Delhi Trip: Capital of Dreams

I have been to Delhi couple of times now & every time I visit, it just amazes me and always has something special in store. This time it was no less, thanks to amazing weather, meeting Delhi’s Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung with my author boss Ferose, GIFTED sessions with Kiran Bedi ma’m,

Kingdom of Dreams

Sundeep Rao & happy hours that followed, and of course, ticking off some places that I had missed visiting last time- Here is my travelogue on extended Delhi for you-

#Kingdom of Dreams (KoD) and Cultural Gully is the place I love the most and I have promised myself to get back here for another show. Since it was close to my office’s guest house and was a Saturday when I had pretty much nothing to do, I visited KoD with no idea or expectations at around 12pm. Luckily there was a show called- Zangoora at 2.30pm & was filling fast. I bought the tickets,hoping for some entertainment. I explored the Cultural Gully to kill time & it turned out to be marvelous- artificial sky, buildings representing cultures of Indian states- to put it in a phrase- it was “the melting pot” of incredible India we love. Zangoora started right on time. Performance was mind blowing- all thanks to amazing production, music, artists, acting, lights & all the breath-taking acrobatics. It’s an experience; do visit when you are in Delhi next time!

Lodhi Gardens

#Lotus Temple & Chhatarpur Temple, covered them in half a day, while Lotus temple symbolizes harmony among Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam, Chhatarpur temple is built by a sant from Karnataka! Best part in both of them- notable architecture & beautiful walkway from metro station where you can enjoy good street food. Sometimes, journey is more beautiful from destination, right?!

#Amar Jyoti School was covered in Satyameva Jayate by Aamir Khan recently and I personally wanted to visit this 1981 estb. inclusive school to understand their style of imparting education. When I stepped in, I saw kids on wheelchair playing

Amar Jyoti School

basketball & what a game it was! This set the tone for my tour of an amazing school where children with disabilities sit alongside any normal kid and attend classes. School premises are completely accessible with ramps & mobility for visually impaired. Kids are trained with life skills & they can opt for vocational trainings those are available. I met the principal of school, Seema ma’m & was taken aback by her vision & strength to lead by example. The high moment of this tour came when I met Uma Tuliji, Padmashree awardee, founder of the school, young at her 70s. Positivity oozes out from her, and as my eye-opener educative tour came to an end, I sought her blessings!

Navjyoti Foundation Nayagaon

#Navjyoti foundation, run by Kiran Bedi ma’m, operates in multiple places. To get the first-hand experience, I visited their Nayagaon campus, set up in small village which was nightmare to find & I was already convinced that they are doing marvelous job by setting up in the real India, a far-away village! As I reached there at 4pm, kids were coming in after their regular school & settling in classes, where teachers were waiting. This was like a mini school that operates from 4pm-6pm for village children. In addition, it had vocational training classes, self-help groups of villagers, computer lab, leadership classes to youth of village{I was blown away with this idea} and Vivaan Music School {set-up by Ferose to mark his son’s birthday!}, that taught kids-instrumentals & vocals. 3 ladies whom I met here- Chandini, Ujala & Fatima- are inspiration in themselves. No doubt, Navjyoti is definitely on a mission to transform villages, like Nayagaon… the real India…

#Lodhi gardens is amazing place to be in the evenings with beautiful well maintained gardens &

With GIFTED Sundeep & Ferose

couple of tombs with breath-taking architecture built in 1500s. Do visit Lodhi restaurant which is adjacent to garden for a quick byte & chai. Five stars for the marvelous ambience!

#Sarvana bhavan, located in Connaught place is an old south-Indian eatery famous for masala dosa, filter coffee & ice creams. I was amazed by the huge demand they have!

#Pure Punjab in Khan market, is a restaurant where we had food in between "missing lunch" & later "missing dinner"! You’ll require three stomachs to finish a thali here, thumbs up for the taste!

[Special Thanks to Ferose for giving me an opportunity to accompany him. Thanks Sundeep for that hilarious & insightful day. Thanks to Archi Garg for showing me right directions]

Fanship Days: Learning Lessons for Life

I had ended my previous Fanship Days experience blog with a quote from Socrates- about life/living/worthiness/basically, lot of philosophy. I'll take up from where I had left and will do an honest attempt to put my learnings in this blog- you know like the last emotional note that you write

Gearing Up- Yakshagana

before good things end. As I write this, India Inclusion Summit 2014 is over and my six-month fellowship as well! Post-IIS withdrawal symptoms are evident and we have already started preparing for IIS 2015! Luckily I have found a new internal development team to work with, who have thankfully recruited me… But you know, my fanship days are going to continue…

Why?! I thought of jolting down the lessons I have learnt in past six months and to which, I plan to keep coming back, whenever in the future, to relearn the learnings! Here we go with rainbow lessons:

1. Always give others Permission to Succeed- give hope to someone, encourage others to succeed!
2. Desirable Difficulties- face adversities to realize our true potential.
3. Right intentions can change the world- do with pure heart.
4. Be thankful & acknowledge- gratitude is always the best virtue.
5. Leap of Faith, trust & Delegate- can get things done in lightning speed and collective passionate efforts can create magic!
6. Everyone of us has "Other 8 hours" : 8 hours of work + 8 hours of sleep + "Other 8 hours" to make this world better.
   

   

   Volunteers- all of us in IIS 2014 Dias

7. Humility, being humble- is what people will remember us for, forever!

Above lessons are very frequently used in speeches & for a change, I was fortunate to experience them first-hand. Trust me, these things if put into action, forms an unwaverable energy that will conspire for our success and well-being.

