Would people stay at planet why..

While people would like to contribute towards welfare but some of them are not able to face the same & come in & give support only cause they are not able to bear the sight of children being uncomfortable..
It hits them really hard at the misery of some children & they have literally broken down, & that makes them stay away..
Coming to the point do you think you are going to get people who would stay here before going out on vacation for fun & enjoyment seeing the less fortunate ones being uncomfortable..?

Some tie back I may have asked this question myself. But in the past couple of years we have had many volunteers who have come to work at pwhy driven by a desire to do something tangible. They have come from many walks of life and have stayed for various periods of time ranging from a week to many months. They have then visited India like any tourist would but often written back saying that it was their stay at the project that was the most memorable.

Last year I was also introduced to the concept of blending tourism with volunteering when Chris of Hand Up Holidays visited us and decided to include project why in one of their proposed itinerary. Next week we will be hosting their first guest!

I am sure there are people who would prefer staying away from the 'other side of India', but I know there are many who will welcome this experience that is quite enriching. I am sure we will find enough people to fill the 10 odd rooms we propose to have on planet why.

commitents for booking

Next if we do manage to pull this through.. Do you have any commitments on room usage from anyone.. P

Funnily enough we do, as some people have written in asking whether the project why hotel facility exists.

where is Goyla

Your project at Goyla seems like a dream one. Yes, I think with responsible tourism becoming so in now, your step is in the right direction. Sorry, but I do not know where Goyla is. Perhaps you need to mention details about its whereabouts in the blog, for anyone who may be interested. And I'll certainly pass it on to all my friends around the world, who'd like to make a stopover at Planet Why. Batul

An obvious question and I should have addressed it before. Goyla is in South West Delhi and is a diary village though the diary may be removed.



Is is located near sector 19 Dwarka and has a direct access from the international airport. It is also close to the metro.

so for those wishing to visit the city, we would run regular shuttles between planet why and the metro station.

However Goyla is still a village as villages should be. It still has fields and buffalos and its own idyllic village pond protected by the faceless village deity. The location we seek is within the village itself,



and one of our mission is goin to be to ensure that the environment is protected.

do we have a place...

Do we have a place... and if we do what is the size of the plot... (p)

First of all we I am touched by P's use of 'we' rather than 'you' as this proves that many friends have already adopted the project as their own.

Now to answer the query no we do not have a place but we have selected the location. As you all know land price is prohibitive. Goyla is a dairy village on the outskirts of Delhi, close to sector 19 of Dwarka. land n the Lal Dora area is around 7000 Rs a square yard.


The place in the picture is around 700 square yards and the rooms built are temporary. It could be negotiated at around 10 to 13 K a month. We could get a long lease but that according to many does not seem a sound investment. There are places for sale but we need to see how much we can put together.

According to Rishi, the principal of Utpal's school that is in the area, any plot would double its value in less than a year. The idea would be at least 500 square yards.. Rishi also suggested that in case we go for a long lease then w should draw an agreement that says that the owner will give 50 or more % of the estimated value of the building at the time of leaving.

Please give all your opinions, reactions and suggestions.

boths sides now - the sustainability factor

How to sustain project why is a question that has been haunting me for some time now, I guess time waits for now one and the writing is on the wall! It is a question many have raised, some gently others even brutally. I must confess that I spend many hours thinking about valid options and reviewing past mistakes.

The list of ideas that did not work is daunting: we made candles, jewels, painted T shirts, pots and more of the same and sold them at charitybazaars. We gathered pongamia seeds from he numerous trees around, milled oil and made soaps; we made eco-friendly shopping bags; we even made chocolates but soon saw that none of these could ever bring us the funds required to run pwhy.

And as each idea failed, lessons were learnt. It became clear that we could not match the competition. Moreover the complex legislations related to some products like soaps and food items were wrought with red tape. And finally marketing any product required huge investment. The final blow was the sealing laws that put an end to any small business idea we may have had.

We had to find a minimum or no investment and high return option. That is when I stumbled upon the idea of the one -rupee-a day option. It seemed such a doable one as one thought that it would not be difficult to convince people to part with such a tiny sum. One become bold enough to believe that even the community would part with that tiny amount. But reality struck soon enough as one laboured on. People did not come forward. Or those who did, just did it once and forgot. And yet like you hold on to a special child, this option never left me though it did not bring the desired result.

Slowly planet why came to seed. And yet it again looked doable provided one found the funds to set it up. Many have warmed up to the idea but the investment is huge.

As I write these words I am reminded of the lyrics of a Neil Diamond song:

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life at all.

Somehow the sustainability options of planet why are two sides of a spectrum: either we find a huge number of people and ask them to part with a tiny amout of money over a long period of time, or we find a huge amout of money and create our own way of finding money.

Tht is the dilemena one faces!