Month: April 2016

Today we spent time with two groups: the incubation portfolio team from Villgro, and from a start-up that hopes to one day qualify for Villgro funding. CodeWhite is an organization that is focused on promoting health among India’s youth. They have a great business model that could impact millions of lives.

Currently, India has a youth population (between ages of 0-24) of 250 million people. Education and health care vary drastically between urban and rural areas, and too often the children are not informed about healthy living until it is too late to correct. 1 in 3 youths suffer from a form of depression. Many turn to alcohol: in a very short span of years, the average age for alcohol abuse such as binge drinking dropped from the late 20’s to 12-13 years old. They also start smoking at young ages, because it is what they see their families doing. Side note: it is very interesting to me that every time someone on tv is shown smoking, a caption appears during the whole scene reminding viewers of the dangers of smoking.

CodeWhite has run pilots in two schools and is now working alongside Villgro to begin building out a sustainable model. They need to be able to show how many lives they could touch, the revenue potential, and what differentiates them from other initiatives. They are using gamification to engage the youth, with the opportunity to use points to purchase healthy-living items, like gym shoes or exercise gear. All rewards are geared towards improvement of health. The pilots showed great success. Now the challenge is to design a program that can be replicated not only in India, but in other countries where youth are not aware of the impact of the health decisions they do (or don’t) make.

Tomorrow or early next week, we will meet with the founder of Villgro. I’m eager to hear his ideas and vision. It’s not often I get to meet face-to-face with innovators like this. The UK government is so impressed with what Villgro is doing, they are allocating funds to them for new incubation programs.

You know it is hot when the locals are complaining. Two days ago, they didn’t bat an eye at 95 degrees. Today, I’ve had three locals comment on the excessive heat. It is 99 degrees and humid, with a heat index of 111. Yet what idiots decided to walk half a mile to lunch? Yup, these idiots. One of my teammates was so drained from it, he fell asleep when he went to his room to type up some notes. It is definitely overwhelming. Makes summer in Florida almost tolerable by comparison.

Even worse than the heat, apparently a sewage pipe burst nearby. When we walked to lunch, we were passing raw sewage in the streets. It was hard not to gag. We returned to the hotel and decided to check out the spa/fitness area (ok, my colleague was checking out the fitness room while I checked out the spa) in the basement of the hotel. First we noticed it was deserted, then a few steps in, we were hit with the smell. Apparently the sewage problem is impacting the hotel, luckily just in the basement so far. We quickly fled back upstairs. See, I knew exercise was bad for me!

I don’t know if I’ve ever visited a collectively friendlier country. Australia was close; India might top them.  Everyone goes out of their way to please us. It felt like a parade in my room last night: first housekeeping stopped by to see if I was happy (that was literally what he asked), then the laundry service came by and he offered to press all of my clothes for free even if I didn’t have them washed and wanted to let me know his work schedule for the week, and finally I had three workers in my bathroom to see if the cold water was working. They called to say that some maintenance work had damaged pipes and a few rooms were without hot water, could they check mine? I didn’t expect it to result in 3 visitors for 10 minutes to see that yes, the cold water was broken. I told them it was no big deal, I’d rather have that happen than the a/c go on the fritz. They felt so bad, I couldn’t get them to leave. They finally got it fixed mid-day today. Whew! Here is hoping for continued cold water (aka non-scalding showers), reduced sewage smells, and fewer visitors tonight, no matter how kind they are… 🙂

 

 

Today was our first day in the Villgro office. I admit to being a bit nervous. Guns (nickname of the Villgro president, PR Ganapathy) and Heera were so open and friendly with us yesterday at the workshop, I was expecting a let-down in the office with people who didn’t want to talk to outsiders. I mean, think about it. Our role is kind of to look at what they are doing as a business and tell them how to do it better. I’ve dealt with some defensive customers in the US before in similar situations. How would Villgro team members respond to a group of outsiders who have never worked with incubators, even worse, a group of foreigners? 

Once again, I was worried for nothing (story of my life). We met several members of the team, all of whom went out of their way to make us feel welcome. They spent a lot of time with us, answered all of our many questions, and patiently taught us how social enterprise incubation works. It isn’t just handing out money to people with an idea. They invest an incredible amount of time screening applicants, making sure that the funds that have been entrusted to them are wisely invested. They guide the potential incubatee through the idea phase into prototyping if needed. There is a lot of due diligence involved, with only 1-2% of applicants making it to the incubation phase. And Villgro’s time investment doesn’t end there. They provide business expertise to these start-ups to make sure that the enterprise has a better chance of success. They don’t want to hand funds over and hope for the best. They desire to make every accepted organization a success. There are processes for grants and equities and things I hear on the business news channels but never understood until now. See, growth already! 

