a local to ‘exploit’ the new opportunities offered by tourism), signs of the colourful Kaza are visible. From a larger hamlet consisting of multi-coloured buildings, green patches of farm land; the sight gives the idea of a prosperous small town from a distance. Tenzin, our ever-smiling driver from a village near Tabo says,” Kaza is the capital of Spiti Valley and all the administrative offices are based out of here”.

Rare breed of Spitian Chamurthi horses known for its unique gallops. Locals says Raiders like Genkis Khan used Spitian horses as the riders hardly felt tired on them.

The nearer we reach the beauty of small traditional villages and landscape transforms into ugly concrete buildings built by PWD and migrant business people. Traditional roofs have given away to metal sheets painted in green, mud walls have given away to cement plastered bricks, energy efficient ceilings have turned into ugly looking make-shift roofs.

Comparatively new to the tourism circuit, Kaza is now a base for most back-papers to move out to many attractions including Kee, Kibber, Tabo, Dhankar, and it’s in-numerous trekking routes and camp-sights. Sweeping our way through the confusing combination of drainage and tiny springs of fresh water, we checked into a newly built hotel Le Karza built by a Spitian career-civil-service officer. Of course, no one is expecting French ambiance and levels of comfort in a hotel in Kaza because it has a prefix of “Le”. Though we didn’t come to Spiti valley looking for comforts, we immersed ourselves to the comfort of our bed with clean linen and cushions. The gorgeous Mountain View from the balcony and bathroom reminded of better things to come in the coming weeks.

Our driver Tenzin was carrying a "leaf" from Manali for a fellow driver, whose vehicle was stranded near Kunzum pass for past 48 hours.

Manali: cleanliness and local cuisine

2010-07-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

It’s been couple of years since I had been to Manali. First thing that came to my mind last time was the keenness in which shop keepers were giving away things in paper bags and not in plastic bags as you would see in many other parts of the country. The idea is en-grained well into the visitors as well as they are enjoying this way of transaction. So today, when we went out shopping in the evening, it was a pleasure to see the same practice continuing. Though we didn’t get much time to move around the town, whatever we saw looked clean, (compared to an average Indian town), there seems to a visible Governance and people’s participation. If Manali can do this, why not other towns in India?

However, what was missing was the local food. My practice of religiously tasting local food came under tremendous tension as we couldn’t find a single ‘local’ eatery even after searching in about 20 restaurants in the vicinity of bus station and market. Most of them had menu describing Punjabi, South Indian, Gujarati, Bengali and Italian cuisines. Some restaurants had menu printed out in Hebrew as well; clearly showing the pattern of visitors to the hill station. Why would I want to come to Himachal Pradesh and have a Masala Dosai? Wouldn’t I rather have my Chicken Tikka Masala elsewhere? As for an Italian pizza, this isn’t where I want to explore.

Though it was raining cats and dogs, we didn’t want to give up looking for local eatery. Finally we found David’s café, a tiny eatery on Hadimba temple road. Run by a family, they basically serve what they eat. Though we ended up eating chappathi and zubji for the evening, Sita , the proprietress of the eatery told me that she still continues to cook ‘Maahni’ and ‘Madra’. May be on the way back to Delhi, we should stop by to check her culinary skills.

When every tourist destinations look like the same, and the food taste the same, wouldn't people just stop travelling?

Dilli mein sub chaltha hein!

2010-07-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

It’s not that every day in your life that a cab driver would ask you to drive the car while he enjoys his can of Kingfisher beer! The night before yesterday, I ended up driving a cab in the rain from Karolbagh to Delhi Cantonment. It was not just the trust the driver showed in me, but the ease in which I took charge of the car for an hour-long journey that surprised me the most. Spiced with stories of the young man who introduced himself as Amit, I drove through streets of Delhi, scared of being hit by vehicles and pedestrians and cows from all sides.

We had noticed that Amit was quite a special person when we went to Gopinath bazaar looking for a taxi that will ‘ferry us’ through the water-logged roads to Karol Bagh. When rest of the taxi drivers refused to come, Amit volunteered and ‘fixed’ 400 Rs for the return trip and while starting the cab made a statement;”can’t stand those guys who don’t take their duty seriously’. As we were busy with some discussions, we didn’t give much thought to his statements.

However with the steering wheel in hand, I had not much option than to hear out Amit. He showed me photographs of his wife, daughters, younger brother and shared with him his journey from being a martial artist, to a dancer and to being a driver. While sharing all this, he kept on giving me directions and couple of times even ‘corrected’ my driving style suggesting that I am driving like a ‘phoren’ person and probably too sophisticated for Delhi roads. Great.! All I was doing was to recheck that I was not driving on a one-way in opposite direction. Of course I was and he said, “Saab, ye Dilli hein, idhar sab chaltha hein”. Considering that there were policemen and traffic wardens present who didn't care about what we were doing, I had to believe what he told me. That, “this is Delhi and everything is alright here”.

If I had an option I would have drove around the whole night just to hear the stories and experiences of life that Amit was sharing with me. From the 18 girlfriends he had while being an instructor to them at driving schools, to the responsibility he finally took to look after his family, and his ability to speak 12 languages, ( at least he could speak smattering English, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu!), the stories seem to have come straight from his heart. There was no other way than to believe him, as it didn’t come across to me as a lie, or something he was trying to show to impress me. In any case I have no clue how he was trying to impress me by asking me to drive his taxi while he was enjoying his beer! How can I not mention that he was also a dancer at the Woogie Boogie?!

Once we were out of the maddening traffic, he commented that I am a ‘good driver’ ( he seems to have forgotten already how much I was struggling while he was ‘sheperding’ me through the traffic by moving inch by inch to ‘occupy’ any advantage we could get over others on the road!). The best part of the drive was when he asked me ‘How the ‘gaadi’ was?’. It was actually a good vehicle, and when I said I was enjoying driving it, he said, “99 ka hein! CNG, Mein bahuth pyar se chalatha hum!”. It was obvious that he was driving it with 'care and love'.

If everyone would do their job as passionately as Amit ( and of course, not handover the taxi for driving to their customers) and engage their guests with real life or spicy stories like this, I guess even a crowded Delhi traffic pass like a cool breeze! My only regret of this adventure is that I couldn’t get a photograph of Amit and his car!

May be this is the local interpreter The Blue Yonder has been looking for in Delhi!

Media responsibility on palliative care

2010-07-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

Photo:Malayalam movie actor Mammooty on his frequent visits to the palliative care clinics in Calicut

A report in today's Times of India screams 'India worst in end-of-life care'. The report rightly laments about the poor condition existing in the 'end of life care' and how India is lying at the bottom of 40 countries from which sample data has been collected. It's true that a newspaper should highlight such a sad state of affairs in a vastly growing economy like India. TOI reports, 'India doesn't just have a poor quality of life, as reflected in its poor human development index (HDI), it also has a particularly poor 'quality of death'.

