28th Shodh Yatra 2012 in Mizoram - Photographic Memories..

The plans were set and I was going for another Shodh Yatra after my overwhelming experience of the Shodh Yatra in Assam in 2009. 

After the first yatra, I had promised to myself to be part of every subsequent Shodh Yatra for the impact it had on how I viewed my life. The yatra was a life changing experience where I underwent deep self introspection and posed strong questions to myself. I closely observed the lives of tribal communities and experienced how each one of us is connected despite language and exposure differences. The opportunity to witness the innovations done by rural communities and the passion with which they explained their traditional knowledge and life experiences was phenomenal. Another source of learning was the experiences shared by fellow yatris who had come from different walks of life to connect with a common purpose of going to the roots and connect with our society at large. 

The purpose of Shodh Yatra is to scout rural innovations and help them commercialize but I believe that more than finding rural innovations, we identified our own innovative and creative side. 

With such a positive impression of the yatra, I embarked on my second yatra held in Mizoram. The Mizo touched with same intensity as the people whom I met at my first yatra in Assam. Mizos, hill people,  are friendly people and reflect strong passion for music (guitar) and sports. I got an opportunity to have close interactions with many local families, the learning from which goes much beyond words and can only be experienced by being there.

Following are some of the photographs of my yatra which speaks much more than the words:

An interaction session with locals where they share their innovations and traditional knowledge with us 

Having late night conversations with the communities

Prof Anil Gupta honoring a centenarian lady

Collecting our energies to commence the walk at early morning

A close photo of a centenarian lady

Good Morning! It is time to start the day

I posing with a centenarian lady

Exhibits at a museum

Trying my strength against Robert, a local who guided us throughout the walk

Prof Gupta with infectious smile!

And here we are concluding the Shodh Yatra moving forward in life and equally deeper.... The bonds formed will remain forever and keep everyone motivating to do something meaningful in their lives...

Photo Courtesy: Ryker, Deepa, Pankhuri, Fayaz, Aruna and Tarun

Pedal Pushers presents Cyklone, cycling promotion event

For further details visit our website:
www.pedalpushersdelhi.in or follow our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/219201564873972/

Call: 9810550907 for any details about the event.

Cheers,

Tarun Jain

Stay in Control and Keep Growing – Advice to Young Professionals

Tom is an entrepreneur, and serves as a CEO of his start up which employs 6 people. He is supremely intelligent, passionate about his ideas and equally hard working. It has been a year that he started off and the company has started seeing positive cash flows, however Tom is not happy! His personal life has gone for a toss, his employees do not listen to him, he ends up doing more work than any other employee at his start up (which is obvious as he is owner) and at the end he is confused about the vision of the company and next steps for his life too!

Harry is a project manager at a growing firm which gives him lot of opportunities to experiment and grow professionally. He is a very hard working manager, ambitious, extremely dependable and hard working asset of the company, highly creative, and sought after by seniors for any work (which is obvious as he is the hard worker and wants to grow). He has seen good growth in early stages of his career despite of which he is not happy! His team members respect him but it is very difficult to get work from them, he ends up doing much of the work and corrections (which is obvious as he is ambitious and heard worker), his seniors praise him for his creativity and ownership but do not give him significant further leaps because they doubt that he will be able to manage team size of more than 5-6 people or more projects. He is confused on his further career growth, skills he needs to improve, tactics to manage people, and next steps in life too!

Luckily, I have been in similar situations at some points of my professional or personal life (coz they are intertwined) and through the experience and then opportunity to work with several start ups as advisor or meeting them at the start up events, been able to find out some simple solutions to the above problems. They may not be applicable to larger organizations where the role of CEO changes further but the next step I have talked about above can be tackled by these approaches or at least the stress reduced. These may be the one of the few alternatives but I can bet you that this works!

So here it goes:

1.       Focus, Focus, and Focus! : It is a natural tendency of many of the young ambitious start up CEOs or project managers to get swayed away by numerous distractions which seems like initial opportunities to gain an extra buck or prove your mettle to your superiors. Just focus on one single task at a time and try to structure the responsibilities first.

