I have been conducting camel safaris in Rajasthan for 15 years now. But I have been an outdoors person for all of my life. My father was a tea planter in Kerala, and I too worked in the tea estates, for 10 years, after I left college. I spent part of my childhood on a farm, once father had gone into farming after leaving the tea gardens. My earliest experiences were at hunting school and in college, when we used to hunt chinkaras on camelback. I've also done the typically touristy thing, and gone on a camel ride! But it was the camps in Rajasthan that got me interested in organizing camel safaris and treks in the desert. One trip I especially remember is a very long one, of 20 days, across the Thar Desert and into Gujarat, when I did a recce with some Canadian adventurers. I've also conducted 10-day camel rides within Rajasthan .