However what is missing in the news report are some of the highly positive remarks in the original white paper published yesterday by Economist Intelligence Unit on issues surrounding end-of-life care. It says "Amid the lamentably poor access to palliative care across India, the southern state of Kerala stands out as a beacon of hope. While India ranks at the bottom of the Index in overall score, and performs badly on many indicators, Kerala, if measured on the same points, would buck the trend. With only 3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India’s palliative care services. More over, the state has a formal palliative care policy in place (it is the only Indian state with such a policy)and its government provides funding for community-based care programmes. It was also one of the first of India’s states to relax narcotics regulations to permit use of morphine by palliative care providers. Kerala has also extended the definition of palliative care to include the long-term chronically ill and even the mentally incapacitated."

The report highlights the success story of palliative care movement in Kerala that uses holistic and unconventional approaches compared to institutionalised western approaches. What started in a dressing room of two anesthetists in Calicut Medical College is now the most unique approach to palliative care that is being replicated in countries like Bangladesh, Seychelles and even Switzerland.

While reporting on the sad state of affairs in India vigorously, Times of India could also have inspired many with the success story of palliative care movement in Kerala. With more than 250 self-funded palliative clinics and a massive volunteer base that crosses 20,000 trained volunteers who re-defined community participation in health sector, there are plenty of learning for many other Indian states.

This success story of palliative care movement has to be told mainly because the Government - Public participation (especially community involvement in fund raising and caring) is something that can be replicated in other parts of India. As Dr. Suresh Kumar, Director of Institute of Palliative Medicine says, “there are a lot of medical problems, but there are also a lot of
social, spiritual and financial issues—so anybody who has time to spare can, if properly trained, take care of these people,”.

Indians have heard enough of negative things about their country. It's time we celebrate success stories. Media has a role to play in it.

New Delhi

2010-07-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

The first impression of Delhi more than a decade ago was the chilly January, smoggy city, unbelievable crowd on railway platforms (not to mention of those who all considered it as their literal spittoons), arrogant auto drivers, road rage of green line buses and filmy policemen. Introduction to a largely corrupt NGO sector completed the full circle of Delhi. The only positive thing other than some fantastic friends I made in Delhi looked like the small “KIT KAT’ eatery that served the best Paneer mutter masala and Bhurji in South Ex market!

This was soon after I moved from corporate to the development sector. Over the period of last ten years, occasionally I got introduced to some wonderful people ranging from politicians to bureaucrats, social entrepreneurs, activists, cultural stalwarts, writers and some page 3 personalities. From my first visit till now, Delhi has grown by couple of million people, increasingly choked roads, more stupid looking and inefficient policemen, a good metro that partially connects the city and less polluting vehicles that ply the choked roads.

Couple of weeks ago when I came to Delhi once again to launch some new initiatives, I was still weary of the city. Profusely cursing the sweltering heat, I went on praising the cool climes of Bangalore and wonderful Monsoon of Kerala. While listening to my rants on what I am doing in this City, some of my friends patiently reminded me that the easy way to handle any city is to accept it as it is and find my way around.

Two weeks in the city is bringing me closer to it and teaching me to look at the many positive sides it has. There might be a reason why 14 million people might be living in this city. Right?

Viking Laws

2009-03-06T01:37:00.000-08:00

Came across these lines on a post card.

# 1 Be brave and aggressive.
Be direct.
Grab all opportunities. Use varying methods of attack.
Be versatile and agile.
Attack one target at a time.
Don't plan everything in detail.
Use top quality weapons.

# 2 Be prepared.
Keep weapons in good condition.
Keep in shape.
Find good battle comrades.
Agree on important points.
Choose one chief.

# 3 Be a good merchant.
Find out what the market needs.
Don't make promises that you can't keep.
Don't demand overpayment.
Arrange things so that you can return.

# 4 Keep the camp in order.
Keep things tidy and organized.
Arrange enjoyable activities which strengthen the group.
Make sure everyone does useful work.
Consult all members of the group for advice.

GP 2009, Oslo

Airport trouble continues...

2009-02-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

I have had all kind of experiences so far in many airports in Europe. Today was the wierdest I guess. After my laptop was screened at the security, I was asked to follow the woman police officer who said, she has to take me to a 'special room'. Wondering what I did this time, another officer gently checked my laptop, swipped a 'special' white paper (which of course turned black of all the dust I have been carrying for ages!) on the keyboard twice and after inserting that into a sophisticated machine ( at least looked like one for my lay eyes!) declared, " It's fine you can go".

While wondering what it was all about, he said, "Oh, we were looking for explosives!". Cool. Was it a random check? or Something turned up on the computer screen ( because of the heavy dust on laptop?) or just as most of the time, was I just showing my tendency to get into such unexpected troubles :)? I have no idea. Since the officer explained that his English isn't good enough to explain all my queries, I just took my flight to Copenhagen! All amused. Once again!

© GP Copenhagen

TBY Responsible Tourism networking at the ITB Berlin- 13 March 2009

2009-02-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

The Blue Yonder (TBY) has been invited by ITB – Berlin to organise a networking evening to bring together Responsible Tourism initiatives across the world on the 13th March 2009. This was following the success of fringe events organised by TBY and its partner (Your Safe Planet –YSP) in relation with World Travel Market in London in the last two years. Both the events brought together individuals and organisations pursuing Responsible Tourism in destinations and markets.ITB Berlin is dedicating one day on Corporate Social Responsibility of the travel industry and is organising several workshops and conferences on CSR. The evening of 13th March will be providing a platform for Tour Operators, Grass Root organisations, Media, Policy makers and flag-bearers of Responsible Tourism to come together.

Media Partner for the RT Networking

“Being the leading travel show in the world, ITB provides a unique opportunity to learn and share from various RT initiatives across the world. The event will bring together those who are looking for promoting their RT products in the originating markets and those in the markets looking for genuine and unique products from the destinations. Considering the demand for such a gathering to learn and share, it is only natural for us to bring this event to ITB. The networking event will be organised in a way that attendees get an opportunity to present their initiatives to the gathering.”

The Blue Yonder is also organising a workshop focusing on Travel Philanthropy and Responsible Tourism prior to the RT networking event. The 45-minutes discussions and short workshop will be organised in association with Centre for Eco Tourism in Destinations (CESD), Go Philanthropic.om and Travel To Care. The session will be looking at various trends in Travel Philanthropy.

Date 13-03-2009
Venue Messe Berlin / Hall 4.1
Travel Philanthropy workshop 1700:1745
The Blue Yonder Responsible Tourism networking 1800:1930

Those who are interested in attending the event or present their initiatives in front of a gathering that understand Responsibility in Tourism, please contact itb@theblueyonder.com.

