Archive for April, 2010

Its Anniversary time at  Royal Mysore Walks today !! Yeah you are right, I missed the Fools day by a day Anniversaries are always great,  You are happy you are still together and more importantly its been the time you have spent together. Looking back at the same time a year back I recollect trying to run against time to get the route and the content of the Walks finalized, the website up and face the press at the release with a million last minute glitches and eventually present to the world, Royal Mysore Walks !! my Walking tour venture.

So, How has it been ? Absolutely Great !! I would say without battling an eyelid, Been a great ride.  The more I discover about Mysore, the more I fall in love with this beautiful city, The more I meet people, the more I fall in love with humanity. Its been great sharing the interesting stories of this city and getting people to look at it in a slightly different manner. Had the opportunity to Walk / Tour close to a 1000 people in the last one year, from Presidents and CXO of companies, senior IAS officers, Diplomats, amazingly interesting travelers to enthusiastic students. It been great the wide variety of people I have gotten to meet, people with different interests, with different backgrounds, with different temperaments and yes different attention spans . Its been an interesting challenge to connect, communicate, get them to open up and spend a great time along.

And like I said its a ride, so  bound to have its ups and downs but then you appreciate the ups only because you have the downs. I’m not saying that I haven’t met pricks, Oh I have and loads of them may be less on the Walks but more off it in the last one year when I have been trying to build it and its thanks to them that I get to appreciate other people

What have I learnt ?? You meet some people and they change the way you think. Like this one guy who has been donating blood on this b’day for the last 25 years. He says what better way than to start your celebration than by donating a part of your life and now even I follow suit ! or this guy travels the world without a change of clothes, I plan to do it atleast on one of my trips sometime or Driving in your car from one continent to another or this Yoga practitioner who was on my Walks and made me feel like an idiot for not learning Yoga being in Mysore from the great gurus here when she had to come half way across the world and spend a bomb to do the same, needless to say, I’ll be joining Yoga classes soon

The learning has also been immense in terms of  building a business, understanding how to make it work. And also to realize that the real world works very differently than how you have been thought to believe :) The use of technology to aid business. the power of networking, the plethora of ideas. And Meeting other entrepreneurs, learning and relating to them has always been fun !! And the best part being the learning still continues

What Next ?? More action I would say !! Have a lot more ideas about which I get really excited about , plan to prioritize them and get down to making them work. So you will surely see more Walking Tour routes, more offbeat tours and more hatke things to do with Royal Mysore Walks. I have already started to build a team, Presently working with another person on joining Royal Mysore Walks (more on it later So you will see a small team in place. Let me know if any of you or your friends would be interested to join, there is SO MUCH more that can be done with tourism here. It would be great to meet more passionate and committed people.

This journey that has begun wouldn’t have been possible without the support of a lot of people who have helped me selflessly and a lot more who still continue to do. Few of them are with me today and few aren’t. A huge hug thanking you all from my side

Over the last one year, I have seen myself grow.. guess I gotten to be more pragmatic, more mature (my folks wouldn’t agree on this one more complete and yes a lot more happier !! and now that the journey has begun there is no stopping n like johnny says, lets keep walking !!