It was such sweet period of time during the fellowship, along with the above lessons, I also got opportunities to get involved in GIFTED, SalesJam 2014, India Inclusion Summit 2014, program office strategies and communication-related activities. I can only be thankful for the opportunities

Lamp Lighting: Open Day IIS 2014

showered at me!

Being part of GIFTED journey itself was so fulfilling that you remember the struggle to deliver a box of books at 2am with smiles! Toiling hard for IIS 2014 with amazingly talented & very hardworking team was priceless when audience walked away with pinch of positivity and heaps of hope. This blogpost won’t do justice to put my experience on what went through those 15 days before IIS 2014. It was beautiful to watch things falling in place, all of us egging each other, stage setting up, brochures being made, deck getting ready, finer aspects taken care and finally speakers & performers showing up with their gusto! I can't rate any speakers/sessions in specific since I had interacted with most of them personally, and I only see their tireless efforts in 

My Team: Thanks Annika for Clicking this!

creating #InclusiveIndia and they giving their 200% to achieve our common dream of inclusive society.

As the IIS drew to close with Rajan Brothers performance, crowd danced with ecstasy, I sat in the corner of stage where I had spent my full day, my legs were aching and my stomach had starved, I watched the stage holding tears in my eyes and heartfelt smile, I knew, I couldn't have asked for better perfect happy ending. To my surprise, Rajan Brothers sang a song of Mohd. Rafi from “Hum Dono” that emotionally strikes all of us strongly, me in very particular, and those lines went something like it stuck beautiful balance between heart & mind- happiness & sorrow, like a journey of heart, that can never end, that can only continue to prosper, like my fanship days…

Gam aur khushi me fark na mahasus ho jahaan
Mai dil ko us muqaam pe laataa chalaa gayaa
Mai zindagi kaa saath nibhaataa chalaa gayaa
Har fikr ko dhune me udaataa chalaa gayaa…

Fanship Days: Exploring the Road Less Travelled

Sometimes, road less travelled always gives you the greatest feeling of contentment. I was happily coding and writing research papers, then this call to take road less travelled came. It had small trees that shined in green and glittered with sweetest of sweet fruits. But where the path led to? I didn’t know… And I took that road. The road less travelled…

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - Andre Gide

I was loaned from my organization that paid my salary to work for a genius called Ferose, master mind behind high profile, India Inclusion Summit, author of recent national bestseller, Gifted, and more importantly, one of main architect who transformed SAP Labs India into a great place to work. They called it fellowship. I call it “Fanship”. I remember running behind Ferose for a picture with him on my very first day at SAP, way back in 2011. He was dressed up in Dabaang Police uniform and he had arrested many hearts that day. I am not planning for a bail anyways!

Author in right corner! In 2011!!

I learnt quite a few interesting things from this experience. I started reading official mails, got involved in organizational updates, researched ecosystems & stakeholders, thought of employee engagement initiatives, googled on how to brand & market, figured out why these executives take home fat cheque every month, started valuing time, attended meetings, worried about sales & quarter results, learnt to communicate better and in particular, started understanding what it really means to follow design thinking to solve problems!

But these are not the small trees I mentioned in my first para…

I first met Ashwin & Bharat, thanks to my failed attempt to shoot a video trailer for Gifted. I learnt what hope is and how humanity has thrived…

Ashwin, Bharat, Ankit, Sundeep, Vilas with Ferose

Then it was Sundeep Rao, his non-stop arrays of jokes & self-thoos on life & beyond, showed me how one can visualize and construct a heaven for oneself…

Vindhya, run by Ashok & Pavitra, what a day it was watching Gifted trailer on a white cloth that was hung couple of minutes before the event began. Lovely homely atmosphere at a corporate… Right intentions can change the world. You’ll agree with me if you have been to Vindhya before.

I got a chance to interact with Kiran Bedi for almost 2 hours. She happens to be guide & mentor to my boss. I was quiet for most of the time I spent with her… I concentrated on grasping things. It has given me enough fodder to think… to think…

Vindhya Gifted Book Launch

Highlight is definitely my Trivandrum visit, NISH & conversing with Paul Kronenberg will remain close to my heart. Register for IIS 2014 to meet them!

My respect & admiration to this lady who runs EnAble India, Shanti Ragavan, has only grown everytime I have met her. If you wonder how & where to derive positive energy from, meet her.

Dr. Shruti Mohapatra, was invited to our office and I got a chance to spend a day hosting her. Her activism & work, has made her torch-bearer in the space of Inclusion. She has had tremendous influence on me and keeping calm alongside fighting for one’s right- is her greatest trait. Even today, her kind smile haunts me and inspires me to keep fighting- any problems for that matter. She is surely an epitome of the saying-“Truth always prevails, no matter what”

This Diwali, more than any sweets, greetings & gifts, what I cherished the most was simple heartfelt message sent by Haseena, acid attack survivor, who I happened to connect through my dear friend, Malvika Iyer.

Dr. Shruti Mohapatra

Many small trees indeed…

Community driven India Inclusion Summit 2014, is shaping up in style now! I am one of many volunteers there... Biggest tree in the road less travelled… Where my path might just close…

There looms big question mark on my career. As I actively look up for jobs to take up after my fellowship, which is within next 2 months, many argue that I won't be able to code like a pro developer again… And many of them opinion that I experimented very early in my career… But for me/now, not knowing much is an advantage, hunger stays, and I am content with those new footmarks of mine in the road less travelled, I am indebted to the learning that I have received, I cycle back home. Where am I going from here? I sub-consciously remember Dr. Shruti Mohapatra’s kind smile. And I smile…

"An unexamined life is not worth living."- Socrates