Blogpost moved

Thank you for visiting. This site has been moved here.

You may also connect me on twitter here

World Green Tourism conference in Abu Dhabi

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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

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?