Odisha Sea Beach Expedition with YHAI

Odisha Sea Beach Expedition with YHAI

Youth Hostel association of India (YHAI) has been fore runner in promoting adventure sports has been successful for decades in providing unique experiences to trekkers in unexplored areas across the nation. This time I joined them for a 6 day Odisha sea beach expedition which was spread around Puri district and the islands around Chilika Lake.

YHAI trekker’s group is usually around 25 in number, but due to unforeseen weather conditions and last minute cancellations we ended up with a group of 8 trekkers. The base camp at Youth Hostel, Puri was very well arranged and the simple vegetarian food they served made me nostalgic of home cooked food.

Day 1 being the registration day for the participants, gave me enough time to visit the popular Hertiage village Raghurajpur known for it’s unique artistic skills and dance art form and the very famous lord jagannath temple in the heart of puri.

A typical day in youth hostel trek starts at 5.30 am with bed tea (customary for privileged people), and breakfast at 7am and all get set to start of sharp at 8am. Day 2 the team starts with bustling busy roads of puri and the sea beach flooded with visitors and slowly move towards the deserted beaches and head south towards chilika lake. 

 

The excitement of being in a new place spending your vacation and adventure into an unknown land slowly starts nauseating one. Unlike the other beach expeditions which are usually beach shacks, foreigners, life guards and liquor, Orissa beaches are more or less deserted except for small fisherman settlements. The villages are moved interior into the land in order to protect from unprecedented cyclones. All along the beach trek one is greeted with numerous dead turtles. These turtles are unfortunate targets which get caught in the fisherman nets and since they are prohibited from trading and either killed or left to die in the sea coast. One of the government institutes is carrying out a physical survey to trace the amount of dead turtles but hundreds of the left unturned. 

On the way we meet local fisherman, villagers and interact with them on our destination and brief about their profession village etc. An interesting encounter was this small fisherman settlement which uses a small solar lamp to survive in the evening hours, at this moment you feel proud about the advancement in technologies and penetration to unknown lands.

And finally this trek covers 12 kms on day2 and 14kms on day 3 all along the sea coast. End of day 2 is we rest at a multipurpose cyclone shelter built by the government in each of the villages to protect the villagers from cyclones.

End of day 3 was spent on in tents in a beautiful camp site which is encircled between bay of Bengal and chilika lake. All along we find continuous man made forest built to protect the village from cyclones.

Though the sea as well as the lake is salt water, there is this  small well in between these with fresh sweet ground water, which is the source for a few hundred fishermen around this area.No one is sure the principle behind this phenomena.

Then we proceed in lands of Chilika lake viewing the sea mouth where chilika meets bay of Bengal and the migratory birds flocking into chilika. The small white  building seen in the picture is a mosque around a small islam following people settlement known as Bhagwanpur and also    next to it is a hindu people settlement known as shahjanpur. Classic example of community living in a democratic secular India. 

This led us to the next island Rambhatia which is usually visited by inland visitors to experience chilika, migratory birds and of course enjoy the fresh sea food.

Then spend rest of the day exploring the island which is inhabited by cows and ox  and finally reach SATAPADA Wild life Range.  As shown in the picture this area is popular for the dolphins. We were equally excited to see them.

At 4pm we set off to visit the dolphins while the sun sets and towards   our next destination which is a forest guest house in Brahmapura.

This is the best moment of the whole trek. Cool calm serene environment   surrounded by gustling of the dolphins and other sea animals or the birds returning back to their nests. In the background sun sets quietly.  Moist sea  breeze dust out the tiredness in you make one lose self and hug the wide arms of the splendid nature, it was priceless.

That night was spent in a well laid forest guest house of Brahmapura facing chilika lake. 

After another long 1.5 hours in the boat we reach inlands and catch a bus and return to the base camp at Puri. Rest of the day spent in exploring the Sand art exhibition by Sudharshan Pattnaik sand art institute, the old city puri around the temple and savouring sea food.

