Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Conference
We are at Austin, the busy and crowded capital city of Texas. It is a wet day, a slight drizzle is spraying the city with tiny water droplets. Just the kind of day when one feels lazy and laidback with little or no interest of stepping out into the street, leave alone travelling 20 miles to attend a conference. But here I am at The Crossings, a location far removed from the hustle and bustle of the capital city and I am glad I came here. The setting is simply awesome and something that makes me feel one with nature. As we started in the morning I was skeptical whether I would enjoy or even be interested in the conference considering the title, I was wondering what would probably keep me from being bored out here.
But yes, the venue itself is enough to make me want to come here. I am quite sure everyone of you would know America and a large majority of you would know about Texas, the largest state in the US and which was formerly a sovereign republic before merging into the US. But I am quite sure very few would know Austin, the capital city of Texas and even fewer would have heard or visited The Crossings, a hilltop property located amdist the hill country outside of Austin. It is one of the few modern but very very eco-friendly properties I have visited. The Crossings positions itself as a boutique hotel, spa and meeting/ conference venue. Sprawling across an entire forested hill, the Crossings has 35-acre of grounds dotted with aromatic trees including juniper, rosemary and jasmine trees.
The view offered by the hilltop property is simply panoramic. I would say an ideal location for non-formal education and learning activities. The property prides in being 100 percent sustainable with only the most necessary human interventions. Buidings are built surrounded by trees and only the motorable roads are of concrete the walking paths are not paved but just metalled with gravel and rock.
I am quite sure we have similar properties in India which I am unaware of. I am aware of one non-profit organisation which has a property like this. Operating under the name of Navadarshanam, it is a eco-friendly community on the outskirts of Bangalore about 45 km from the city. But then the difference between this property and that is its access, here there is wide and easy road access and have convenient walking paths and motoring paths, while at Navadarshanam there are only foot paths and mud trails. It is definitely more rustic, but think of all the big thorns which would pierce through the soles into your legs. With a metalled or gravel pathway, this problem could be more or less eliminated.
One thing I have been quite impressed with the people here. When we enter a shop the sales person wishes us with a cheerful greeting and thanks you for visiting when you leave, irrespective of the fact whether you made a purchase or not. Absolute strangers wish you good morning or evening when you meet their eyes in the park or trail or even on the road. This kind of etiquette and courtesy goes a long way in developing business relationships and a positive image.
Shell petrol bunks in Bangalore have tried to inculcate this kind of culture. But the result has not been as good. The "Namaskara" they say is far from cheerful or friendly, it is more mechanical and just uttered. Just imagine if everyone in India were to smile and wish everyone else with whom they interact, how better our living experience would be. It will be difficult and people suspect initially, most or perhaps everyone will think that you have ulterior motives and that is why you are being extra courteous, but I believe in the ripple effect. It may take time but it will happen, the warmth you generate will only multiply exponentially.
I don't want to sound like a prude. I believe that "it is more important to be nice than to be important". This I heard from Swami Sukhabodananda when I attended a transformatory LIFE programme a few years ago. I learnt a few things but I need to learn a lot more.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Dinosaur foot prints in a beautiful river valley
Last weekend me, Padma and Srinivas (my elder brother) visited Glen Rose a beautiful river valley about 100 miles from Dallas. The town per se is not so interesting it is in fact a small settlement with about 2,200 people but what is attractive is the Dinosaur Valley Fossil Park on the outskirts of the town. But what's great about how this country has developed even small places and provided facilities. For such a small population there is a fully fledged court, hospital, excellent schools, a state-of-the-art athletic center, a police station, petrol bunks, super markets and businesses. Contrasting the same with Indian scenario, a place with even 20,000 population would probably not have a court or a police station. Even if there are then, there would not be any staff working there.
Anyway Glen Rose is a pleasant aberration from the flat as pancake Texan landscape. It is mountainous, there are hills, valleys and a crystal clear river running through the valley. It is in this valley that Dinosaurs raomed arond 250 million years ago. The place is amazingly beautiful, I mean it is like our himalayan tourist/ trekking areas, sans the population, noise and trash. There are well marked trails so people wont get lost. As one enters the park the authorities provide a highly informative and easy to read and follow map, so that visitors can explore the park on their own. There are adequate parking places in the park which are safe and clean.
We just parked our car in one location and walked the first location in the map which said Track one. There is an explanation signage which explained how to identify dinosaur footprints and we followed the track downhill into the valley. We walked through the foliage and under tall trees and soon came to the river... the scene was simply awe inspiring. The beautiful river, with clear water was in front of us. We could stand on the big rocks on the banks and look on either sides to see tall mountains flanking the river and the water snaking through lush green vegetation.
As we explored further we came across the dinosaur tracks, these three toed gigantic creatures which once lived and dominated the animal life on planet earth have imprinted their foot prints on soft soil, which ultimately became fossilised due to various changes in the earths climate and now after 250 million years they are available for us to explore, enjoy and feel awed. Comparing our feet with the size of footprints is a humbling experience, my feet felt as if it would fit into one flange of the dinosaur's footprint. It is about 2ft in length and 1.5 ft width. The three sharp ends reveal the kind of razor sharp claws that these creatures might have had.
"What if a Dinosaur were to be present now?" I wondered and immediately felt scared because if it were alive, I would have been its evening snack... and I definitely don't want that to happen... yikes...
Further we walked along the river enjoying the scenery and the weather and wished we had brought our swimming costumes, so we could have had a nice and cool dip in the river Plauxy's inviting and clear waters. We finished the walk and returned to the car and drove to the other end of the park where there is a river crossing opportunity. I mean the river is shallow here, only about a 2-3 ft deep, and park arthorities have placed huge boulders along the shallowest part of the river so that hikers can walk across and climb mountains on the other side. We gingerly stepped from one boulder to the other and crossed over and began walking through the forest.
