Footprints on the Mountainside

I write and write, and imagine people reading my blog, clicking through to something else, reading that. Nameless faceless creatures in the dark known to no one, except server logs.

The only thing I guess I know about you, is that you are probably interested in the outdoors, considering that you are here.

Could you take a moment and drop me a line about yourself and your interests? I’d like to know more about you.

Not much is happening work wise, but life looks good!

Planning a set of camps for children in the summer holidays, and this always sets me all fired up with enthusiasm. The variety is quite large this time too. Wide Aware has the usual adventure camps with mountaineering and basic orienteering, as well as some camps about life in the wilderness. On a more dramatic side, there are some wildlife tours timed specially for students in their summer vacations.

Then there is my favourite part. Himalayan tours for Spiti. This year, I’ve finally done away with the usual predesigned tours completely (I know I’d been promising that for a long time) and designed some tours specially based on my years of living in the mountains. What I’m trying to do, is show people a side of life in the Himalaya, that standard tours cannot.

Enthusiasm is flowing, and dreams are a plenty. I’ve completed itineraries for two tours in Spiti. One focuses on the culture, while the other is about wildlife at high altitudes - both subjects close to my heart.

The strange thing is that now I’ve got my pen on paper (or fingers to the keyboard) I don’t want to stop. So for all those who have been writing to me for more tour ideas and more tours along the lines of experiences I share, this seems promising. I’ve got a couple of other locations in mind.

If there is something specific you guys would like to see before I head on my own route, feel free to let me know, and I’ll see if I can make it a priority.

As for the rest….

Now is a time to take a nice deep breath and enjoy the fruits of all these months of labour. I’ve made new friends, introduced many more people to the outdoor addiction, and the payments are rolling in.

Life doesn’t get any better!

The New Year is almost here, and the greeating cards with best wishes are flooding in. Just today, I received some 34 greeting cards. Many of them were from people I don’t even remember. I doubt if I am going to read them all - ever. Perhaps some of the really interesting ones, I might read.

If this is the state of my cards, what is happening around the world? How many trees have died, for cards, no one even bothers to read?

I rarely use paper for my work. And when I do, I use both sides, most of the time. It not only keeps the number of papers more controllable in terms of storage, but also helps me be more organised with a computer, leading to an efficient information storing and recovery method, which ends up saving a lot of time and effort for me.

Raka is also very particular about being careful with resources, and we often collect the clean plastic bags we have and return them to shops so that they can be reused.

I am sure we make a difference - however small. What if the many of us could actively involve ourselves into making tiny changes in our habits, to create a massive positive influence on our planet?

With this in mind, I went to the WWF website and got this information to share with the readers here, so that anyone interested, knows exactly what they can do and can begin, without further ado.

I’m not inviting anyone. It is your planet as much as mine.

Save Wood and Paper Return unwanted mail and ask for your name to be removed from the mailing list. Always use both sides of a sheet of paper. Use e-mail to stay in touch, including cards, rather than faxing or writing. Re-use envelopes. Always recycle paper after use. Share magazines with friends and pass them on to the doctor, dentist or local hospital for their waiting rooms. Use recyclable paper to make invitation cards, envelops, letter pads etc.

During Holidays Go on holiday during the off-peak period to prevent over straining resources - you’ll also avoid the crowds. Find out about your destination before you go on holiday - it may be an environmentally sensitive area. Doing this will also ensure you are informed of what to see and any local customs. Find out about places before you visit. You may be visiting a environmentally sensitive area, in which case you must take extra care to stay on footpaths and follow signs. Don’t travel by air if you can avoid it because air travel uses up large amounts of fossil fuels and creates greenhouse gases. Avoid taking things on holiday that you will throw away. Dispose of any rubbish responsibly - it can be hazardous to wildlife. Ask your travel agent or tour operator what they are doing to be environmentally responsible. Use public transport, cycle or walk instead of using a car. Use facilities and trips run by local people whenever possible. Don’t be tempted to touch wildlife and disturb habitats whether on land, at the coast or under water. Be careful what you choose to bring home as a holiday souvenir. Many species from coral and conch shells to elephants and alligators are endangered because they are killed for curios or souvenirs. Don’t leave any rubbish at the beach - turtles are often killed by plastic bags they’ve mistaken for jellyfish and many items take years to degrade as well as being dangerous. Boats and jet-skis create noise and chemical pollution which is disturbing to wildlife - don’t keep the engine running unnecessarily.

© [date of material] WWF. Some rights reserved.

I came across an interesting page that compares a piece of writing with an algorithm based on study of the differences of usage of language between the two sexes. This study can be found here. Curiosity is a virtue, or so I thought and promptly proceed to paste in a few articles from various areas of this site into the “genie” and see the results.

My results hit male as often as female. Is it that my writing style is masculine or that the genie is wrong? As far as I know, I’m female

The paper is quite interesting, and explains the findings from study of various samples and the differences the statistics bring out. Some differences are that females are more “involved, while males are more “informational”. This link to the genie puts these findings into a form, that you can submit writing into and have it see how the your writing reads out.

With a name like Vidyut, many people already confuse me to be male (all other Vidyuts I know of are male). Perhaps this is another thing that may be adding to the confusion?

Can’t say. Definitely worth exploring.

I often find behavioural differences between males and females, as well as differences in thinking styles. I find women more expressive and quick to reach out, while men often seem to be more into doing stuff, but not talking much about it, unles it is well within comfort zones. Women are quick to react to new events and try out new stuff, while men fare better in terms of consistency.

And so on…. but I’d better not bore people with unresearched findings. I’m just tickled about someone going to these extents to document the differences.

Comments and opinions welcome!

Technorati Profile

I had always wondered what technorati was all about. I finally found the time to find out. I now have my blog listed on technorati. The link above should go to my profile there.

For those who don’t know, you can access the rss2 feed by clicking on the link in the right side menu.

I hope this blog manages to do well, in spite of my sporadic posting patterns, because India certainly needs the added attention to outbound education for children, that I am trying to promote.

I guess I also need to write better posts.