 Evening was well spent in sharing our experience with the next group of trekkers and wishing them luck. Next day a local tour was arranged with Odisha tourism, heard stories of Konark, Lingaraj temple, Ashoka  and visited Khandagiri Udaygiri hills, Stupa and of course the Konark temple. In the end bid good bye for my trek friends I made in these days and moved back to my abode.

I must appreciate the splendid hospitality of the camp leaders in various camp sites who fed me more than my capacity. As it’s always said “No one loses weight in YHAI treks” is indeed quite true.  

(nitin29687@gmail.com)

Cultural Insights, Motivation into Positive Action

When we look at the life of a human being it is always bound with a next milestone or next objective. For instance to attain Graduation, post-graduation, job, family but what is the ultimate goal? Is the ultimate goal to earn more money that satisfies pleasurable needs or drives your passion i.e money fame and partner, but our question is; is this sole motive/objective of life? A few great people have realized that ultimate objective is to attain peace and harmony in simple words a peaceful goodnights sleep. 

Bill Gates Spent his entire lifetime in building technology and amassed a vast amount of wealth. He could have purchased an island in Caribbean and been partying there, why would he want to spend his time in Bihar and UP, helping rural people in building toilets, helping woman build skills. Same is the case with Warren Buffet who drives his own car and doesn’t even use a mobile phone and has contributed billions of dollars to Bill and Melinda gates foundation. Why did Arvind Kejriwal quit IRS and fighting against corruption? Why did Ela bhatt started SEWA (Self Employed Women’s association) and helped women with small loans, why did Green warrior Jadab Payeng build a social forest in Assam or Salumaradha Thimakka in the Karnataka planted thousands of trees. Life is Unfair: Some people are more fortunate than the others. The above mentioned people have achieved enlightenment or fit into Self-actualization section of Maslow’s hierarchy theory. They believe that selfless service to mankind brings in inner peace and harmony. This was exactly what Shankaracharya or Buddha or Vivekananda did long ago.

But this does not mean you quit all the worldly pleasures and serve the society. Definitely not. It’s a balance between material and spiritual power. It is important to satisfy the basic needs and then contribute to the betterment of the society.  Harish Hande, Magsasay award winner IIT and MIT, spend dedicated his life to electrify rural homes through a profit venture. Dabbawallahs of Mumbai who have attained perfection in their venture at the same time have helped millions of families in delivery of food.

In the current socio economic situation it is very important to cooperate and coordinate to lead a peaceful life. Why is Jamshedpur called TATA nagar, because TATA has built Jamshedpur through brick and mortars and has built the entire ecosystem. Same is what Toyota did or Infosys Foundation which has connected with people very closely. Why should ICICI and State bank fight amongst themselves to attract more customers? Ultimately their objective is providing financial security and services to the people. So if you provide best service people will definitely come to you. If they fight against themselves and end up in a cold war would it benefit anybody in turn they would lose their inner peace. Classic lesson is what Akbar practiced by respecting all religions and allowed them to coexist whereas other Mughal rulers tried to destroy our temples.

In corporate world, simple things that could make a difference is that respect people, most importantly employees. Keep in mind they are not numbers which most companies think they are and treat them like humans. Don’t try to reduce operating cost or increase EBITDA at the cost of people. In your difficult times the world does not remember how much profits you made for the company but the good relations and people you built in the company will stand by you.

Very interesting vision of Marriott groups of hotels is to always keep their employees happy because they know that if their employees are happy they will keep their customers happy. Simple isn’t it.  Indeed this was exactly what Kautilya said in Arthashastra. 

You have to keep in mind that people when they come into your organization already come motivated with aspirations and the adaptability and adjustment is already embedded in our DNA’s.  Never underestimate them and try to capitalize in each one’s potential on how they could benefit your organization.