We worked with Kativa, who leads the Education line of business. I was wrong about their focus being solely on rural social enterprise. Villgro started with rural organizations, and have expanded into urban social enterprise. The Education projects are specifically targeted for urban youth. As a former teacher, it was very easy for me to get excited about the inroads they are making. Kativa is brilliant, holding a master’s in education from Harvard. That is the type of people they employ: forward thinkers from top schools and companies. It makes it even more impressive that they are willing and even wanting to listen to us!

Several of the employees were worried about what we would eat for lunch. They said that the dining area downstairs would probably make us sick, so they wanted to order out for us. When they food arrived, they hurried and set it out in the conference room before we even knew the food had arrived. They even had fancy plates and real silverware for us. It was very cute when one lady came in and set aside two of the dishes, saying they were uncooked and might upset our Western stomachs. We were all too happy to take their advice. 

Tomorrow, we get to attend a proposal review meeting in the morning and then watch Kativa speak at a conference in the afternoon. Can’t wait! 

One of my colleagues in the US is originally from Chennai. When I asked him what to expect, he responded, “sensory overload.” Thank you for the tip, Sumith; you were spot on!

I was raised in a very small town. Well, it is a village really, with a current population around 4,200. That represents a good growth spurt from when I lived there. We had tons of space, and lots of peace and quiet. Sure we had the lovely manure odor coming from the fields during certain times of year, or my favorite smell of when they burn off the silos. Those are the only sensory memories I have from childhood. 

India is the loudest, brightest, stickiest, most fragrant place I’ve ever visited. The cars, scooters, and rickshaws honk non-stop. I’ve been in my room for an hour tonight, and the longest span I’ve heard without horns is roughly 15 seconds. It is a complete assault on the ears that makes NYC sound like Montana. The thing is it isn’t angry honking. They tend to drive 5-6 autos wide on a 3-lane road, so the honking is more of a “hi, I am here, do you see me? can you let me by?” It is madness. Even crazier is the fact that both meals today were at spots down the road a ways, and required us to cross a road where the stoplight is for decoration only. Our guide just waves a hand and steps out into the road. We had the bright idea of sending our tallest guy out first each time, then the rest of us hurry behind him like ducklings. We must look hilarious. I even noticed a homeless person laughing at the sight of us. It is insane and fun. 

The colors are amazing and stunning. I would like to pull the men here aside and tell them to try harder, because the women are a vision and the men are kind of blah. The saris and salwar kameez are every color under the rainbow, adorned with gold and white trim. The vast majority of women here are dressed this way. The men are mostly in jeans or mundus, with t-shirts or golf shirts. They need to up their game to match these gorgeous women. We stare in awe at all of the colors. 

The humidity is overwhelming and unavoidable. If anyone wants to argue that dry heat is no better than humid heat, visit India. You will change your mind. The ladies laugh that our hair is uncontrollable and we all feel the need to shower after 5 minutes outdoors. The team has accepted that we are all in this together so no shame in sweating profusely or having hair that is 3 inches higher and wider than usual. Plus, who notices the sweat when we are all desperately trying to avoid becoming roadkill? 

The smells vary from sweet to spicy to what can only be explained as a rest stop toilet. The flowers are beautiful and fragrant, and many women wear them in their hair. I was greeted at the airport with a jasmine lei that wilted too soon. It was lovely. Luckily I like Indian food very much, though my taste in cuisine is more in line with Northern India. Doesn’t matter. There are delicious smells coming out of every restaurant and street cart. I’m getting hungry just typing about it. The non-pleasant smells are as unavoidable as the humidity, but I find that very quickly you pass to somewhere that smells like cooking spices or flowers. One guidebook I read suggested carrying a handkerchief dipped in peppermint oil to avoid the smells. Since I am not from 1800’s Victorian England and am in danger of fainting from unpleasant odors, I’m focusing on the great smells instead. Wouldn’t want to miss those!

Time to go find some ear plugs as the honking continues. Good night!

You know how some people have tons of luck when it comes to travel, being upgraded from middle seats at the back of the plane to first class, or the hotel runs out of single rooms and substitutes a large suit for them? Yeah, I am not that person. This one is going to be a novel. Feel free to skip.

