Life as I find it

This is from a time when I was a horse woman in the Himalaya. With 27 horses to feed, money was always short and life was tough. We hadn’t achieved success in business yet and the love for horses was such, that I’d rather stay hungry myself than compromise with my herd’s comfort in any way. This attitude had blessed my livestock with the reputation of being the best and one of the biggest herds in the region.

Part of my daily responsibilities in the winter was taking the horses out to graze in the open land in and around whatever village we currently were in. A duty considered dull and boring by most horsemen, was my delight. I used to take along books to read, some knitting or even saddlery that needed mending and settle down in a shady spot watching my horses graze and have a good time in general.

This used to help me keep track of their healths as well, and I was fortunate that our horses never suffered long from any discomfort. I used to notice it immediately. All was not a meadow in heaven always though. There were rainy days – both proverbially, and literally.

Rain in the Himalaya is freezing. Like the rest of the sensible folk around me, I didn’t have the option to head home, next to a cozy fire. I could have, if I kept the horses tied up at home, but I knew this was bad for them, to be tied and forced to stand still in freezing rain, so out we all went, regardless of weather.

Then, the time really dragged. An umbrella or raincoat was scant protection when running to stop a horse from entering a field of crops. I used to light a miserable fire under a shady tree and keep it going the best I could in the rain, while sitting on my haunches under my umbrella all day.

Horses are particularly frisky, and naughty in cold weather, and it was mostly running to keep them from causing damage that kept me warm. Those were hard, challenging days.

But they gave returns that were worth every minute of effort. Today, my company is doing well and I have been able to risk all and work hard, because those beloved horses taught me, that no matter what the challenge is, the more honest effort we put in, the more we love our work, the more likely our success becomes. We are showing good progress in fields as varied as corporate training, Himalayan treks, films, websites and even constructing adventure courses and developing campsites and we will continue to grow further, simply because we don’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to make our dreams a reality.

This is a very old incident, when Raka and I were just beginners in the mountains. We are still beginners in a way, but then we were really green. We had gone on a hike to Sudhagad, which is a well-known fort in Maharashtra near the famous Pali, which has a temple of Lord Ganesha .
After a refreshing hike to the top and self-cooked food on reaching we crashed into sleep really fast. We were some 15 enthusiasts sleeping in a line a local temple on the top of the fort.
The first thing I remember the next morning is the sound of a dull thud near where we were sleeping that I would have ignored, if not for a vague and very sleepy comment about a snake fallen from the roof. Didn’t make any sense, but it sounded interesting and I scuttled across the last bed to investigate.

There was a snake – a small python! It was coiled tightly around a rat and they had apparently fallen like that off the ancient beams over our head in their struggle. The rat was scared and struggling, but the snake seemed oblivious to its great fall or our group now crowded around the two watching eagerly the stuff we only saw on TV. In fact, it seemed unconscious of everything but its helpless victim. Not once did its coils loosen, or its head turn away from its prey.
A friend got out his camera and got busy clicking pictures or this rare observation of nature that had fallen almost on our heads.

The snake ignored us all and went about its breakfast like it had all the time in the world. It killed the rat and swallowed it whole and then took a couple of twists and coils around itself for good measure. Finally full and sluggish, it slowly crawled outside to find a nice shady place to digest its meal in.

Over the years, we saw many snakes, had quite a few story worthy experiences, but as our first close experience of the workings of nature, this one is special.

I still haven’t learn’t how to publish pictures well, but if you go here, the page has a complete series of pictures of the incident.

I have been a professional outbound person for over 12 years now and it is one of the most satisfying professions I could be in. I have worked hard and often on high altitude treks, with horses on riding trails, cooking, guiding, translating, climbing, organising and in general wishing that a day could have 48 hours. I have been frustrated, tired, happy and every other emotion there is, but I have yet to feel like leaving the outdoors as and find work elsewhere.

Back after a 7 year life in Manali, the city Mumbai feels calustrophobic. From an adventuring nomad who took clients along on journeys, I have become a “service provider” in the eyes of my clientele. Such changes are not good for the free spirited wanderer in me, but then one has to acclimatize to life in a prison to find happiness there.

I own a company Wide Aware and it’s doing well too, but I often feel that selling adventure is like filling a breeze into a balloon. I merely try and introduce ‘clients’ to what I enjoy, and what I see as important and count myself lucky that they often agree.

This may have been because the outdoors, to me is a way of life, it is simply the ‘flow’ – that is how it is. I can leave the outdoors like my shadow can leave me. There may be no light, but there is always a shadow. Perhaps, if I thought differently, I could have done something else, been another person, writing on a blog about racing cars or computers or something else.
It is not my choice for now.

At the moment, I am content to be a nomadic, a nut-case blogger speaking of distant melodies that echo from old memories. Expanding my world view to fit the city and online world. To overcome the sense of loss and explore what I have found.

Now, I have a new world to wander in. The world of blogging. I am new at this, but to my inclusive nature, this sounds just perfect.