Bhavya George, Programme Coordinator and Vidya S, Technical Coordinator, Climate Change
‘Journeying Across the Himalayas’ was a ten-day multidisciplinary festival celebrating the communities and collaborative spirit at the heart of Royal Enfield Social Mission. It was held from December 5th to 15th at Travancore Palace, New Delhi. As our climate smart school work in Shimla, Himachal is partnered with Royal
Enfield. Vidya and I were invited to participate in the event for a panel on Dec. 5th and 6th called “Catalyzing climate action through education” and on Dec 12th, 13th for Partners meet.
Vidya’s Experience:
The festival gave opportunity to explore the rich cultural diversity and heritage of the Himalayas through its sights, sounds, flavours, and stories. For Vidya being in Delhi itself was a new experience added by participating in an expansive festival.
In her words: “On our first day I was excited to visit the Travancore Palace and once we reached, I got to see the exhibit space from Royal Enfield’s partner organizations as well as others with the same cause. I saw traditional hand-woven woolen articles from Ladakh, Himachal, Kashmir etc. Also, from Assam there was a stall on upcycled products from textile waste providing livelihoods to local women. For the first time I experienced a Virtual Reality (VR) movie on Snow leopards by Gautam Pandey. I do not know whether in real life I will be ever able to see the Snow leopard, but the VR experience made me feel that I actually saw it. It was again another first, that is to witness live musical concert. The choir from Nagaland with Padma Shri Guru Rewben Mashangva and band by Lou Majaw was magical.”
Bhavya’s Experience:
On December 6th was the panel on “Catalyzing Climate Action Through Education”. I was one of the panelists along with Nayantara Siruguri, Dr. Soumya Prasad and Gayatri Raghawa. It was moderated by Amitav Virmani. The panel aimed to explore a reimagined approach to education, focusing on climate and sustainability education in our classrooms and beyond. Besides the panel, for both Vidya and I, it gave us the opportunity to know interesting works of other panellists and cross learn from their experiences.
The next week, I attended the Partners Meet on December 12th and 13th. All the partners from Himalayas and other regions participated. I got to meet most of the partners working on different aspects of sustainability, including waste, textiles, wildlife, film, education and enterprise. There were short talks from selected partners across regions providing insights into issues, solutions and challenges in the fragile mountain ecosystem. For me, it was enriching to compare and contrast the scenarios in another fragile ecosystem of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, where I work and live.
After listening to His Eminence Drukpa Thuksey Rinpochey in a panel on “exploring the essence of mountain life”, Vidya remembered his words “Everyone is educated in their own way”. She told me that it made her think that however we facilitate the process of education, it is up to each student to pick their way. For both of us, the experience was one such way to expand our education on sustainability. It also pushed us to connect with our work in Himachal on climate education with a new lens.
