Last three weeks were full of excitements and thrill. I had made two exciting trips to “Idar” (Sabarkantha District, Gujarat) and “Mumbai”, the financial capital of India and the city of dreams and struggle….! The two trips have totally different purpose and what I saw at both the places was totally opposite. I really wanted to share the challenges that India facing as a developing nation and one of those challenges is “Economic inequality”
Idar Trip
This trip was part of my present fellowship that I am doing at Sarvajal (sarvajal.com) and it was my first trip to the field. I have two days to spend in the remotest areas of Gujarat. I reached Idar with my colleague on 31st March, 2010 at around 11:00 AM and it was really one of the hottest places in Gujarat (with 45 C temperature). Now from Idar, I headed for Kawa, a small village where we have installed our R.O. plant. It was a very small village having almost 300 families and most of the families were daily wage earners and they were really in a poor condition. That day, I have to work with Franchisee Business Development (FBD) team and our job was to convince these people to buy Sarvajal water which is very cheap but we all know that this job is going to be the toughest job as most of the families are really in a poor condition. As I am always optimistic about any situation, I thought we will do it anyhow.
“Don’t shirk away from challenges… keep reaching for that star that sky (Akash!)”
Whole FBD team was divided in different teams, each having two members. Our work was to go to each and every home in one area and get them registered for Sarvajal water for a month and when we had 10 customers with us then we did a lucky draw amongst them and in that, 1st winner will get “1 month of free water”, 2nd winner will get “Clock” and all others will get one day free water. I was very excited and went to 2-3 homes with Brijesh (my team mate) initially but did not succeed. I was just figuring out how I can be more effective and after some time I have figured out how to convince them and now I know how to make my sales pitch. I have made the emotional attachment to each and every home I have visited and I treated them like I am from their village and I am there to help them and it really worked…Truly…! (When I was coming back from the village, Rural girls saw me on my way back and asked “are you going to stay here tonight??” !) This sales/ marketing is somewhat different from what I did in my college/NGOs where we are dealing with highly educated, sophisticated (!) people and today I am at the hottest place in Gujarat, convincing the rural consumers who are the poorest of poors to buy clean drinking water. Our goal was to convince maximum number of people to use clean drinking water and by time we had our lunch at 3 o’clock, we were the second best performing team..!.. Wow..!! And the whole team has made 37 new customers in one day, which is really good…!
“Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
and unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]”
It is really heart touching to see the innocence these rural people carry, the places they live in, the way they smile and speak and the way they behave. It was really a great experience and it has really changed my perspective on rural markets.
Mumbai Trip
I am also associated with a growing social enterprise named Point10 (point10solutions.com) and on point10’s first anniversary, we were invited by prestigious S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai to share point10 vision with their “Start Your Business” program participants.
I, Jatin Chaudhary (CEO, Point10), Parth Shah (VP, Education Reforms Group, Point10) and Kunal Chaudhary (VP, Software Development Group, Point10) left Ahmedabad on 9th April, 2010. We reached there in the early morning and stayed at Parth’s flat in Borivali. We slept for a while, refreshed ourselves and headed for SPJIMR in Andheri. We reached there at 11:00 O’clock and we were welcomed by Prof. M S Rao (Chairperson – Center for Entrepreneurship, SPJIMR). The presentation went really well and we had a great discussion with participants after that (but I won’t discuss that here) and we thought now we should enjoy this city of dreams (and struggle!). As we believe in God (because we believe in ourselves), we went to Mahalaxmi (Malabar Hill), Sidhdhi Vinayak (Mahim) and Hajiali. It was a great experience as I went to temples after long time (!) and it gave me inner peace and I felt relieved..!!
Next day, we planned that we will visit some of the posh areas of Mumbai and enjoy the local train journey too! So we went from Borivali to Church gate in local train and from church gate, we went to Nariman Point which is in the heart of the financial and business district with access to major corporate houses and we also enjoyed sightseeing “Arabian sea” from there. It was great to see all the sophisticated people who are major corporate executives and professionals, the skyscrapers, cars and so many things. You will feel that these people are the smartest guys in India and they are privileged to have all this when you first saw them. Now our next target(!) was “Gateway of India” and “Hotel Taj”. We walked from Oberoi to Taj (I don’t know the exact kilometers that we walked..!) and saw the Gateway of India and Taj. I couldn’t believe that I am at one of the finest place in India and it was indeed a great time.
“Just because everything’s different doesn’t mean anything’s changed”
To cut a long story in short, I have seen heart touching difference in the life style of people at both the places. People in rural areas don’t have the clean water to drink and people at Nariman Point pay 300-400 Rs for coffee. OMG what is this..? Why is so much inequality…? Who is responsible and are we doing anything to address that….? Whatever your answer is but you are right because it is your answer..!?!
“We must get beyond debates about the merits of affirmative action and begin to act in the affirmative”
In the last I just wanted to salute Anand Shah (Indicorps and Sarvajal), Jatin Chaudhary (Point10), Amitabh Shah (Yuva Unstoppable) and other social leaders from all over the globe who are trying to give privileges to these underprivileged people through their social enterprises, businesses and NGOs.
Thank you all,
Have a great time,
Akash
Change Maker.. 