12 Destinations
15 Role Models
15 Days
450 Youth (selected meticulously from the pool of about 30,000 applications!)
8000kms

A journey of discovery and transformation…

Doesn’t it sound too good to be true?

Exactly a year back, I was jumping around simply by the idea of staying on train for 15 days! Yes! To live a Life On Wheels!

I still remember the day I got selected for this once in a lifetime journey: Jagriti Yatra! A simple mention of the Yatra lifts up my spirits… Travelling has always been my passion. But opportunities like these come rarely!

Getting selected at the beginning of the year, it was rather difficult to hold on to the excitement of boarding the train. Thanks to our beloved Facebook for connecting the fellow Yatris. The excitement only kept growing as the most awaited month of December approached! The month of winter brought a warm feeling of belonging to a crowd of likeminded people! Being the person I’ve always been, the whole idea of being in a train with about 500+ people excited me! How wonderful would it be to connect with youngsters from different parts of India and the world and walking towards the same vision: ‘Building India through enterprise’!

We left for Mumbai on the 24th of December, 2012! The Yatra was kick started by an orientation program followed by Yatra Geet, which was our anthem! Brings me goosebumps even by the mention of the song! Not really surprising, when Yatris now talk of it being their ringtones or alarm tones. How wonderful to wake up to it each day!

A presentation by the world famous Mumbai Dabbewalas followed next! The illiterate 6sigma management gurus were fascinating beyond words! And this was just the beginning… more was yet to come!

All 450 people were divided into groups of 21, from A to U! I was in group ‘J’! Each group was further divided into 3 cohorts…2 boys and 1 girl…with a male and a female Facilitator per group… these groups were like our families for the next 15 days! I wouldn’t be exaggerating, if I say that every alternate person belonged to one of the highly prestigious IITs, BITS, NITs…

We were
given ID Cards which were our holy ‘mangalsutra’ for the next 15 days, and we were not to be seen without it! Feeling was as if we were walking back to school! But everything that came along with the Yatra was adored beyond limits! As soon as they handed over the ID card, I put it across my neck making sure I looked good in the picture on it!

On the midnight of Christmas Eve, we waited for our train at the Mumbai station… Santa caps were on, as we clapped, jumped and rejoiced on the tunes of Christmas Carols! Christmas celebration had never been so wonderful before! I captured all of it in my newly purchased camera! Experimenting with the dim lit surroundings! This was a great time to interact and befriend every face that came forth! All those previously ‘known’ people literally got lost in the crowd! But a pleasant surprise came forth, when majority of the Yatris knew me!
And I was greeted with, “Oh! So YOU are Pournima!”

Being in limelight had never been my nature, but mind you it felt amazingly awesome! Being flashed on the Yatra website, and being the only girl amongst the chosen few, certainly caught a lot of attention!

The train arrived post-midnight and we got onto our respective bogies and compartments! Every compartment of every bogie uniquely belonged to a cohort! The layout of the train was neatly organized! One could see and feel the amount of planning that went in, in the process of planning this mighty journey!

Green flags were waved, and we finally set out for this journey! The route took us southward to our next destination, Dharwad. A unique school, Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalay! One of the most charming places I’ve ever been to! Probably the highlight of the whole journey! A school for underprivileged children, with a focus on traditional arts like classical vocal and instrumental music, dance, traditional art and craft etc. Run by a French man, with many foreigners coming down to volunteer and teach the kids. The small 6-7 year olds could speak better English than average persons around us! What a pleasant surprise! With a few friends, we set out to explore the place and get the feel of it! The architecture there was minimalistic, and incorporated natural resources like solar energy, natural ventilation etc. The site was situated on a slope; hence no two structures were next to each other on the same level, which
automatically got privacy and uniqueness to each of the classes! I hated to leave the place and decided in my mind that I would come to help them as a volunteer in future!

Each destination introduced us to different Role Models and their enterprise! A mesmerizing experience altogether! Two pairs of artists one from UK and one from an Indian tribe (for Warli Painting) were a part of us to put all these experiences in hand drawn paintings!

The next destination was Bengaluru, Infosys campus! We were taken aback by the magnificent structures that stood before us! Buildings boldly designed and well planned campus inspired the architect within me! I wondered, if I was in India?! What a contrast to the rural setup for the visit before! In a humongous auditorium, we were listening to a panel of young (in their late 20s) entrepreneurs, who had ventured into online shopping… Owners of Flipkart, RedBus and Zivame… Inspiring to hear them speak! The auditorium certainly was cozy, which served very well for dozing off in between, only to be woken up by occasional round of applause! I certainly miss sleeping during lectures!

That evening, train reached late and we were stranded(!) on the platform! Soon people were out to play games, singing songs, dancing and being totally crazy on the platforms! The craziest of all was to play songs on the station’s loud speakers! No wonder we were not allowed on the main junctions! The late night hot tea and coffee were ‘Amrutatulya’! Jagriti Yatra and at least a dozen of tea cups a day go hand in hand! Talk of getting tea-addicted to an already victim! A couple of tea cups every now and then! With ‘ek-se-mera-kya-hoga’ attitude! First thing in the morning, to the last one before you go to bed! Good way to combat the winter-fever! The stubborn old windows which would refuse to close at night proved to be our greatest enemies!

And how can we forget the bathrooms? Nothing censored, but sheer brilliance! If I tell you of it, I’d be killing the fun and surprise of the aspirants! All I can say is it was an adventure in itself! A bogie that is converted into a bathroom, where one could have a bath even at 2am! Did I mention about washing hair with the freezing cold water? The surprise is still not murdered!

And then, the train took us to Madhurai, at Arvind Eye Clinic. All I can talk of was the meditation center we were taken to. What a peaceful place! Experience of trance at that place was beyond words. Thoughtless at its best! Little did I know that this would give a different turn to the journey; a journey within me. I felt all the more closer to myself, and realized that I had befriend the best person in this world; me! What an enlightening feeling!

I chose to spend more time being with myself than hang around in crowds! The networking had slowed down and I took a moment to stand still in my own feet! The fact about taking a gap year in my academics was appreciated by every person who asked me about my whereabouts! I never felt so proud of my decision before! I realised that very few people can take a stand for themselves and take a pause in the ever hurrying life! I felt all the more comfortable under my skin! I had begun my own beautiful journey amidst the Yatra!

Chennai was raining heavily, and probably forgot to extend a ‘warm’ welcome… The cold and humid weather was new to a Puneri like me! Totally uncomfortable to squeeze 500+ people into a small hall and surrounding shade, which had decided to leak! The schedule went haywire that day and we couldn’t go for the site visit! But I remember the Yatra Geet that day which we managed to sing and dance clumsily with great enthusiasm! Had a chance to interact with the founder of Jagriti Yatra, one of the greatest moments during Yatra!

The schedule once again went for a toss for the next stop at Vishakapattanam. Indian Naval Service was our host! Walking inside the naval ships and hi-tea on their deck was the highlight of the day! Foreigners weren’t allowed for this visit, for obvious reasons! They visited the beach instead, and I believe they were glad! It was the first time I was walking inside a magnificent naval ship! Few parents visited at every station and on this particular one, we were given many cakes for the New Year celebration that night!

The food that night was special with additional sweets. It was evident that we were served local delicacies of each state we entered into. The train had a special pantry car and a separate bogie for the cooks! Almost a three course meal each time from salads to sweets, not to forget the tea that followed anytime and every time! The temperature visibly dropped after Vizag.

Bhuvaneshwar was our next destination, followed by Patna. Each of the states had its distinct feature. The cold was getting the better of us. Multiple layers of clothes did not suffice the biting cold which chilled the fingers into numbness. Only to realize, that was yet the beginning.

We were divided under different verticals for the Biz Gyan Tree (BGT). BGT is an exercise that initiates the process of thinking- thinking about an idea, thinking about a solution- very simply put, thinking like an entrepreneur. It was this time, that I noticed why people were glad to know that I belong to architecture background, and why I did not come across anyone else from this field! Reason being, there hardly was any. Only 3 persons, including me. We were in minority and highlight, good and bad at the same time! I still am intrigued why no one from architectural background would step into entrepreneurship or travelling. Our group of housing was hence combined with the Water and Sanitation which barely connected 12-15 minds, to a contrast of about 200 persons for the education field. That certainly had something to say!

