By the end of the 6 hour journey, when I got off I was walking with my hip oscillating back and forth like a camel on two legs.

Do you know the craziest part of walking in a camel group.. one behind the other. When the animal ahead of you has a bad tummy.. it lets out some gas… and oh man… camel fart is real mean stuff!

Now, the thing with the camel is that he has some feelings of his own. Its a big, beautiful and powerful beast. The rider has to be sensitive to the feelings and moods of the camel.

Imagine you are an arab in the desert and you a 100's of kilometres away from home. You are on your camel. You camel is your only chance of survival.

Now just imagine that the camel is in a bad mood, and are in a hurry, what might happen?

Or suppose, the camel has not been trained properly, and when the rider pulls the left rein, the camel jumps up.

Or when I pull the the right rein, the camel just stops and sits down!

Am I ever going to get to my destination???

The camel weighs up to 1000 kgs. The camel is 8 to 10 times as strong as you and me.

So, is it enough to train the rider?

Or do you agree with me that the camel also needs to be trained?

I realise that I am like this rider.

Consciously, I decide to wake up on time, to be punctual, to be fit, to forgive, to stick to a schedule…

But, the camel has other ideas!

The rider is my conscious decision, and the camel is my subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is 8 times more powerful than the conscious mind.

I have stopped feeling guilty about dozens of broken resolutions, and started working on training my CAMEL!

So the question is how to train the camel?

Set Small Goals and achieve them

Thats how all animals are domesticated. They are given a small task and rewarded when they achieve them. Every time they comply they are immediately rewarded. Each time the trainer will demand more and more of the camel!

Repeat, repeat and repeat

The subconcisous mind is like a computer. It has to run whatever program is given to it. But to program it, the instruction has to be repeated hundreds and thousands of times! Eventually it starts becoming a part of the original operating system!

Know what to expect

No wild animal is entirely unpredictable. With enough time spent, one can get to know the creature with all its myriad desires, responses to various situations, peoples and yes... to tones of voice! Once I know what to expect when that gulab jamun is staring at me, I can devise an appropriate avoidance strategy! There I see his face changing and tone shrilling... time to take a deep breath and allow the storm to pass!

It's good fun!

In case you have made your own experiments with camel training, do share your insights with us!