One of the pioneers of Responsible Tourism (RT), in the country, Gopinath Parayil spoke passionately on Mainstreaming Sustainability at a UN ‘Travel For Social Good’ conference, in New York, in 2016. He shared views and experiences, citing examples from his success story with The Blue Yonder, a company he founded 12 years ago. The act of being responsible was applicable to all forms of tourism and it was the only way forward for survival, he declared. The torch-bearer of an idea that by now had turned indispensable to the industry globally, it was the least the soft-spoken social entrepreneur could do. Reiterate his belief.
During a deeply emotional ritual in 2003 while submerging the ashes of his dead father in the Bharatapuzha (Nila) he realised that the river was dying. That it did not have enough water to carry the remains of a departed soul. What could he do to save it, he thought. At that point, Parayil had had his tryst with education and vocations acquiring three post graduate degrees, being the first in holding one in Disaster Management, and also throwing away a highly paid job with an American multinational in Chennai. It was working with people and communities that was closest to his heart.
His first stint as a volunteer, in college, with palliative care at the Calicut Medical College, was an experience that had come to define him in more ways than one. Many a time he had doubled up as an ambulance driver to rush the home care team to patients’ houses. “That experience changed me a lot. The venture was started as a dream of two doctors; it was a way of activism, a model where the government gets involved at a later stage, I learnt resource management there, I belong there,” he says still volunteering with palliative care, 23 years later.
It was at the same time in Tirur, from where he comes, that he heard folk songs lilting over the fields, in the middle of the night. Sung by the Pullavars who inhabit the banks of the Nila, the lyrics celebrated the river. They enchanted Parayil, sparking off an an idea. Why not mobilise all the communities, the arts, the stories, the celebrities that dwell on and find their roots in the embankments of the river to give it a fresh lease of life? Why not share the heritage of poet Ezhuthachan, of shadow puppetry, of the kalluvazhichitta form of Kathakali, Vallathol’s Kalamandalam and the Bharatazpuzha’s own percussion styles and bring the bigger world to these shores? Why not rejuvenate the river using all its unsung cultural treasures? Why not make this a business model?
Cutting down the romanticism and injecting a practical approach, he founded Nila Foundation and brought under its fold people interested in saving the river.
“I had to tie myself up to the cause I believe in, to generate money. This is where the whole idea of sustainability came up. Responsibility should be the DNA of your business,” he says.
It was based on the Gandhian talisman—if your decision benefits the under privileged, do it—a mantra that drives his business.
He curated a tour of the Nila, taking travellers to the littoral homes of the artistes, craftsmen, poets, writers, and communities, stakeholders of the river. The symbiotic exchange revitalised the lost arts, trained the lights on fading ones and in turn gave the travellers value for money. His experiences with NGO Charities Aid Foundation and his work with earthquake victims in Bhuj, Gujarat, had armed him with man-management skills. “Personally I am not attracted to money. It is an asset and a challenge. To create wealth for society excites me more. That is where I can be a solution provider,” he says.
Sustainability became the new horizon for his work, with his company tagline being ‘It is a different kind of horizon.’ The stress is on the fact that tourism should not kill the resource, on the contrary nurture it.
In its wake, The Blue Yonder began with offering weaver workshops, pottery-making and bell metal casting experiences, sacred grove and farm visits, the tales behind traditional bathing ghats to its guests. Examples of the change are evident. Illegal sand mining boatmen began ferrying travellers to remote destinations, earning legitimate income.
The lone family performers of Pava Kathakali (glove puppetry) led by K C Ramakrishnan found new hope in the increasing number of shows they now had to stage. Puppets gone into oblivion are now being recast by craftsmen and old dead tales that were once popular are on their way back in production.
The model that energised the communities led to a groundswell that reached the top of the tourism industry, the mantra of responsible tourism now a byword. Parayil who received recognition for his work (he has received many awards for sustainable tourism) is now set to scale up and expand to different parts of India, already setting offices in Puducherry and Fort Kochi. In the latter, he is to implement the stewardship model where restored heritage homes will open up as places to stay along the Bharatapuzha.
“I can run a 180-day tour for travellers without repeating a story but where are the right places to put up the holidayers?” he asks. The pressing need of the hour to revitalise tourism in Kerala is to have many more storytellers. “This is what we lack, so many stories and so few storytellers. That’s the gap we are filling,” he says.
Meanwhile he continues to work on gender sensitisation through ‘Parasparam’ in collaboration with director Anjali Menon and ‘Compassionate Kozhikode’, and on the revival of Pokkali farming alongside.
Much water has trickled down the Nila since Parayil began work around it. Have the waters swelled up? “The river per se continues to deteriorate. The dams and sand mining are choking it. I don’t know the science behind the revival. I am just doing what I am good at, restoring the cultural backdrop in a hope that the stakeholders will not let their river run dry.”
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