Yesterday I received an email from this lady in San Diego California. Trying to be in the space we are operating is – adventure sports and travel – and trying to find people to believe in the project to an extent that they support us, an email like this certainly boosts the morale of the entire team. The passion is evident in her words and I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you all. This came as a response to a page on the website (http://OneHelluvaRide.com/jointheteam.html) asking people to write in with a valid reason why they should be part of the expedition team. She belongs to that small band of people who can think beyond cricket, despite having Indian roots. Here it is…
“I don’t want to be a part of the team but I am writing this because I want to gift this trip to my husband and plan to surprise him with it. I think he should be able to go because he is an avid fearless traveler, with a keen sense of direction (we have travelled the world over with no guide..just him getting up in the morning and what direction you are facing), handy with tools and gadgets ( he is in construction), cooks really well (with minimal ingredients), street smart and a great team player who would be willing to take any role and responsibility that the team has for him. He would be the perfect addition to the team. And I know I am a lucky girl but he truly has all these qualities.
Please please consider him (I don’t write too well since I am an accountant and am better with numbersJ) and let me know if he even has a chance. I know it is going to be tough on me to be in a foreign country for 3+ plus months ( I still consider India my home) but this is an experience of a lifetime that I truly from my heart hope he gets to enjoy.
Thanks,
PS: Thanks for thinking of this amazing journey and you have my support to spread the word no matter what.
(Name withheld), CPA
Manager
Audit & Enterprise Risk Services”
OneHelluvaLensman
Yesterday Himanshu Seth joined the expedition team as the photographer. Himanshu is a traveller, motorbiker and professional photographer. Based in Mumbai Himanshu loves to travel and particularly likes to play with forms, shapes and textures in the photographs he takes. He has a range of favourite subjects ranging from landscapes to people to architecture to nature to wildlife. Welcome aboard Himanshu, I am sure this will not only be one helluva ride for you but you will be an asset to the team. The photographs you take during the journey will be something that will freeze all the memories for us to share with our children and their children. Welcome aboard my friend.
Today is Diwali, the day the Lord King Rama came home from exile and the whole kingdom was out to celebrate the occasion. The festival of lights transcends religion and faith and is enjoyed by one and all, houses lit up, firecrackers, fun and games. Also ushering in prosperity and good cheer for the year ahead.
Well, as far as OneHelluvaRide is concerned, the pieces of the jigsaw are falling in place and the job list is getting longer, at last count it was about three yeards long and counting. There is so much to do. But all for the better. The media associations are almost in place. Have had some very good meetings over the past couple of days and all in all I think that we are well and truly on the right track. The only issue is that the associations are taking a little longer than estimated, leaving me even less time to provide sponsors to make up their minds. But then, with a large and credible media package in place, sponsors will be able to decide in a far shorter time. The last couple of weeks have been full of holidays leaving less time for meetings, but whatever has happened has been very positive.
I suspect next week to start slowly but end on a fairly positive note. And I say that every week. Well, c’est la vie. Cheers and have a happy Diwali.
The last week was very quiet indeed. Lots of holidays, people in vacation mood, some unfortunately under the weather, all in all a very quiet week. There was nothing much to report and consequently no posts either. Today started off great. Got through to everyone I called, met the people I was supposed to meet, set up meeting for the next two days, very productive. The afternoon meeting was fruitful and has moved to the next level. Sent reminders to those who are get back.
And with the departure date looking close, I also started the set the wheels in motion for my knee replacement surgery. About 60 days of the 186 left to flag off will be taken up in the recovery process, no time left. Tentatively looking at mid November for the surgery. And before that there is a proposed trip to Bhutan. So much to do and so little time.
Peter is having trouble getting responses from the various people he is in touch with in Sri Lanka. He is getting mighty frustrated. Well, such is life in the very very slow lane of sponsor identification and finalisation.
