From Classroom to Classroom
she’s a girl
she’s dark she’s thin
she’s a tomboy she likes snakes
she’s crazy she left the country
oh she’s crazy she’s back already
she lives in a tent now whoa
she’s totally crazy she has animals for
company
and she’s completely crazy well
she’s speaking to you right now very
good morning to everybody
these are some of the labels that i’ve
been given since i was really little
since pretty much that i was born and
crazy as you learn
is one of the recurring ones crazy is
something i wear very proudly now
however it wasn’t always like that so
today let me take you back
to my 36 something life yes now you know
my age
there i was born to be a boy just like a
lord of indian families
and i was a little darker than my
cousins and siblings so you can imagine
what that means in the indian
indian front i’ve spent most of my
childhood climbing trees
eating a lot of mud playing under the
sun
i can’t complain i’ve had an extremely
privileged life
well supported with loads of exposure
but right since i was young i knew that
i was really different from those around
me
i knew that i didn’t fit in i never did
understand that then
i just struggled to keep up with all the
a-listers in school all the front
ventures you know
i kept being asked to behave myself
i kept getting into trouble for not
adhering to the norms
that seems to be a theme that’s remained
throughout my life
i was usually the kid in class that
didn’t listen to the teachers much
that was always caught for being naughty
or asking a question
that i actually should have been known
the answer to was i paying attention
i was never the teacher’s pet far from
it actually
and a lot of you might actually relate
to that i was mostly the nightmare
the unruly talkative below average in
academics kind of a girl
i was popular though for my courage
right since i was really young
i would pick up fights and speak up for
how i felt i would i would pick up
fights with people bigger than me
i felt very deeply for the earth and the
animals and for nature
i believe i must have been around 11
close to your age
when there was a road widening plan that
came up in pune
it meant that some of the old trees in
my neighborhood were going to be cut
down
it meant that i had a choice i had a
choice
and we always are faced with a choice
right i had a choice to either
participate or run away and accept what
was happening
so my friend back then and i hand wrote
some awareness slogans we drew a small
green triangle
and called our campaign the green alert
campaign
we walked around our locality and
distributed these pamphlets and that
evening
some of us kids got together and we
stood around the trees much like the
chipko movement
and we hugged them the trees that we
hugged are still there
and i would like to believe that the
kids played some role in that
i would like to believe that that was
the start of a movement
well this stuff was a lot away from the
classroom i was doing fun stuff in the
classroom i had support of my parents
however back in school let’s just say i
was an outstanding student
outstanding meaning standing outside the
class by the way
on most days some teachers would in fact
ask me to leave the class even before
they entered they were so sure of my
capacity for disrupting the class
the one place so that i was always
wanted in the school
other than the principal’s office was
the sports ground
i was on nearly all the school teams and
i was even a metal wiener
winner for the track and field events i
went on to represent school for
basketball badminton and even track and
field events
at the state level that was nice it
allowed me to be outside right
nature outdoors sports and animals had
my heart right since i was really really
young
my parents actually sent me on my first
nature camp as young as seven
it was at this lovely little place near
pune called
well it was run by a family called mrs
broome and mrs groom is actually one of
the first people i remember one of my
earliest memories as an educator
she’s a childhood shero you know what
she royal is right heroes and she rose
well i also obviously had to take two
shrinks since i was mostly
outside class while at school and there
too i was more interested in the stuff
outside the room
but my tuition teacher mrs mandloy was
really kind
she used to allow me ever so often to go
out and study the birds that i saw
enamored
and you know the little line of ants
that used to walk around that i prefer
to watch rather than how the british
ruled
india well i made it to school just
about
in fact the school principal called me
you know around about my ninth standard
something that i was used to by now
and told me listen kid i’m going to pass
you because i cannot have you in school
for another year i just need you to go
on
so that’s how school looked for me well
little did i know that a few years later
the same school principal would actually
invite me to school
for a talk with the students as one of
the outstanding alumni if you know what
i mean
well many camps and treks continued and
helped my first
snake at the age of 13. i was bitten by
one at the age of 16 by the way
and many times after and since all
non-venomous don’t you worry
that’s a funny incident actually the
first snake bite i remember bunking
college obviously
and that was normal stuff and i was
volunteering at the local snake park
and something the parents did not know
that i was bunking college and doing
this
and while learning to handle snakes a
big checkered keel back it’s a
non-venomous water snake
one of these big checkered keel bags
beat me nearly 12 times
now those guys give a really nasty bite
and my hand was looking like a war field
i promised you my whole forearm was like
full of like a war feat so i go full
sleeves and hid my bites
but i’ve never been good at not getting
caught so i was caught pretty soon by my
parents
so here’s the scene that played out okay
i was 16 years old i just discovered the
world of boys so i even had a