We were welcomed with garlands and local music at Deoria, the next destination (the only day we would be sleeping on steady land.) Also the place where the Biz Gyan Tree exercise would be held followed by the visit to the ‘Gyan Tree’- a 200+ year old Banyan tree. The first half of the day was a site visit cum survey in the nearby villages where we learn the local problems and come up with solutions. The houses and the lifestyle was heart wrenching. The extreme weather conditions hand in hand with the poverty certainly were the extreme situations to cope up with the luxury we live in. I was starting to feel disturbed on seeing the overall scenario. Walls of houses comprised of only a pile of stones or bricks, with no mortar. Thatched roofs, or tin sheets adorned the tops. And as if that was not all, less to no regular electricity or water supply. Thanks to the local hand pumps for being the lifeline. Toilets or bathrooms were nowhere in sight, because they did not exist in the first place. On asking them about it, ‘fields’ they pointed to! What about the women? I leave that to your imagination, which they live every day! I was thoroughly disturbed on discovering the facts in reality.

We had spotted our solution to the problem. I sauntered back with innumerable thoughts in my mind. We prepared a plan of incorporating bathrooms and toilets in the locality, hence the name of our project ‘Sampoorna Ghar’. We designed toilet blocks for each house, or a couple of houses together, and proposed a drainage layout. The business module and revenue generation was worked out. The plan was then explained to a panel of experts who reviewed our work for further selection. Amongst the 40 odd groups 12 were chosen for the next round of the competition that was introduced by Google for Entrepreneurs. We were overjoyed to be amongst the chosen 12!

The night had great food with local music show. Later we had DJ put on upbeat music for us to dance and fight the cold. As per the tradition, hot tea was served before we would snuggle up into our sleeping bags. The following morning I woke up pretty early to go for a walk. The whole village was covered with dense fog and nothing beyond ten feet was visible. I took along my camera and set out to capture the smoky effect. Perfect dew collected over cobweb caught my attention. The blue hues of the early dawn and the smoke from the last night’s campfire served as good subjects for photography! The cattle sleeping in their cozy cattle shed. Few sitting on the warm ashes of campfire was a lovely sight. The mustard fields automatically got me humming onto the tune of DDLJ! Overall a romantic setting altogether! Coming back from the walk, we gulped in a couple of tea cups and left for the actual Biz Gyan Tree!

I hated to leave this charming village, but awaited the upcoming destination, our capital, Delhi, the metro that had frozen. Not much of activities or people were seen on street, for we had entered the metro on one of the coldest days in the last few decades. The visit to Goonj was certainly meaningful, who have a vision of making clothing a matter of concern as a basic need. The visit followed by a long wait for our train at the station, till 4am. I would certainly not be exaggerating if I say, “The frigid air penetrated my skin, chilling my blood, sinking into the marrow of my bones like wet concrete!”

Our next destination, Barefoot College at Tilonia, Ajmer was yet another experience in itself. Their vision is to provide a self-sustaining model where the local villagers are involved in the solar sector and women of the village in the age group of 40+ are given specialized training to fabricate and repair solar operated devices. Women from across the world came to this village to be trained as Barefoot solar engineers. This was yet again marked as the place where I would go back to learn more!

Ahmedabad, our last destination was the traditional day. Everyone put forth their traditional attire, sarees, Punjabi dresses, dhoti, lungi, turbans, Nepali caps, and what not. Riot of colours were seen and the enthusiasm was in the air. To live this last day of the journey to the fullest, for it was near to impossible for all these people to come together again in future. Lots and lots of photos were clicked and memories were stored safely in our hearts. Sabarmati Ashram, the place where ‘unity in diversity’ was captured in a huge group picture! That night was the award ceremony, for a few contests. Also participation certificates and medals were given to each of the participants. We took as many group pictures as we could.

The last night of Yatra approached along with the most dreaded moment. It certainly was difficult to bid adieu, leave behind the family of friends and the most beloved train, our ‘home’.

As anticipated, I could not hold back my tears at the sight of the train leaving the platform without taking us along. It pained to see friends leave to their respective places and respective lives. Why do beautiful things have to end?