Change, Creation, and Contribution
Between Cliffs and Chapters: Notes from Kenya and a Book Launch
What happens when we take our passions too seriously, when we design our entire life around what we think we’re most passionate about?
For me, that passion has been social impact: the work we do at Impact Investors, my individual coaching practice, two part-time contracts with global organisations, and most recently, authoring my first book. My last life design placed me in a smaller town, Dehradun as my base, and let my work carry me to Himalayan villages. It became a way of life. But lately, that way of life started looking less like chasing a passion and more like managing the everyday mundane.
This hit home after a session with my coach-therapist. Funny how working on your mental health sometimes throws you straight into discomfort. But if you ride it, that discomfort can also carry you towards serendipity and joy. We were unpacking money, finances, and how to channel what we receive into what really matters: different rivers, different directions of life. That’s when it landed: my passion itself needed a change.
I realised my passion had settled into a routine, and I needed to step back. To gain perspective. To recharge my spirit in adventure, danger, joy, and play. Travel called to me again, loud and clear, as I glanced at the tattoo on my ring finger. I got it some twelve years ago, a reminder of my commitment to exploration. No other thoughts, no hesitation.
Right around that time, my partner Suhas was leaving for his East Africa travels. I asked myself, why not join him? Especially now, when my work gives me the freedom to be anywhere in the world.
Africa cracked something open for me. It brought my passion for exploration back to its core and shook me up in ways I can’t undo. I’ve written more in depth about my experience in Kenya in a blog here:
Meanwhile, I’d love to ask you: Which passion of yours has quietly turned into routine, and what would it take to step back, shake it up, and see it with fresh eyes?
You’ll find more reflection prompts at the end of this newsletter. If any of them jump out at you and you feel like sharing your thoughts, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Talking about passions, writing was once mine. It led me into a seven-year career in media: radio, television, print, and digital, where I worked long-term with brands like The Times of India, India Today, and Aaj Tak.
In 2016, I stepped away from media to dive into social entrepreneurship and later coaching. But writing never left me. As an art form, as an expression, it has always stayed. Over the years, I’ve filled journals, written the occasional blog, explored poetry, and dived into layers of social impact, responsible tourism, and ecologically balanced business models through words.
A little over a year ago, I began writing my first book, on responsible tourism, for children ages 6–8. The spark came during a casual conversation with Sahana Ahmed, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Publishing, whom I had met years back as a co-speaker at a conference on community-based tourism in the hinterlands of Jammu & Kashmir.
That spark grew into Iya and the Map of Gentle Journeys [Bare Bones, 2025], a book as much for children as for adults, or anyone curious about responsible travel and conscious living through the eyes of a child. The story, part tale and part guide, gathers a decade of my journeys with Himalayan communities in faraway villages, braided with the wonder-filled lessons children brought us when they came to learn, unlearn, and surprise us with their gentle wisdom.
The book releases worldwide on September 27, World Tourism Day. I’m sharing here a little postcard from the book, illustrated by Maryam Ahmad. I hope it stirs the childlike curiosity in you to pick up a copy.
Just as Iya and the Map of Gentle Journeys gathers my experiences from Himalayan villages into a lyrical story for children, the Life Lessons with Himalayan Farmers Program extends those same lessons into the lives of adults who wish to experience them firsthand. The book distills a decade of living and working alongside mountain communities; the program invites you to step into that life: to slow down, walk ancient trails, share meals around a hearth, listen to stories passed down generations, and learn directly from the land and its people.
For me, the Himalayas have always been more than a breathtaking backdrop. They have been teachers, showing me resilience in simplicity, abundance in scarcity, and joy in togetherness. These lessons shaped my work, my writing, and my ways of being, and it is these very lessons that the retreat is designed to hold space for.
In a way, the book is the map, but the retreat is the journey. And journeys, much like mountain paths, unfold in their own rhythm. To honour that natural pace, and the readiness of those who feel called, we’re now considering postponing the program to February 2026 with exact dates yet to be announced.
From Soil to Soul: Life Lessons with Himalayan Farmers: If this program resonates with where you are in your life’s path, I would love for you to submit your interest.
Thanks for reading this far. If nothing else, at least now you know I once got lost in a desert and had to be rescued by a donkey.
Here are three reflection questions I’d love to leave you with:
Which of your passions might be ready for a gentle shake-up?
Where in your life could you swap “the map” for “the journey”?
What lessons has the land, or your surroundings, been quietly teaching you that you’ve yet to notice?
Until next month,
Mani Mahesh
Previous Newsletters:
From African Wildebeests to Himalayan Fields: Crossing Rivers, Changing Skins: In case you missed my previous newsletter, here's it.
New on the blog:
Book Interview
In Conversation with Bare Bones on Iya and the Map of Gentle Journeys