2.       Set the Vision Straight: As a CEO, your primary job is to set the short and long term vision for the organization and keep evolving that and stand by that. It is quite obvious to find future shaky sometimes, but you as a backbone of the company must never reflect the nervousness to your employees.

3.       Setting Structure and Delegating Smartly: For you the foremost responsibility is getting the work done and providing a right framework to your team. You should set the vision right for your team members. I a third person ask any of your team members that, “what you are responsible for?”  He or she should know it and if they do not then you should realize that are not doing your job well.

4.       Do not do a job just because you can do it better than other person in your team if it is not your personal core: You are running a company and the very ethos of it is team work. Brain can think well and heart can pump better, sometimes heart takes the decision in place of brain and we know what happens then! It is good to do that only at critical junctures!

The point being that if you have someone employed for a particular role then it would be better to teach him how to do and give him structure than doing things for that person. As a CEO you have to keep yourself from daily operations and only act when absolutely necessary. Having said that do remember brain knows everything that other organs do and whether they are doing it well or not

5.       Bring in Positive environment: As a leader it is also very important to rise above daily gossips, cross talks, and flowing negativity. Remember you have to become one, if not already, who should be looking up by all the employees to gain some positive energy. This will keep you happy and respected and your employees feel in safe hands

6.       Cash Flows/Project Flows: Though at a larger system P&L will be taken care by other senior staff but at this stage you should focus on maintain positive inflow of cash/project and also keep your team aware of real circumstances, so that they do not hesitate to put in that extra bit whenever required!

7.       Take Care: Please take care of your health and also your personal life and family. I am a strong believer that personal and professional lives always go together and jeopardy in any of these can significantly damage the other. So take Care! And change the world with your ideas!

2009 Shodhyatra in Assam - Photographic Memories...

Kuch Anchuhe Dhage.... Reminds me of my Poem...

Rural Volunteer Center Camp

Prof Gupta at Work.....

Simply touched me..

Local Chefs, Great Food....

Journeying to Find Meaning..... Crossing Over 21 Water Streams Including the Mighty Brahmaputra or Tsangpu

:-)

Weave Your Imagination, Visit Assam...

Do you know in Assam, the women are valued for their skills in weaving to get the most eligible boy...

Special Bihu Performance on the New Year Day....We were so tired after walking but the dance just woke us up for whole night.....

Centenerian 

Chris Enjoying his Rice Beer in the Bamboo Glass

Chieftain!

Home in a Tribal Village in Arunanchal...

Another Centenarian Lady in Arunanchal...Do we really need modern medicines or living in nature takes care of everything?

Delhi and California - Connected through Our Bikes Now!

Exchange of Biking Love - Joint Post with Elle Steele Bustamante 

07/11/2012

I got a wonderful message a month ago from a fellow biker from New Delhi. He said that he had taken up biking two years ago in India and his life has changed because of it. My favorite part of his message was "Good luck on the biking community. Let us grow it stronger."

I was so excited to hear from someone so far away and I immediately asked a million questions about the riding culture in India. Luckily, Tarun, is very patient and gave lots of great info as well as some fantastic photos. I think it's only fair to share them with my readers. Thank you so much, Tarun for your contribution to this blog as well as to the global biking community! 

In Tarun's words: 

 Hope you are doing great! The pleasure is equally mine to get in touch with fellow biking fraternity and health and environment enthusiasts!

The biking culture in India is growing now since few years and we organize and participate in lot of road and mountain biking events such as Himalyan MTB challenge, Nilgiri MTB challenge, Tour de Delhi, and lot of other Brevet activities. In Delhi the biking community got active three years back and now is vibrant group of riders of different demographies. Some of our active groups include Pedal Pushers, Delhi, Delhi Cycling Club, Delhi cyclists, Pedalyatri, Gurgaon, Lutyens Bikerz Zone, Noida Cycling Club. We meet every weekend mornings (coordinating the rides via facebook or google groups) and weekday evenings to ride good odd 70-80 kms on an average. Delhi also has some good trails in Arravali foot hills, and Delhi ridge and some good road routes such as Delhi - Gurgaon- Faridabad Road, Canal Road, Rohini, and Noida- Greater Noida Roads.

