Vietnam Diaries (Day 8): Ready for an Adventure?

Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park has offered the most unique travel experience I have had till date. My first two days in Phong Nha Ke Bang have been nothing short of being on a fantasy and action movie set. I visited four of the Park's caves. One may think that all caves are the same, but they actually weren't.

Boating through the Phong Nha Cave

On day one, I took a boat into Phong Nha Cave. It reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Dumbledore and Harry recover the fake Horcrux. I then climbed 800 steps to enter the Tien Son cave. It reminded me of the expedition through the Goblin cave in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. On day two, I walked through the first kilometer of the 31 kilometers long Paradise Cave. It is so large that it could fit a flying helicopter in it, with formations as long as a coconut tree. I could totally visualize an Indiana Jones film being shot here with the stalagmites and stalactites perfect for a shoot-off.  Lastly, I zip lined and swam into the Dark Cave, which was akin to stepping into the mines of a Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring (LOTR).

The Mouth of the Tien Son Cave

I was wondering about the first men who entered these caves. Unlike me, they had to find their own path. Every step and turn could have been fraught with its own risks. Help was not easily accessible, with connectivity being entirely absent inside the mountains.

At the same time, the return was discovering a microhabitat inside the cave, with its diverse geology and ecology. The return was the feeling of being the first person to experience something so special and awe-inspiring. The return was to be able to offer this experience to many more people, like me.

The Unending Paradise Cave

As I think about my own country, I see so many people being the workers and the followers and so few choosing the walk the path less trodden. To be pioneers and explorers requires a different orientation. The orientation can only be nurtured through an education that is fundamentally empowering and a society that encourages informed risk-taking.

I will like to talk about the latter a bit more. In my own journey working with children from low-income communities, I have received two emotional responses - inspiration and pity. There is a bunch of people who think what I am doing is amazing and only I could do something like this, who think that it takes extraordinary courage and commitment to continue working in the space. There is another bunch who think I am an NGO worker, who think I am making a huge sacrifice and missing out on so many of the life's comforts.

As I reflect on the last four years of work in Bangalore, I feel proud that I have enabled over 120 individuals to walk a different path. Half of them have continued to serve low-income communities, two-thirds have continued working in education. It would not have been possible without my own Fellowship experience. It gave me my community of friends and supporters. I developed the ability to look outside and within myself with deeper nuance so that I could grow myself. The many stories of my children normalized the meaning of the word 'challenge' for me. By working with the incoming Fellows, I was just paying it forward.

Ziplining into the Dark Cave

While I am not an explorer or pioneer, I have walked a different path. If we want more people to walk different paths, our outlook must shift. It must become more open and accepting of people who play these distinct roles in society. A country, like India, full of engineers, doctors, businessmen and MBAs will always hit a glass ceiling. We need more people who are researchers, teachers, environmentalists, scientists, explorers and innovators, activists and social workers, entrepreneurs, etc who balance the drive for generating wealth with the drive for solving complex social and environmental problems. 

There is a spirit of adventure in all of us. We need to discover and unleash it in our lives, beyond our holidays. If the theme of this blog excites you, I will leave you with a Ted talk that talks about the value of being a lone nut and the first follower.