You queue up for the registration, to get your yatra kit, for medical examination, for lunch & dinner, to get into the bus, to get off the bus, to get on the ship and blah blah blah..in short, apart from learning throughout the yatra the only other thing that we do throughout is queuing up :D and we do it quite well :D though the scene during lunch and dinner is somewhat different :D.."Paapi pet" you know..;)
So this is how the yatra starts...Ravindra Natya Mandir is the venue for the introduction program on the first day i.e. 24th Dec 2009. We reach there at around 8.30 am..and within 1-2 hour(s) we are through with the registration process that includes medical check up, collecting ID & yatra kit, signing code of conduct and...breakfast! Oh yes! that's not a part of registration process but breakfast is worth mentioning because it's yum :)
After the breakfast we The Yatris start interacting with each other...and there's a lady..an awesome guitarist and singer who performs for us a few songs and it seems like just the perfect start...soon after that we find ourselves looking for our group members (suggest you refer to my another post "Facts do matter!!!" to know how groups were formed)..and then starts the formal interaction within the group...I'm overwhelmed to know that people here are from all over the country and they are brightest of minds...
A few more introductions and we move to the hall for lunch..chit chat continues..and I feel tingling when some yatri approaches me saying.."Hey! you're that Deepika on Facebook, right?"
Post lunch we sit in a large auditorium whose temperature needs to be adjusted..it's too cold...and thus start the opening ceremony. A speech by Mr. Raghunathan, MD Tata Sons on 'not how TATAs have helped Jagriti Team' but on 'what it takes to be an entrepreneur' as he quipped, followed by speech by Mr. Shashank Mani, Director, Tata Jagirti Yatra. Then follows the symbolic flag off by Mr. Raghunathan and BoD of TJY which takes us by surprise as it is arranged in a way to give the feeling of real flag off.
We sit there with a feeling of awe when members of Jagirti Team explain about our new home for the next 18 days..our train...what numbers are the girls' bogie, what are boys', where are bathrooms, where the presentations will be held etc etc...and give out an idea of what we will be doing these 18 days.
Then comes something, doing which you see broad heartfelt smiles on everyone's faces present in the hall..The Jagriti Geet..we learn the hand moves on the beat of the song...song's lyrics, beats, moves everything fills us up with unbound energy and we forget in a few minutes the tiredness of the whole day.
Just after the Jagriti Geet..when we still have goosebumps..comes up on the stage Manish Tripathi to represent Mumbai Dabbawalas. Looking at him you would cannot predict what he would come up with, but as he starts speaking, he goes beyond all our predispositions...standing on the stage with confidence no less than that of greatest speakers of our country, speaking in flawless English, reaching to everyone's heart present there, he shares with us his fundas, few of them to be -
- Follow your heart, don't go after money.
- Don't try to diversify, focus on your core competency.
- Hire people with who share your dream, don't hire highly qualified people.
- Have commitment from people you work with, qualification comes second.
Now the program in the auditorium is over and our dinner awaits us...post dinner (no need to mention it's yum too :D ) we board our buses and reach Mumbai Central station where you see yatris' team work in unloading luggage from the buses and helping each other with their luggage to the platform 5, where our train is to arrive.
Its's 10:00 pm and our train is scheduled to arrive at 11:00 pm..one hour to kill..not a big deal when you are left with 95% of the Yatris, still to interact with..so begins the chit chat again..there are a few parents who've come to see off their kids.
It's 11:00 pm and no signs of train...one hour left to Christmas...people are already in the mood and have begun to sing Christmas songs..a few minutes later we get the news there are some technical issues with the train so the train will arrive late.
No signs of train even at 1:00 am..some yatris are busy celebrating Christmas, some are busy knowing each other, come are playing cards they are taking along and some are tired like me. With the time passing by..yatris have started finding places to snuggle and after delaying as much as I can..I finally doze off on a cart for a few minutes.
The train arrives at 3:00 am and despite being badly tired we all are very excited to see it..as the train stops we enter our respective bogies looking for our respective compartments...and after a few exchanges of hi, hellos and good nights we go to sleep..all praying "God! Please don't make them wake us up before 8..please please please!"
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Facts do matter !!!
Before I go on to tell you story of yatra..here are some facts which I think you should go through because I'll be using some terms in the coming posts which have great potential of not making sense to you if you haven't read this post :) so here it goes..