More tomorrow or the day after. Three important meetings – one tomorrow and two the following day. Will also visit the hospital tomorrow to find out formalities required for the surgery. Catch you in a couple of days.
Sponsor a Mile, Sponsor a Smile
You may be wondering where I disappeared for the past few days. Well, I was very much here, but since there was nothing to report, I refrained from logging in. No progress has been made over the past few days. Lots of people wishing us well and many envious messages are coming in. To be fair, we have not yet started approaching sponsors. The delay is in duct-taping the media associations. Most are complete bar the paperwork. And we all know how slow the wheels of justice turn. And the paperwork is with the legal respective departments.
One possible good news is that Mr Lalit Modi of IPL fame has been sent a message regarding our saga by a school mate of mine. In case he expresses an interest and supports the cause, a lot of our roadblocks will melt away. We flag off on April 17 which is in the middle of the IPL season in 2010. Maybe the expedition can be plugged into the tournament to raise money for charity.
Talking of charity, we have finalised the association with the War Wounded Foundation. But I already mentioned that. The second one is still awaited. And we have also set ourselves a target of raising US$ 1 million for charity, to be distributed between the charities we associate with. India is not a very charity friendly country (bar religious charities), but then ours is a global expedition and hopefully donations will come in from all over the world. We have had visitors to the website from 23 countries already, and once the promotions start in earnest I suspect the numbers will increase. And all we are asking for is US$ 10 per mile. Let’s see how things turn out.
Will get back to you, hopefully tomorrow with some development. Cheers
One day has passed and the page of the calendar has turned. Psychologically another month has passed us by and we are one month closer to flag off. Hmmm.
Today was a very tiring day, albeit a fairly fruitful one. The morning meeting, at one end of town, was with the War Wounded Foundation. I met up with Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, the President, Maj Gen Ian Cardozo, the Vice President and Brig Veer Pratap, the Executive Director of the War Wounded Foundation. We had a long chat on various issues and in the course of discussions, it was agreed that they would be the official charity partners on OneHelluvaRide. I was really looking forward to this association as I am very partial to men in uniform and take my hat off to those brave souls who put their lives at risk while fighting for their motherland. May lay down their lives in the process, while others suffer disabilities, many of who have to depend on others for even routine daily chores. Their bodies may be broken but their spirits are alive. They are not looking for hand-outs, they are looking for a step up to help them look after themselves. And that is what we are trying to do with this association. The motto of the War Wounded Foundation is to turn the war wounded into Soldier-Entrepreneurs, by equipping them with the skills to become financially independent. A lot has been done since its incorporation in 2002, but a lot still needs to be done. There are over 30,000 war wounded in India, and if each of us helps one, not only will they become financially independent, regain their dignity, but will give each of us an opportunity to repay the debt that we owe these brave men to did not succumb when the bullets were flying think and fast. We need to remember that they gave their today for our tomorrow. We sleep in peace, because these men are prepared to go to war. Visit the War Wounded Foundation at http://www.warwounded.org/.
Incidentally both Lt Gen Oberoi and Maj Gen Cardozo have lost their leg in war. Sir, we as a nation salute your bravery.
The second meeting was at the other end of town, 50km away. It was with a radio channel and the meeting was very fruitful. I suspect this is going to finalise sometime mid next week. There were interesting ideas that came up at this meeting which will help build the expedition across media. Sorry, can’t tell you which it is just yet, a few more days.
Well a little over 24 hours ago we hit the 200 day countdown. And when I checked the analytics of the site, we just crossed 400 visitors. Yippee. And this despite the fact that no promotions have happened to draw people to the site. It has just been exposed to some friends and some members of the media with whom we have been talking. And not only that, we have had visitors from 21 countries!!! And that is not all. When you do a Google search for OneHelluvaRide, WE ARE #2. Even if you break it up into three words – one helluva ride – we come on the first page. Even this blog shows up on the first page. Not bad huh?
