The people behind the journeys

Formally trained in experiential learning pedagogy, Pavana has spent years leading students through forests, coastlines, and wild spaces, attempting to push the boundaries of what education can look like outside four walls. A once-obsessed mountaineer and a PADI-certified Rescue Diver, she believes that the best way to learn is through doing—whether that’s tracking birds, solving real-world problems through design thinking, or reading the ocean before paddling out on a surfboard. Beyond the wilderness, she has worked extensively in cities, partnering with government agencies, universities, corporations etc. to make urban sustainability more accessible and engaging for students.

Now exploring slow living in her beachside village, she spends much of her time swimming in the ocean, surfing, and embracing the rhythm of coastal life. When not outdoors, she is an avid reader, a Potterhead by religion, and always on the lookout for exotic vegetarian dishes.

Whether deep into a phase studying mantises, caterpillars, or birds, Aakanksha has an endless curiosity for the natural world, with a particular obsession for the complex mating behaviours of the animal kingdom. They are a passionate champion for the unloved and underrated, using their sharp eye to spot camouflaged creatures and tiny invertebrates that most people walk right past. Beyond education, Aakanksha is a dedicated animal rescuer, known for calm snake handling and for rescuing and rehabilitating everything from urban dogs and cats to wild reptiles.

Aakanksha’s love for nature flows directly into their art and daily life. They use painting as a form of immersive study, bringing species to life on canvas while committing their finest details to memory. Grounded in a strong environmental ethos, they live by example through a zero-waste, plant-based lifestyle. Whether leading a hike or untangling a rescue, Aakanksha’s goal remains the same: to turn fear into fascination and help people see the beauty in even the most misunderstood creatures.

His work has since moved across leadership programmes, public systems, school transformation, entrepreneurship, travel, technology, and experience design. He has worked closely with government departments and built Edventure X around a simple belief: learning gets far more interesting when the world itself becomes part of the lesson.

Endlessly curious and with very little respect for disciplinary boundaries, Adithya can spend hours diving into politics, food, cities, history, wildlife, AI, or some obscure thing he discovered fifteen minutes earlier. Most ideas begin with “this would be interesting” and somehow become a programme, a trip, a company, or a spreadsheet with far too many tabs. Outside work, he is usually eating, travelling, researching something nobody asked him to research, or trying to convince his friends to join him for the next thing.

At Mumu Surf School, Anna has helped run programmes introducing children from a Chennai orphanage to surfing and the ocean for over ten years. She has also led beach clean-ups and initiatives that exchange collected waste for free surf equipment for local children—believing that meaningful change can begin with something as simple as a surfboard, a bag of rubbish, or an opportunity to experience something new.

Now based in South Goa with her family, Anna spends her time surfing, exploring, creating, and bringing people and ideas together. Endlessly curious and creative, she is always dreaming up new ways to turn ideas into experiences that bring people together.

She has worked with children in the field of education for over 12+ years. Ankita has a bachelors degree in Psychology and a masters degree in Education from Azim Premji University. She has experience working as a teacher in alternate schools in rural and urban India. She now works as a freelancer in the capacity of a curriculum designer and developer, experiential and outdoor educator and writes occasionally for varied publications. She believes art & conversation to be an immersive medium to explore emotion, self-discovery and expression and finds herself using this lens even while working with nature in the outdoors.

When not engaged in her usual work, she is reading, crocheting, whittling, or volunteering at various spaces including animal farms, agriculture farms and carpentry workshops!

Personal writing: earthlingideas.substack.com

A lifelong athlete and coach, Mel has participated in everything from tennis, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and surfing to yoga, climbing, and slacklining. She is a certified yoga teacher and has spent the past decade deeply involved in India’s climbing, slackline, highline, and skateboarding communities. She is also a co-founder of Climb Like A Woman, a non-profit working to empower women through climbing and outdoor education in India.

Combining her academic knowledge with her experiences in movement and sport, Mel is interested in helping people get out of their cognitive ruts and find greater focus and awareness in everyday life. Outside of Movement Ashram, she can usually be found climbing, slacklining, surfing, practising yoga, or finding new ways to bring movement and the outdoors into everyday life.

With a background in law and a teaching fellowship at the Azim Premji Foundation, Parineeta has worked extensively with government schools, building a strong foundation in pedagogy, curriculum, and educational philosophy - deeply influenced by thinkers like J. Krishnamurti and John Dewey. She has taught children from foundational Nali Kali levels to middle school, designed learning materials, facilitated teacher training, and developed a firm belief in experiential, context-rooted education. A long-time climber and scuba dive professional, she continues to freelance with Adventure Breaks in Goa - running climbing camps for children and leading hikes that almost always turn into nature walks. Her current work at IFHD involves community-based mangrove restoration efforts, trying to integrate ecological restoration with local livelihoods along the western coast.

Now living by the sea in South Goa, Parineeta hopes to share her love for the great outdoors with people - through movement, reflection, and a sense of wonder that’s best sparked in wild places. At other times, she can be seen sitting right next to Pavana on a couch, watching langurs from a porch.

A certified sound healing facilitator, Romy has trained with Yoke Goa and Svaram Sound Institute and has facilitated sound baths for the past two years. Her approach is grounded and intentionally simple. Rather than placing her work within a heavily spiritual framework, she uses sound, silence, and deep listening to help people quieten their minds, become more present, and gently observe their inner landscape.

Nature is at the heart of her work. She weaves sound with nature-based experiences and rituals, including forest bathing, moon rituals, and earth altar making. For Romy, nature is not simply a beautiful setting, but a powerful way to ground, slow down, and reconnect with our innate wisdom.

Outside of facilitating, she loves plant-based cooking, reading, moving her body, spending time in forests, and playing handpan.

As a facilitator and experience designer, she is interested in what happens when learning moves beyond simply knowing the right answer. Her work creates spaces where children can ask better questions, encounter unfamiliar perspectives, and engage with the world through curiosity, compassion, and empathy. She particularly enjoys facilitating discussions and circles that encourage young people to think more deeply about themselves, others, and the world around them.

A trained classical musician with over 20 years of learning behind her, Rucha has always found her way to the world through art, sound, stories, and questions. Studying German literature further shaped her relationship with learning, teaching her to sit with ambiguity, question what seems obvious, and appreciate that there is rarely just one way of seeing things.

She is also the founder of The Fika, a community initiative built around slowing down over coffee and meaningful connection. Across her different pursuits, she keeps returning to the same question: how do we create spaces that make people more curious about the world and more attentive to one another?

Outside work, she can usually be found reading, taking long walks, having unnecessarily existential conversations, or finding an excuse to make or talk about coffee.

Her therapeutic practice draws on art, drama, movement, music, and play, offering creative ways to explore experiences that may not always find words. With an understanding of the nervous system and a systemic, relational lens, she creates spaces for people to connect with their bodies, emotions, relationships, and inner resources.

As an outdoor educator, Supriya brings these perspectives into the outdoors, creating experiences that invite slowing down, noticing, reflection, and embodied learning. Her work is rooted in the belief that connection with ourselves, others, and the land is deeply interwoven. Through play, exploration, observation, and service, she creates opportunities to learn with and from the land, while listening to the wisdom of local people and communities.

Supriya loves being in nature, playing her flute, teaching theatre, and creating spaces where people can pause, reflect, and encounter themselves and the world around them with curiosity.