Knowing that you are going to spend the next 15 days on a train traveling all across India in the chilly winters of December was both exciting and nervous. This was the first of my 'journey through myself' trips and I wanted it to go well. And boy! Overwhelming was an understatement. The sheer energy, the diversity of the group, the achievements of the yatris and their outlook towards challenges, it was beautiful.
Since I dont want to be jumping points, I thought I will go day wise and how it all effected me.
Day 1 - Nervous, Excited, and eager to make friends!
I went to the IIT Campus, early in the morning at 8:00 AM. The introvert in me was searching for a known face amongst the crowd. None. I sighed. Big deal, I came here to make friends. Went and stood in the line at the registrations. Well, no one knows anyone here! and so, I slowly started making friends. Over the course of breakfast and lunch, we gathered into groups and started knowing more about each other It was lovely how every person, on his journey in life, was on the yatra in the quest to know something more. Post lunch and some speeches, we were all ready to sway to the tune of the famous Jagriti Geet. Penned down by Prasoon Joshi, it would be the one lasting memory on every yatris mind after the yatra. After mind blowing musical evening we were all ready to leave for our train. It was Christmas eve, and we found ourselves on the platform waiting for the train. We immediately got on the train, found our compartments and groups. It was time to sleep. Were we ready for the journey!
Day 2: A Day in the Train
"Attention Yatris, this is your wake up call." blared Vibha's voice across the speakers. A maternal voice, caring and compassionate, which we would come to like and get used to, over the next 15 days. Now, came the best part. The ablutions on a moving train. The bathrooms were an innovation in itself. The general compartment, divided into small cubicles, with an aluminum bucket in the middle, with pipes draining away the water was awe inspiring! Here is a neat description of the whole thing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF6ktsl8AIs
We had the next day completely to ourselves. We were recommended this "Lifeline exercise" where we had to introduce our life till now as a graph, the events and the highs and lows to all the group members. We had 20 people sitting uncomfortably in one compartment (usually made for 8 people) and believe you me, everyone was listening with rapt attention, amidst the din of the rails, the blaring speakers and the noise of the caterers. For me personally, this was one of those revealing moments on the journey. Each of my group mate invariably had an awe inspiring tale to tell. From being so passionate about being educated that he dint mind putting himself through physical labor, throwing away a powerful career to start something meaningful with the under privileged, a fashion designer whose skills should be seen to believe amongst others, it was a one in a life time opportunity to be with that group.
1. The climate of Vizag and scenes of Coastal Andhra
Before coming to the yatra, I heard about Jayesh Bhai, the staunch Gandhian, who legend has it, that once went about arranging the footwear that children who came into the ashram left haphazardly into neat rows. For a week! The children automatically started leaving their footwear in rows; He lived Gandhi's principle to the tee -Be the change you want to see
He took us around the ashram explaining the intricate set of beliefs the ashram and the organization runs on.
We were shown glimpses from the Mallika Sarabhai choreographed "Ekatva", a dance about unity by 13 slum children. Blown away, again!
Before leaving the ashram for the final leg of the journey, I had the pleasure of meeting Siddharth Sthalekar, an IIM A almnus, who runs the SEWA cafe.
Since I dont want to be jumping points, I thought I will go day wise and how it all effected me.
Day 1 - Nervous, Excited, and eager to make friends!
I went to the IIT Campus, early in the morning at 8:00 AM. The introvert in me was searching for a known face amongst the crowd. None. I sighed. Big deal, I came here to make friends. Went and stood in the line at the registrations. Well, no one knows anyone here! and so, I slowly started making friends. Over the course of breakfast and lunch, we gathered into groups and started knowing more about each other It was lovely how every person, on his journey in life, was on the yatra in the quest to know something more. Post lunch and some speeches, we were all ready to sway to the tune of the famous Jagriti Geet. Penned down by Prasoon Joshi, it would be the one lasting memory on every yatris mind after the yatra. After mind blowing musical evening we were all ready to leave for our train. It was Christmas eve, and we found ourselves on the platform waiting for the train. We immediately got on the train, found our compartments and groups. It was time to sleep. Were we ready for the journey!
