After gazing at the Himalaya for 21 years from his village near the Shivalik foothills, Gaurav Punj figured what to do in the mountains once he started hiking in the Yosemite national park while studying at University of California, Berkeley. He completed his Masters in Engineering (Operations Research), worked for about 4 years in the big bad corporate world and after his leave count dipped to negative 50, quit and started his venture, Connect with Himalaya, in 2008. It's as good an excuse he could find for traveling to new and unexplored places in the Indian Himalaya, meet and work with genuine local organizations and do his bit to spread the word.