OSU Fans
OSU Grad Sharing Cross-Cultural Experience
By John Porentas
Picture this.
It's January, 2003, and Ohio State is playing Miami of Florida in the Fiesta Bowl for the football national championship. Half a planet away, three guys are sitting around a monitor in an Internet Cafe in Bombay, India, screaming at the monitor as the play-by-play results come on screen.
Wacky?
Not really, because one of those guys was Mehul Mody, and 1991 graduate of OSU with a masters in City and Regional planning. The other two guys were his brothers-in-law, both OSU graduates also.
"It was very late at night there and we were supposed to be getting on a plane, but nobody was going to get us away from that monitor," Mody recently told the-Ozone.
Mody was born in Bombay, India, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture, but moved to Columbus to do his graduate work and fell in love with both the city of Columbus and the Buckeyes.
"There was a 1988 Newsweek article that said that Columbus is the best place," said Mody explaining where he first started leaning toward Columbus and OSU.
"I had a choice between Pratt Institute in New York which is a premier architecture school, Iowa State and Ohio State.
"After seeing that article and looking at the program and talking to some of the faculty, I decided to go to Ohio State," Mody said.
"Columbus is a nice mix. You have a state capital, you have the University there so there's a lot of diversity.
"It's big enough to have everything you want and small enough for families to feel comfortable," Mody said, ticking of just some of the things he finds desirable about Columbus and OSU.
Mody was impressed enough to have taken the step to immigrate to the U. S. and is now an American citizen. He is currently employed by California State University as an Assistant Director for Campus Planning and Space management. Prior to taking that job, Mody did his best to stay near the Buckeye state if at all possible.
"From 1991 to 1993 I worked in Columbus at a place called Downtown Columbus Incorporated," Mody said.
"It was a non-profit extension of the mayor's office to promote the downtown.
"From there I worked at a planning job at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. I spent three years there, then a year at Oakland University in Michigan, but I always wanted to come back to Columbus.
"I was lucky enough to get a job at Ohio State in Planning and Development in the University Architect's office.
"While I was back at OSU I began working on my MBA at the business school.
"Then I got an offer I couldn't refuse here at Cal State.
"It was my first chance at a management position, so I took it," he explained.
Mody is thoroughly integrated into US Culture now, including a passion for the Buckeyes and their football team. There is, however, one aspect of life on the sub-continent he misses.
"I don't miss my home in Bombay at all," Mody said. I miss Columbus, and I miss my mountains."
We're were pretty sure Mody was not referring to any mountain range near Columbus, so we asked him to be a bit more specific. When he did, we learned about a passion of his rivaling his passion for the Buckeyes, and how that passion has led him into a bit of a sideline business that allows him to indulge that passion.
"When I was in the school of architecture in India, it's a five-year course, in 1983 I started going to these nature camps that were being sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund and organized by the person whom I working with now on these tours," said Mody.
"He is a gentleman who is very renowned for his environmental and nature educational efforts in India.
"The idea of outdoor life in general was very unexplored in those days, so he wanted the young kids to come out.
"The first time we went we were part of a 60-person group that went camping in his mountain camp site in the Himalayas, which is where my tour will start.
"That's where I got hooked on to it. He also has a little island camp, a camp in the desert and he happens to be an ex-royal family member.
"Before British times in India they had a lot of Royal families, so he has a castle that his elder brother puts at his disposal and he has wildlife camps too."
Mody's mentor is Lavkumar Khacher, a 70-year old Indian naturalist and educator. He Taught science and geography for 40 years, and really is a member of royal family.
"Because he was a member of the royal family he had the opportunity to hike and go wherever he wanted without worrying about money," Mody said of Khacher
Khacher has no real need of money, but has a passion to share the natural splendor of the Himalayans with others, a passion he has passed on to Mody.
"I've always been fascinated by the place, and that love for nature continued even after I came here," said Mody.
"In Columbus I used to go to the caves in the area or here in California there are a lot of places. That never leaves me," he said.
In addition to getting a Masters in Architecture at Ohio State, he also began his MBA here, a degree he completed while in California. In pursuit of that degree, he was required to present a small-business plan.
"I had a wonderful (graduate school) coach who helped me decide what kind of business I should put a plan together for.
"He ask 'What is it you would do all your life and not get paid and still love it?
"The set of questions that he asked that I could not have answered any other way led me to the answer that I want to go back to my mountains and enjoy it. That's how it started, when I prepared that business plan," Mody said.
Mody has teamed up with Khacher to offer a unique travel experience. Mody conducts nature and cultural tours of the Himalayas in conjunction with Khacher. Members of the tour actually spend time at Mr. Khacher's mountain place in the Himalayas, an experience you just can't buy elsewhere.
"He has a farm house with eight rooms that he has build specifically for special guests," said Mody.
"He doesn't do this on a commercial basis.
"The place is never booked in that sense. People have to 'known' in order to stay there.
"It's not a commercial hotel, but he likes people to have a love for nature stay there, not just to be treated like a hotel. It's more people with special interest," said Mody of the 200 to 300 year-old palace which will house the tour for a portion of its stay.
"Mr. Khacher is the host, so it's like being hosted by a Maharaja," Mody said.
Much of the tour is spent at elevations of 12,000 feet and higher, includes both hiking and jeep excursions, as-well-as visits to high-altitude Buddhist monasteries and an art museum high in the mountains the features the work of a former member of the Russian royal family who spent much his time painting in the Himalayas
It's an exciting offering, but traveling to a place that is so culturally different like India can be intimidating. That's where Mody comes in. He accompanies the tour, and acts as the cultural bridge between you and the locals, a job for which his is uniquely qualified.
"The first year I went as a participant. The next three years I went as a volunteer. I would stay all summer and work, doing everything from pitching tents to taking people up and down the mountain and working with the local guides," said Mody.
The tour is comfortable, but not one which focuses on luxury. There are no marked trails in the Himalayas, so local guides are provided. Participants are free to schedule their own day-trips as the tour progresses, but for the most part, accommodations and food are arranged for by Mody and included in the price of the offering. Special consideration is also given to things like the effect of jet lag, both coming and going, and the need to acclimatize to higher elevations.
Best of all, you get to go with a Buckeye.
To find out more about Mody's tours, visit his Web Site for full details.
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