so-called boyfriend so i’m sitting at
the dining table dad and mom in front of
me
dad extremely stretched and angry and
trying to ask me did a boy hurt you
and me sitting there all of 16 wondering
what would be easier telling my dad it
was a boy or telling my dad it was a
snake bite
guess what i went with i went with the
snake bite and ever since then with the
unfailing support of my family
i’ve gone on to get a bsc honors and an
msc in wildlife conservation and animal
biology
so though i was not not your perfect
academic student
i still got the opportunity to do
something that i loved to do
well nature sports and outdoors remained
an integral part even in my life in
england
which is where i studied i spent more
time
inside the class there because i loved
what i was studying i
enjoyed the learning and i was even part
of the women’s basketball team there
i had a part-time job to earn pocket
money and a bunch of like-minded friends
life looked pretty good back then
when i returned from england six years
later and took on a job in delhi in 2008
i was doing an awareness session in a
posh school up in delhi
i was passionately talking about saving
the tiger and saving the jungle and this
little kid
that’s how i must have been in class i’m
sure this little kid
raised his hand stalked me midway
and asked me well ma’am all that is true
what am i supposed to do boom it got me
off guard
i didn’t really have an answer i gave
some kind of a makeshift answer but i
really really didn’t know
and there that was where the inner
search began
what can we as an urban population
really do
how do we create impact soon after
i quit my job i decided to blow up some
of dad’s money
and travel the world for some time and
introspecting the entire time learning
from cultures
how do we empower people to be change
makers
pretty soon after protected our
ecological foundation was born in 2010
and incredible opportunities came along
you know one
i mean there were so many so many
opportunities that came along but one
that always remains with me
is this time when i was teaching at a
local school and
um are you paying attention me the
unruly talkative mischief maker student
had gone from a classroom back into a
classroom but this time as a teacher
so imagine what i was telling the kids
right i was telling all the kids listen
all you guys in the back there
whatever you’re doing i probably
invented it so don’t try to pull a fast
one on me
so there i was standing in class and i
get called to the principal’s office
and i’m like now what did i do but as i
went to the principal’s office she told
me that there was a guest speaker that
who was going to come to my class that
day
while i was standing there i was like
sure no problem guest speaker brilliant
while i was standing there little did i
imagine that the guest speaker that i
was going to host that day was none
other than mrs broome my childhood shiro
it was so overwhelming it was so
overwhelming to stand beside her
and teach me this mischief maker this
crazy girl who has never really been
great at school
was standing next to who i looked up to
as my childhood hero
imparting nature education
that was humbling and it was incredibly
encouraging
to know that you know what i might have
just got it a little right
fast forward to many incredible stories
that took me across
the length and breadth of india into her
heartlands
meeting incredible people and animals
and learning
every day that i had a huge
responsibility on my shoulders
why well i was privileged i didn’t have
to worry about where my meals were
coming from or
whether i had a bed to sleep in
something i saw across
india i didn’t have to worry about these
things so i had an even bigger
responsibility
to make change to actually make choices
and to ask the question every day what
choices am i making for the planet what
choices
am i making for the planet that i so
love
well i was talking about change in
conservation
i was talking to children and adults and
communities i was talking about raising
the bar of awareness
i was talking about ecological
behavioral change amongst people
but at the same time i was leading an
extremely opulent life
an extreme life of so much waste
of so much luxury and i was not walking
my dog
i actually felt like a hypocrite i felt
extremely untrue
i knew that i had to live the life that
i was talking to people about
i knew and in the words of robert swann
the greatest threat to our planet is the
belief that somebody else is actually
going to go and save it
i knew that i had to do my bit
so as late as 2015 at about the age of
31 32
i shifted to protected campsite project
which was there from earlier
the farm i shifted into what was an old
tattered tent
completely clueless about the future
completely clueless about how my life
was going to look
i was choosing against the comforts of
luxury
a lifestyle that was not only
challenging but minimalistic
and tough i was choosing challenge over
comfort
i was choosing a total revamp of my
lifestyle
over the ease of living that i could get
at home
believe it or not people in pune so when
you asked crazy as many people talk
about you right
people in pune i heard were betting
against the fact that i wouldn’t last a
single monsoon in the tent and that i
would run back to daddy darling
well guess what it’s taken talking about
the theme for today
what it’s taken out of me is a whole lot
of resilience
it has taken a lot of learning from the
animals and the earth
loads of self-love because there was so
much criticism and a whole new awareness
of how life can be lived
it has taken resilience well i’ve had
the support of all kinds of animals
plants the shining sun the torrential
rain even
i’ve had the support of a handful of
people who stood by me in my darkest and
toughest times
there was a lot of people who left a lot
of people who couldn’t handle that this
one’s going to go live in a tent now
with a bunch of animals
but those who stood by me stand by me
even today
