New year- New Dreams!

This year 2020 has been unlike any other. It has impacted every single person in the World one way or the other. Every one of us has been pushed out of our comfort zones and forced to do things just so that we can survive this tumultuous year. On some level, the pandemic has been a sort of intervention the World needed to get it's act right. Though some might argue that nothing much really has changed and that we continue to live the rat race, the truth is that it has definitely let us look at things from a different perspective. 

The fact that a lot of people of my generation have been in Kodagu because of the pandemic has given a fresh impetus to the fight to save the cultural and ecological legacy of Kodagu. Traditional festivals have been celebrated with all its pomp and glory, practices that were long forgotten has seen a resurgence with the old and the young guiding and working with each other to make things happen. Some mandhus were reopened after a long time during this Puthari, Karano kodpa was held with all its glory despite fewer people attending it due to the pandemic, elected representatives stood up for the younger generation who walked up to the birth place of our mother, Kailpod was celebrated in individual houses and for once whatsApp forwards was about the significance of the festival and not just about pork and alcohol. On the ecological front, though one cannot deny that a lot of land has been converted in the recent past to make layouts; we have also seen volunteers and organisations taking part in afforestation drives or conducting random clean up drives in different parts of Kodagu and irresponsible citizens being pulled up for throwing garbage by alert citizens. While a lot of it has been in the works for quite some time, this pandemic has made the process a lot more inclusive than what it would have normally been. 

There has been positives in the economic front as well. Be it artisanal coffee or nicely packaged bird eye chilli or products manufactured by women self help groups or home chefs with their bakes & pickles; all of them have started to get their share of the spotlight.

All of the above will not be much if we do not take control over our immediate surroundings. Gandhiji rightly said that the strength of India lies in its villages. As we end this dramatic year, we have a chance to take that control that we have always been talking about. As a new set of office bearers take over the Panchayats in each of our villages, it's time for us to let go of our egos, our political ideologies and work with our Panchayats to ensure that we protect, preserve and propagate the rich cultural and ecological legacy that our ancestors left behind for us. 

We often complain of not being politically relevant as a district since we have only 2 MLA's and a Half MP but each of us belong to a Village or a town in Kodagu. These Panchayats are there because of us and not the other way around. Let us start participating in local governance and ensure that our Panchayats implement all schemes effectively. Let our elected representatives understand that we will not be taken for a ride anymore and that they can't play us against each other for their personal benefits. Instead, let us make our villages self reliant through the proper implementation of all schemes and programs; be it good roads, Swacch Bharath programs or power and water supply to name a few. Let the tourism policies be decided from the village level by the active involvement of the people of the village instead of big resorts and real estate mafia dictating terms on what should be done. Let the Panchayats be empowered enough to stand up for the citizens of the Village against man- Animal conflict or crop loss due to natural disasters or disastrous weather patterns or helping farmers get Minimum support price for their produce. 

Let each of our Panchayats also show that they respect the land. Let offices and equipment be decorated on Kailpod, let Sankramana be a day for the Panchayats to show that they respect the land of Kaveriamme by keeping botthus all around the Panchayath and let the offices and surroundings be cleaned and painted before Puthari. In other words, let our Panchayats be a reflection of the original inhabitants of our land. After all, each of these festivals are about the land more than anything else. This coming year is an opportunity for us to take back control over Kodagu and it's needs and what better place to start it from than our own Villages. 

The Prime Minister has been advocating for "Atmanirbhar Bharath" which is all about empowering us at the local level. Let us be "Vocal for Local" by ensuring that policies that affect Kodagu be decided by us from our Villages rather than vested interests dictating terms because of their political affiliation at the State level. Let the Government machinery from the District Administration to the Panchayat officials be under pressure to protect the interests of the original inhabitants of the land. 

Let the year 2021 go down in history as a year where our ancestors are proud of all of us and the future generations talk about the year that saw Kodagu taking control over its destiny. 

"Tomorrow hopes that we have learnt something from yesterday"- John Wayne

Happy New year 2021. 

Always Riggerous!

Since its inception, Rigger House as a company has let its work do the talking. The businesses that we bagged and the Clients that we have on our roster has been the result of one thing leading to another. We have always believed that we need to partner our Clients and vendors and this philosophy has helped us develop a bond with every single person or company that we have worked with. It has never been just the work for us, it has always been about nurturing a relationship by finding ways to support a partner or vendor better. It is this thinking that has helped us develop our new product, "Global" or made us support a vendor partner scale up to meet market demands.

Over the years, we have developed a sort of camaraderie with most of our Clients, artists and other partners that has been built on honesty and integrity. We have spoken our minds when it mattered and given an honest opinion to both Clients and vendors. This has also helped us get honest feedback from each of our partners; some of which hurt us and made us question our approach while some made us happy and vindicated but all of this have helped us become better at what we do both at a professional and personal level.

This Pandemic created a lot of changes and with it came new challenges. We had to go back to the drawing board for answers for which we had no clue as to where to start from or where we were heading to. While talking to colleague, clients, friends, relatives or other partners, it helped us understand that everybody was fighting their own battle at their own levels, be it professionally or personally. It also meant a sea change in people's personal lives as well; schedules changed overnight, roles at home had to be reversed and the new normal wasn't so normal after all.

