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Gopakumar and I have known each other since the time we were both doing an MBA at IIM-Bangalore.  After graduation, Gopa spent eleven years in corporate finance working for venture capital funds. He quit that to follow his passion for wildlife conservation.  He founded the River Otter Conservancy to protect otters and their habitat, with projects in three landscapes in India.  In his professional life he is a facilitator in the areas of negotiation and building influence.

His mantra for life is encapsulated in this favourite poem titled A bag of tools by R. L. Sharpe.

I SN'T IT strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make—
Ere life is flown—
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.

You can find out more about Gopa's quest to make the otter the tiger of the river in terms of its importance to our ecosystem by visiting his website www.riverotter.in and following him on Facebook.

In this podcast Gopa mentions books Small is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacker and The Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell.