Footprints on the Mountainside

Ah, what do I say, the growth pangs of a young company are torture indeed. I’m in the process of negotiating a deal for outbound soft skills training for a BPO. Money is a crunch, and they want the world as always, but what’s more annoying is that they want really safe “high
adventures”.

In the clients words, “Most of us have never been in the outdoors, so we want to experience something really dangerous and spectacular” and in the same breath, “it shouldn’t be too scary”.

I think they want to have some kind of a good time in the outdoors, but as usual, the focus is on the adventure rather than the learning.

That’s fine. I guess I’ll just need to show them some fancy pictures
and some explanations on actual and perceived risk.

Let’s see how it goes.

How dumb of me. I’d completely forgotten about the annual monsoon event ISABS usually has. I wanted to attend, but sigh! It already began on the 4th September. I’d completely forgotten about them, and whn I remembered and rushed to visit their site, I found that the event had already started. I’ll probably go for the next event. I was hoping for this Mumbai regional one - it works out cheaper than the national events.

I rarely write about this, so the posts are probably buried among others. For the curious, my previous posts about my ISABS journey were about improving myself after my BLHP - Basic Lab in Human Processes, and then when I was just back from my ALHP and when I went all sentimental about my journey continuing.

For those who are clueless about what I am going on and on about, ISABS is the Indian Society of Applied Behavioural Sciences. They conduct a variety of laboratories (as they are euphemistically called I guess - they are anything but impersonal) oriented toward self-discovery and interpersonal skills including facilitation skills with groups. The series of programmes are collectively referred to as a journey in the sense of self-discovery and improvement.

I honestly recommend these programmes to anyone interested in self-improvement.

Its time for my sporadic obsession with the website. These days I’m trying to spruce up the entire place. I fiddled around and learned new stuff. I found this thing AjaxWP and installed it on the site. It requires a little fiddling around with the theme, but once that is done, it makes the site run much faster, as no doubt regulars here will have noticed.

Its a really neat modification, though I’d have appreciated a little more clear instructions. Newbies to code have a duty to mess up everything we touch, and I take that seriously

It took me a while to figure out that I have to create versions of my theme files for the ajax, and rename them and keep them in the same folder as the rest of the stuff. Now that I’ve figured it out, it seems kind of obvious, but until I arrived at enlightenment, I tried replacing the files, creating a separate folder, sub-folder….. you name it, I done it - all except the very obvious - just let them be where they are

Other than that, I’m reworking almost the entire site now. Trying to generally tweak things around to make them prettier, faster, read better, etc. I’m at a stage where I’m totally confused, but there seems to be emerging some kind of path through the chaos.

I’m in a somewhat “overreaching” kind of mood as usual, so I’d appreciate any comments, suggestions, complaints, etc that can help me toward better webdesign. Pleeeeease don’t wait for me to revamp the whole thing and then show some major glitch I’ve created somewhere. My abilities are rather limited.

Heh. Monsoons near Mumbai are fun, but let’s be honest - this is blister time. Whether we go on a fun picnic, or a long hike, or simply roam around in the city. The continual wet feet are quite blister prone.

This is why I was so impressed with this product - GlacierGel I came across as I was surfing. It is a clear blister dressing that protects the blister, and is soft and is transparent as well, so we can keep an eye on the painful spot. The perfect recipe for feeling free to risk our feet and know that we can deal with any blisters that pop up?

One of my freelancers was just enjoying a cup of tea with me during some spare time on a programme. He wanted some advice, and I had all the time in the world, unless something went wrong, so we plunged into the subject.

He had been offered a job with another company and was wondering if he should be taking it. He does some freelance work with Hills and Trails, Wild country Learning, us, OET, and some other companies as well, and earns, (like most other free lance outbound resource people in India) in a very erratic manner. A good month is riches and luxury and some months are a step away from being very badly broke. Not that it isn’t the same with any self employed person, but I find this particularly of concern in the outdoor adventure industry in India.

The salary offered in this case was pitiful, but it would be guaranteed every month. On the other hand, this boy would lose his freedom to choose jobs that he liked, paid well or even helped him learn and develop. It was a tough decision.

Most Indians are not too aware of adventure tourism, and even those aware of it are not always happy to pay big money. Most adventure businesses do reasonably well, but the pool of freelancers we mint our fortunes on, are not as lucky. Some of us are now taking care to offer better rates, more reliable working relationships, some security, etc.

But on the whole, an adventure instructor in India, is leading a life with its economy also in a desperate rescue scenario.

Most such people are more into the business as it doesn’t require any specific qualifications or skills beyond those they can earn on the job. So they aren’t always equipped to have any other profession. They are in a physically demanding profession, and even barring accidents, very few can work in the field as they grow older. They need to be able to figure out other ways of sustaining and providing for their futures, which is something that doesn’t really seem to occur to them.

Not having the benefits of a regular income, or investments through the work place, there is also no source of back up for money. Hardly any invest in any sizeable life insurance, medical insurance or even basic “nest-eggs” for emergencies.

I suggested the best I could. I asked him to tell his new employer that the amount offered was really low, and he couldn’t accept it, unless he was allowed to accept bookings from other companies on the days when the company employing him did not require him. In my opinion, he should have asked for a basic amount per month, with an additional smaller amount calculated according to the number of days he spent in the field. This is what I offer my regulars. Unfortunately, his new employer wouldn’t have allowed that, and I don’t have vacancies.

I hope things work out for him.