Footprints on the Mountainside

Outdoor Ed - News Article

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It is rare to find such information in India, where the selling of products takes such priority that unwelcome news is rarely circulated beyond a “bad reputation” and discouraging people from the product.

I admire this step from New England Ropes. Two of their ropes - Maxim Apogee 9.1mm and Maxim Pinnacle 9.5mm have been found to have risk of breaking on impact posing serious danger to climbers at a moment when security is a must.

People who own these ropes have been invited to return them for a free replacement. Do use this opportunity to get them changed if you own them.

Ram and Kishore, who work with the authorized dealer for Petzel in India had invited me to join them for this programme. I was working officially with them for the first time, and hence excited. The plan was for canyoning, which is basically “waterfall rappelling” when done at Kondana.

I’d been doing corporate training programs for a long time by now, and I was extremely energized by this opportunity - change in work being rest and all. Really, it doesn’t take much to be tempted to the outdoors in this weather. The beginning of the monsoon, and being paid to get wet and do what I enjoy. What more did I want? Work is a fun way of life in any case.

Plan was to leave Mumbai late in the evening and stay at the location, but traffic, rain and other events conspired to delay us till we reached the location at 2:30am.

7 instructors and a driver, a trunk full of equipment was the staff load. We were expecting about 80 participants. We slept immediately, and woke up almost immediately (it seemed)

A quick breakfast later, we had distributed the equipment load for the long haul to the Caves. We were expecting the group to reach at the rappelling location by 10am, so we had taken along some biscuits to keep us going through the day (it was going to be long) till a late lunch.

It had been raining in torrents since noon. The drizzle had been there all day, but really, after noon, it poured with a vengeance right until evening. Our plan was to rappel from the top of the Kondana Caves, and we were standing facing the valley.

Seen the rain many times, got wet many times, but this time, we stood at the edge of the valley and could see the rain in the valley, while we stood clear. And then, the wind shifted, and the sheet of rain raced to us, and we raced for cover. Half the day was spent in fun like that, as you can see from the photos.

Sam and I were working together after 4-5 years, so it was a superb time for us. Talking, flashbacks, catching up with what was current in each other’s lives… and he was leaving to the US in a few weeks.

Of course, the group came late. By then we were wishing that we’d had lunch and come….. The group reached the rappelling location by 2:30pm, we began the activity late, and we ended the day late. 60 participants of the 80 had done rappelling. Whoever wanted to do the rappel, got their moment of glory. In spite of starting late, we had somehow managed to work hard and fast enough to not refuse anyone out of a lack of time. And thus, this rappelling session was finally concluded.

In my experience, the group comes for adventure, but they take the whole experience lightly, and have no concern for the reality of the situation. In their excitement, they had no concern for the delay and danger in the dark. The stream was swollen from the days rain, and the group was unused to the terrain. This was when they realized that it was no longer the trickle they had jumped across on their way in the afternoon and finally realized why we had been asking them to hurry.

Our human caravan slipped and stumbled through the thigh deep water and shivered across to the other side. The road from here on is muddy, but pretty straightforward.

In the beginning, I had been considered the villain when they tried to rush me, and this is the point where they realized that I had been talking out of concern for them, and not myself, and I found myself happy to suddenly be the much appreciated hero.

On the way down, one of the newer instructors asked me, “Sir, I’ve got a dilemma”. I asked him what he meant. “Do we go down and have lunch or dinner?” he asked with a laugh.

I pondered for a bit and shared what I was certain of, “No matter what we call it, I’m going to eat like a starving elephant.”

What should have been done in daylight by 4pm ended at 8pm as the group stumbled and groped their way back in the dark.

On reaching down, we decided to pack up the equipment and wind up the logistics of the programme before freshening up and eating, knowing that it would be twice as hard once the adrenaline levels went down and our bodies figured out that we were tired. Finally…… we sat down to eat misal paav. It was a long time before anyone wondered if the traditional snack was lunch or dinner.

I am currently involved with an organization - Satark Nagrik Sangathan that works with awareness of social issues and rights in the eyes of the law. My role is that of a facilitator and working with the people rather than the content of the issues they work with. The idea is to empower the people to believe in themselves and their right to have things well in their world and ask for attention as they need it.

Vinita, who leads this effort is a strong and passionate lady with a strong belief in all people having a platform for their concerns to be heard. She has invested a great deal of herself into this effort to make things possible for these groups.

The first meeting I went to was at Siddh Nagar on the 28th of June 2008. This group is mostly women who have come together to collectively figure out ways of dealing with the difficulties they face in their lives.

This meeting was unlike their earlier meetings what with me and a friend Shridhar, from the Navnirman Samaj Vikas Kendra bringing in elements of personal sharing and experiences and emotions. Our objective was for the women to relate with each other and experience their co-members as people with concerns live in them, like themselves. To see that each of them had her own strenghts and talents and that collectively, they held powerful resources that they could choose to merge in the interests of the well being of the entire group.

The meeting began informally with members trickling in, and curiosity about Shridhar and myself as new people Vinita had brought in. We simply went ahead with it and it led to a group sharing of the one time each member in the group had done something that was very difficult for them which led them to recognize unnoticed strengths in them. The instances varied from challenges in personal objectives to standing in front of a rioting mob attacking the family and brought into stark recognition the kind of courage and values that were alive in the group and the tremendous amount of commitment we were capable of as a group toward something we believed in.

To talk of statistics…. Vinita had some legal information she wanted to share with the group, but the impact of the sharing was so intense that she went with the flow and simply allowed it the time it needed, including overshooting the time of the meeting.

I felt an instant connection with the group and I feel committed to it. I will be working more with them in the future and will share here our journey toward empowerment as a group as it unfolds.