Yatri - The word we love to be addressed with :) :) :) gives immense pleasure you know..so a yatri is a person who has joined the yatra as a participant and is 20-25 years old.
Facilitator - A facilitator is a person above 25 who manages 5-6 yatris but is more or less like a yatri..no hierarchical differences I mean :)
Cohort - A cohort is made up of 6-7 people who live together in a compartment and belong to the same 'Group'. In each cohort (mostly) there is one facilitator and rest of the people are yatris.
Group - A group is made of up 3 cohorts - 2 male cohorts and one female cohort (my group being an exception as we were made up of 2 female cohorts and one male cohort :D ). Yatris on train were divide into group from A-S.
Role model - Role models are the reason we are on train. Role models are the people (the unsung heroes as we call them) behind social/business enterprises that we'll go to visit during our yatra.
Chair Car Session - We were always busy during yatra even when on train. Our train had two AC Chair Cars (one brown and other one blue) with capacity of 100 each. Different sessions( For example on Venture Capital) and presentations (that each group was required to make on different role model after visiting and studying them) were held in these cars. Both the cars had audio-video system to enable interaction between them. One thing to mention here is that the presenter or the speaker was usually in the brown AC chair car.
Compartment session - Now usually two kinds of sessions were held in train - AC chair car session and compartment session. As I told earlier that only half the number of groups (approx 200 yatris) could attend an AC chair car session at a time, the rest were busy in their compartment session where in all the group members collected either in girls' bogie or boys' bogie. The group members decided what they would in the session.
Branding Team - Whenever we reached a destination, we would go to visit Role model by buses. Doing branding of buses meant putting up banners on 3 sides of the buses. Branding team was made up of the yatris who volunteered.
Crowd Management Team - On an average we had 10 buses at every destination to take us to the site and parking of 10 buses requires a good amount of space, which was usually far away from the platform. Crowd management team was basically to show the way to buses to yatris. Braodly speaking the team was responsible that 'all' yatris reach the site and come back to train safely.
Organising Team - Organising team comprised of members of Jagriti Yatra team and some 2008 Yatris who looked after operations.
Announcing System - Aaha! A very interesting part. The train had speakers in all its bogies connected to a central control room. This announcing system was used for various purpose for example - Wake up call, to announce lunch & dinner, chair car sessions and so on.
Cyber cafe - Surprised eh? Yes we had a cyber cafe on train for avid bloggers. Yatris had to book the slots to use the service :)
CNBC Panel Discussion - We had 6 CNBC Panel Discussion at 6 destinations out of 13 that we visited. CNBC panel discussion had a certain topic related to entrepreneurship to be discussed by the accordingly chosen and invited panelists. Discussions were hosted by a CNBC anchor. These panel discussions were broadcasted on CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz after yatra.
Umm..can't think of any other jargon as of now. I'll update if I have any other thing to add. For now wait for my next post :)
Yatri - The word we love to be addressed with :) :) :) gives immense pleasure you know..so a yatri is a person who has joined the yatra as a participant and is 20-25 years old.
Facilitator - A facilitator is a person above 25 who manages 5-6 yatris but is more or less like a yatri..no hierarchical differences I mean :)
Cohort - A cohort is made up of 6-7 people who live together in a compartment and belong to the same 'Group'. In each cohort (mostly) there is one facilitator and rest of the people are yatris.
Group - A group is made of up 3 cohorts - 2 male cohorts and one female cohort (my group being an exception as we were made up of 2 female cohorts and one male cohort :D ). Yatris on train were divide into group from A-S.
Role model - Role models are the reason we are on train. Role models are the people (the unsung heroes as we call them) behind social/business enterprises that we'll go to visit during our yatra.
Chair Car Session - We were always busy during yatra even when on train. Our train had two AC Chair Cars (one brown and other one blue) with capacity of 100 each. Different sessions( For example on Venture Capital) and presentations (that each group was required to make on different role model after visiting and studying them) were held in these cars. Both the cars had audio-video system to enable interaction between them. One thing to mention here is that the presenter or the speaker was usually in the brown AC chair car.
Compartment session - Now usually two kinds of sessions were held in train - AC chair car session and compartment session. As I told earlier that only half the number of groups (approx 200 yatris) could attend an AC chair car session at a time, the rest were busy in their compartment session where in all the group members collected either in girls' bogie or boys' bogie. The group members decided what they would in the session.