One thing is amazing about the society here. There may be no close family ties, no kinship but one thing is certainly there, common courtesy. Anybody who crossed our path, even outright strangers, wish good morning, ask, how are you today? and such pleasantaries are exchanged. If they sneeze, they say "excuse me!" and if someone sneezes, they are immediate to utter "god bless you!". These are things that shape a society. I wish we could inculcate the same culture in our country. We saw several people returning in the path we were headed and everyone was quick to flash a smile and say "hello! how are you doing?". We returned the same greeting and trudged along the forest path to reach a small creek, where we turned east towards the main river.
This was a unique experience too, it made us feel as if we were part of some hollywood film set, walking on a semi-dry river bed flanked by two tall mountains. After walking about 10 mins we reached the river and noting that it was shallow, we decided to cross the river and head on the mountain bike trail back to the camping area where our car was parked. That was a dicey proposition, which proved very useful for us. The rocky river bed was fully covered by algae and we had to be extra careful as we put one step after another towards the other bank. But as we neared the opposite bank we were surprised to see several giant dinosaur foot prints. This time there were two varieties of them... one belonging to the 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex and another to the 70-foot Apatosaurus.
We just revelled in the scene and then slowly walked back to the car promising that we would return back another weekend and explore all the trails and the entire river bed. This time we will come with swimming and camping gear, so we can start the day swimming and end it in the tent on the river bed.
Last weekend me, Padma and Srinivas (my elder brother) visited Glen Rose a beautiful river valley about 100 miles from Dallas. The town per se is not so interesting it is in fact a small settlement with about 2,200 people but what is attractive is the Dinosaur Valley Fossil Park on the outskirts of the town. But what's great about how this country has developed even small places and provided facilities. For such a small population there is a fully fledged court, hospital, excellent schools, a state-of-the-art athletic center, a police station, petrol bunks, super markets and businesses. Contrasting the same with Indian scenario, a place with even 20,000 population would probably not have a court or a police station. Even if there are then, there would not be any staff working there.
Anyway Glen Rose is a pleasant aberration from the flat as pancake Texan landscape. It is mountainous, there are hills, valleys and a crystal clear river running through the valley. It is in this valley that Dinosaurs raomed arond 250 million years ago. The place is amazingly beautiful, I mean it is like our himalayan tourist/ trekking areas, sans the population, noise and trash. There are well marked trails so people wont get lost. As one enters the park the authorities provide a highly informative and easy to read and follow map, so that visitors can explore the park on their own. There are adequate parking places in the park which are safe and clean.
We just parked our car in one location and walked the first location in the map which said Track one. There is an explanation signage which explained how to identify dinosaur footprints and we followed the track downhill into the valley. We walked through the foliage and under tall trees and soon came to the river... the scene was simply awe inspiring. The beautiful river, with clear water was in front of us. We could stand on the big rocks on the banks and look on either sides to see tall mountains flanking the river and the water snaking through lush green vegetation.
As we explored further we came across the dinosaur tracks, these three toed gigantic creatures which once lived and dominated the animal life on planet earth have imprinted their foot prints on soft soil, which ultimately became fossilised due to various changes in the earths climate and now after 250 million years they are available for us to explore, enjoy and feel awed. Comparing our feet with the size of footprints is a humbling experience, my feet felt as if it would fit into one flange of the dinosaur's footprint. It is about 2ft in length and 1.5 ft width. The three sharp ends reveal the kind of razor sharp claws that these creatures might have had."What if a Dinosaur were to be present now?" I wondered and immediately felt scared because if it were alive, I would have been its evening snack... and I definitely don't want that to happen... yikes...
Further we walked along the river enjoying the scenery and the weather and wished we had brought our swimming costumes, so we could have had a nice and cool dip in the river Plauxy's inviting and clear waters. We finished the walk and returned to the car and drove to the other end of the park where there is a river crossing opportunity. I mean the river is shallow here, only about a 2-3 ft deep, and park arthorities have placed huge boulders along the shallowest part of the river so that hikers can walk across and climb mountains on the other side. We gingerly stepped from one boulder to the other and crossed over and began walking through the forest.
One thing is amazing about the society here. There may be no close family ties, no kinship but one thing is certainly there, common courtesy. Anybody who crossed our path, even outright strangers, wish good morning, ask, how are you today? and such pleasantaries are exchanged. If they sneeze, they say "excuse me!" and if someone sneezes, they are immediate to utter "god bless you!". These are things that shape a society. I wish we could inculcate the same culture in our country. We saw several people returning in the path we were headed and everyone was quick to flash a smile and say "hello! how are you doing?". We returned the same greeting and trudged along the forest path to reach a small creek, where we turned east towards the main river.
This was a unique experience too, it made us feel as if we were part of some hollywood film set, walking on a semi-dry river bed flanked by two tall mountains. After walking about 10 mins we reached the river and noting that it was shallow, we decided to cross the river and head on the mountain bike trail back to the camping area where our car was parked. That was a dicey proposition, which proved very useful for us. The rocky river bed was fully covered by algae and we had to be extra careful as we put one step after another towards the other bank. But as we neared the opposite bank we were surprised to see several giant dinosaur foot prints. This time there were two varieties of them... one belonging to the 45-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex and another to the 70-foot Apatosaurus.
We just revelled in the scene and then slowly walked back to the car promising that we would return back another weekend and explore all the trails and the entire river bed. This time we will come with swimming and camping gear, so we can start the day swimming and end it in the tent on the river bed.
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