I have a story for you today. It’s
about how you as a trekker, are making an impression on someone’s life. Someone
you almost certainly don’t even know exists.
Very often, I feel of writing to you
with such stories, but rarely get an opportunity to because numerous other
things happen.
So today, I’m taking the prospect to
Share this story with you.
Last year, I was driving from Wan to
Lohajung, two villages at the bottom of the Brahmatal trek. These two
villages are 14 km apart, but the journey takes nearly an hour on treacherous
mountain roads.
If you’ve been on these mountain roads, you’ll know that it requires great skill to drive on these roads.
It also requires sturdy, robust
cars.
That day, I was driving in a brand
new Scorpio. it had been white and sleek, just two days old. I could still see
the agarbatti and match stick from the previous day’s pooja for the new car.
Our Trek Manager, Sumitji, had just
bought this car.
He had bought it by making a deposit
of Rs 5lakhs. Barely two days old, he had hired a driver and put the car to
work.
He already had the familiar yellow
and black logo pasted thereon. “Evergreenadcon India’s Largest Trekking
Community” it read. It had become one of the vehicles that transport
Evergreenadcon trekkers.
Why is that this significant?
Sumit Ji is from Wan, a little a village within the foothills of the Himalayas.
He completed his 12th grade at
Mundoli and stopped studying then. “I was bad at Maths,” he shrugs.
After his schooling in Mundoli, he
did an inquiry And Rescue Course.
In 2013, he was summoned for rescue
action during the Uttarakhand floods. “I was in Rope 4, which meant trying to
find casualties,” he recollects. “I cannot remember what percentage of bodies I
saw and faraway from the floods. it had been devastating. I couldn’t roll in
the hay for long,” he says.
After the floods, he spent quite a
year in search of the rare keeda Jadi, a medicinal herb that fetches tons of
cash for each kilo. it had been not very respectable work, neither was it in
good books of the law.
While this was easy money, it had
been never his calling. He had always pictured himself within the outdoors,
doing good work for the betterment of his society.
Later in 2014, his friend,
Dhirendra, who was performing at Evergreenadcon suggested that he join
Evergreenadcon. Sumitji took his suggestion and commenced working with us.
Sumitji joined us as a porter. He
would lug heavy backpacks, tents, sometimes full gas cylinders and climb
uphill.
“When no mules could go from Pathar
Nachuni to Bhagwabhasa (when there was deep snow), there would be Dhansingh
moving heavy equipment on the snowy trails. He had how with knots and he knew
the way to tie heavy equipment together, including gas cylinders” shares
Dharmendra, our Chief of Operations.
Once he noticed Sumitji’s technical
skills, he moved him to the role of a technical guide.
Over the subsequent two years,
Sumitji learned the ropes of running a trek and commenced involving himself
within the operations of our treks. it had been his involvement and diligence,
including Rahul Ji's guidance, that took him above the ladder.
In 2019, as I write to you now,
Sumitji is at Lohajung. he’s a Trek Manager with Evergreenadcon, the go-to
person on the slope, with a minimum of 20 others reporting to him. he’s managing
the whole operations work of the Brahmatal trek for the winter season, hosting
over 800 trekkers in three months.
Why I’m telling you Sumitji’s story
is because this is often not just his story.
Most of our local staff members have
such stories.
They have all joined Evergreenadcon
in their late teens, as porters, helpers, most of them without much of an
education.
They all worked their high to become
Trek Managers, Operations Managers and Store Managers.
And today, without them,
Evergreenadcon would cease to exist as we all know it.
Where you come in, during this story
When you trek with Evergreenadcon,
you’re not just signing up for a trek. you’re setting in motion a sequence of
events that deeply impacts the economy of the region you’re trekking in.
When we started Evergreenadcon, we
knew that to grow a corporation, it had to grow at the roots. And our roots
dwell the mountains and within the economy of the mountains.
And that was one among the large
problems we wanted to unravel — the shortage of infrastructure and professional
skill within the mountains, and therefore the overall economy of the region.