Keep yourself update on this page.
© GP 2009

TBY Musical Trail featured in 'Concerto'

2008-12-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

Since I can't read German, I can only presume that they have written good things about our Musical trail in Concerto. Feature is not available online. Click on the image to read in German. This is the 4 th article on TBY in the media in less than two weeks. The Week's 'Healthy things to do in 2009', a mention on TBY and Foundation in the Sunday Indian Express, a detailed reference to TBY in Travel Trends Today (T3). None of this available online. So shall try to upload one by one.

Bangalore © GP 2008

Season's Greetings 2009

2008-12-20T02:13:00.000-08:00

Bangalore © GP 2008

Reply to Make Travel Fair article

2008-11-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hello Stephen, Thanks for the note and support for the event on 11th NOV at Abacus. If I had a chance I would have responded earlier, but was travelling and just managed to see your note.

As I had explained in the facebook group as well as in our newsletter, the reason for the networking event was to make sure that small tour operators, grass-root organisations also get a chance to interact and discuss their experience with like-minded people and stake holders from originating markets including the Media, and the Trade buyers. Both the 13th Nov 2007 meeting as well as the 11th Nov 2008 meeting was a proof that there was indeed a demand for this.

However, I have difference of opinion in the way you have presented WTM WRTD of last two years. This was certainly an amazing initiative of ICRT and WTM which was endorsed by UNWTO by becoming a partner. The last two years event has certainly brought in attention of the world into Responsible Tourism and a bigger chunk of the industry is now taking initiative to move towards that way. The efforts need to be enough , but my personal interaction with many big players in the last 2-3 years is that there are certainly positive initiatives that are happening which are measurable.

This was proven beyond doubt after attending the 'Business Case for Responsible Tourism" (as a paid delegate), hearing from representatives of FTO, Intrepid and Tui, on what they are doing and the agenda they have for the coming years to make Responsible Tourism as a way forward to sustain the travel and trade industry they are engaged with.

Yes, we could certainly debate on the fee charged for the seminar. One reason I would support this seminar was for the reason that at least 1/3 of the delegates where not familiar faces of RT,but new players and even mainstream conventional companies. This I think is a positive age as until now, we used to get a feeling that we were always "preaching to the converts". This once again points to my reason for organising the networking which got labelled as a "Fringe" event.

WTM is a larger / bigger platform and I don't think there is nothing wrong in WTM keeping their focus on the bigger players and the industry as a whole. Actually, I think that is the way to do it because they have better out-reach and influences and convincing power to show the RT path for companies like Tui, and FTO whose stake holders literally run the travel industry in the originating market. But at the same time, this should not constrain any small players to show case their work and provide opportunities for big players to source RT 'products' from them. This was what TBY was doing by bringing together the market and service providers at the 11th evening.

The kind of engagement WTM RTD has taken on its shoulder is not a scale that The Blue Yonder or any other small companies can replicate. So while supporting the bigger initiatives of WTM, we also take our initiatives to engage with them rather than boycotting. If I have a difference of opinion with WTM, or any other events and if I have doubts about the sincerity of initiatives, I will not stay away from it. Instead I will be engaging them. Its important that we all take a pro-active role and make changes.

I don't own ICRT nor responsibletravel.com nor WTM. But I guess we have a role now to explain our stand on all these initiatives as we work closely with all these organisations because of our belief in Responsible Tourism as the way forward for travel industry.

As you might already know, it was The Blue Yonder that took the initiative to set up ICRT in India. I am the co-founder and Managing trustee of ICRT India and I wouldn't be in this this role if I don't believe in the objectives of ICRT. We set up ICRT in India exactly similar to the reasons of starting the RT evenings at WTM. An year into setting up TBY, we realised that the scope for making changes in local lives and the travel industry in India is quite big and for a small company it will take more time and will need lots of resources to engage it in its full potential. So we decided to launch ICRT India, in association with the ICRT in the UK, so that we can work much more efficiently. Please check http://icrtindia.org to see the initiatives so far.

As for the role of ICRT in association with WTM< I don't see the point of RTD as a monopoly of ICRT and its affiliates. Though there are many initiatives on Responsible Tourism in different parts of the world, it was certainly ICRT that brought together many people together and even engage WTM on Responsible Tourism. When an organisation happens to be a pioneer and immensely successful at out-reach it is only natural to see familiar faces around. Growth of ICRT to other countries should be found as a positive growth towards Responsible Tourism. ICRTs in different countries have the mandate to function on its own but since our common objectives are together we work closely together to make a better place in the world.

The Blue Yonder like many other operators across the world, promote our holidays on Responsibletravel.com. From few holidays now rt.com has grown into selling hundreds of holidays in different parts of the world. We do have some reservations on the kind of holidays that are sold on the website, especially from many big companies( not because they are big). This was earlier discussed in a Tim Robbins article "Are you being green-washed"? . Except for some of these cases, we think that Responsibletravel.com is doing a fantastic job. From my personal experience itself, I can tell that this online company has influenced the way people choose to travel and how travel companies decide to run their holidays. This is highly commendable. Being hugely successful doesn't have to be looked upon as 'becoming a monster', instead I would engage them with proof if I think they are no longer ethical. We have always raised our concerns to Justin and team whenever we had doubts and we will continue doing it. Boycotting responsibletravel.com will not be our solution.

Hope I am clear on my stand. The reason for TBY to initiate and sponsor the 11th Nov Fringe was because we were taking our responsibility to engage all the stake holders and making sure that World Travel Market is a platform for responsible tourism stakeholders to network in an informal way. As one of the attendees mentioned, "if not for this event, none of us would have met and known the work they were involved in." This will continue and we will be organising an even bigger event in 2009. We will need all support from you! Cheers, G

Travel Scholarship to River Nila

2008-10-07T02:44:00.000-07:00

Kick start your travel writing career by going on assignment to Kerala, India. You will enjoy a 10 day tour with The Blue Yonder, offering unique insight into the River Nila civilization. Then, after touching base with your travel writing mentor - David Stott, you will hit the road for 10 days reviewing and writing for the Footprint India Handbohok!

For more details check the worldnomads.com announcement:

Bangalore © GP 2008

Traveller's Forest logo

2008-09-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

New logo for Traveller's Forest!
Bangalore © GP 2008

Travellers Forest

2008-08-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Pic: These Dutch students were the first to plant saplings at the Travellers Forest
International flight companies and tour operators are now accepting their contribution to the carbon emission and atmospheric pollution. They also want to play a proactive role in offsetting the adverse affects of carbon emission. Though there are many alternatives that are being talked about on carbon-offset, investment in sustainable energy, greening the globe by planting trees etc come as some of the solutions for carbon offset. We have heard about million dollar projects (much before the global warming) run by several international and national agencies and Government departments that disappeared in no time and planting of exotic trees that killed the local flora and fauna and even created water crisis. Other than eating up tax-payers money, none of this actually did anything positive to the environment, mostly because of lack of local consultation and community participation.