Day 2: A Day in the Train
"Attention Yatris, this is your wake up call." blared Vibha's voice across the speakers. A maternal voice, caring and compassionate, which we would come to like and get used to, over the next 15 days. Now, came the best part. The ablutions on a moving train. The bathrooms were an innovation in itself. The general compartment, divided into small cubicles, with an aluminum bucket in the middle, with pipes draining away the water was awe inspiring! Here is a neat description of the whole thing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF6ktsl8AIs
We had the next day completely to ourselves. We were recommended this "Lifeline exercise" where we had to introduce our life till now as a graph, the events and the highs and lows to all the group members. We had 20 people sitting uncomfortably in one compartment (usually made for 8 people) and believe you me, everyone was listening with rapt attention, amidst the din of the rails, the blaring speakers and the noise of the caterers. For me personally, this was one of those revealing moments on the journey. Each of my group mate invariably had an awe inspiring tale to tell. From being so passionate about being educated that he dint mind putting himself through physical labor, throwing away a powerful career to start something meaningful with the under privileged, a fashion designer whose skills should be seen to believe amongst others, it was a one in a life time opportunity to be with that group.
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| Abhijit giving us a glimpse of his life! |
Day 3: Selco, Hubli
Our first stop was at Hubli, a town in the southern state of Karnataka. We were visiting SELCO, an organisation with a business mind and a social heart that went out to the poor. While electricity and running water are the primary problems a village faces, SELCO has looked at solving the former. SELCO sets up solar panels in houses across rural Karnataka, and also trains the people. It is a complete business model that can be replicated. We went to a village and saw the solar panels, interacted with the rural folk and came back.
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| A picture truly speaks a thousand words! |
What I liked:
1.My first full fledged breakfast on the platform (of the many more to come!)
2. Interacting with the villagers
3. Discovering Ghana's amazing painting abilities! (They are legendary)
4. The cute lady explaining about the Solar panels ;-) (Cud'nt take my eyes off her!)
5. Eating sugarcane in the village (lived the bolly movie scene of a village)
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| Day 3 |
Day 4: Infosys Bangalore
The legendary entreprenuer who started off one of the world's finest organizations by pledging his wife's jewelery, the one and only Mr. Narayanamurthy was addressing us on Day 4. We found ourselves in Infosys staring at the beautiful campus, proud that it was nurtured by someone as Indian as any of us could get. The simplicity of the man shined as a jewel on the backdrop of the magnificent Infosys campus.
Another thing I still remember about that day was proudly explaining about the Indian Gods to Leigh and Henry from South Africa, out international participants. I was internally feeling very proud of the amazing culture and the stories behind our Gods, be it the 'elephant' God, the 'monkey' God or the 'richest' God. (They were all in a photo frame in the bus we were going in). It was one of our group mates birthday and her parents graciously brought all of us cake and eatables! Birthday bumps, smearing the cake, and group photos right on the platform were the best! Relived college once again :)
What I liked:
1. Infosys campus
2. Sneaking out to meet my friends from DA-IICT
3. Narayanamurthy' s modesty and humility
4. All of us celebrating Ghana's birthday on the railway station (Her parents got us awesome cake and banana chips!)
What I dint:
1. Some random lady coming up on the stage to bore us to death for 1 hour in the auditorium telling us why she and only she should be the mentor for all our start ups! (Ridiculously disgusting)
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| Day 4 - A day of inspiration, fun and celebrations! |
Day 5: Aravind Eye Care
Any one and everyone who did something an 'MBA' must have heard of the fabled "Aravind Eye Care". Its operational excellency is inspired by the McDonald's, while it's organizational excellency is inspired by the 2000 year old Meenakshi Amman temple in the same city. We were inspired by the man who started it all. Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, with deformed hands and on the wrong side of age at 58, started, what went on to become a role model ,a model to be copied by the best hospitals in the west and a Harvard Case Study.
"Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must also be the joy of doing something beautiful." read the backdrop on the stage. The energy of the staff, humility of the doctors when they said "We can do only so much. He takes care of the rest", the ambiance of the temple town, and the beautiful simplicity of the business model, blew me away.
What I liked:
1. Finally meeting THE Aravind Eye Care, a case study of almost all B schools!
2. Playing dumbsharads on the platform
3. Took some really cool pics!
Day 6: Travel Another India
Gouthami, the founder of Travel Another India, I felt was one of those powerhouses, who come in small packages! Soft spoken, sharp wit and nice humour. While everyone of the successful start up guys took that invariable jab at their mothers/wives/leech-like-relatives for trying to bring them down, she was the only one who acknowledged the inhuman sacrifices and torture we expect them to go through. I thought, at the end of the day, they are also a product of this society and are not crazy and stupid like us entrepreneurs. Is it justified to ask so much of them? Its only their love for us that allows them to do all that and more. However Travel Another India looks at tourism as a path to rural self development, and I plan to visit some of their villages and tourist places soon!
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| Jess's another master piece! |
Day 7: Naandi foundation
Finally! I was proud I was coming to Andhra, my state. The lush greenery of the coastal region replete with coconut grooves along the railway line was a sight straight out of a Tollywood rural song. The sight at the Vizag railway station also was a sight to behold. Naandi is a fast growing social organization working in areas where public private partnerships are possible as a means of sustainable and affordable solutions to problems plaguing our country from times immemorial. While they work in different sectors, their partnership with the Government in the area of Mid day meal programs makes them famous and happening. Housing the world's largest kitchen, Naandi provides hot meals to lakhs of mal nourished children, serving as a successful idea to pull kids towards education.
A tour of the kitchen and Leena's patient answering of all our questions later, we went to the Naval Dockyard at Vizag. Though a hurried trip, it was quite an experience watching all the ships and submarines. Puffed Chests and broad smiles, all of us, thanks to the relentless risks taken by our jawans!
What I liked:
2. The visit to the Naval Dockyard
Day 8: Gram Vikas
Remember Suriya/Ajay Devgn in Yuva? Exactly the same image came to my mind when I heard Gram Vikas's Joe Madiath talking about the rebel and revolutionary that he was in his college days. An angry 21 year old Marxist back in Anna University, Joe's life changed when he spearheaded a team of volunteers working for Cyclone relief in Orissa. He made Orissa his home town, and made his work legendary. The booklet by Jagriti Yatra attributes Howard Roark's almost unachievable traits to this man. And why not? His work starts in a village only if ALL the members of the village pledge to participate and contribute to the labor and resources. Making that work in a Caste ridden India, and how! Take a bow Howard Roark. Oops, Joe Madiath.
Joe and Gram Vikas, worked relentlessly and ensured that bio gas, sanitation and education to the interiors of Orissa which are some of the most backward areas of India
I had some of the best times that day. We went to visit a tribal school started by the organization and started interacting with the kids. The only method I know to break ice with the kids is to break into an impromptu dance! Once our small group started it, practically the entire school was dancing, singing and playing. Nothing like the love and warmth from a kid!
What I liked:
1. Dancing with the Tribal kids, without a care in the world.
2. The lovely shots I took in the village.
3. The absolute privilege of knowing Joe Madiath. Before him, I thought Howard Roark existed only in Fountainhead.
Day 9: Nidan.
Globalization and liberalization brought us our McDs and CCDs. What about the workers who work as servers in there? We have our trade unions protecting the rights of the employees. What about the rag pickers and Street vendors? I atleast, never gave a deep enough thought into it. Nidan, on the other hand, works with a single focus of providing empowerment to poor and marginalized sections of the society.
Our group went to one particular centre of Nidan where youth from the slums are given training to be employable at entry level positions in various organizations. Be it the server at CCD, a data entry operator or the help desk boy in the posh mall giving you directions. They are trained in here. One thing common amongst the students here is a new found confidence and belief in their ability. It was enormously gratifying.