i remember the night not too long back
actually recently the last monsoon that
passed
i remember the night that my home
flooded and i was standing there in
ankle deep water
in the middle of the night watching the
whole watching my tent
you know have water coming in
and my knees buckled that’s not
something that happens to me very often
and i stood there completely defeated
and lost not knowing what to do
and while i was standing there wondering
how am i going to handle this tomorrow
morning because there’s nothing i can do
at midnight
i was standing there and while i was
looking around on my laundry basket one
of the resident cats was curled up
and she was looking straight at me her
eyes literally piercing through my soul
she was looking straight at me almost
like a reminder that mom
this too shall pass whatever comes
tomorrow morning
you mum have the courage and she was a
reminder
she was a reminder that you know what
when the sun came up the next morning
i’d figure this one out well i’ve had
elephants that have stayed with me
i’ve had cats that keep my lap happy and
continue to purge me to sleep
i have dogs that keep my bed warm and
are still there
there is just so much to learn from
nature if you’re paying attention
the trees when they stand in the
torrential rain or when the sun is harsh
they’re a reminder they’re a stoic
reminder of the fact that this will pass
that the rain will come
or the sun will shine they are a
reminder that you know what
everything changes i have learned from
the animals and i’ve learned
from the trees and nature i’ve learned
patience i’ve learnt resilience
but most importantly i’ve learned
unconditional love
and an untiring faith terra
latin goddess of the earth she is the
ultimate teacher i promise you
well alongside nature and animals the
one constant in my life has been sport
sport has remained steadfast and i
encourage all of you to play at least a
sport in your life
well sport has remained steadfast and
continues to be the other space of
learning for me you know it humbles you
when you play in a team when you’re
pushed to your limits
having always been a sports woman
learning a new sport at 31 was not too
difficult
i was unceremoniously not selected on
the team the first time i tried out
but i came back it broke me down but i
came back fitter
faster and stronger to actually make the
maharashtra senior women’s rugby team
yes i said rugby yes me all of under 50
kg
body type not meant for rugby yes i play
on the women’s maharashtra rugby team
and i’m usually mocked for my size i
still play the stateside
i usually get mocked for my size for a
sport like rugby
but i get out there and i play because i
love it and it makes me
happy and even though i come back with
many bruises and aching muscles most
days
i still know that i’d rather be out
there playing
and you know enjoying myself than
worrying about what people think
of me it has not been easy
let me kill you not it has not been easy
it has taken criticism
it has taken failures it has taken
feedback it has even given me anxiety i
have had
depression i have had i’ve literally
shed my blood
sweat and tears and it has taken running
around
in soaking rain ensuring that the goats
are dry even if i’m soaked to the skin
it has taken mistakes some of them which
is cost which have cost us
the lives of our animals it has taken a
lot of struggle
it has taken floods and droughts it has
taken falling structures and termites
staff issues and fights breakups and
breakdowns you know
it has taken a lot out of us a lot of
struggles have come our way
and it is it is you know it’s been it’s
been tough
and i know there’s a lot more of this to
come however
the one thing that i can share that
though it has not been easy
it has been extremely rewarding it has
been extremely humbling
and it’s been full of love i can’t
explain to you
the love that animals can give in nature
can give
none of it would have been possible
without the support of the animals and
the people who believe in our work and
the vision that i hold close
my family who’s allowed me the freedom
to be me
completely go live in a tent okay we’ll
deal with it
i make it sound simple but it wasn’t
well
through it all 36 something strong what
has still kept my passion unwavering
and my faith intact are some of these
life lessons that i learned along the
way
and some i wish i were told when i was
your age some i wish i were told when i
was younger
but right now since i have a choice and
i have the opportunity
i’d like to share some of these with you
with you
the future of this planet the planet
that i so deeply care about and so
deeply love
the planet that we call our own number
one
in the end people are going to judge you
anyway wake up
every day and be true to you
every single day wake up and impress
yourself
number two remember the spider
and the fly well what is normal for the
spiders building a web
and what is chaos for the fly is going
into this web
so normal is an illusion people will
call you you’re so abnormal you’re so
different you’re so unlike us normal is
an illusion
choose what is your normal it is okay to
be different
i wish i was told this younger on that
it is okay to be different
when we make such choices we are then
faced with the question of what if i
fall
what if i fall you ask me well my
darlings
let me simply ask you what if you fly it
just takes a little bit of courage for a
little bit of moment for something
incredible to happen
if you’re scared it is testimony to the
fact that you’re ready for the adventure
that you’re ready for what is coming
your way you have it in you
you have the resilience you have the
courage and you have what it takes
to ride this thing called life just
believe that
remember at the start of my talk those
objectives remember that
those objectives that were used for me
for so long well today the objectives
that i hear most
tend to be she’s wild
she’s true she’s real
she’s passionate and of course she
is still totally crazy
thank you so much