TBY Musical Trail featured in 'Concerto'

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

Bangalore © GP 2008

Reply to Make Travel Fair article

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

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

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

Travellers Forest

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

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

River Nila covered by Mint - Lounge

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

© pj nair

Last weekend, twelve of us gathered together at Kodeeri Mana in Naduvattom to discuss the following:

1. Background of the formation of Nila Foundation.
2. How different entities like The Blue Yonder, Vayali, Madhava Vidyalayam and Kodeeri Nature Camp became partners and came on a common platform.
3. Need for action and focusing more on DO’s and less on DON’Ts .
4. Need to institutionalise Nila Foundation while still maintaining the holistic approach.
5. How to move from the scope of ‘Preaching to the converts’ to "the common people"
6. What should be the entry point to achieve this?
7. Who could be the potential partners?
8. What should be criteria for taking more partners?
9. Revisit the objectives of the foundation.
10. Status of 'Puzha Malayalam'.
11. 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

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

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”.

Read the complete text of the declaration here:
Bangalore © GP 2008

Katja Caro

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

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'!

Bangalore GP © 2008

Couch Surfing in Berlin

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!

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

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

"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.

Berlin GP © 2008

Shakespeare & Co.

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

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

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

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..

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

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

"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

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 :(

Bangalore © GP 2008

Poised to Soar

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

Bangalore © GP 2008

Grandeur of a by-gone era - Poomulli Mana

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