It started Wednesday when Delta called to tell me that my connecting flight from Mumbai to Chennai had been cancelled. They booked me on a later flight out of Mumbai. I was concerned because we have been cautioned not to go out alone, and I’d be arriving at 11:30 PM with 8 hours to kill. Luckily I found a hotel right inside the Mumbai airport and booked a room. I was glad to have gotten my travel issue solved. Not so fast…

The flight from Cincinnati was delayed thanks to severe thunderstorms that knocked out power for a few minutes at the airport. They couldn’t pull the plane to the gate to disembark, so our boarding was delayed. Twice. When we arrived in Paris, I asked a guide where to connect to K gates. He sent me to a security section that covered pretty much every other gate than K. It would have been awesome if I’d figured that out before clearing security and asking another guard how to get to K. Had to leave that section, take a bus, and go through security again. Hurried up to gate right as they were boarding. 

Arrival in Mumbai only got worse. The flight attendant left me the wrong form while I dozed: the one for residents. So the man at immigration had me step aside to fill the right form out, then wait until he was open again to submit. Not so bad, only 5 minutes… Luggage came out (yay) and I proceeded to check it back in after customs. This is when it really got bad. The new airline that Delta booked me on said I had no reservation. I showed them the confirmation code, and that my  luggage tags even showed me checked through to Chennai. He said I would have to go to Air France. I stepped aside to call Delta, who said everything was correct the system, and they could even see that Jet Airways had control of my reservation. I talked to the man again, to no avail. Dejectedly I walked to my in-terminal hotel and called the Jet Airways service center. Spoke with several people all of whom said they couldn’t help. By this point, Air France had closed down for the night. 

Decided to settle into my room and get a few hours sleep then head to the airport ticket area first thing in the morning. I was looking for the bag with my allergy medication when I realized my backpack was missing. !!! I hurried out to the front of the hotel and asked if they had seen it. They said I didn’t have it with me when I checked in. So here is where kindness starts to come into play. The front desk clerk said he would take back to the connecting flight area and see if it was there. They wouldn’t let me in because they said I didn’t have a ticket. The hotel clerk took my ID back to the center and found my bag. They wouldn’t let him have it because it wasn’t his. He finally persuaded a guard to let me through and collect the bag. They even made me open the combination lock in front of them to prove it was mine. Whew! Crisis averted!!

I managed to get two hours of sleep and then checked out of the hotel. That same front desk clerk was waiting for me. He said he wanted to make sure I could get on the plane. First we went back to the connecting gate area. They still argued that I wasn’t booked on the flight. He argued back, and made them call Air France. That led to another long conversation. Finally Jet Airways agreed that I did have a reservation, but they could not check me in without further paperwork. Then the front desk clerk took me all the way up to the ticketing area where we met a Jet Airways rep. Again more arguing. They gave me a document that allowed me in the airport to check in. However, they claimed I was a domestic passenger and wouldn’t let me check two bags. And the weight allowance was much lower than for international. The check-in agent made me move things from on bag to another, then charged me $100. My new buddy stayed with me through it all, arguing with them about the fee and if I should be considered international or domestic. He escorted me to another area to pay the fee, and back to check in to finally, 90 minutes since this began, get my ticket. He even took me to security, gave me his card and told me to call if anything else happened. 

So this blog entry reads like a book of travel woes and complaints, but to me, it is the story of how one amazing guy named Rohan went far, far out of his way to help a stranger. I was having such a travel nightmare, yet I was ok. I had Rohan. Can tell you without a single doubt that without him, I wouldn’t be tucked into my hotel in Chennai, ready to catch up on some sleep. I told him several times that I would be able to figure it out, yet he wouldn’t leave me. I even gave him a nice tip, knowing his work shift had ended. Still he stayed.

I wonder how often we have the opportunity to be a Rohan and instead act like all of the other employees I encountered. When someone asks us for directions, and we point instead of help. When a quick answer to a problem like mine can’t be found, we wish the person luck and walk away. You could argue that this was all part of his job, but I’d argue back that running around an airport for 60 minutes at 1 AM and another 90 minutes at 5 AM for one guest is not at all in his job description. He saw someone who needed help and generously gave it. What a gift to me! Truly. I will always remember that my first real contact in India was such a kind, generous person. And the next time someone asks me for directions or help, I hope to pay it forward.