This is an example about the students we were interacting with, when asked what they felt about being in the organization. One woman raised her hand, stood up, took off her veil and said, "Aaj mein apni pairo pe khada hu." (Today, I am independent and can stand on my own two feet). She easily multitasks household chores, classes and manages send her two kids to the new convent school. She was illiterate earlier and her kids never went to school.
What I liked:
1. The amazingly genuine smiles of the students at Nidan.
2. The fact that after we exchanged phone numbers with the students there, one of them actually called us to ask about us!
3. The crowded streets of Patna
4. Stealing ourselves out of the lecture to scout for jalebis and ending up with chai, and some nice chocolates! (That was the first outside food we had in 9 days! ; pat on the back)
Day 10: Barpar
Ever had a band coming to receive you at the station, danced without abandon on a platform, got your portrait made, slept in the village government school, clubbed in a village, saw authentic UP ka dance on UP's dhol sound, all in the same day? Lucky me! :)
Day 10 was when we were put up at Barpar village in Deoria and we were supposed to come up with a working sustainable business model for the villlage. Never mind the Biz Gyan part... The other stuff was more interesting. One of the board members, Shashank Mani had us put up in his village for the night.
As the train chugged into Deoria, there was a band waiting to welcome all the Yatris. And we, with all our energy jumped at the opportunity and danced for a good one hour in the station! After being taken to Deoria, we were served sumptous food. We poured our brains on coming up with a sustainable business model for the village. And later, a beautiful cultural evening organized for us. It was a village folk art where men danced to the sound of ghungroos tied to their feet. Considering that they were drunk to the limits, they were amazingly well tuned with the music and were able to balance pots of fire on their heads for considerably long periods of time!
And later, we had the whole stage to ourselves! Bidi Jalaile to Jai ho to Rubaroo, we brought the skies down!
And yea, sleeping the in village school in near freezing temperatures was another amazing thing.
What I liked:
1. The band that came to receive us
2. Ghana making a portrait of me!!! (Ghana, I dint get the original yet! x-( )
3. The mad, crazy and wonderfully weird folk dancers
4. Sleeping in the village school at freezing temperatures
Day 11:
We spent the first half of the day exploring the village and clicking away to glory. Went and saw the banyan tree which gave Jagriti Yatra its logo.
Day 12: Goonj
Goonj and Anshu Gupta, for me, were the most hard hitting facts of the Yatra without a doubt. His explanation on why he is doing what he is doing, left even the stone hearted amongst us gasping for breath in a bid to control our tears.
Anshu Gupta was inspired to look at clothing as tool to living with dignity after he heard a girl child narrate to him that "she prefers sleeping curled up between the dead bodies because they don't disturb her." She went on to say, "her father can't afford sheets to battle the winter cold". (The girl's father collects unclaimed dead bodies and takes them to the Government hospital for a decent cremation.) And Goonj is a valiant and successful attempt at giving that inspiration, wings to make a change. Goonj has organized an effective distribution channel for disposing off
reusable material lying in urban, well-off households (with a enormous focus on clothing). Through
shifting surplus urban resources to some of the poverty-stricken rural
areas, Anshu is making a difference in the lives of thousands who lack
the basic resources needed for survival.
The underprivileged are provided these materials in return for the collective labor and resources that they pool and employ in order to develop their village.
What I liked:
1. Anshu Gupta's talk on poverty in India
2. Amazing indigenous fashion sense of transforming a torn jeans into a handbag worthy of a fashion week ramp
3. How Goonj is trying to solve the problem of hygienic sanitary pads amongst rural and urban poor women.
Day 13: Tiloniya
All 450 of us knew that the end is nearing. And no one wanted it to end. The experience was just getting better and better. Next in line was the famed Barefoot College by Bunker Roy! I've heard legends of illiterate women performing root canal treatments here!