More and more green cover is being lost in even places like Kerala which even until recently had approximately 30% of forest coverage. In today’s value frame work, which promotes and accepts exploitation of natural resources for private material gains, its becoming more and more difficult to motivate local communities with the arguments of global eco-restoration.

Any greening project as part of the eco-restoration will not be successful if the local communities are not the main stake holders. Our small initiative of setting up Travellers forest in association with travelling communities and local communities is actually a small step to bring back the lost green cover that could influence the global weather restoration process, which in turn will also restore the natural hydrological cycle.

Pic: Travellers becoming part of a green movement in Nila!
The value of land (in the context of Kerala) is shooting up exponentially, community lands and even the Government / Panchayat lands are considered too precious to be “wasted” by planting trees. It is in this context that we are looking at bringing in private partnerships to be flag-bearers of greening movement. We realize the fact that eco-restoration is much easily said than done. It is in this context that Nila Foundation in association with Kodeeri Nature Camp and The Blue Yonder decided to come up with Traveller’s Forest.

First such travellers Forest was inaugurated yesterday in Naduvatton village.

Munich © GP 2008

Longlisted for RT award

2008-07-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

A message from WTM responsible tourism awards:

"We are delighted to inform you that The Blue Yonder has been long listed for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008, founded and organised by online travel directory responsibletravel.com, in association with The Daily Telegraph, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine.

The Responsible Tourism Awards are the largest of their kind in the world and this year attracted over 1900 nominations from members of the public for over 500 tourism organisations and individuals. From these nominations, we have now compiled a long list of organisations for each of the 13 Award categories.

You are one of 19 organisations to be long listed in the Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage category. "

Munich ©GP 2008

Wind mills

2008-07-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

River Nila covered by Mint - Lounge

2008-06-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Interview with Sumana Mukherjee. Words like "breathing new life into Kerala's Ganga" makes one think that the River is all live and kicking now. Earlier Travelmole also carried a story with a title "Responsible Tourism averts threat to Kerala's dying river!" Irrespective of the global attention that is now falling on our small river, as a colleague once mentioned, the truth could be that when we started working it was a dying river and now probably its a dead river! But I can certainly agree to the fact that we have managed to bring together like-minded people to think and respond to the status of our river.

München © GP 2008

The entry point

2008-05-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Background of the formation of Nila Foundation.
How different entities like The Blue Yonder, Vayali, Madhava Vidyalayam and Kodeeri Nature Camp became partners and came on a common platform.
Need for action and focusing more on DO’s and less on DON’Ts .
Need to institutionalise Nila Foundation while still maintaining the holistic approach.
How to move from the scope of ‘Preaching to the converts’ to "the common people"
What should be the entry point to achieve this?
Who could be the potential partners?
What should be criteria for taking more partners?
Revisit the objectives of the foundation.
Status of 'Puzha Malayalam'.
Tangible action plans for the immediate future

© pj nair

Most of the 'get-togethers' are because people think alike and they want to make a difference. This is of no difference to our get together also. We were there because we were concerned about the devastating changes that are happening, but strongly believe that we can actually make positive changes rather than just sit and watch the world go by. It was in this context that Nambu raised the point of 'preaching to the converts' (point 5) in one of our informal get together.

Whats the point in discussing things between us when we are convinced that there is a need for change? We had a small debate on what should be the entry point to reach common people to explore the options of a sustainable lifestyle. Some of us strongly believed that the river itself is the entry point or the medium to reach people. But some of us were not really convinced if the river was actually so much a part of people's social psyche as we claim!

© pj nair

After a week from that discussion, I just received this note from a person called PJ Nair from Dubai along with the above pictures :

"I just surfed by into your website; I was fascinated and by your singular passion for the Nila, and I’ve, too, felt a similar, unknown fascination with this enigmatic river and the rich culture of the people who abide along its banks. All along, since childhood, I’ve tried to express my love for the river in words dredged from my memories, but alas! I’m not cut out to be a writer. But of late, I take pics of the river whenever possible- though I prefer to go upriver, near Lekkidi and Tiruvilwamala, where it’s more open, less populated and the views are exquisite. Here are a few panoramic pics off the bridge at Lekkidi. My best wishes towards the success of your book."

For some people the river is still a connection!

Bangalore © GP 2008

Underneath the skin

2008-05-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

TBY launch in Jaipur. Pic courtesy John Dean
We have been interacting with an American Travel operator to explore the option of working with The Blue Yonder in Rajasthan. On a visit to see our work with the communities in Jaipur, they were keen on knowing how much money was going to the communities, to the local organisations we work with, to The Blue Yonder and how we maintain the transparency in financial dealings etc. Positioning their company as a Responsible Travel company means that they were also accountable for the 'claims' of potential partners like us. Their clients will be keen on knowing how their contribution would make a difference.

Providing dignity is key while working with communities. Pic courtesey John Dean
Since most of our destination management experiences came from what we learnt from River Nila in Kerala, we take our activity partners in other destinations to understand where we come from. It's amazing to see how people from different culture ( within India) look at these initiatives in different way. Local dynamics are so different with the communities we work with in different parts of India. In some places, people continue to work with art and crafts, because they have the passion and drive to do it, but in some other places, they do it because that's all they know as a livelihood and without art they are in utter poverty.

In our journey through Rajasthan, this was something that stood up most of the time. Any tourist hotel in Rajasthan would have an evening performance. There will be artists dancing and singing and there will be tourists sitting and sipping their beers without knowing anything about the background of the artists or why they are there! For most international tourists, this is in any case something quite exotic.

Most of these artists are hired by contractors who 'outsource' them to different hotels in the cities and are paid pittance once in a month. There is absolutely no element of dignity in their work and they perform for the sake of bread-winning. They mostly just dance around, sans any energy, any passion and I don't think any one can blame them if you don't even see a sincere smile on their face. How do you smile when you are not happy? When your constant worry is about next days meal, where will that genuine smile come from?

One of our artist friend from Rajasthan after his tour of Kerala mentioned the other day, "You guys can talk about reviving art forms and tradition. That's nice. But many of the guys you work with in Kerala are grounded properly and have their livelihood. They have a basic comfort zone to explore further. In our case, we are struggling to earn our living and still want to pursue our traditional arts. We wonder how we can strike a balance between these two worlds".

Pic courtesey John Dean
When I shared our Rajasthani friends observation on Kerala artists being well off to one of our artists in Kerala, he said, "Yeah, we are good in faking. Good that our friend didnt see what is really happening behind the fancy clothes we wear and the decent looking houses we have"! There is not single day that I go to bed wondering how we will get through this month with mounting expenses in my day to day life!"
Bangalore © GP 2008

Kerala declaration on Responsible Tourism

2008-03-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to the Cape Town get together, International Centre for Responsible Tourism in India (ICRT – India) took the initiative to bring together Responsible Tourism practitioners across the world to Kerala last week to review the progress that has been made since Cape Town. The Kerala Declaration noted that “Five and a half years on from Cape Town we recognize that there has not been as much progress as we would have hoped, nor as much progress as is needed if the travel and tourism industry is to contribute its share of the action required to achieve sustainable development”.

