HeelsOnFire for me is the culmination of the numerous evenings spent tickling our minds on a billion issues in the cozy confines of mostly Tulika-Robins home. The instant relating of thoughts, discussing of books, movies, political issues just filled the void that I fond myself confronted with once out in the professional world and away from the clutches of academia (and friends from my architectural world and away from the city I grew up in and passionately loved, to put it mildly). We just seemed to be on the same frequency and that to me marked the awakening on my “non-architect world” in Delhi. To me this was a bigger high than all the booze Robin can vouch for us guzzling. Most of us in our mid twenties and early thirties not exactly freshers at work, caught ourselves making important decisions between passion and survival, constantly struggling to have the best of both worlds and repeatedly caught making choices, dangerously bordering on the threshold of corruption and materialism that most great ideas find themselves ending in. HeelsOnFire was that instant relief, the perfect excuse to delve in all the idealism that marked those numerous evenings spent contemplating ideas, which in reality went no further than the confines of the coffee table UNTIL NOW!!!!

It went further for me, with our cross-cultural perspectives that intrigued me more than anything. We all saw things in a different light. Some of us saw India in all the mysticism and maintained a “Raj” view to the county- a land that allows for you to have a rich-shaw ride or the fascination with the theology of Indian Weddings, was a perspective that my cynicism has always objected to. Rightly or wrongly, I have yet to figure out hopefully I will have my answer through Pete, Rahul and Des’s journey. Till then through HeelsOnFire I am fed sumptuously a new perspective each day that “Brands a Society….Brands a Country”

The backend ride on Heels on Fire has been more than exciting and we have together been through….Hearts on Fire (the Chemistry has been flying, between who you ask…weeeeeell…that’s for you to guess)… Friends on Fire (like all normal human beings we do get onto each others nerves) and we are loving it!!!

Sometimes the best way to get into something is to jump in headlong. Of course it helps if someone pushes you firmly from behind!

That’s pretty much how I found myself in the eye of a fiery storm involving heels n then some!

It all started with Ms. Reshma Pritam my mentor & teacher politely threatening to have me annihilated if I didn’t make a “little website” for her friend Dezi’s project.

Tenzin Kunchok aka Zoonie, my friend, knowing my real weakness, dangled the services of his beloved I Mac G 5 in front of my windows weary fingers if I did the heels on fire website.

Dezi tried to sweeten the deal by making vague promises of a free subscription to a Gentleman’s magazine featuring beautiful ladies who prefer to be photographed au naturale.

But none of that was necessary to get me in. The moment I heard about 3 guys stomping thru my home state- running, writing & filming in the merry month of May- I knew I had to be a part of this insanity somehow.

Since the filming deal had already been snapped, I gladly accepted the task of spinning the web for this monster show.

Meeting Pete & the gang for the first time made me realize the real scope of this venture. My perspective on the whole changed from thinking of them as very enthusiastic but slightly mad people to people I can take inspiration from.

Most ideas these days are a result of an intense brainstorming session, a fiery board meeting or a product of intensive research. I am talking about most ideas that are taken seriously anyways. This one, if you can believe it, was a result of a dinner conversation amongst a few hungry friends, five to be precise, who had just spent a good part of their day helping out with the "make poverty history" campaign. As you can see, development issues were already on the table. Somehow the conversation drifted to adventure sports and about a guy who was covered by MTv for riding his bike through some parts of India.

Most of us at the dinner were in Kerala when Pete had expressed his desire to run across India. I am not sure if it was the hunger, the fatigue or a combination of both that made us put the two discussions – development and adventure sports together. This was the first spark for 'heels on fire'. We all started talking about how exciting it would be to have Pete run through India and Dez cover it. Very obviously an insane thought, but then we are talking about Pete, any such idea and he is your man! The next morning Pete was woken up from his sleep only to be bombarded with all the craziness that had taken pace over dinner the night before. And of course, he completely loved it. The rest, as they say, is history!