Manpreet Sokhi’s album of Dilip and Anchel’s South Indian Hindu wedding made waves through Queensberry. Talia Neal of our design team worked on the striking photofront cover and it triggered a flood of memories in her. The cover symbol is a representation of Ganesha, the Hindu elephant deity whose influence extends even beyond Hinduism and India. The memories evoked were of Talia's time in Nepal as a teenager working for Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust – memories rubbed raw by the recent passing of Sir Ed, who with Sherpa Tensing Norgay first climbed Mount Everest in 1953. In March 2000 Talia flew with 15 other teenagers to Kathmandu, Nepal. After spending just one day in Kathmandu (“thrown head first into the realities of life in a third world country”) they flew in a very small and rusty plane to Lukla to begin their trek in the Himalayas. The trek was “exhausting beyond belief”, but their most overwhelming experience was visiting the children at the school in Kunde, the first Sir Ed built. “Peter Hillary (Sir Ed’s son) told us, ‘It’s the mountain that draws you to Nepal, but the people that bring you back,’ something Sir Ed had told him many years earlier. It wasn’t until I met the children in Kunde that the reality of his comment hit me. Many of the children would walk for two hours each way, often in the snow and many with bare feet, just to get to school. We spent time in the classrooms with them, helping them with their studies." The teenagers worked on a helipad for the Kunde hospital at 3900m, but Talia’s proudest personal achievement was reaching base camp on Mt Ama Dablam at 5000m above sea level. Two years training for a three week trek was a life changing experience. “The strong beliefs of the Nepali people and the influence of a man as extraordinary yet humble as Sir Edmund Hillary has given me the strong belief in myself that, given enough hard work and positive attitude, you can do anything! Namaste and rest in peace Burra Sahib, Sir Edmund Hillary.”