Religious Perspective – One of the Buddhist virtues is to serve society through building toilets, and planting trees. Islam practices fasting during Ramzan primarily to feel the hunger of the downtrodden. At Golden Temple Amritsar, people get down from Mercedes and prepare food for the visitors and also manage the whole operations. What these denote is that path of all religious leads to the same objective and service to mankind is service to god.

Our appeal is please do something for 30mins a day just not for you but for others selflessly. For example, what SFC (students Facilities Committee), Placement committee, Peer learning sessions, minds of IIM team, Samarpan are doing. When a person gets placed and thanks the Placement committee members, I’m sure it means a lot to them.

Best things in life can only be felt with eyes closed so don’t price each and every thing. As MasterCard says best moments in life are priceless. 

“If you want happiness for an hour take a nap,

If you want happiness for a day go fishing,

If you want happiness for month get married,

If you want happiness for a year inherit a fortune,

If you want happiness for lifetime help others”

Curious Case of Shiva's Laptop and Phone

Curious Case of Shiva’s Laptop and Phone

My notion that people steal or rob in order to drive out poverty or hunger for food turned out to be wrong, when a 22yr old engineer from L & T called Dharmaradha stole our dear friend Shiva’s HP laptop and sony experia phone. Smart detective skills from Shiva and Shashank ensured all was well at the end. The story goes this way.

After couple of weeks of WFH (work from home) Shiva’s boards a private Travels known as Divakar travels from Hyderabad on Sunday 6th November evening at 6.30pm headed towards Bangalore. It was a double bedded sleeper bus and Shiva, who got the last available ticket had to share it with one more person. So at 8pm this dark 5’4 inches tall guy boards the bus. A little bit of chat here and there with Shiva and they resume their journey. In between Shiva had opened up his laptop to charge his experia phone so that it would be helpful for him the next day and had kept both laptop and phone attached to it with the cable inside the bag. At 3am he slept with one of the arms of the bag entangled to his leg so that no one would steal it.

All was well until he wakes up at 5am at Corporation circle to find his laptop, phone and the cable connecting the two MISSING from his bag. His co-passenger Dharmaradha had got down from the bus at Hebbal itself. The rest of the passengers in the bus were majorly families or all well put up so suspicion grew even more on this man. At 6am Shiva goes to the Halasuru police station and tries to register a case. But the policemen ignore him and tell him conveniently to go to the Travels office and Check. So he goes to Divakar Travels and they pull out the chart of all the Passengers and travelling with all the details they had. This guy Dharmaradha was supposed to get down at Yelahanka and we got his phone no. which was a Tamil Nadu no. Shiva immediately called and politely told him to return his phone and laptop, but that guy started telling all nonsense like father promise, mother promise god promise and finally told he also had lost his wallet and phone. This added to Shiva’s suspicion and was confirmed that it’s him. He said don’t disturb him and he has to go office.
Shiva travelled to electronic city in order to dump his luggage but there was no end for anxiety since it was his last week ahead in the office. Shashank joins him at his place and with the phone no. of the culprit they try to search for further details of his. Our intense gratitude to Mark Zuckelberg for bringing up Facebook , from which we could trace his profile and get his other Karnataka phone no. as well. Calling up on this phone said this Airtel no. is switched off. But thanks to all the contacts, a friend’s friend’s friend worked in Airtel and there was a probability of getting the address of the phone no. from him. In the meanwhile they head to the Electronic City police station, and police there ignore this saying that since he didn’t lose it at electronic city it doesn’t come under their jurisdiction. So Shiva and Shashank drive down to Corporation circle Halasuru police Station. Constable says Inspector has gone for some problem due to bakrid festival so please wait. Their wait continues for further long but no sign of Inspector turning up. Then this friend’s friend’s friend figures out the address on which the phone no. was registered - #11388, Near RTO office, Yelahanka New Town, Bangalore. This a great sigh of relief as the two detectives head to Yelahanka hoping to figure it out.