Branding Team - Whenever we reached a destination, we would go to visit Role model by buses. Doing branding of buses meant putting up banners on 3 sides of the buses. Branding team was made up of the yatris who volunteered.
Crowd Management Team - On an average we had 10 buses at every destination to take us to the site and parking of 10 buses requires a good amount of space, which was usually far away from the platform. Crowd management team was basically to show the way to buses to yatris. Braodly speaking the team was responsible that 'all' yatris reach the site and come back to train safely.
Organising Team - Organising team comprised of members of Jagriti Yatra team and some 2008 Yatris who looked after operations.
Announcing System - Aaha! A very interesting part. The train had speakers in all its bogies connected to a central control room. This announcing system was used for various purpose for example - Wake up call, to announce lunch & dinner, chair car sessions and so on.
Cyber cafe - Surprised eh? Yes we had a cyber cafe on train for avid bloggers. Yatris had to book the slots to use the service :)
CNBC Panel Discussion - We had 6 CNBC Panel Discussion at 6 destinations out of 13 that we visited. CNBC panel discussion had a certain topic related to entrepreneurship to be discussed by the accordingly chosen and invited panelists. Discussions were hosted by a CNBC anchor. These panel discussions were broadcasted on CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz after yatra.
Umm..can't think of any other jargon as of now. I'll update if I have any other thing to add. For now wait for my next post :)
Monday, March 1, 2010
Break time ;)
Due to a little busy schedule these days I'm unable to publish my next blog. Actually I can publish it but I would rather prefer to maintain the continuity once I start again. Thank you for your patience :). Do come back :)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Excitement building up :)
I sit in front of my computer thinking where do I start..I plan to write about my experiences during Tata Jagriti Yatra..or should I say my thoughts about yatra..
I came to know about Tata Jagriti Yatra..if I remember correctly..on 21th Dec 2008..just 3 days before the journey was actually going to start..saw an ad in the newspaper..got so very excited and started thinking of ways to make it to yatra in those short 3 days..and in those 3 days I wanted to write the application, get it screened by the selection panel, actually get selected, book my tickets to Mumbai and actually reach Mumbai ( which is 24 hours journey from my place). Well, that was so stupid of me thinking all this because it was so totally unrealistic..but I must tell you one thing TJY deserves this. I kept following it for one whole year..signed up for it's newsletter...kept browsing through it's site..reading blogs and articles which got me excited even more..finally one day I come to know that registrations are open..and I fill in the application..taking my own time...and now I wait for their mail..everyday that I open my inbox I expect a mail from Tata Jgriti Yatra and finally it arrives on 19th Nov, 2009 saying "application approved! fill the financial detail form" and now I see I'll have to fill a form to get sponsorship of 32000..I leave it for the night and set out to give the news and share my joy with others..I fill the form at night..and the next morning I see a mail saying I'm sponsored and I start packing my bags :)
18 days on a train..with around 400 people who think like me!..travelling around 9300 km across India (around 12000 in my case)..all these thoughts start to occupy me all the time..and guess what I'm writing my exams..how? spending half of the preparation time interacting with other yatris on facebook or reading about yatra or just day dreaming about it and dear! result is still awaited :D
Well, the wait felt to be longer with each day passing by..shopping, studies, excitement, ma pa's worries! phew! poor me! had to manage all of it simultaneously :D and I set out for the journey which begins a little dramatically for me as till the last moment I was either booking or cancelling tickets...now a sensible person who wants to travel from lucknow to mumbai would simply go to Indian Railways site and book a ticket in any of the trains which goes to the destination..hey but wait did I mention that that sensible person doesnot have to be a lady...because if you are a girl and you are travelling for the first time to Mumbai( I mean a city like Mumbai!), with luggage to suffice for 18 days with you..you should make sure that any of your well wisher is there to receive you or go with someone..so showing all sensibility in this case I opted for the second option and decided to go with another yatri via delhi...now again a sensible person (no gender discrimination here :D) would go directly from lucknow to delhi but I travel from lucknow to kanpur to board the train which will take me to delhi to board the train which will take me to Mumbai..confused? You have every right to be :D..but don't ask me the reason because ..because I'm sure that'll not interest you at all.
