Life 5.0

Versions of my Life

I kept a tale of my life to read to myself in future, some special days and the main versions. This was in a few notebooks hidden somewhere in my room in Hyderabad, unlike this one, my earlier versions I wrote with a pen, on a notebook.

Am sitting in Noida, 21 Sept 2016. The circle of life brought me here again. I do not like this place at all due to many reasons. One is the filth that is here and the people are so much okay to live with it. The spitting and tobacco chewing locals also disturb my nerve. I can’t imagine how I stayed here for 2.5years. The high effluent crowd and the noise makes it worse, and what to say about the high population and the street dogs. Phew, am sure my stay will not be long here.

So why am here? Before coming to that, let me put in few lines where my life was earlier, so that (if interested) you don’t have to find those notebooks.

Life 1.0 (Feb 1986 – Aug 2004)

Start of life in the safe arms of parents and teachers in Ludhiana. Life where there was no manipulations. I remember my innocence. That was challenged when my dad got TB and I was doing a part time job to sustain my education. I hated being bossed by someone so early in my life. But am really happy I came out of it.

Life 2.0 (Aug 2004 – May 2008)

Stepped out of house and met the world. City changed to Jalandhar, the NIT college and made some of the best friends for my life. Less money in pocket but unparalleled learnings and fun.

Life 3.0 (Jun 2008 – Jan 2011)

Time to leave Punjab and reach this place called Noida. First job at Mediatek and earning money felt really good. Felt good to take some stress from my fathers shoulders. Learned a lot about corporate life, my work and career ahead. My sister got married, a new set of loans was a worrisome situation. Got a chance to visit outside India to Seoul (I call it version 3.1)

Life 4.0 (Jan 2011 – Jun 2016)

It was unbelievable to get selected in the top most company of my dreams, Microsoft, Hyderabad. The memories are still fresh. My salary almost doubled and I got a huge joining bonus. Suddenly all the loans on my head looked easy and also I found time for myself. Shifting from a Taiwanese company to an American one had its perks. I was actually living now.

I became a traveler, trekker, adventurer. Every weekend was a trip. I never knew about this heaven called western ghats which became my favorite weekend getaway. Hyderabad was a city of active people. Cycling, running and short trips every weekend. And since I was far from parents, I had more weekends for myself than ever.

More things happened. I had my first passionate love, a girl that blew my mind. I wrote about her, each day, though about her each moment. An experience to remember but it had a sad ending. A side of women I never knew, that thirst of attention. A selfish thirst that ruined my 2 years. I moved on eventually, took long but I grew stronger and courageous. I fell in love again, and one more time again. Women had reasons to say no, I accepted and moved on but never allowed any of those ‘hers’ to exploit me now.

Another amazing chapter called “The Ultimate Frisbee”. The sport is unique and the people I met through it became the best people of my life. Some amazing time spent on tournaments with my people. This sport and the people will remain tied to me forever.

And now the stream of my life flowed to something I did not imagine. I went to a forest program in western ghats. This was unlike my any other trip in the past. We were not climbing any mountains or crossing waterfalls. We were sitting at a conservation centre inside a deep forest, learning and talking about wildlife. I witnessed nature first hand here and I met people who changed my perspective towards life. How a man’s vision to save Antarctica aligns with moving the world towards renewable energy and that means working with rural communities. From there started a new chapter, to give meaning to my life rather than to be just a software engineer.

Bahar Dutt inspired me more through her book “The green wars” and I had a courage like never before to choose an unconventional path for my life. I always had that love for nature. I was careful using my resources whether it was electricity or water. I never wasted food, I bicycled to office and planted few trees in life. And in all that I thought am able to contribute in my capacity towards environment. But the Green Wars exposed me to a world that I did not imagine. How the forests of Arunachal were drowned to make a 3000MW hydel project to serve the energy needs of big cities and industries. I became anxious and started to find my path where I can dedicate my life. Not as a hobby now, but as a passion, I wanted to fully immerse myself towards a more meaningful and impactful contribution towards the planet.

My anxiety ended as I got 2 opportunities.

First one is the Eastern Ghats Wildlife Society (EGWS). While I was exploring the western ghats I wasn’t even aware of the rich forests of eastern ghats until I went for a talk of Ashwin who is working for conservation of the fishing cat there. Then I met Murthy, a conservationist who now is a very good friend. I wanted to set up a financial model, with him similar to what I saw in western ghats, using which we can save these forest and do conservation work here, alongside sustaining ourselves. We did 3 forest programs, while I was in my job. Although we couldn’t earn much from them, the experience did help a lot about leadership and carrying out field expeditions.