Yelahanka was as strange as any other city in Greece since it was first time for both at Yelahanka. After numerous twists and turns and asking the locals and hours of exploration they figure out the RTO. There was no other specification in the address other than this. So they try asking everybody around RTO and being smarter they approach courier services store and with his clue they get the place where the culprit Dharmaradha resides. It was 3 storeys, big L&T guesthouse where the employees could stay using the facilities. Enquiring with the care takers and explaining out problem we figure out he resides in the room in the first floor. They told him he would return from work at 8pm. currently time was 1pm.

Since Shiva was sure that he has definitely taken it Shiva decides to stay there until he returns. So Shiva and Shashank sit outside the house on the road waiting for the culprit. After couple of hours of waiting Caretakers being merciful help him with a place to sit, water and a tv too. They keep waiting hoping for his soon return.
After another hour a senior supervisor of the guest house Mr.Dileep turns up and was amazed to listen to our story. Looking at the anxiety he opens up the room where Dharmaradha resides, but his cupboard was locked. So we had to hold on until he returns. Thanks to Dileep who took them to a nearby place and gave them some food to eat.

The wait continued to resume just outside his room so that nobody would enter and move the laptop to any other place. They both doze of right outside sitting on a chair after the tiring day. With the wait the clock was ticking so slowly that probably 8pm would never arrive, but they were so determined that they would stick on until he turns and check and then leave the place. They just walk here and there and thinking all possible ways of him to escape from this or where else would he have the laptop, because to kill time and waiting anxiously was the toughest part in the whole proceedings.
Looking at the progress of the investigation I decide to join them, though I initially believed that It was impossible to track without the help of the police, with so less information. It was 7.30pm. Anxiety was again increasing, and more thoughts started pouring what if if he wouldn’t have the laptop and the phone.
Other Residents of the guest house started pouring in after the day’s work and we had to explain everything in detail. The drama didn’t end here. One of the residents told Dharmaradha is downstairs. By the time we went downstairs he had left the place again. So we went back and waited outside his room. A fellow resident decided call Dharmradha and asked him to come. At the end this Short dark rat turns up and was shocked to see Shiva there. He opens up the room and insists on to proceed with talks downstairs so that it would be less embarrassment for him. So Shiva and Shashank talk him down, and I wait in his room with other residents. Finally he reveals that Shiva’s laptop and phone in the last cupboard, lowest drawer and in the black bag. So in the presence of the Residents and Care takers Shiva opens it up and there it is HP elite book laptop, his Sony experia phone with battery and sim card removed and the data cable. In the meanwhile Shashank alias our cop investigate him downstairs alone as to why he did this and what is his salary etc. Supposedly he was new joinee at L&T and drew a salary of Rs.20000. He did so because he mind changed looking at the free luxury of the HP laptop and the expensive Sony expensive phone.

Now we moved courtyard outside the house where this rat was standing after couple of slaps from Shashank. The more we tried to hit, somehow his colleagues interrupted in between. Though I insisted in taking him to the police but polite Shiva decides not to spoil his career anymore so decide to drop it there. But we decide to claim for compensation Rs.2500. for the all petrol we spent. Of course for the time and anxiety there is no compensation possible.

So we end it there and long drive back to electronic city.

So the moral of the story: People don’t steal in order to pacify their hunger it’s also for the pleasure of more, but good people do exist, thanks to the caretakers and the supervisor who provided some food and water.