This sprouted the idea of talking to thought leaders from different walks of life to understand their views on how they have been dealing with the situation and what they think will emerge from it. Moreover, as an event and experiential company, since we are always talking to various people, be it Clients, vendors or partners to understand from them what's new and what's not or who did what and how they did it; we thought this will also be a good time to continue that exercise by sharing what we hear and know with others as well. For us, this is not just a business exercise but our way of telling people that we are here for each other and that we can always lean on each other to contribute to the larger good.

We wanted to do this at regular intervals as a collective and hence decided to name it 'Always Riggerous", in line with our identity. The first series focusing on the present pandemic is titled, "Riggerous Minds". The idea sprung up in the last week of March and we started approaching people from the second week of April. For the first series, we have approached a diverse set of people. We have not just approached people directly associated with our business but people from fields not concerned with our regular line of work. Some of who are very popular and some not so popular but big names and leaders in their chosen fields.

We start this series off with a very popular TV host who is responsible for changing the EDM and festival scene in the Country followed by a creative genius who creates masterpieces and awe inspiring experiences for the events and entertainment industry. From outside our immediate business associates, we also have a woman who decided to pursue her passion and is one of the only Indian women to have participated and completed in an Ironman event. All of us have our passions and one of us at Rigger House is big time into sky diving so much so that given a chance, our friend will probably leave everything to live that life. His mentor who is also a world recorder holder is one of the people that we have spoken to. We also have some of our Clients who we deeply admire and are inspired by to give us their views and thoughts. These partners have become our eyes, ears and minds in the market. They are our beacons to newer horizons. The backbone of any event management company is our vendor partners and we have spoken to leaders in this space as well to try to understand from them their struggles and aspirations especially during these troubles times.

We have not just asked relevant business related questions but also tried to make each person realise the small joys of life that we have taken for granted. This pandemic and the natural disasters of the last few years across the World has taught us that when it comes to dealing with the forces of nature, all our ideas, plans and contingencies will come to nought. No amount of economic or financial help will help us overcome these struggles and shortcomings without basic humanity and empathy.

As a company, we will look to partner to deliver World class experiences while always ensuring that we remain the best partners to everybody concerned. We hope that this initiative helps not just us but the audience to get a sneak peek into the thought process of these leaders while helping these leaders look at things from a different perspective.

We hope that this is the start for greater things to come!

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller

The Silver Lining!

The last couple of months have been a rude awakening for all of us. This Pandemic has made us re-look at our priorities and our general approach to our personal and our professional lives. The plans and forecasts that were being put into motion became redundant overnight. From an industry standpoint, it seems like the Hospitality, aviation, and the event services and entertainment industry has been the hardest hit due to this crisis. Confirmed events got cancelled, bookings made in advance had to be called off, work that was in progress had to be stopped and the skill sets that we had harnessed and polished over the last years suddenly became useless. As event managers, a saying that is often repeated is, "One is only as good as their last event"; but in this case, even that isn’t good enough. 

Of course, the first few days of the lockdown were a welcome relief from the overworked, stressed lives that we all lead. However, once the reality of the lockdown and its side effects hit us, it made us analyse and relook at our business, our strengths, weaknesses, and the market in general and the mood amongst our colleagues and friends. As event managers, we are trained to look for solutions, to plan contingencies that will help us mitigate crisis that might or might not emerge during an event. In this scenario, this contingency was about our very survival. 

They say every cloud has a silver lining and in our case, it was the perfect time to use all our collective experiences to come out with a solution that would not only help us survive the immediate crisis but also help us diversify and create a possible revenue model for the future. While one team started researching new technologies and engagement ideas; another team started engaging with friends, clients, and partners to try and understand the effects of the pandemic on each other's personal and professional lives, and what they thought the future would look like. 

This helped us give new lease of life to an idea that was left in cold storage. The team at Rigger House has spent a large part of the last 2 months trying to give this idea a new lease of life. Seth Godin, the American author remarked, "Don't find customers for your products but find products for your Customers." and it is this mantra that has helped us launch our new brand, "GLOBAL" which is our foray into the virtual events space. At the present moment, we have already started leveraging GLOBAL with our already existing clients while also reaching out to clients and friends across different industries to see how this product can add value to them. 

The exercise of talking to all our friends, clients and partners from different walks of life sprouted the idea of a video series, "Always Riggerous" where we bring thought leaders to answer relevant questions and share their mantras for sustainability and progress, in the form of a series of mini-episodes. The first collective in this series is called "Riggerous Minds," through which we would like to understand the present market scenario and a forecast on the possibilities or solutions that might emerge once we ride over these difficult times. 

We at Rigger House are bullish about the future. We are using this time to research, learn and teach something new to each other. The new product Global is the effort of everybody coming together to create something new. The post-Covid World will see a lot of changes with social distancing being the norm and expectations from venues and events changing to suit this basic requirement. As event managers, we need to be prepared for all eventualities and hence our team is also working with our partners and vendors to look at various possible scenarios and the most viable solutions to combat them. 

