Machu Picchu, Peru sounds exotic and fun, Doesn’t it?
National Geographic Channel (NGC) is running the contest ‘Mission Explorer.’ The mission of the contest is to search people who have made a difference in their life as well in others life by taking a leap ‘Beyond Boundaries. It is an India-only project with a global appeal concept. Mission explorer will shortlist the individuals who are bent upon following their passion and working towards achieving the greater good.
Here is an account of all that happened at the Mission Explorer Bloggers meet with National Geographic Channel (NGC). On November 21, 2015, I met the jury at Qila, New Delhi. Since I was traveling, I could not blog about it before.
What do we understand of the word ‘Explorer’?
We majorly relate it with traveling, discovering and globetrotting to places that are far-fetched. But in real sense, explorer does not have limitations. It has a wider canvas. An explorer could be anyone who treads an unknown path and it could be in any of his/her field of interest. When NGC announced Mission Explorer, I thought it was only going to be about traveling but here I was mistaken. If you have explored Culture, Science, Technology, Nature, The World, Trekking routes, Adventure, History, etc. you are absolutely eligible to be called an Explorer.
Kila is spelled in two ways, its called Qila too. This used to be Blue frog a few years ago. I quite like this place. Its just opposite to the Qutub Minar. My cab dropped me here at 11 a.m. and I was curious to know about Mission Explorer.
The registration desk was right there. I dropped my card and made my way to the terrace. A fortnight ago, the winters had just begun to settle in stealthily in Delhi and an open place for the meet-up looked warm and inviting to me.
The terrace was buzzing with people from NGC, the jury and a limited set of bloggers. Each one was an explorer in their own way. I made conversations and picked inspiration from the people around. When I say, I have quit my job to live a life of a blogger, traveler or a writer, I am on my mission too but this was the time to introspect further. Was I doing anything unique yet, was I helping mankind in any way?
Trust me, when it comes to India we have immense talent and creativity around us. And if you really look around, people are taking the plunge to follow their passion. What they need is platforms like this to talk about their work and get recognized. And even if there is no platform, there is satisfaction of what you are doing. When I heard it from the judges, it further instilled the courage to keep doing what you want to do because some things are not done for money, prizes or fame but only for oneself. When they started doing what they did, be it in music or technology or surfing, they dint know that their work would give them money and fame.
Before the formal event started, we had enough to eat and keep busy. The food was really good at Qila. Three of my favorite things have been snapped and are in the pictures below. BTW, you are not supposed to get hungry because you can’t afford to miss more details about the contest. Apply for it soon because NGC promises to send 3 of the winners on an expedition to Machu Picchu, Peru.
Chicken-Wantons-at-Qila-New-Delhi
After we had enough personal and informal discussions with each other and the jury, Swati Mohan took to the center-stage and talked about Mission Explorer. She called upon the jury to formally introduce them to us. Tapan Raj, Arjun Venkatraman and Ishita Malaviya were the mission explorers as of now. They briefly talked about their passion, their work, their excitement to be the jury and the rules of the contest. They were not looking for something big or wondrous but more unique, thoughtful and life-changing works. I asked them how would they compare an art with technology or music or more. And they answered, they would look down deep into all its aspects before taking a final call.
MIDIval Punditz are pioneers of electronic music from India. They combined electronica and classical and have created a revolution in music.
Ishita Malaviya, is too young a girl and is single-handedly making us sit back and talk about surfing. She is India’s first recognized woman surfer. Surf board is her biggest love and she runs the Shaka Surf Club in Udupi,
Arjun Venkatraman, is known as the modern day aadivasi. He has been working to connect isolated communities with the rest of the world using cheap technology.
Tushar Agarwal & Sanjay Madan are the first Indians to achieve 90,000-km trip crossing almost 50 countries in the same car. They were not there at the event.
It was a very short and crisp event but with loads of inspiration to take back home.
Do apply and if you have queries, you may put down in the comments below.
Registrations close on December 25.
Happy Blogging!
It’s a nice initiative. Lots of things happening around us but we hardly care about it, when these type of stories pop-up, we understand how things are moving, a bit differently around us. Thanks for sharing it.