Along with art conservator and photographer Benoy K Behl's team, these Concerned Beings will step out of the money-churning wheel for a while to carry out restoration operations on the 1000-year-old Buddhist monasteries that dot the Ladakh plateau. ``It's really exciting that we'll be going to help preserve our heritage. You feel good about helping out,'' says Shashi Behl, an administration executive with KPMG.

Before that, though, there is a KPMG-sponsored exhibition at the India Habitat Centre from November 14-18, which will showcase nearly 100 photographs documenting the state of disrepair and devastation of the six (of an estimated 108) surviving monasteries. Obviously, channelising plush fundsinto feel-good social causes is balm for the corporate conscience.

While Behl, who is also Member-Secretary, Cultural Documentation and Conservation Foundation (CDCF), has been carrying on structural repair and restoration work on the Ladakh monasteries along with the Army and the local population for the last five years, this is the first time their efforts have attracted corporate attention (yes, KPMG's even roping in corporate clients Daewoo and Citibank for the cause). Behl, understandably, is excited.

``The very fact that people from the city - who the local Ladakhis look up to - want to help restore these monasteries with their own hands has symbolic importance. It renews local interest too,'' he explains.

This summer, for example, Behl and his team completed the structural restoration of the Wanla monastery. However, the beautiful murals inside, which bear a striking stylistic resemblance to the cave paintings at Ajanta, remain endangered.

For KPMG, the benefits are a list of `intangibles'.``Employees feel proud to be part of an organisation that cares, and we stand to gain goodwill as responsible corporate citizens,'' explains a company spokesperson. Other intangibles: intra-firm bonding, since KPMG CEO Sridar Iyengar is supposedly as excited about the proposed Ladakh excursion as mid and junior-level employees. In fact, the firm's staffers have even taken responsibility to bring out a brochure for the upcoming exhibition, and will help set it up too.

So at Behl's house, it's no surprise to find a couple of KPMG employees - Kamini and Ripu Daman - sorting through piles of photographic print. ``We'd love to go to Ladakh, though we may not be able to, since we have to study for our CA exams,'' explains Kamini. Though plans have not been finalised yet - KPMG hopes more of its 800 India employees will sign up to go - ``the idea is to divide enthusiasts into teams, which will spend a few days working in Ladakh on a rotational basis,'' says Shashi.

Perhaps they're just energetic youngsters witha feel for heritage, or KPMG is trying really hard to rid itself of its stuffy corporate image, but if in the process it ``energises communities'' and creates the ``ripple effect'' Behl is so intent on, India's artistic, but crumbling, riches stand to gain.