Katja Caro

2008-03-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

It meant a lot for me to remain connected with people who came to my life. But some how in the last four years, I have been so bad at it. All I thought about was the work, work and work. I slept on work, I dreamt of work and I lived on the work. Some where down the lane, private life thinned into a public space where I almost took it for granted that others also lived probably like me.

Four years before, when I came back to Bangalore from Oxford, I met Caro in a photo studio who was struggling some prints. I don't know why, I ended up offering to help her, sorted out the problems and later even dropped a CD with the pictures she was trying to print at her office. She was the tallest woman I had ever seen and whenever we went for a walk, I could see people curiously looking at her because of her height. Even for a German, she was really tall.She used to jokingly say that she probably would never find an Indian man she could marry because of this.I think I can probably count the number of times we had met in the last four years. We stayed in touch, met once in a while, the last time was when she was in Goa a month ago. I had recently been there to be with a friend who was in distress and was sharing my experience there. Later she kept on calling me wanting to tell me something, but I kept on missing the calls or replied back telling I am in a meeting and will cal back ASAP, which never happened.

Coming back after three weeks in Rajasthan and another three weeks in Europe, I got an SMS from a common friend telling, there is something she wants to tell me about Caro. Again, I was busy running between airports, I managed to call only this afternoon. I don't know if calling earlier would have made any difference, but yes certainly for my consciousness. Because Caro died this evening after being declared brain dead for a week or so!

It seems last Tuesday, Caro complained of aches on her left hand side of her body and was taken through many tests in different hospitals. Being the stubborn person she is when it comes to doctors, I can imagine that she walked out on many of them. Finally before they could diagnose what it was, she had a heameroge, cardiac arrest and as my friend SMSed me, "Katja's heart stopd by 4pm".

I was again too busy to have seen that SMS on time, because I was in a meeting at the conference venue, looking at the last minute arrangements. Probably its time that I take it easy and start connecting back with people who mattered once in life or those who still matters. One hug is all probably what we might be giving, but shit, you never know that could actually be the last!

Even if I have been silent because of 'my work', I shouldn't miss another opportunity to tell people what they mean to me in life!

Life sometimes doesn't give another chance!

Pomze

2008-03-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Pomze is a boutique restaurant on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. As the name says, it's all about Apples! From organic apples and different varieties of fine apple juices and ciders available, the place is an excellent meeting place as well.

The taste of Shrimps in curried green apple sauce and the crepe as dessert is still lingering on. As the waiter commented about our selection from menu, it was simply 'Magnifique'!

Couch Surfing in Berlin

2008-03-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

more than a couch! this is where I stayed while in Berlin

Berlin along with Paris and London is one of my favourite cities. The past week in Berlin made me much more closer to the place, the people, its culture and sheer vibrancy of the cosmopolitan outlook. Going to Berlin for ITB means you are working from 8 to 8 and there is hardly any time left to go out and get a feel of the place.

The transport strike and the trouble to move around could have made my life difficult while I was in Berlin. Instead it was a pleasant experience mostly because of my host whom I met through couchsurfing.com. Those who haven't seen this website, please check it out. It's the best way to travel and to know local people.

After hosting couple of people in Bangalore from Denmark and France, now I have become a fan of Couch Surfing. Welcome aboard!
Bangalore © GP 2008

David Stott in a vending machine!

2008-03-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Being the .com I am, I was running to Gate 25 to catch my flight to Bangalore from LHR yesterday afternoon. Even in that rush, I noticed a beautiful photograph in a book vending machine and thought, "That's something like a David Stott photograph". I went back and it read: "Footprint Rajasthan - David Stott".

Wow! Thats a great way to see your fellow traveller and friend some 7000 miles away from home and that too in a book vending machine in London! Though I was the last person to breeze through the gate, I couldn't resist to take out the camera and capture this special moment.

Bangalore © GP 2008

Propeller Island City Lodge

2008-03-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

one of the rooms we visited. This is the reading space, bed is above!
Sample this : "A room with a slanted floor which makes grandma's bed seem to fly. The wardrobe comes out of the wall, but table and chair have got to stay straight! In the rustic bathroom of natural stone you will find eggplant-coloured slate."

Sample another one:

"Definitely one of City Lodge's highlights. The diamand-shaped room is completely(!) laid out with mirrors and gives you the impression of living in a kaleidoscope. Caution: Very sexy!"

funky washroom!
The above are descriptions of rooms available in the Propeller Island City Lodge. If you think the above is crazy, then check this out : "In both coffins you can even slumber beneath closed lids! Exclusively connoisseur room for all those "Nosferatus" who cannot wait for that which awaits us all. Whosoever has second thoughts can creep to the bedplace below, safe within the labyrinth. Not only a unique experience for Gothic die-hards...an exquisite location on top of that!".

mood creator in every room. press the button and you are in the company of frogs and rains!

B had some of her friends staying in these lodges and the pictures are from the tour we did of the place. Bizzare is not the word. I could hear friends shouting, 'This is unbelievable!'. Yes it certainly was. Inspired by a book written by Jules Verne at the end of the nineteenth century which describes an artificial island that travels with its inhabitants around the world, German designer Lars Stroschen converted his humble guest rooms into a 'art installation hotel'.

Why waste so much money in the regular hotel rooms of Berlin, when you can sleep in such a place for 60 to 100 euros? Am not sure though, if I would want to sleep in a coffin. For the faint-hearted, there is a chicken curry (India!) inspired room. Check it out here:

Berlin © GP 2008

Redspective

2008-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

"Recipe for something tasty:
1 Bucket of artist expression
1 Handful of brands we love
1 Tablespoon of eastern flavouring
2 Pinches of a Red past Bake briskly at high temperatures, and set to cool in the centre of Berlin."

This is 'Redspective': A designer shop in Berlin near Alexander Platz. Inspired the the history and nostalgia of the 'former Red East', this shop is now a sanctuary for East European illustrators and artists. Cynthia Carson, who spent considerable time away from her home in New Zealand learning Russian literature in Russia hit upon this idea with another German friend in last August.

Not sure if it was the nostalgia, but when I left the shop I couldn't buying a badge that was made in the 50's saying 'on the road' in Russian! I have it on my bag now. Really a cool souvenier to carry from Berlin.

More pictures posted on to my facebook album.

Shakespeare & Co.

2008-03-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

There is one place in Paris that I make sure that I visit everytime I am here. Opposite to Notre Dame across the river was built by Goeorge Whitman in early 50's while he was staying in Paris as a student of French language at Sorbonne. It was four years before that my friend Christian introduce me to this amazing place.

