October 1, 2023

Sunday, 11:30 PM

New Delhi

Hey all!

This is the first newsletter of the ATR Newsletter series, which will be sent to you on a daily basis and would serve as real-time update of everyday happenings in addition to the daily VLOGs. Since everyday VLOGs take a little longer to be made and uploaded on account of recording and editing processes involved, the newsletters would serve as real-time communication coming ahead of the daily VLOG, detailing and documenting the events of the day. This is my way of keeping you all with us as far as possible and keeping you all informed in as real time as we possibly can.        

Yesterday (September 30, 2023) was really exciting and I got to meet a lot of wildlife and photography enthusiasts at the ATR Launch Meet, where I also introduced the Core ATR Team. It’s always heartwarming to meet so many like-minded people, most of whom also care deeply about the environment and wildlife in India. What is even more exciting is that a large number of these enthusiasts are youngsters who feel that we all need to do a lot more than we are currently doing to safeguard our environment and to preserve wildlife so that we could hand down a better environment than we found to the future generations (so that they badmouth their ancestors a little less than we do ours, even though chances are fairly remote from the look of things as of now). 

The meet-up and the launch party continued until the early hours of the morning, as expected. And as I had expected, I slept pretty late, but what I had not expected was that the output of the calendar print would not come as expected and the first couple of hundred copies would need to be rejected for lack of desired quality, resulting in a delay in my leaving for Project ATR since I have to personally ensure that the print quality of the calendar is upto the mark. However, I did manage to leave on Day 1 of Project ATR (October 1, 2023) and reach the Flag-off Location for the Project, Attrio by Devam, wherefrom we finally leave for Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan on the first day of the Indian National Wildlife Week, October 2, 2023.

I know from firsthand experience that it takes a lot of time to pack stuff and get ready to leave for a trip, but to pack and prepare to travel for a project that is to last a good six months or more falls in a different league altogether, which I had imagined, of course, but got to live throughout the day today. 

Even though late, I am happy that ATR is finally off the block as scheduled!