Its quite an arduous task to turn the arc lights on oneself. How does one do it without making it an excersise in self illumination !!! . Well I could more or less describe myself as a ‘Rootless Cosmopolitan’ not in some radical uprooted jewish sense but in an India where your domicile can be so important. "Rootless Pan Indian" would be more apt. Maybe an occassional Pan eating Indian ( non- zarda -only sada variety!) !!
In 1958 my dad started working in N.E.F.A ( Arunachal Pradesh) for Survey of India. He started counting Indias population early in life and aptly was given a medal for meritorious service by the Govt of India !!!!.They have not stopped counting ever since! Then he moved to Assam Goverment's Education department and finally to NEHU in Shillong nestled in Meghalaya . I was born in Laitumukhrah in Shillong . My sister was born in Ziro in the Apatani region of Arunachal Pradesh. My brother was born in Kerala. My parents traditional matrilineal Nairs who belong to Kannur in Kerala landed in North East India among matriarchal Khasis in Shillong . I completed my school education at St Edmunds with the Catholic Irish Brothers and just as I reached my teens found myself in the heart of the Deccan in Hyderabad a truly cross-cultural twin city where Muslims and Hindus, Parsis and Christians jostled for space where I completed my BA from Nizam College. Then on my life transformed from an easy going sports loving adventure and wildlife enthusiast to serious academics in very leftist JNU in Delhi drifting from an MA to research and then an MPhil in Political Geography . Since submitting my M Phil dissertation on “River water disputes in South Asia" I had my fill of academics and decided to pursue my lifelong passion for exploring the outdoors.
In 1989 joined Tiger Tops the pioneers of Himalayan treks and wildlife lodges headquartered in Nepal and embarked on my career in the travel industry the first 14 years as a professional in various capacities as Treks and Field operations Manager in Buddhist enclave Ladakh to Overseas Marketing Head for Travelite & Indo Asia Tours based mostly in France and since 2003 built my own company, Oasis Excursions India Private Limited based in bohemian Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi. This glorious two decade journey has taken me to almost every district in India and over 40 countries around the world for work , pleasure and pure wanderlust. Not quite a polyglot but speaking a smattering of quite a few languages i am most at home with English followed by Hindi, French and Malayalam. If my life depended on it could manage some words in Tamil, Bengali, Assamese , Nepali,Punjabi and Khasi and un pocito de Espagnol!!!!
Today in addition to facilitating travel and tour needs of predominantly European and North American clientele to the Indian sub-continents remotest corners , my life revolves around providing diverse organisational services such as event management (meetings, exhibitions, entertainment etc), liaison services with the government, logistics and hospitality services particularly for media related work (films, documentary production), assistance for overseas companies to set up offices in India.
We have launched the Chalo Spain outbound travel project and also promote The Marigold Guesthouse in an affordable and well located Hauz Khas area.
Today i mostly live in wonderful Delhi which is what i call home now. Sadda Dilli! Neither Khasis of Shillong where i was born nor Malayalis of Kerala consider me one of their own!!!! who cares!!
Enough self illumination for one day !! oye puttar chup kar ! chai- wai ,chicken-wicken , mutton- shutton lao!! meri dilli meri shaan!!
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