Ashraya SHG - Investment Proposal

INVESTMENT PROPOSAL FOR ASHRAYA GROUP,BANGALORE


1. Introduction
Ashraya Group
Ashraya Self Help Group, based in Bangalore, from last 2 years is producing various natural fibre value added products.
Product categories:
• Home accessories (laundry bins, dust bins, storage boxes, etc.)
• Personal accessories (hand bags, wallets, shopping bags, passport holder, mobile pouch, etc.)
• Office accessories (CD Box, tray, photo frame, coasters, Laptop bags, Office Executive bags)
• Corporate Gifts
These products are made of natural fibres such as banana, river grass, sital patti, screwpine, etc. and combination with leather, Rexene, cotton fabrics, block printed fabrics, etc.
Existing buyers / marketing channels
• Industree Crafts Pvt. Ltd. / Mother Earth, Bangalore
• Volvo, Bangalore
• Department of Education, Govt. of Karnataka, Bangalore
• Thunk, Coimbatore
Strengths and Weaknesses
• Strengths
o Group ownership
o Strong core team with lot of experienced people
o Regular Marketing support from Industree
o Having infrastructure (machines, rented building,
o Having access to exhibitions and other marketing channels, not dependent on one
Weaknesses
o Working capital requirement for expansion
2. Core Member of Ashraya Group
Mr. Rajendra, Leader & Production control
Rajendra K.M. came from an agriculture family from Kalasa village, Chikmagalur District (South Karnataka), he came to Bangalore worked in various fields such as leather, painting on roads, electric works, etc. from an early age. He came to Industree during 2004 to work as a helper in a production unit and he had a zeal to come up in life, he made partnerships with other co-worker during 2005 and started a small production unit with about 20 people. Industree supported / subsidized him initially with building, machines, power, training and design support and encouraged him towards becoming entrepreneur. At 2009, Industree formed a self help group with his 30 workers and made into two groups (Ashraya & Samanvaya Self Help Groups) and encouraged this group to be independent group enterprise and enabled to achieve production from different companies such as Thunk, Volvo and Govt. of Karnataka. Now currently this group independently produces Rs. 2.5 lakhs per month worth in home accessories, corporate gifts, office accessories, personal accessories, school bags with a wide variety of natural fibre, and other fabric materials.

3. Further Expansion
For our further expansion we have planned to work with leather and leatherite materials were we have access to orders from the market. We are specialized with combination of weave , value additions and hi-designed products. This requires a separate setup of building and machinery and skilled crafts people. The new setup for production will be known as Ashraya Enterprises which has a self help group model where the worker will come together and save funds to help themselves through inter-loaning


Objectives :-
1) Establishment and operation of Ashraya Enterprises with Hi-designed and Quality leather products with competitive prices.
2) Combination of leather and Natural fibre products.
3) To build production centre with fair wages and self sustainability

4. New setup projections
The initial assessment report for ASHRAYA ENTERPRISES is as follows.
1) Working shed of 700 sq ft to 1000 sq ft (rented).
2) Basic requirements for the production unit - 25 Members
PROJECT BUDGET Amount
Electricity (light fittings, wire & switches, fans etc...) Rs 20,000
Flat bed sewing machine 1No
Cylinder bed sewing machine 1No
Flat be walk foot sewing machine 1No

Rs 20,000
Rs 60,000
Rs 40,000
Leather skiving machine 1No Rs 45,000
Gumming – tables & tools
(8ft X4ft table with 6 stools -8sets, & hand tools.) Rs 60,000
Stores (to store value added materials & Accessories) Rs1,00,000
Building Deposit Rs 1,00,000
Computer and administration expenses with tax registration Rs 40,000
Working capital Rs 1,50,000
Total Rs 6,35,000


We are looking for Rs.5,00,000 investment.

Production centre --- 25 Members
• Cutting skill
• Gumming & pasting
• Tailoring
• Trimming and finishing
• Quality checking
• Logistics

5. Financial Projections

SUMMARY BUSINESS MODEL
PRODUCTION UNIT QTY QTR - I QTR - II QTR -III QTR - IV YEAR TOTAL
Leather Production (Local order & corp. orders) 1500 4,50,000 4,50,000 4,50,000 4,50,000 18,00,000
Natural fibre & leather (Mother Earth) 1200 3,00,000 3,00,000 3,00,000 3,00,000 12,00,000
Raw material 45% 3,37,500 3,37,500 3,37,500 3,37,500 13,50,000
wages 40% 3,00,000 3,00,000 3,00,000 3,00,000 12,00,000
Over heads 6% 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 1,80,000
Production margin 9% 67,500 67,500 67,500 67,500 2,70,000
Auditor fee (given from margin) 1500 1500 1500 1500 6,000
working member bonus (8% of wages given from margin) 24,000 24,000 24,000 24,000 96,000
EMI of loan 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 1,20,000