Many of us have also started going to work on our bikes, however this is still not prevalent due to reasons such as heat, unsafe roads, and most importantly cycling beyond fitness is seen as a sign of poor financial condition (I feel bad about it). However thanks to rising traffic and petrol prices and falling health that people have started taking this. I get a lot of enquiries from people who want to start riding and join the group.

We would love to host and help any of your friends who wish to visit India on a cultural/biking travel - some kind of a biking exchange.

Keep riding because life is a cycle! :-)

It's amazing to me that cycling can be such a unifying force to both bring people together and to help change the world. It is interesting to me that we face the same challenges as a biking community and we understand one another's situation. I would love to visit India and check out some of the beautiful roads and fun group rides. I love the number of helmets I see in the photos! 

As Tarun rides in New Delhi and I ride in Sacramento, it is comforting to know that we are riding together, in a way, along with so many others to help bring awareness to the need for safe and accessible cycling all over the world. Tarun and his friends are helping to change people's preconceived ideas that riding a bike is less prestigious than driving a car. Look at all the smiles! Thank you for sharing a part of your biking world, Tarun! I will take you up on your offer one day. Please know that it goes both ways :) 

CC Project 6 Toastmasters: Smile Wash!

Smile Wash!

At 3 AM in the morning, in my dusty hostel room, I and Wonder were standing like an unfed beaten dog, in agony and hope that our day will also come. In front of us were our dreadful seniors Joda, Buddhi, and Koocha, all enjoying our suffering as if sitting in a Mehfil and enjoying Indian Mujra.

(Loud) Stare at the tube light and abuse the fan! And don’t stop till the tube light fuses and fan discharges in anger of listening to so much abuse. – said Joda

(Loud authority and naughty) And do remember to remove one piece of your clothing at every instance when you fall short of an abusive word or take pause – said Buddhi

(Order) Be creative! Said Koocha

We were trembling in fear and stared at each other. We were asked to do the impossible to save ourselves from the inevitable embarrassment. We tried…………. ….a….B……………………………………………………………………………………………………… and could not utter a single word after the few basic ones – thanks to our mother’s strict rules on language conduct at home.

We stared at each other and busted into cachinnation (hahah laugh loudly in this line).

How dare you! Get your pants off and wash your smiles!

Narrator: For many who stayed in hostels during their engineering schools in India, smile wash might be a part of ragging alias PDP (personality development program), as called by the seniors. There are different versions of secret smile wash anthems which can not be sung in this forum due to parliamentary reasons. Though all have same objective to teach the fucchas or the sophomores that seniors are their fathers and one must not smile in front of them. And if one cannot control but smile, then you better wash your smile!

Ki ki ki maine smile wash ki – done done done my smile wash is done.

We were even more amused and laughed again!

Hey get your shirts of and wash your Smile!!!!

And we laughed again………..and we laughed again…

And a slap, and a shoe, and a slap and a shoe , shoe slap , slap shoe…to wonder, who already had a bad record with seniors and a slap to me (Pain). After this assault we were left crying and the seniors left my room in disgust. We had a similar routine everyday with different Jodas, Buddhis and Koochas till a day came when shockingly one of our fellow journey mate in this suffering, Gagan, fainted due to the trauma of washing his smile. A few weeks later all the seniors came to our rooms to apologize and induct us in their community following the fresher party. Our personality was officially developed and smiles totally washed!

It has been more than four years that I graduated. Buddhi has just completed his PhD from an Ivy league univ, Joda was a senior in my first job. He also became a full time devotee at a temple and now runs his business and preaches Vedic systems to students during evening – we call him Himanshu Prabhu now. Koocha is a successful manager in an MNC. And so are other seniors, I, and my journey mates pursuing our varied dreams leading to different directions in life and career.  In future everyone would be even more busy and entangled in the web of life. However there will remain a beautiful exit path from this web. A path in the shape of a smile, formed during the days of smile wash that connects us all, wherever we go, whatever we do, and whoever we become!

