Footprints on the Mountainside

I find that the internet acts as a barrier to the morals of many people. Many people who wouldn’t be causght dead stealing in their day-to-day lives steal without hesitation online.

A regular visitor here just brought it to my attention that another blog (which I will not mention here) has been steaking content from this site. She found out accidentally when she forgot the exact url (she has this site in her bookmarks at home) and tried to search for the site from some specific words she remembered in the article she wanted to access. Our site showed up as expected, but another site showed up too, with the same article.

Thinking that it was something I used for a reference, she browsed through it, to see if it was of any interest. What she found is the exact same article, copied word for word, including links in the article to other pages in the site at specific areas. The thieves didn’t even bother to pretend to cover their tracks.

Our logs here show plenty of hits coming from that site, so I’m not complaining. The articles refer to the links in a tempting way, so the thief is actually losing traffic, because people are very likely to click on those links. I’m not complaining
I doubt if it matters to him though.

I wonder what makes people want to steal people’s content. I freely allow anyone to use any information from this site, as long as a live link is maintained to this place. The reason is as much one of credibility, as the fact, that most of my articles and experiences are closely related to my knowledge and experiences from the very off-beat life I’ve led. It will simply sound fake if copy pasted, and the rest of the content in the site is obviously someone else.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter to me, because they can’t really steal in terms of removing content from here. This place is more important to me than some scraper who cares nothing about visitors.

Situational hazard. I shrug and move on.

Tagsblogging,experience,general-stuff,people,ponderings,rants,worriesare applied to this post

I’m not normally into lists of any kind. But occassionally, I find something that fits in just right on my beliefs and sense of humour. This email list from a friend has a couple of lines I like. italics mine

1. Winning isn’t everything. But wanting to win is. bingo
2. You would achieve more, if you don’t mind who gets the credit. or paid?
3. When everything else is lost, the future still remains. as long as its not life that was lost
4. Don’t fight too much. Or the enemy would know your art of war. I’d prefer to say “Fight as much as you like. Makes my chances better ;-)”
5. The only job you start at the top is when you dig a grave. well… whatever. List filling material - me thinks
6. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for everything. probably
7. If you do little things well, you’ll do big ones better. sometimes
8. Only thing that comes to you without effort is old age. and body fat
9. You won’t get a second chance to make the first impression. hmm. ok
10. Only those who do nothing do not make mistakes. Yes, absolutely. nothing is nothing.
11. Never take a problem to your boss unless you have a solution. sounds like someone’s” voice of experience” out here
12. If you are not failing you’re not taking enough risks. not really pushing limits would be more like it
13. Don’t try to get rid of bad temper by losing it. well said
14. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you. my favourite
15. Those who don’t make mistakes usually don’t make anything list expanding material
16. There are two kinds of failures. Those who think and never do, and those who do and never think. too much
17. Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. we’re entering “God zone”
18. All progress has resulted from unpopular decisions. running out of creativity
19. Change your thoughts and you change your world. frail attempt at recovery
20. Understanding proves intelligence, not the speed of the learning. and pray tell me how this matters?
21. There are two kinds of fools in this world. Those who give advice and those who don’t take it. and a third - one who doesn’t fall into temptation of expanding lists
22. The best way to kill an idea is to take it to a meeting its a corporate classic
23. Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. more theory
24. Friendship founded on business is always better than business founded on friendship. makes sense

ok. Looks like this is another of those lists I wonder if I should post this at all. I’ll keep it for now, for the sake of #1, 13, 14, 22, but there is no accounting for me changing my mind.

Tagsexperience,ponderings,rants,self-improvement-journey,tipsare applied to this post

I just got a call from a woman who had heard that we conduct wildlife tours to Pench. Her son had told her, and he absolutely wanted to go. He wouldn’t listen, and she called me up to find out more about what her son was so eager to get into.

Always eager to speak with parents encouraging their kids to an adventurous existence, I was at my warm and welcoming best in the beginning, but to my dismay, she didn’t really want to know anything about the tour at all! Not even where it was going!

Instead, her biggest worry was danger. She wanted a guarantee that “nothing will happen to my son”. I patiently explained that while no one can foresee what may or not happen, in the 12 years or so that I have been working in this profession, I have not had casualties or even a serious need to apply all the first-aid training that we so religiously keep up to date. This is tours we conduct for clients, we save our stunts for personal outings

This was not good enough to convince her, and she wanted an idea of how dangerous it actually was. I said that wild tigers are dangerous animals, but we are well protected on horseback and in our jeeps. We have experienced forest rangers with tranquilizing guns for emergencies to guide and look out for us.

She wanted statistics, which I didn’t have. The only thing I could say in favour of the tour was that I have not heard of deaths or dangerous attacks from man-eaters on the tour we are planning. The whole thing was less dangerous than commuting by bike in Mumbai’s heavy traffic (which, incidently her son does).

She then wanted an assurance that the facilities were good and that her son was sensitive to insect bites, so no insects should be around and that he should have the facility to call home every evening, or whenever he wished. She also wanted assurances about the quality of food, and to know if it was ‘tested’ (whatever that means). The last thing she requested was that her son not share rooms with people who snore, as he is a light sleeper

We TASTE the food and it is yummy - just perfect after a long day in the wild. I am not going to bother to vent my irritation about the snoring.

I was dumbfounded! This is a man who has a job and owns a motorcycle that he rides to work - not a baby! It is a tour he wants to join desperately. Surely he is aware that insects are present in jungles and a wide variety of repellents exist. Furthermore, his mother is so worried about his comfort, that she needs a guarantee of him not being tortured by the tiny things! Her son actually gave her the number so that she could call and find out!!!

I think it is important for a person to step out of his comfort zone in order to expand his personal experience and knowledge, whether in a corporate office, or in the wild. There is a big difference in a known and calculated potential risk and reckless behaviour, and it must not be equated either.

Even more than that, I feel that if we over-protect our loved ones, we handicap them by glorifying limitations that can easily be overcome. A little independence in a grown-up son is a virtue that will help him stand as your support when you grow old.

Of course, I couldn’t tell her that, so I made polite noises and suggested that perhaps her son might be able to survive such a dangerous experience, because of his own capabilities and put down the phone.

Then, knowing that the woman would never risk reading such a dangerous site, I came hare to rant

Tagsadventure,animals,clients,destinations,experience,first-aid,people,rants,Wildlife Tours,worriesare applied to this post