Many trekkers have this
misconception that mountain folk should move to greater cities for better
opportunities to earn better. They think that once they move to greater cities,
they will send extra money home and grow the economy. But what we’ve noticed
are somethings else. Mountain folks are usually exploited within the city.
they’re given rock bottom sort of work — which is on the brink of a menial. Their
inherent skills and intelligence are never explored.
In a city, they’re awkward, out of
place and shortly begin to despair.
“At Evergreenadcon, our objective is
to possess mountain folk to earn as city people do. And to retain those
earnings within the mountains. the very fact that folks like Sumitji are buying
cars, employing people, and sending their children to non-public schools itself
is testimony that the local economy of our mountain folks is growing
tremendously,” says Arjun Majumdar, our founder.
Added thereto, we extensively train
mountain folk with skills they will utilize to proportion and grow within their
society. It takes time, enormous effort and money to spot talent, hone skills
and help our mountain staff grow. And our operations team, led by Rahul Ji, are
constantly working during this direction.
Today, it’s a matter of pride for us
that we’ve 20 permanent employees in management roles from the mountains, and
under them about 80 more, all of them in high-income positions, with the potential
of coaching others in their community.
You might have met a number of our
mountain staff
We have Bhandari Ji from Uttarkashi.
He features a story very almost like Sumitji and was involved in Rescue
operations within the 2013 floods. then, he joined Evergreenadcon as a contract
guide. Having studied Pharmacy, he had many skills that would help train
others. So he automatically entered a managerial role and now’s an indispensable
Operations Manager at Evergreenadcon.
Then there’s Rameshji Ji from
Sankri, who may be a Trek Manager with us. People call him Musa Bhai. He joined
us as a porter way back in 2013, progressed to the role of a cook/guide, and
now takes care of the whole operations of Kedarkantha Trek and Har Ki Dun
treks. Within Evergreenadcon, he’s known for his brilliance, inventiveness and
problem-solving acumen. he’s our home-grown inventor. the amount of gadgets he
has built on the slope is incredible.
You might have met Khushi from
Lohajung. He was a helper with us in 2013, working seasonally. “When I
acknowledged that he excelled in Math in class, I put him on training to find
out accounts,” shares Rahul Ji. “He started small, managing accounts of our
store, learned the way to use a computer and manage Excel sheets. Now, he’s one
among the sole mountain staff members who know Excel and Accounts alright,”
Rahul Ji adds. he’s also during a managerial role now, taking care of a
neighborhood of the operations of our treks.
There’s also Mahi, another young lad from
Lohajung, who showed promise in communication and project management. From 2013
to now, he has grown from being a helper to being a cook,
learned English to widen his
communication skills, and took over the whole operations of the Hampta Pass
trek in Manali in 2015. He even managed our operations internationally on our
Nepal treks. Now he manages overall operations out of our Dehradun office.
There are numerous others. It’s hard
to call all of them here and share their stories. But once you continue a trek,
ask to satisfy them and ask them. they’ll share with you stories from the past,
of how they need grown professionally and helped strengthen the economy of
their society.
Which brings me back to your role
during this
When they interact with you, they
learn what the surface world is doing. They develop a bigger vision for
themselves and for his or her families.
It inspires them to start out small
businesses, to urge friends and relatives to start out something of their own.
for instance, a number of our staff have begun to give out some of their homes
as a homestay. Trekkers love the experience — but so do our mountain staff and
their families! It grows their income too.
Sometimes a little conversation with
you gives them an insight into healthier living, managing money, learning
better communication skills. Spending a couple of minutes with you starts a
sequence of events that no amount of coaching can give.
By spending time with you they learn
skills in computers, the use of mobile and the internet. They download apps and
become good at using them.
They also get ideas to form trekker
experiences better. Last week our mountain staff and Pradhan of a foreign
village on the Deoriatal Chandrashila trail suggested we start camping at a
buffer area near the forests rather than staying during a lodge. They thought
it might provide a better trekking experience. These insights wouldn’t have
come if they had not interacted with our trekkers.
It is just not interacting with
them. once you sit in their vehicles, dine in their dhabas, you’re not only
aiding the economy but unknown to you our mountain folks are learning just by
observing you.
That’s why I’m scripting this story
today. Whether our mountain folks tell you or not, just by being with them, you
play an enormous role in changing their lives for the higher.