21st Dec 2009 - I'm at Lucknow station with pa with little excitement and more anxiety because I don't know how I'm going to go to Kanpur...the train's departure from there is scheduled at 11:45 so I have to be there at 11 anyhow...I take the first train..and there I am at Kanpur station at around 8:30 pm...more than 3 hours at my disposal...what to do..I choose to sit at the platform...trains come and go...people get off and board the train and I sit there during one of the December winter nights at the platform..thinking how it's going to be on "our" train..every single thought is so pleasing that I start smiling..suddenly coming back to reality and realizing presence of those around me, I try to hide my smile anyway I can...and then I decide not to go back to the dreamland and to stick my mind to the things around...few seconds later I see a boy aged hardly 7-8 years holding a big packet, running to and fro on the platform in speed and shouting in a low pitch "cigarette, cigarette, cigarette.." and I see a man eating peanuts and throwing peelings on the platform when the dustbin was just next to him...I smile and get lost in thoughts again..can't help it! :)
I came to know about Tata Jagriti Yatra..if I remember correctly..on 21th Dec 2008..just 3 days before the journey was actually going to start..saw an ad in the newspaper..got so very excited and started thinking of ways to make it to yatra in those short 3 days..and in those 3 days I wanted to write the application, get it screened by the selection panel, actually get selected, book my tickets to Mumbai and actually reach Mumbai ( which is 24 hours journey from my place). Well, that was so stupid of me thinking all this because it was so totally unrealistic..but I must tell you one thing TJY deserves this. I kept following it for one whole year..signed up for it's newsletter...kept browsing through it's site..reading blogs and articles which got me excited even more..finally one day I come to know that registrations are open..and I fill in the application..taking my own time...and now I wait for their mail..everyday that I open my inbox I expect a mail from Tata Jgriti Yatra and finally it arrives on 19th Nov, 2009 saying "application approved! fill the financial detail form" and now I see I'll have to fill a form to get sponsorship of 32000..I leave it for the night and set out to give the news and share my joy with others..I fill the form at night..and the next morning I see a mail saying I'm sponsored and I start packing my bags :)
18 days on a train..with around 400 people who think like me!..travelling around 9300 km across India (around 12000 in my case)..all these thoughts start to occupy me all the time..and guess what I'm writing my exams..how? spending half of the preparation time interacting with other yatris on facebook or reading about yatra or just day dreaming about it and dear! result is still awaited :D
Well, the wait felt to be longer with each day passing by..shopping, studies, excitement, ma pa's worries! phew! poor me! had to manage all of it simultaneously :D and I set out for the journey which begins a little dramatically for me as till the last moment I was either booking or cancelling tickets...now a sensible person who wants to travel from lucknow to mumbai would simply go to Indian Railways site and book a ticket in any of the trains which goes to the destination..hey but wait did I mention that that sensible person doesnot have to be a lady...because if you are a girl and you are travelling for the first time to Mumbai( I mean a city like Mumbai!), with luggage to suffice for 18 days with you..you should make sure that any of your well wisher is there to receive you or go with someone..so showing all sensibility in this case I opted for the second option and decided to go with another yatri via delhi...now again a sensible person (no gender discrimination here :D) would go directly from lucknow to delhi but I travel from lucknow to kanpur to board the train which will take me to delhi to board the train which will take me to Mumbai..confused? You have every right to be :D..but don't ask me the reason because ..because I'm sure that'll not interest you at all.
21st Dec 2009 - I'm at Lucknow station with pa with little excitement and more anxiety because I don't know how I'm going to go to Kanpur...the train's departure from there is scheduled at 11:45 so I have to be there at 11 anyhow...I take the first train..and there I am at Kanpur station at around 8:30 pm...more than 3 hours at my disposal...what to do..I choose to sit at the platform...trains come and go...people get off and board the train and I sit there during one of the December winter nights at the platform..thinking how it's going to be on "our" train..every single thought is so pleasing that I start smiling..suddenly coming back to reality and realizing presence of those around me, I try to hide my smile anyway I can...and then I decide not to go back to the dreamland and to stick my mind to the things around...few seconds later I see a boy aged hardly 7-8 years holding a big packet, running to and fro on the platform in speed and shouting in a low pitch "cigarette, cigarette, cigarette.." and I see a man eating peanuts and throwing peelings on the platform when the dustbin was just next to him...I smile and get lost in thoughts again..can't help it! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)