This is a readers paradise. A bed if you want to stretch!
More than the antique books or the vast collections this shop has, it's the ambience and the philosphy of the place that strikes you first. George while travelling extensively through Latin America was hosted and fed by total strangers through out his journey and was touched by the openness in which he was welcomed. It's the same philosphy that's still adorning the walls of the famous book shop.It reads, "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise ".

The bookshop that's spread in two floors has couple of beds, reading chairs and tables for the avid reader to sink into the feeling of the place. The walls are history on itself, as its decorated by notes and letters and photos sent by George's fans from all over the world. For those who would like to get a feel of the place, there is a 360 degree virtual tour of the Shakespeare & Co bookshop here.

Paris © GP Mar 2008

Remembering Sanjoy

2008-02-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

While in Nagaur district, our artist friend was taking me through many photo albums which was basically his bio-data over last thirty years. There was but one image that struck me instantly in one of the group photos. There was Sanjoy Gosh sitting in the middle of a field engaged in discussions with the villages of Rajasthan. Our otherwise eloquent artist friend became quiet and later said, If God comes in front of me an gives an option to have him back, I wouldn’t hesitate to give up my parivar (family) including the three kids I love the most in exchange of him. If Sanjoyji had lived, he would have touched more and more lives, he would have given confidence and courage to people, he would have changed the ‘mindscape’ of people so positively that our land would be synonym to sustainable development.

For those who don't know Sanjoy, he was kidnaped by ULFA while he was working amongst the local communties. Years after, he still lives through many thousands of peoples in many parts of North India.

No wonder ULFA didnt want him alive!
New Delhi GP ©2008

Extremes

2008-02-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

There were two stark things that struck my mind during the last four days in Rajasthan. The dispassionate artists who were performing in front of ‘rich tourists’ and the passionate artists who were talking non-stop about how far they would go to protect their art forms and traditions.
In the first part of my travel here, I was invited to visit an imposing structure standing in the middle of an impoverished village that was visible even from a distance. Literally a fortress, there were many people hanging around in side the fort as if they were waiting to take orders. Another stark contrast were the vehicles outside the fort and those vehicles parked stylishly inside the fort. Flashy Ford Endeavours to Mitsubishi Pajeros to Toyotas were all inside and rustic but efficient bullock carts used by the villages outside.

The central courtyard was all decked up with colours and there was a beautiful, large fountain in the middle. If I had just woken up in that place not knowing where I was, the place would have occurred to me as some Mediterranean Bungalows that’s normally show cased in most Hollywood Mafia movies.

A group of eight performers had already gathered on the terrace. They sang, they danced, they performed Kalbeliya, and showed many tricks that needs years of practise. They stood on top of three glass tumblers carrying 6 litres of water in it and danced without spilling a drop out of it. Rolled out currency notes were thrust into their pockets, into their arms. They gave out such artificial smiles and bent their back even more to the front, now making sure that they made eye contacts to the beer sipping tourists. With the rhythm and tempo increasing, currency value went on from a mere hundred to finally a crisp note of thousand! The girls invited the tourist to dance with them, which some hesitatingly and some readily accepted. In an hour or so, the ‘performances’ were over and we were guided into our waiting vehicles.

I didn't know who these performers were. I didnt interact with them, they were showcased infront of us. It started there, it ended there!

Power went off many times during the performance but they were equipped with alternative spot lights probably sourced from an alternative generator. While stepping down from the terrace, I had a look at the beautiful horizon. The nearby village looked sleepy, calm and quiet. I couldn’t help notice that out of all those forty-fifty houses that were surrounding the fort , there were just couple of houses that had electricity.

One of the friends of the family, who bought the Kila, mentioned that they intend to make this fort into a luxury boutique hotel which will also be used by the owner as his home away home for vacations. The master bed room ( there were ten large beautifully done bed rooms), had bathtubs and running taps. That’s not unusual in a luxury fort, but when you look at the villagers walking many kilometres to get few pots of water for their survival, it hurts to be there.
Even for the few hours you spent there.

During the next days I stayed in Makrana with friends, I saw how they were living with their limited resources. Managing their limited resources and maintaining a life style that doesn’t damage their environment and ensuring that their life style was sustainable for the generations to come. Though I normally use very little water for my daily use compared to many people I know (I was born and brought in a region that was always green and never knew what water scarcity was), I realised that where I live in Bangalore, my individual consumption of water in a week was probably more than what a family of five might be using in the desert area in two weeks!
Jaipur GP © 2008

Freezing in Makrana

2008-02-13T04:30:00.000-08:00

Dayalji kept on piling one blanket after the other on me. 4,5,6 and then I was getting worried if his family had enough for them. 'You have no idea how cold it could get here these days". Even the walls were giving away cold and I could hear hissing sound of the wind from the desert slipping through the small holes in the windows. If not for seeing Dayalji worshipping next to the Aluminium trunk I was sleeping on, I would have just slept until noon. It was so difficult to wake up in the morning!

It’s been two days in Makrana (famous for its Marble that were used to build most of Taj Mahal) and once again I have been humbled to see the resilience of people living in remote parts of India. Winter here is so cold that it comes closer to one or two degree Celsius. Heating is not affordable for many and unheard of. All they have are some blankets. Most of them looked older than they really are. As for summer temperature, when I asked what could be the maximum temperature one villager smiled and responded. "There is nothing like minimum or maximum temperature for us during summer. Its just "full temperature' :) Irrespective of the harsh climate and the environment they live in, I couldn't escape observing that almost all of them were genuinely happy.

I came to this part of Rajasthan couple of days back to meet our activity partners, spend some time with them, understand their background and explore the synergy that our work could bring in. I was so tired by the time I reached Makrana as I had been standing for 3 hours in the train from Jaipur. Straight away I was taken to one of our partner’s network office and met a bunch of locals who were curious to figure out what I was doing there. It was amazing to see they could connect to the dying rivers of Kerala and its impacts on lifestyles, especially the culture and heritage that the river influenced for eons. Even my halting Hindi was of no barrier to them as they went on to narrate their stories on how artisans were finding it difficult to make a living out of what they knew.

We arrived at Dayalji's house (after a mini tour of the streets sipping "sugary dooth" ) and checking out local eateries that served mouth watering dishes. I was a bit scared to see the way Ghee was used in every meal we had. People over here literally are drowned in ghee. Whoever said that consumption of Ghee has something to do with obesity; they should come and see thin /lanky figures of Rajasthan. By the time we arrived at Dayalji's house, all I wanted was to crash in ASAP. But Dayalji went on with his stories and entertained me with local legends and folklores. Amongst them was a story of a fight between Amar Singh Rathore from the present Nagore district and a local Badshah. It seems the Badshah made a rule that any girl who marries a local should sleep with him first! On resisting this, Amar Singh was killed in a fight with the Badhsah. These stories until recently used to be part of the oral traditions of the folk musicians. Apparently there is hardly anyone who makes a living out of similar tradition in this region.