Friends, the smile and innocence on my face are definitely much less than what it was before my college and ragging is much to be blamed for this. But now I cannot imagine my days of college without those first six months of being smile washed!

It made us stronger, taught us to be tactful, and developed our people skills. And much more than that, it helped in forming a warm family with so many unrelated people who left their homes to live together for four years with meager facilities in a place which ceases to be a second home now.

Though I insist that ragging must not be so severe but to be very honest I have also not been able to find something so deep and powerful to be capable of causing a positive metamorphosis in one’s life in just few months. 

5th Speech: Kinetic On – Fascination Gone!

Kinetic On – Fascination Gone!

I used to see my cousin who rode kinetic Honda scooty at a full speed from one place to other, market to home, home to market, home to cricket ground, cricket ground to home…..zooonzoonzoonnnzoon……. and most importantly the reason for my jealousy - to go to school unlike me, always running to catch the bus in the morning!

(But soon enough) I asked my father to buy me a Kinetic Honda too but he said I should first learn to ride it, show him that I can be confident on road and also put a heavy condition that I should clear my 10^th exam first.

10^th exam! I am in 6^th right now – you will not get me a kinetic Honda for the next four years?

Father: Ok you learn first and let me have confidence that you can drive. Then we shall decide.

Imagine: (((Driving the Kinetic and asking Astha to hold me close and not to worry for having missed the school bus!  Don’t worry that you have missed it. We shall reach the school before our school bus. )) I was already imagining giving a lift to Astha, who was my childhood crush…

Yes I was already imagining giving a lift to Astha as I had got a good deal – If I learn well then I can speed my brand new flashy kinetic to school and make my friends jealous and ahahannnn  drop Astha everyday too J.  And wow! Kinetic do not even have gears. :D Just accelerate and run…

wohoo…I asked my brother to teach me how to drive Kinetic and after initial reluctance but much thanks to my consistent persistence that he had to finally give in.

Scene 1: Astha…. (imagine)

CUT

Scene 2: Bhaiya: Phatt….(action) what are you thinking, come hold the handle.

Me: (glitter in the eye and broad smile on the lips) Ok bhaiya please sit behind me don’t worry, I have been riding my bicycle since long…

and here we started , pressed the break, and then the ignition button . And zooooo…..

Bhaiya: Be slow , you will not be able to stop…

Me: (with air of over confidence) Its fine bhaiya ..zooooooo

And we turned from here to there…Suddenly we hit the main road of my colony and I got really nervous at the first site of a car and (what was happening one car after the other, this red one , speedy, truck, )another one and another one… I was Petrified!

The Kinetic turned back on itself and came near home at a full speed and my brother was yelling to slow down..

and here another car and I pressed the break and accelerated to the fullest.. saved the car and fell down dushh… accelerator and brakes at full.. and rotating. Kept on rotating.. scratching our legs….  till my brther took the control.. and stopped me…

I told you bhaiya do not talk while riding… phatt! Why were you numb? And who told you to accelerate while applying brakes… ?

Me: I forgot the controls upon seeing the car and in nervousness did everything which I could do…

Hmmmm…. .. lots of dents on the scooter and our body.... we walked back home. He pushed his disfigured red kinetic and .I pushed my dented dream to drop Astha…

My father did not allow me to ride the scooter till 12^th.

It is a short story of an incident that happened in my life… but makes us realize that in life right things happen at the right time and when elders say something it definitely has a meaning in it. For me Kinetic was a cake walk, so as many things which we believe are a cake walk by seeing other do them so easily. However I forgot that my legs did not touched the ground and I had never faced a car on a main road. Just a slight over confidence lost me a chance to negotiate to ride even my bicycle on main roads for long time.

Friends go dream but dream in the real world! Know your factors, know your fears, know your strengths and know your gears! And you will be victorious in every ride of your life!