Tiloniya was another village which gave us the band baaja welcome, and this time, along with the Rajasthani puppets! And not to forget the most amazing and overwhelming welcome in the whole of the yatra! All the children of the school stood in rows of two to greet us in the traditional "Namaste" for a length of about 200 metres. Truly humbling.
Now it was time to meet the Barefoot prefessionals of Tiloniya.
Barefoot college is an extraordinary "College for the poor" where no certificates or degrees are awarded, and dignity of labour is of utmost importance. This college aims to teach the rural men and women many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. Majority of the time, it is the grandmothers and mothers who are taught, so that the newly trained professionals don't leave the village in search of newer avenues, but stay back and work towards the uplift of the society.
We met the dentists whom I read about! True to my imaginations, the women in their 50s, 'literate' only till fourth, are uninhibited, outspoken, strong women, completely competent in root canal treatments, dental treatments and the like. Inspiring!
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| Bhawri and Kesar - The Dentists at Barefoot College |
What I liked:
1. The puppet and band welcome at the station
2. The school kids standing in a row to greet us was simply touching
3. The philosophy of Barefoot college which turns traditional education on its head, bringing out semi literate and illiterate dentists, solar engineers and the likes.
Day 14: Sabarmati Ashram and SEWA
The last day of our trips. Sabarmati Ashram was the perfect climax to this great adventure. Being a part of the all religion prayer by 30 ladies right in front of Hriday Kunj, the residence of Gandhiji in Sabarmati Ashram, with the river flowing at the back, birds chirping at the distance was simply out of the world. Vaishnav Janato and Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram followed.
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| All religion prayer - Primary Teacher training girls, Sabarmati Ashram. |
He took us around the ashram explaining the intricate set of beliefs the ashram and the organization runs on.
We were shown glimpses from the Mallika Sarabhai choreographed "Ekatva", a dance about unity by 13 slum children. Blown away, again!
Before leaving the ashram for the final leg of the journey, I had the pleasure of meeting Siddharth Sthalekar, an IIM A almnus, who runs the SEWA cafe.
Seva Café in their own words, is
an experiment in the shared joy that comes from humble giving and
selfless service. Their wholesome meals are cooked and served with love by
volunteers and offered to guests as a genuine gift, paid for in
full by previous guests.
The journey that 450 of us undertook together suddenly came to a halt. The auditorium where the Valedictory event was supposed to be held filled with some deep emotions and passionate hugs. Speeches and talks later, we did the Jagriti Geet one final time!
What I liked:
1. The emotions of the Final day
2. The all religion prayer meet (A must thing to experience before you die)
3. Sneaking out to have Jai Bhawani Vada Pav at Municipal Market (A indulgence of college days, relived! Thanks Nancy!)
4. The dance of Ekatva
5. Jagriti Geet, one final time.
The train commenced its journey back to its starting point Mumbai. The Sun rose, the train chugged into Mumbai, and it was Alvida time. As the train rounded the entire country, each one of us had our own silent moments, moments of low, moments of high, moments when we were moved to tears, moments which made us angry at the plight of our country, and definitely, moments when we puffed with pride as we saw the role models, both outside the train and inside. All of which, built up together, helped us cross that small distance in our own journeys of life, I hope.
The beautiful moments and things that will stay with me forever:
1. The awesomest food! (Caterers, take a bow for the slurpy food and the evergreen smiles)
2. Close to 100 people waiting for security check to be cleared at Infosys
so we could find a loo in the campus to relieve ourselves (me included!)
3. The Jagriti Geet
4. Vibha's resounding "Dear Yatris, it is time to wake up"
5. The makeshift bathrooms, where we had bath in freezing waters.
6. Group J&K, you rock! Its a pleasure to have met you. ( A special mention to Garima Gupta Kapila and Hemanta Mahapatra, inspirations in their own rights.)
7. The all religion prayer at Sabarmati Ashram
8. Each and every role model who made me feel proud of the fact that I was born in the same soil as they are!
Train Train come again, Little Yatri wants to sing, "Yaaron Chalo!"