As a Company, we believe in Rudyard Kipling's words from The Jungle Book, "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack". We strongly believe that if we have to emerge stronger from this crisis, then we must support and look out for each other, be it our colleagues, partners, or our esteemed clients. 

The Land that protects also needs to be protected!

This Pandemic has affected all of us in more ways than that we can imagine. I am not here to talk about the scale of it, the loss of lives, the lack of medical facilities, the implementation of the lockdown, the plight of migrant workers or the economic mess that it has created. There is far too much content on it and I don't want to be another half- baked expert with an opinion at the tip of my finger. However, I am grateful for this Pandemic in a personal selfish sort of way as it has helped me look at things from a whole different perspective. 

This is probably the first article I have written sitting at my house in Coorg. Before this Pandemic, I could not even imagine spending more than a week in Coorg. All my visits to Coorg over the last 10 years or so has been very business like. I came home either for a weekend, a festival or for a social gathering. But this feels like summer holidays from back when I was in School. The only difference is that instead of home work, I now have some office work to complete; although the flip side is that we are not able to go visiting or having cousins, uncles and aunts coming home. This unplanned long break in Coorg is just what the Doctor ordered. 

I am glad that I get to be in Coorg during this pandemic. Moreover, with a young toddler, I cannot even imagine sitting inside a flat in Bangalore. I am sure a lot of my brethren from Coorg feel the same as I do. I really feel grateful for the land that I come from. The house and the space to move around, fresh clean air, the smell of rain, the sound of birds and crickets chirping, the sight of Malabar squirrels jumping from one tree to the other or the fact that my little one got to spend time with her grand parents and experience a whole different life; I can go on and on about the small little things that has made it a joy to be in Coorg during the lockdown. 

It is only when we hear about the hardships that one faces in the City or elsewhere during a lockdown that we understand the value of the place that we come from. This land offers us all that we need for a good decent way of life, Fresh water straight from the ground, jackfruit palya and curry to green leafy vegetables and bulbs, pumpkins and mushrooms and other fruits and vegetables, I got all of this and more in and around my house. And the icing on the cake so as to say, I don't even have to bother about waiting for the garbage pick- up every morning. 

I am also grateful for the place that I come from because of the people that make up this place. Be it the officials or the traders or the common man, everybody has understood their responsibilities and played their roles to near perfection. Most common folks like us came out only when we were allowed to, covered our faces when we were out and supported each other to deal with the situation. The District administration of course has played a tremendous role in dealing with this situation. From closing down an entire village soon after one single case was detected to opening of essential services shops for only 3 days a week, the administration was on top of things always. The fact that they understood the situation and even created a level playing field for everybody by moving the markets to common open spaces and declaring the daily prices of commodities left little room for controversy. 

This being said, I hope all of us including the officials and the powers to be also look at the situation and be thankful that we are in a place like Coorg during this crisis. I hope the next time that they sign on the dotted line for a land conversion project, they think of the scenario now and imagine what a new layout would bring with it. It would be more people to manage, more areas to monitor and more civic and criminal issues to deal with. Let us for a moment imagine the situation if we had a railway line or 4 lane highways running through Coorg. We would have had more permanent outsiders because of such infrastructure. The Railway stations would bring with it the colonies to house officials, workers and their respective families, shops and hawkers plying their trade around these stations and a whole lot of civic infrastructure that would be needed to make this work. Instead, today our rivers, streams and tourist spots are actually clean and breathing again because of the lack of human influence and intervention at the moment.

I know that a lot of what I have written above sounds romantic and the argument can be that I am a fool and do not understand the reality of actually living in Coorg. The point put out be will ideally be that the crop is bad, labour costs have increased, man animal conflict and the changing weather patterns have caused destruction and hardship and to top it all, the price for the produce is dismal. And if some had a home stay to supplement the income from the estate, then this pandemic has put a spanner in the works over there as well. Unfortunately, the powers to be instead of supporting the main income of the people which is agriculture and plantations and finding ways to support this sector will talk about fast tracking the so called development projects and increasing tourists inflow to supplement income. 

We of course need tourism, but let us use this situation to define the type of tourism that Kodagu requires. To start with, a study to understand the carrying capacity of the district and then design tourism policies around it so that it helps in retaining the natural beauty of Coorg while helping local original inhabitants of the land benefit from it. Create better market opportunities for coffee, pepper and other plantation crops including oranges, avacados, jackfruit and other fruits and vegetables. Help people retain the land by looking at policies like the payment for ecological services that has been well elaborated in the Madhav Gadgil report. Encourage Paddy cultivation by offering minimum support price for paddy which will detest land conversion while helping improve the water table of the district on the whole. All these policies will not only benefit Coorg but also ensure the water and food security of the whole of South India. 

The Prime Minister while announcing the first lockdown said, "Jaan hai to Jahaan hai" and this message is so apt for Coorg. If we do not protect this land, then we are doomed! So let us be thankful for this land and work towards protecting it to benefit all of us. We are in the Green zone today from a Pandemic and nature perspective and it is important that we do everything in our power to keep it like that.