When I first received THE call from WWF offering us a project to design a brochure on the topic of high altitude wetlands, I almost dropped the phone. Similar waves of pleasure gently hit us repeatedly through the next 2 months to its completion. The costing wasn’t an issue, since we would have done the project anyhow.

The initiative goes by the name Saving Wetlands Sky-High! or SWSH in short. Under this project WWF is striving for conservation and sustainable management of the high altitude wetlands in the 5 Himalayan countries of India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan.

A note of personal achievement before I start talking about the design:
We have been to 6 out of the 13 wetlands currently under the focus of this project – Tsomoriri, Tsokar, and Pangong Tso in Ladakh; Nako Lake and Chandratal in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh; and finally Tsomgo in Sikkim. Two were missed by a whisker: Gurudongmar in Sikkim (cause we had polished off our vacation fund by then) and Manimaheshwar (cause of lack of planning and proper winter clothing). A note to self: 7 more to go! And well 4 more countries.
One of my photos got used as the back spread for India. Not the tiny inset ones, but the big one.

Gradually, through the days, the design was converted to a folder-insert format as opposed to a brochure in order to make it more flexible in terms of addition of information later on. The outer cover is a simple folder with 2 flaps, one with a map and the other with some excerpts from the introductory text. One can see the intro text on the left side, while the right side holds all the inserts. There are 6 inserts in total, one each for all the five countries and the last one on the topic of regional programme. Each insert carries the name of the country in bold, flanked on the right with a bird or animal endemic to that specific region. Along with that, what forms a part of the template is a blue box at the bottom with another symbolic icon from the country. The reverse side has 3 photographs each, with a more topical information on the specific wetlands.

From our end, we considered this project a lot more personal than measuring it about its cost effectiveness. It wasn’t asked of us, but we rummaged through all possible encyclopedias on birds and animals, looked through zillions of ineffective photographs and zeroed in on a few successful ones. After each stroke of curve, we tilted our heads back to admire the difference. Chewed off our fingernails till we got to see the printed version. And whenever we got a visitor, we rushed to show it off, with the happiness of flaunting a newly acquired toy.

Why? This is a question that won’t have a logical answer, but perhaps I can answer it with a few more questions. Why did I spend Rs 4000 on trekking boots, and not buy instead of it four shoes of different kinds? Why do I want a cottage in the Himalayas overlooking a lake? Why don’t I have 40 thousand rupees in my bank savings, but a drive of 40 GB on my hard disk dedicated to travel photographs, fast approaching its capacity?

…and the final product has in fact surpassed our own expectations.

List of provisions stacked for the trip to Tsomo-riri (3 days/ taxi/ 4 people + 1 driver)

Trip dates: 27, 28, 29 June 2007

The bill dated 26th of June 2007 was supposed to feed 5 people for 3 days. Of those 5 people, 4 brains were put into preparing this list. And the best of our experiences told us that it should be enough. Only this time around, it was more than enough.

The food was supposed to be consumed for a total of 6 meals. Breakfast on 28th and 29th, lunch on 28th and 29th and dinner on 27th and 28th. Most of these ‘planned intakes’ were based on the daily routines of a normal life in the plains. But in Ladakh, things work differently, especially if you are camping and on your own! We learnt truth the hard way that it’s best to have your dinner before 6. Beyond six, putting your hands into the water to clean dishes et al would lead to a minimum of an hour’s hard work to regain the sensation of your ‘lost’ hands! Beyond six, dinner preparation transforms into a herculean task because of the crazy winds! Coming back to the plan, we had lunch on 27th enroute Tsomo-riri at some small settlement. Dinner of 27th was an average fare. We made pasta and found it tasty too (more so because of the excitement of making and then eating food out in the open and in the backdrop of the majestic Tsomo-riri). Breakfast on 28th was taken late and that’s what the problem was. In high altitude cold desert, your appetite goes for a toss (if you are not involved in any sort of physical activities). So lunch on 28th and 29th got fired. And breakfast got replaced by brunch.  So essentially the figure of 6 got reduced to 4.

Even our pahari driver couldn’t help us. Wherever we went, he would find friends and locals who would then invite him to have food at their places. Half man down, damn (he did accept some of the food cooked by us)! A French couple was our neighbour through this camping trip and what better way to make friends than by inviting them for dinner. Unfortunately here, the gesture got reciprocated! And in return for our food we were served some ‘professionally’ cooked Indian food.

So, what all were we left with at the end of the trip?

1 tetra pack of milk

1 cornflakes’ packet

4 maggi packets

1 packet of cheese slices

Drinking chocolate

Lots of bread (not in the list, purchased from some other shop)…

Can’t really remember more. But yes, all that was left was divided between our driver and an extremely elated local guard of Tso-kar campsite.

The list can act as a benchmark sorts for our trekking group, so that we don’t have to go through the process of thinking it all over again.

PS: I can’t figure out why ‘Amul milkmaid’ doesn’t find mention in the bill above! I remember clearly finishing it down to licking bit. I just can’t afford something as precious as milkmaid to be left behind thanks to my fetish for sweets. ‘Fruit cocktail’ was second on got-to-complete list and it did perish in the depths of my stomach.