Today was otherwise a fairly busy day … for me in Delhi as well as for Peter in Colombo. He had a good meeting with the #2 at a large media house there. And I had a good meeting with a friend of mine who is coming on board as the marketing arm for OneHelluvaRide and project managers.
Overall a good day. Still expecting two calls from two media organisations in Delhi. Having all limbs crossed, I am now looking like more and more like a contortionist.
Sep 29, 2009. As of today the countdown has really begun. Exactly 200 days to go before OneHelluvaRide is flagged off. Seems like almost a year to go, but if you consider the length of the ever-increasing job list, it is too short a time to put everything together. Logisics, permits, team composition, equipment and not to mention the most important requirement – sponsors. Well, things have been pretty smooth so far and the results have been as good as expected. This week should be very hectic and busy and hopefully fruitful. There are two important meetings that have to be concluded this week – both media associations, one television and the other internet. I am hoping that both will bear fruit. And both are big names in the industry, which means that an association with them will make a lot of sense to the sponsors. In fact, the entire media package so far is building up to be quite a nice package. On this website is a mention of a few of them – TopGear, exchange4media and oktatabyebye. I am hoping that by the end of the week, two more names will get added on to that list. As will be the charity partners. The international one might take a little longer given the larger bureaucracy it has to go through, the Indian charity should get finalised on Oct 1, I am meeting the trustees on that day.
My aim is to offer at least double the benefits in terms of media associations to the sponsors. That has almost been reached and I hoping that with the television and internet partner,this figure will go up substantially. And then the big chore starts – meeting sponsors and getting them on board. So far every one who has heard about the expedition is all praise, and full of envy. But then, they do not have to shell out the monies. The sponsors, despite loving the concept still have to make a business decision – “What do I get for the money spent.” Fair enough, and that is what I am building up to. So far so good.
Well, 200 days and counting. Soon it will be next month, and then next week and suddenly …. tomorrow morning. I am so looking forward to this expedition. It will be a dream fulfilled and a vindication of what we have been trying to do at OutThere Adventurers for so long. This is big, being built up as such and very very global. I hope we and the sponsors can derive maximum potential out of this truly unique event. All the best to us.
Considering that the weekend has almost started and the festival season is on, I did not expect too much to happen today. More so when a proposed meeting I had did not get confirmed. But as the day wore on, I got three pieces of news that kind of made up for the lack of any information at all over the past few days. One charity that we would really like to associate with has sent the proposal to their global headquarters in Geneva. And when I checked the analytics of the website, Switzerland did send one visitor. I am hoping some information will come from Geneva by mid next week, I am also hoping that the information will be positive and will move to the next level. The second news was that Peter had a good meeting in Colombo. This too has moved to the next level and there is a second meeting Monday. All the best Peter for that, hope it goes off as well as expected. The third was a long awaited meeting in Chiang Mai finally happened. Or was happening last I heard. Again, some information shsould come in over the weekend.
One page has been added on the web site – some details about the countries that fall en route OneHelluvaRide. And the national anthems of all of them. Really liked doing that. Learnt that the capital of Sri Lanka is not Colombo but Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. Well, we live and learn.
Busy days with the festivities for the next two days. Hopefully the Mother Goddess leaves behind some goodies for us before She leaves for her in-laws Monday.
All the best and happy holidays.
It has been four days since I last wrote something here. There was pretty much nothing to write. We are just waiting for information to come in. From Chiang Mai. From Bombay. From Gurgaon. From Delhi. From Colombo. Waiting for people to get back with information, dates of meetings, approvals, rejections, whatever. And now the festive season has started – Dussehra starts today. Monday is a holiday. Soon we will have Diwali. And then Christmas and New Year. Time is flying by and the one thing we need is time to give sponsors as much time as possible to make up their minds. I am hoping that there will be news coming in next week. Hopefully, it will be a packed one. Happy Dussehra everyone.