I hated Facebook more than any other company until the day I joined it! How ironic life can be; it then became the most defining part of my life. I don’t know when I started liking the company—maybe it was after the first paycheck, maybe after seeing how open the culture is internally, or maybe after seeing how easy it is to converse with non-British colleagues! After a few years of working here, one main reason I like Meta is its recharge leave policy. After every five years of service, Meta encourages employees to take a one-month paid holiday to recharge from the pressure of work burnout. Though it seemed like a luxury initially, after five years of work, it became a necessity. Anyway, how can I be a normal human being if I can’t find fault in everything that is free?
Recharge leave is much celebrated at Meta; everyone asks, "What did you do?" I can't just say I spent time doing exercises, sleeping for an hour in the afternoon, and watching some telly with the kids in the evening. I do that anyway while working! I was looking for a story I could sell. By this time, I had been enlightened: no one cares how much you work unless you can make it "big." So, I thought I would go for a solo hike. There is no one to verify what I say; if I am really careful, I could be a "Big Fish"! I’ve always liked Big Fish stories and have seen a few people like that. They are genuine; they don’t think they are exaggerating their lives—they truly believe their lives are adventurous and entertaining. I always wished I could practice and genuinely become like them.
I needed this solo walk, and I was determined to make it part of my recharge leave. But I realized I had never actually done anything on my own. I was a born manager: I "hired" best friends, researched and found an awesome wife, and then "produced" efficient kids. I could always delegate my responsibilities to them without them ever noticing. But now, I wanted a solo walk.
I tried convincing Abhiman to join for a few days of "solo" walking. I knew that with him, it could still technically be classified as a solo walk for me. But he saw through my plans and skillfully refused, saying it wouldn't be a "solo walk" for him! That is technically true as well.
I realized I needed someone who doesn't use their head to think, so I asked Swathi. She said yes to the last three days without asking "what" or "when." We think with our hearts! Then Pooja joined, Ashwini got scared of leaving me alone with the girls! Before I knew it, I had included the kids and Kisor as well. The logistics were becoming complex; suddenly, I needed a helping hand just to manage the additional work of the last three days!
I think I’ll still earn my "solo walk certificate" for those final three days as well. Ashwini always complains that I don't talk much anyway. But I still can't delegate the planning work since first week is still me all alone.
With no help in sight, I begged my soulmate for help. She was very enthusiastic and efficient. She came up with a very clean 12-day walk plan from Minehead to Penzance! She knew I had done Kili and would be doing a marathon. She was completely blown away by my fitness and said if I can’t do it, no one else can either! I was sold; I said yes and shared it with Ashwini. She believes in the Internet and AI more than me. But she is convinced I am incapable of using technology correctly, so she started digging deeper. My baseline is to answer 65% of her investigative questions logically to ensure the plan is safe for an average human being.
I don’t like to upset people, but I was really angry at my soulmate for causing me such horrible embarrassment. I wanted to be right in front of my wife for once—why is it so hard! I bashed my friend for getting the elementary facts wrong, but she was so sweet in saying sorry that I instantly forgave her. To err is AI; to forgive is human.
This time, I thought I should really listen to my wife and contacted a few tour providers for a clean itinerary. One of them responded with a plan meeting my demands for a challenging solo hike. I relaxed it further by shortening the trip to a ten-day walk from Minehead to Padstow. Essentially, I pivoted from a 270-mile march in 12 days to a 160-mile walk in ten days. They accommodated everything, and Ashwini was almost satisfied.
But I felt my "soul" was missing from the plan. After all, this is my recharge, and I needed some of my own skin in the game. I decided I would save 50% of the cost by executing the exact same plan myself. I’ve been told that everyone has great ideas after a beer, but it’s the execution that really matters. I looked at the plan, booked the B&Bs myself, ordered a second-hand book covering the path from Minehead to Padstow, and bought an OS Maps subscription—which Redditors treat like a treasure trove.
With these in hand, I managed to get Ashwini to reluctantly agree to the plan, even if she wasn't fully convinced. In Meta, this is perfectly normal; we encourage the principle of "Disagree and Commit" in order to move faster. I have officially moved fast; now I just have to see if I break myself.
As always, I didn’t check the depth of the water before jumping in. Five days before the trek, I finally started looking at the finer details: things to pack, distance to travel, and how to stay vegan while completing the trek. OS Maps lived up to its reputation for being the darling of Redditors. It was unusable for normal humans. Even ChatGPT struggled! All I had to do was duplicate the readily available maps others had already created for 10 days and add my hotels as waypoints. It was certainly created by an all-female tech staff! It looks beautiful! Sometimes it works, but I couldn't figure out how and why it works. It’s like mood-dependent without any fixed pattern; sometimes it lets me plot 3-4 days nonstop without issues, but other times I had to experiment for hours to plot a single day. After a lot of trial and error, I thought I did manage to understand how it really works. So, I take my statement about the female tech staff back; it was derogatory.
After plotting the path, reality started to hit me. The second day involves an 1,800m ascent and 33km. The fourth day is 900m with a 42km distance! The total elevation is ~11km over 280km, assuming I don’t deviate from the path at all. I can see the tour operator laughing at me now! I think he has seen enough "intelligent" Indians by now who take his plan and then try to execute it on their own without paying for his services. So, he gave me an almost-correct plan without revealing where the devil is hiding in the details. Anyway, this is my plan, and I am sticking to it! I am a top-down approach guy and have never appreciated the "devil in the details" style. An elephant always makes its own way!
It will still be a good story even if I can’t finish it and have to skip a day or two. I just need to ensure the following scenario doesn't happen—which Ashwini was very keen I should consider—where both of my phones run out of charge, my battery pack dies, and someone snatches my physical copy of the book. I told her I can whistle with my mouth, but she thinks the frequency won’t match the standard whistles trekkers use, which apparently is true!
So, here I am: 280km, a height significantly greater than Everest, a first-time solo trekker, a moody app, a second-hand book, and a mouth-whistle. It might be a disaster, but at least it’ll be a story to share with colleagues. What it’s definitely not is a "recharge" leave!
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