Every journey I’ve ever taken has left me with a lesson. The mountains have taught me patience, rivers have babbled legends, and bustling bazaars have shown
me how stories live in every corner. This is why, as we celebrate Teachers Day, I can’t help but think of the guides, trek leaders, and storytellers who’ve shaped my understanding of the world just as much as any classroom teacher did. On September 5, while we share Teachers Day quotes, send wishes, and say “Happy Teachers Day” to mentors who’ve guided us, it feels only right to honour those who teach through travel and travelling, not with chalk and textbooks, but with conversations and experiences. Here are four remarkable people who remind us that the world itself is a classroom, and every journey is a chance to learn.
The Mountain Mentor: Shikha Tripathi
“I launched my venture Snowfox Escapes last year in June,” says Shikha Tripathi, an outdoor enthusiast, travel journalist, and certified mountaineer who grew up in the Himalayan region she now calls her classroom. For over a decade, her writing took her to offbeat trails and remote mountain cultures across the subcontinent. Friends and readers often asked if they could somehow join her journeys, and that seed became Snowfox Escapes, an outdoor venture designed to share her love for the highlands.
With training in wilderness first aid and years of experience in the outdoors, Shikha brings not just safety but also philosophy to her treks. “One of my all-time favourite quotes is by outdoor educator Kurt Hahn, who said, ‘There is more in us than we know, if we could be made to see it; perhaps, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.’ When I take people into the mountains, especially beginners who may be a bit anxious, this is the most important thing I want them to learn about themselves. That there is more in them than they know. They just need somebody to make them see it.”
Her motto—Outdoors for All—has made Snowfox Escapes an inclusive space. “Nearly all of my trips so far have inevitably had a senior citizen or two who sign up. At first, they feel a little hesitant when they see a younger group around them, but they have surprised themselves, and have astounded me not only by their physical resilience, but also how well they adapt to changing situations, how gracefully they deal with a problem, and how happy they are to have achieved this at a late stage in their life.”
Above all, Shikha carries with her a personal philosophy, one shaped by the fragility of the landscapes she so loves. “My favourite philosophy personally, one that the mountains have taught me and one that I like to pass on, is to see everything as if for the first time, and as if for the last time. Literally speaking, with our changing climate, you never know if or when you will see a certain mountain or a landscape again, but even metaphorically, this philosophy allows us to appreciate everything with the wonder we would have the first time, and hold it precious as if it were the last time.”
For the travellers who trek alongside her, the mountain is no longer a destination but a teacher, and Shikha is its most eloquent translator.
The Storyteller Of Cities: Harshvardhan Tanwar
In cities like Mumbai and Delhi, where glass towers rise overnight and old neighbourhoods crumble under urban sprawl, Harshvardhan Tanwar believes stories are the only way to keep heritage alive. As the founder of No Footprints, he has redefined what city tours can feel like—swapping dry, textbook-style lectures for living, breathing narratives about communities, people, and forgotten moments in time.
“When we started No Footprints, heritage tours were often boring and sometimes even factually incorrect about historic spaces,” he recalls. “We felt tourism was much beyond just a monument. It was about people, culture, and community. We wanted to bring to fore stories of communities that were being lost due to rapid urbanisation in big cities like Bombay and Delhi.”
From the day it “rained gold bars in Bombay” to the Naval Mutiny of 1946 that shifted the course of India’s independence, Harshvardhan’s team brings history alive in ways that are both rigorous and joyful. “We want to make heritage fun,” he says. “That’s why we call ourselves seriously fun people—great storytellers and tour leaders who make information accessible and enjoyable.”
At No Footprints, every guest is at the center of the experience. “To keep heritage alive and kicking is to personalise content,” Harshvardhan explains. “We always put the guest first.” Sometimes, that means curating deeply personal, one-of-a-kind moments: like designing a Bollywood dance workshop for a 93-year-old Australian traveller who dreamt of grooving in Mumbai, or doing their iconic Mumbai by Dawn tour for a guest who wasn’t a morning person, yet later admitted, “If there’s one thing I’d tell people to wake up early for, it’s this tour.”
For Harshvardhan, heritage isn’t just about places but about making people fall in love with the soul of a city, one story at a time.
The Wilderness Teacher: Radha Sharma
In a world where school lessons are often confined to whiteboards and exam papers, Radha Sharma believes that the wild itself is the greatest classroom. Through her venture Earth Calling Expeditions, she runs Mowgli Camps and Young Naturalist Training Programs, introducing children and travellers alike to the forests, rivers, and communities of the Himalayas.
“I chose to organise the Mowgli Camp for students—not just to raise awareness about the environment and wildlife, but also to immerse them in working closely with local communities,” she says. “Unless our city kids truly understand how these communities have been silently and relentlessly practicing sustainable living for generations, they will never fully grasp the importance of eco-sensitivity.”
Her philosophy is simple: to nurture responsible citizens who genuinely care about the Himalayas and our forests, you must first help them connect with the people who live in harmony with nature every day.
The impact of her camps is long-lasting. Many schoolchildren who joined Mowgli Camp have returned with a desire to volunteer for her work. “That, to me, is the biggest success of the camp. It didn’t just end when they returned home; it planted a seed,” she says. Her Young Naturalist Training Program takes the classroom outdoors, where children exchange textbooks for soil, rivers, and skies. “Traditional textbooks and routine classes often limit a child’s imagination. But when that same child steps into nature, touches the soil, feels the flow of a river, breathes in fresh air, something shifts. Learning becomes real, personal, and transformative.”
Through journaling, birdwatching, sketching, and quiet observation, children discover not just wildlife but also resilience, patience, and self-awareness. “These aren’t just hobbies; they are life skills that help them navigate and survive the complexities of the modern world.” For many, it also opens doors to new career paths in conservation, law, social work, or rural development.
For Radha, these programs don’t just educate. “They empower children to connect with nature, explore who they are, and choose paths that contribute to the planet and people.”
The Chief Naturalist: Rahul Aradhya
For Rahul Aradhya, every safari, walk, and workshop is a classroom without walls. One where the teachers are forests, rivers, and elephants. A climate change and biodiversity specialist based in Bengaluru, Rahul has spent over a decade showing travellers and students how to read nature’s lessons with humility and respect.
“The biggest lesson nature has taught me is to always respect it and its creatures,” he says. He recalls a day when, even as he was trying to help a herd of elephants cross a busy road by halting traffic, the animals mock-charged him. “It reminded me that nature follows its own rules and boundaries, not ours.”
That blend of reverence and reality runs through his work. Rahul co-founded Pikalara, an initiative that makes biodiversity education hands-on through immersive workshops on forests, wetlands, and grasslands. He has trained over 400 nature guides and frontline staff, designed climate change models for tribal schools, and led biodiversity surveys that shaped policy decisions.
But at the heart of it all lies one constant: storytelling. “For me, storytelling is at the heart of conservation,” Rahul explains. “If you don’t wrap facts and awareness in a story that people can connect with, it won’t leave an impact. A good story makes people remember, care, and act.”
That power to shift perspectives is something he has witnessed many times. He recalls Nagesh, a government school student who joined his Chinnara Vana Darshana program in 2015. “We acted as animals showing the problems we face because of people,” Rahul says. “It changed the way he saw wildlife—he began looking at issues from the animals’ side.” Today, Nagesh rescues snakes and other wild creatures in his village, keeping in touch with Rahul about the conservation work he continues to do. From training eco-guides in national parks to helping apartment communities notice the birds outside their windows, Rahul’s philosophy is simple yet profound: nature is the greatest teacher, and every journey into it is a lesson.
