I'd like to leave the world abetter place than I found it.....

For some years now I have been thinking of moving to the Himalayas to work with some of the pahadi communities up in the Kumaon Himalayas - now you could ask why go all the way to the Kumaon? Well, my answer is that the people up in the Kumaon are rather simple, undemanding folks who have never got their fair share of development expenditure because they do not pressure their elected representatives or community leaders. I also think the communities in the Himalayas could do with some organising and some education that few, if any, are willing or inclined to provide them.

One NGO that seems to be doing yeoman service in this neglected part of India is the CHIRAG Trust (Central Himalayan Rural Action Group) setup by the Lalls in 1987. They literally went to the people, lived among them, learnt from them, loved them, started with what they knew and built on the foundation they had. Today this Trust works in as many as 200+ villages in Uttarakhand in multiple areas such as water shed management, forestry, agriculture, primary health, education, women's issues and knowledge development. This seems like something I'd enjoy doing and would seriously consider pursuing once I'm done with Corporate life and life in the city.

I'd very much like to work in the area of Permaculture which is really a term that encompasses sustainable agriculture and sustainable living. There is so much of our living and farming that needs to be thought through again in order to ensure that we return our homesteads to a sustainable state. Simple things like using energy efficient cooking systems that do not denude our surroundings, fully utilising what nature provides us for free and ensuring that our aquifers are constantly recharged by ensuring that run-off is minimised - I love the idea of 'swales' which the Australian permaculturist Bill Mollison has promoted worldwide - swales are nothing but trenches cut into the land along contours with a view towards trapping water that would otherwise have run off and allowing this trapped water to recharge the local aquifers. These swales have been shown to greatly enhance the ability of barren lands to support plant life and thereby return them to a productive state.

This way I would have done my bit towards aligning myself to the only credo I believe is worth living for - leaving the world and my surroundings a better place than I found it.