My Experiences with Tata Jagriti Yatra 2009

Tata Jagriti Yatra is an annual train journey with the motto of "awakening the entrepreneurial spirit". In this yatra 400 youth, majority of them from India, are taken on an 18 day All India trip to visit the unsung heroes of India and see their exceptional work with the aim to inspire them to build Social or economic enterprises.

The yatra began on 24th December 2009 at Mumbai. Let me start with the train, a chartered train was arranged for the yatra, all the bogies of the train had yatra stickers pasted outside. For us this train was home for next 18 days. The train comprised of sleeper coaches, 1 pantry, 2 AC chair cars and bathrooms. PA system was fitted in all the bogies of train. AC chair cars were fitted with Audio Visual facilities and were used for on board activities like discussions, presentations etc. But the most amazing arrangement was bathroom coach. Normal sitting car coach was converted into bathrooms in a truly innovative way. There was a pantry car with really supportive serving people, the food served was good.

The second most prominent thing about yatra was diversity among participants. All of us were from different lands having different economical, educational, professional and most importantly cultural backgrounds. There were people from all across the India, few from UK, US, Australia too. Spending time with such a diverse people was an experience in itself, although I faced lot of trouble remembering so many names. I learned how people work on same thing but in different ways. For example there were so many working on micro finance but each of them had different ways.

First line in the guide book given to participants of yatra said 'This is not a joy ride' and we realized how true it was after we started visiting role models. The days were very hectic and on board activities like presentations and discussions further added to it. The map of the places covered is shown in above picture. In 18 days we covered more than 9300 Km. We passed through various temperature zones, 30 deg C in Trivandrum to 2 deg C in Tilonia. This definitely made yatra challenging health wise and tiring too.

About the learning part, I learned a lot from the yatra. Over past years I was made to believe that being an idealistic one can not survive. But now I have seen idealistic people who not only survived but succeeded in extra ordinary works. I learned various ways of working at root level. I learned that Food, Clothes and shelter are still the basic needs and there are billions who does not have access to all three and thus there is a huge potential to work at the root level.

The next amazing thing about the yatra was the role models we visited. (I will write in detail about all of them in a short while) A list of them is given below.

1. Mumbai Dabbawala
   
2. Mr G. Vijayaraghavan, man behind Technopark in Trivendrum
3. Sabriye & Paul founders of Braille without Borders and IISE, Trivendrum
4. Arvind Eye Care, Madurai
5. Aparajitha Foundation, Madurai
   
6. Mr R. Elango, Kuthabakkam village near Chennai
7. Agastya Foundation, near Bangalore
8. Industree crafts foundation, Bangalore
9. Naandi Foundations, Hyderabad
10. Mr Joe Madiath founder of Gram-Vikas, Brahmapur in Orissa
11. Tata Steel, Jamshedpur
    
12. Jagriti Sewa Sanshtan, Deoria in UP
13. Mr Anshu Gupta founder of Goonj, Delhi
14. Mr Bunker Roy founder of Barefoot College, Tilonia in Rajasthan
15. Okhai, Tata Chemicals, Mithapur Gujarat

I observed some common things in all the role models and these are listed below.

• All of them had either seen or experienced a 'pain point' and they decided to act on it.
• Common values all followed were honesty and integrity.
• Common traits all had were hard working ability, empathy, bravery, persuasion.
• All of them were dreamers.
• All created enterprise or organization which wouldn't depend on them i.e. which will grow on its own.
• None of them worried about the money. The lesson here is as long as you are doing honest and good work you don't have to worry about money, money will follow you.
• None of them bent against the problem of corruption. Lesson here is if you give bribe the first time, you will have to give it forever.
  

Apart from all the serious stuff we had lot of fun among our cohort and groups. Singing songs and dancing at any given opportunity, bumps for anyone suspected of having birthday, pulling each others leg while having dinner in compartment, new years celebration on platform, small games played during the short travels in buses, writing messages for each others time capsule bottles are all memorable events too.

The 18 days passed like a moment and in the end I realized that Tata Jagriti Yatra was truly an experience of lifetime which has given memories to cherish, friends to share and inspiration to follow dreams.