That makes sense to the understanding of the people over here when I showed them presentations on the dying river valley culture that we are dying to preserve. Language isn’t a barrier, culture isn't a barrier and it’s the same story all over the world. While Dayalji was passionately narrating the stories of Amar Singh, I was thinking about similar stories I had heard from Scottish friends, where the English brought in a rule in medieval time that any local girl who gets married should first sleep with the English magistrate! Wasn't that also a story sequence in the movie Brave Heart?
Makrana GP © 2008

Hallo Maadam photo please..

2008-01-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

A single mother and her three children being approached by domestic tourists in Om beach

If the first day in Gokarna was about the irresponsible foreign travellers, the second day in Gokarna belonged to the Indian holidayers on Om Beach. The single mother and her three children were literally mobbed by the domestic tourists. The kids looked scared and were seen clinging closer on their mother's body. Seeing the vulnerable face of the youngest girl, I finally went and requested the boys to let them go. According to them all they did was "to ask to shake hands and take photographs with the family."

The aggressiveness in which they were looking at and approaching the family, I was reminded of the survey answers we have been collecting. Out of the 200 randomly selected samples in the first month, most of them (women) agreed on two 'things' they disliked the most in Gokarna.

Garbage and Indian men!

Guess it's not so difficult to understand why?!

Bangalore © GP 2008

My space and yours - Irresponsible tourists

2008-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Irresponsible camera crew. They had no respect absolutely, just chasing their 'objects'. There were many moments when his video was literally inside the palaquin! pic © Jayakumar - www.thanal.org

Full moon in Gokarna is simply unbelievable. Pristine sand, silver waves and absolute silence. It looked like everyone was just inhaling the nature at its best. View from the shacks on Om beach, it was picture perfect, Quite breath taking.

In the town though, the local communities were all dressed up in their colour Saris and Dhoti's waiting anxiously with prayers in their lips for the decorated palanquin of the temple to come to their doors. On any other day, Hindus go to the temple to worship the idol of Shiva. Full moon is when the temple palanquin with Lord Shiva's idol is taken in short processions accompanied by percussions.

Though we were walking through the main temple streets, we slowed our pace, maintained our respectful distances from the worshippers. I was especially immersed myself in the 'atmosphere', rituals and the devotion of the community. One of those magical moments one can find only in places like Gokarna.

From that distance I was all happy observing the young and the old, doing all they can to sustain their tradition of more than many thousand years. All of a sudden, there was a camera crew literally recording every single move , every frame as it was physically possible. The lady producer was giving commands to her cameraman in her South American accent, “not to miss a thing”! The camera man with his cowboy hat and a recorder started literally chasing the small group carrying the pallaquin on their shoulders. The camera was so close to their faces, violating all boundaries of personal space and social respect.

I don’t think I will ever forget the expressions I saw running through face of the locals. There was sadness, disdain, helplessness. They just wanted to be left alone; they wanted to go on with their rituals, their lives. The foreign crew was all over them, juggling, moving to get the closest shot as possible.

I just couldn’t take it any more and approached the foreign woman requesting to be a bit more responsible. “Please, show some respect, kindly keep a distance, let them do their prayers in their privacy and ask your colleague to take the video camera away from the face of the priest.”

Though her first response was “Shhh..You are interrupting the voice recorder”, she apologised a bit later probably for the sake of avoiding a verbal confrontation with a “local”. I explained that we were also travellers in Gokarna and its our responsibility to ensure that we don’t ‘encroach’ into their personal, religious or spiritual life as we feel like.

While the women (even after being irritated by my interference) was at her diplomatic best, the cameraman was at his peak of arrogance. “Whats your problem? None of these people have a problem in me shooting their idols or faces. You are the only one who seems to have an issue here!”

A typical OTS (One Tight Slap) moment!

Wish I had found out details of the organisation they represented and wrote to them about their crew behaviour. Too late I guess. In case any one knows the organisation the camera team in the picture represents, please do get in touch.

Gokarna © GP 2008

Steering a tricky course

2008-01-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

"As rapid development threatens to dent Kerala's reputation as an eco haven, Kevin Rushby meets the greens fighting to preserve the traditional way of life" The Guardian, Saturday January 12 2008.

Fragrant Nature, Marari Beach Resort, Friday's Place, Ayurveda Mana and The Blue Yonder is mentioned. One or two facts are misplaced, and the there are no direct links to our website anywhere. But when the article is covered in a website that is ranked in the top 700, and is one amongst the most read online news papers in the world, you don't complain much.

Full article is here

Bangalore © GP 2008

Missing beats - TBY on Guardian Travel

2008-01-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

The Blue Yonder is featured under 'The Best Cultural Breaks in The Guardian Travel'.

Click on the above pictures to listen to the music. Unfortunately the last slide has our website spelt wrong!! its http://www.theblueyonder.com/ and not blueyonder.com :(

Poised to Soar

2008-01-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

As a continuation to last year, Karnataka tourism had arranged a get together branded as "Connect 2008" with a tag line - “Poised to Soar". Day long deliberation which had hardly any resonance to the ground realities left a lot of bitter taste and fear for the future of tourism in destinations.

Well attended by the industry, the morning session included presentations by Tourism department officials. All the trumpeting about achievements through presentation was literally shot down with One Tight Slap by the CEO of Bangalore International Airport Ltd, Mr Albert Brunner who show cased the sad scenario Indian tourism is in! Why is it that we still need a foreginer to call the spade a spade? All he did was to put some points in his slides about traveller’s expectations and what was available for them in destinations! Simple presentation but very powerful.

Except for some insightful remarks on online travel bookings, from Amit Saberwal who represented Make My Trip.com and invocation by a local singer, there was nothing noticeable in the morning session.

It was quite unbelievable even in the later sessions that NOT A SINGLE presentation other than Minja Yang from UNESCO ,who mentioned 'People', or 'Communities' while explaining their work. The discussions were all around infrastructure, buildings, resorts and hotels. Oh, of course there was someone giving ideas of various segments in the business where you should invest, "if you want to make BIG money"...

How can I forget the guy from KUONI destination Management who redefined 'Rural tourism' as 'Pollution free tourism'. He also showed us what could probably be the future in terms of having the courage to use the term 'Responsible Tourism' even though it was so obvious that they had no sense of what it was all about. Eco tourism, rural tourism, package tourism and now Responsible Tourism. He said, 'We also support Responsible Tourism that brings in the benefits of the business to local people'. On asked to quantify KUONI 's contribution to RT in India, pat came the reply. “I can't quantify that but we are members of TOTF". How easy it's to be Responsible these days!