Second one was the Global Himalayan Expedition. I always wanted to be a part of Robert Swan’s vision to save Antarctica. With GHE 2015 we went to a village in Ladakh, Shingo, and gave to them electricity using solar panels. Clean, renewable and sustainable. The story with GHE could have ended just there but I wanted to associate myself for a bigger contribution and impact. I got a positive response from the team and I had my next version of life waiting for me.

I had made up my mind. I turned 30 in Feb 2016 and I decided to quit my job and experiment with life. Let me go out and explore my options where I can contribute towards this infinitesimal small planet in the vast cosmos. Alongside I wanted to find an answer to sustaining myself and my family (my parents still live in a rented house in Punjab).

Life 5.0 (July 2016 – present)

I always imagined my 5.0 will start when I will get married. But no, I became a nomad instead. With my each version, my city changed. This time I thought it would be Leh, but since I quit my job in July I have spent only 15 days there.

I joined GHE but not for electrification, but for other livelihood improvements in the villages of Ladakh. Me and Paras just talked for few months, worked on many alternatives and then came up with an idea of a platform through which we could we could bring tourists to our villages that will help generate some income for them. The birth of Mountain Homestays. With the itineraries planned, we were ready to take off this year.

During my nostalgic last days in Hyderabad I was hearing nothing from Paras. My Nomad life started here. After my quit I left Hyderabad and came to Delhi right away. Then I came to know Paras was in Africa, implies I should wait for 10 more days for our launch. I spent those days with my family, a good break after my resignation.

Then I came back to Delhi. Paras was back but now we were discussing all new itineraries and launch was further delayed. I was paranoid, not really trusting this meeting as we were not talking since a month. But later It was good to stay at Paras house and work as a team to get our final version of website ready. After few more days here, getting all details on costings etc we finally announced our trips. While Paras left for Ladakh again, I went back to Punjab to stay with my family and market my initiative online to get interested participants (I can’t do this in Leh). This was a long 1 month stay with family, I never did that since 8 years. I expected my family to bug me each day asking about my plans and how are the bookings going. But to my surprise, my family was really supportive at this time. They pampered me hell and allowed me to focus on my work. I came quite closer to them again, especially my brother who used to listen to my random talks everyday about my ongoing progress.

But another surprise was the bookings. There wasn’t anyone signing up for my trips. To start with I already knew the trips were overpriced. After that initial hiccup I convinced Paras to reduce the price. But for the next 20 days or so I was just struggling. There were many issues: we hardly had any likes on our facebook page, the GHE website links still point to our old site, Mountain Homestays is not listed anywhere, I did not have enough pictures/videos to showcase or market it and there were no reviews. Still I was trying hard to market us online.

I was trying all channels and soon I converted a couple of partnerships to list our programs but publishing and closing on an agreement took time. With no one confirming I approached my friends to participate in our first trip. Thankfully 2 of them agreed, I don’t know how. These guys helped me make sure we are taking off with our first trip but what followed was another long silence. With just 10days left I needed a confirmation on the ground execution in Ladakh but I couldn’t get any response from Paras or JD. It all felt as if I was setup for a failure. But I wanted to prove this wrong and also to stay committed to my words to my friends, they will get a lifetime experience. I decided to go to Ladakh myself and find my own ground staff and execute this trip. I even planned to get some customers there. My objective was to understand the ground dynamics and get enough material to market ourselves later.

I was in Delhi, I booked my flight, printed a banner and few pamphlets and I was ready to take off. But finally Paras responded. He was busy with Natgeo documenting and now was 100% available to help me. I had to rebook the flight but the days that followed were better than ever. Paras gave me a stipend for my two months work, plus a stay pre-booked for me in Leh, and also all food and expenses taken care off. Most importantly all my ground execution logistics were taken care off. I had Dorjay and Sonam ji (the counselor) waiting for me when I arrived at Leh.

Very soon my homestay owners at Leh became my family. I talked for hours with them. The peace of Ladakh was taking me with itself and I could sleep much better now. Further the trip was even better and then I came back to take care of my further bookings. I took my dream journey which I was always waiting for, the road trip from Leh to Manali. I made a friend during my journey with whom I stayed in Vashisht. I never stayed in Manali like this. She took me to a waterfall which I didn’t knew it existed, though I came here 4 times earlier.

I was back home just in time to celebrate my mom’s bday and then it was time to be in Delhi. After 2.5 months, Ultimate frisbee was calling me as there is a team here I came running. And it was good to socialize with all my friends here and also doing a couple of meetings. But still I want to go back to Ladakh. My next trip looks promising now and I maybe there soon. All in all, Life 5.0 looks really interesting to me. My next plans to do a mountaineering course, solar electrification in Ladakh, back to Hyderabad in Dec to work on website and EGWS are all on the cards but with very less certainty.

Lets see!