Indians and Adventure

[Fiveten]

Just a discussion based on the article - http://indiaoutdoors.com/travelindianadv.php3



Adventure is what all of us seek, some at the keyboard, some by stepping away from it. The article is rather scathing in it's analysis of us Indians in seeking out the more physical form of it.



But certain points of the author do resonate as factual. While the firangs scramble up our mountains and mole hills to become the summiteers, kayak/raft down our rivers claiming them to be the 'first descents', 'discover' places in our backyard, what do we have to show? Pretty limited obviously.



Just throwing it out there for discussion...



But I guess to elicit most interest, it should be rather personal to you, right? So let's look at it this way. What was the last adventure you partook in? Do you think having done it once implies you have done it all, or have experienced the same emotions that an advanced sports person would?



The limitations that exist for certain outdoor sports to take off:



- Startup cost - For some sports like rock climbing, a pair of good climbing shoes, harness, appropriate ropes, carabiners, etc, the total cost can easily be anywhere between Rs. 8-20 K, that's a good percent of someone's annual salary these days, or way beyond the reach of most indians.



- Lack of freely available information. for instance, you knew of fullhyd.com because either people spoke about it or you came across it on the web. so you got introduced to it. But say for climbing/bouldering, how many time does it get a blip on your mental scan?



- Peer interests not similar. cricket is most easy to play because a lot of people play it. but what about say Hiking, can you get atleast three other hiking partners all the time? to drive up with you for a couple of hours, so that you could get out hiking?



- Gear not available. Alright you have the money, interest, peers to accompany you. and you are all set to get into kayaking or say climbing, but where will you get a kayak, or buy a good harness, or helmet or rope from? how do you know what is available is also good (some smart alec may say, let's wait to see who's rope breaks first...)



- No available expertise. you can take to a sport, but you might lose interest in it or remain pretty average at it all your life, if you don't find a source of expertise, books or people. you can take climbing only to a certain extent, if you don't get the right expertise to guide you will climb the average routes unless you are personally such a genius that you can evolve and teach yourself the advanced techniques.



- Right environment. Alright you got everything. you have the interest, friends, gear, let's say you are looking for white water kayaking or sufing. where in the hell would you find the whitewater or surf on a regular basis close by to hyderabad to practice your skills and become good at it. Ofcourse, a certain sport will take off only when the right environment exists. you can't expect to learn to ski near chennai or learn to sea kayak in hyderabad.



In india we have certain unique situations, for example a few years back a friend of mine and I decided to take an inflatable kayak to the secret lake. Guess what, that offended some government employee's sensibilities who didn't like the fact that we didn't take permission to be in the lake with our inflatable dinghy. so he threatened us to get off the restricted property!!!