Hearing the possibilities for Karnataka tourism because of "Destination Fatigue" in other places like Kerala and Goa, I was so tempted to stand up and ask them if they had any idea on what was happening in Gokarna where the 'fatigued backpacker's exodus' from Goan beaches is now a reality. The sleepy coastal town known for pilgrimage and beautiful beaches is being butchered by irresponsible tourists and an administration that has no foresight. If not intervened ASAP, Gokarna will be synonymous to garbage and drugs. According to our local sources, even the strong Brahmin communities that helped maintained the cultural richness of the areas and even those who kept away from the drug pushing back-packers are now falling into the trap of drug business.

A destination where average daily spending hardly crosses INR 500 ( including food and drinks, accommodation, transportation, Internet and purchase of some souvenirs) per foreign tourist, some of the illegal shacks are apparently known to be making a profit of INR 2000000 in just six months of the peak season. According to our contacts that have seen it all, that money is coming from selling drugs.

What irritated me the most was the callous statement that Karnataka as a destination will benefit from the destination fatigue of other states! No one was interested in giving an answer when asked how they are planning to handle that traffic. Very diplomatically they requested me to ask questions that mattered to the 'present session' on the challenges of infrastructure. Interesting!

Poised to 'Sore'?

Bangalore © GP 2008

Second International Conference on RT in Destinations - March 2008 Kerala

2008-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Grandeur of a by-gone era - Poomulli Mana

2007-12-31T19:34:00.000-08:00

Many hundreds of years before this was only a granary of the palace!

'Poomulli Mana' and 'Aaraam Thampuran' was always part of the legends we grew up with. It's a shame that I never ventured to the 'Mana' until we started The Blue Yonder even if it was less than 30 minutes from my village in Alathiyoor. The Mana, considered to be a repository of local knowledge have seen many stalwarts, amongst whom the most famous was late 'Aaraam Thampuran', Poomully Neelakantan Nampoodiripad, who was also fondly called as the 'Lord of Knowledge'.

Preserved through Responsible Tourism - the centre now offers Ayurveda treatment and wellness

An authority in Sanskrit literature, Ayurveda, Toxicology, Paediatrics, treatment of elephants, Yoga, Martial arts (Kalari payattu), Astrology, Percussion (Viz. Thayampaka) and Kathakali to name a few, he is revered by thousands of families who have been touched by his knowledge at some point of time in their life time.

Mana still continues the tradition of 'Kalari payattu', traditional martial arts of Kerala.

Once a palatial courtyard, Poomulli Mana has a history dating back to 500 years in a small village called Peringode along Bharatapuzha (River Nila) which literally became a knowledge centre because of its association with the family. The Namboodiri family's origin dates back to 900 years or so and were originally from 'Oorakam' of 'Peruvanam' village (one of the 64 ancient villages of Kerala).

some of the old structures in the courtyard

Like what happened to many other historic properties in Kerala, most part of the Poomulli Mana was also dismantled because of the huge cost involved in maintaining the old structure. In late 80's and early 90's, many Malayalam newspapers like Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi and the English daily The Hindu had carried stories about the 'Grandeur of a by-gone era'.

Old timers say that there were 4 ponds bigger than this inside the palace building itself!

If Responsible Tourism was in place at that time, may be this entire palace compound could have been saved and preserved as its done now with whatever little is remaining now. An entrepreneur Sajeev Kurup from Paithrukam Hospitality Services convinced the family run trust to look at health tourism as a tool to preserve the buildings which were in a state of decay.

The building that accommodates the present 'Ayurveda Mana' is an architectural splendour. For many of us from this generation, it's difficult to believe that this majestic building was used only as a granary (Pathaaya pura) !

I wonder how the old 'Mana' would have looked like!

One of the first members of The Blue Yonder Associates, Ayurveda Mana practices tourism that is environmentally friendly, socially and economically beneficial to the local people and culture. The place is now one of the major attractions for travellers visiting River Nila to understand its culture and heritage.

Bangalore © GP 2007

Demolition Part II

2007-12-19T03:14:00.000-08:00

Paradise Beach in Gokarna
Om, Half Moon and Paradise are the three stunningly beautiful, panoramic beaches of Gokarna.

During our 2 hours of beach trek covering these beaches and adjacent hills, we hardly came across any trekkers. Half Moon beach only had a 'Sadhu' who had come all the way from Ayodha in his saffron rob, sitting peacefully in a clay hutment. It seems he travels through out the year across the country. A month in Gokarna and he said he will be moving to Goa, where he has 'friends'.

This was just before the sunset and not a single soul.

By the time we reached Paradise, we saw a lot of new 'eco-friendly' constructions coming up on the hillocks. Bamboo, coconut palm leaves, coir, mud and cow dung was all that they use to make these illegal shacks. All of them are powered by solar energy and have Internet access, restaurants and even small libraries consisting of 'left-over books' from previous travellers.

Considering the 'legal' buildings that damage the environment in rest of Gokarana, I found these shacks a wonderful way of living. Most of the shacks, especially those in the Paradise beach gets fresh water from the near by springs from the mountains. Compared to the shitty Town beach, these beaches are clean and no trace of waste anywhere. It literally felt like a Paradise.

New shacks coming up every year

I don't know how they are processing the waste, certainly it is not going back to the Panchayat facility, most probably its being burnt near the shacks itself or even dumped into the sea somewhere.

In any case, my enthusiasm about the 'eco-friendly' construction didn't last beyond few minutes when Anjali asked me to look around the shacks properly. A closer look revealed that many portions of the hillocks have been demolished using dynamites, so that the shacks can be positioned in scenic locations!

This shack was constructed after using dynamites to remove the hillock!

In some part of this small temple town, Government authorities are chasing down even small encroachments on to the streets. Were as on the distant beaches like Paradise, encroacher's are using dynamites to setup new shacks.

Even after many anonymous calls from our local friends to the forest and police departments, no action has been taken and of course will not be taken! Who the hell is going to trek that long distance over the mountains and all these beaches to reach the shacks and check the status? Instead its easy to take a bribe and sit in the comforts of your office).

Demolition drive in Gokarna Part 1

2007-12-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

wide streets after the self demolition by traders
Last time I was in Gokarna, the streets were peaceful, residents and travellers were laid back. This time, there was a flurry of activities. Knowing that the political big wigs are not going to bother him with corrupt intervention (There is no elected Government in Karnataka right now and is under Governors rule), the district administration is on a demolition drive in Gokarna.

One of the reasons why Gokarna is an attraction for travellers!
After surveying and identifying the encroachments, local DC has given notices asking them to demolish the encroachments, or they have the option to have the Government demolish and pay for that too. Without moving a machinery from their side, Government has managed to remove most of the encroachments and streets of Gokarna and the places looks so different.

More than 1.5 metres of the wall is gone!

It's only now one can see the massive pillars of Brahmin houses behind all the small shacks and shops. Earlier even Shamianas were out into the street, but now you can see decorations, paintings and pictures on the house walls which were earlier covered.

Wonder how long this DC will stay in power!

Old car new car! (temple chariot in the streets of Gokarna)