Fisherman- who changed my life

1st August 2005, Unaware of what life in which way i wanted to create my desitny stepped on the gate of NITK Surathkal, dreaming to become a world class Engineer. One of the key reasons to choose this university was it's proximity to the beach. 500 mts away from the boy's hostel gate, the light house, temple, rocks on the shore, boats and ships driving on the horizon. All these things had just made my beautiful. Amidst all this and added bad food of the mess, always in the expedition to explore better eating joints. Living at NITK and if you don't sea food, then you are definitly a loser.
One fine day, a senior from college suggested to visit this hut, near the shore a couple of kms away for some good fish. The very evening three of us set out for dinner. It did take us a while to figure out the place. A small hut with a some space in the courtyard and a few mats alligned adjacent to the wall for people to sit. towards the corner a small cooking place and a door adjacent which is the entry to the house. A young lady in her 20's humbly asked us to sit on the mat. It was early evening we didn't find any other customers then. She then got a basket with a no. of fishes and we had to choose the one we wanted to eat. Soon she cleaned and cooked and we had a sumptous dinner. Just about to leave enters a tired looking man with a lungi and a half torn cream coloured shirt. By his pep talks with lady we could figure out that he was her husband. Anyway it was time for us to leave and when we approached her to ask how much did it cost, she said," Give as much as you feel like". "ha... " we were taken aback, Couldn't hear our own ears. Was she really not bothered about money or would she ask some other favours. Just then her husband interrupted and said, "we are just cook from what we get from the sea god and with that we share a little with the students, so any amount if you feel like please give". We were astonished, without knowing what to do we just left by giving him a 100 rupees note for three of us. That was a good deal for us.
The whole night i was lost in the thoughts. A poor man had found happiness in helping others and was content with what he had. It was unbelievable. Such a disparity where people kill each other for a few hundreds and here was a man who was actually happy. Expected less and gave more.
The taste of the fish took us back into the hut again and again. Though it did work out a good deal but we used to go back with compassion. It wasn't any other normal hotel, but we felt at home. Slowly as our visits became frequent and bond between us strenghtened too and we got to know about their backgrounds etc.. Things continued in a similar way for a year and half and the couple had a baby boy. There were so happy and we were happy just to look at them. Happiness being poured into their lives. In these days though fish was stopped for a few months, due the baby but we still kept visiting. After 6 months, everything was getting normal except for the added baby. Fish tasted even better. But gradually his expenses started increasing and the amount of time he could spend at work also reduced. During one of our visits we saw him trying to tie up the torn fishing net. We suggested him that he should buy a new one, from which he could fish better. Then he told about his economic crisis. We felt bad and tried to offer a little money that could help him, but his self respect stopped him from accepting. While we backed back from his place our discussions was totally on the fishing nets. On the guy had a better idea on nylon and fishing net and stuff, and we got back to our room and logged to net to find out the best technologically advanced fishing net. and this guy was going to abu dhabi next week, and he promised get a fishing net from there. We were happy too.
I couple of weeks he arrived and and brought a sophisticated net with so many specifications he blabbered which i couldn't figure out. It had a manual along with it too. He had studied and in the evening we were to visit the fisherman and hand over the net along with a few fundas.
He was very happy to look at the net, indeed his eyes filled with tears, we were touched. Though he was reluctant to recieve that but after our continued persuassion he accpeted it. We had a free meal that night and and a week after that we all left for home for summer break.
After three months got back to coll and i was in my final year. But more than this was more curious to know how the fisherman was doing, did the new net help him at all?
As we entered his place two plastic table with four chairs each were at the courtyard and the husband wife and the kid all smiling with good cloths. Oh!! must be a lottey or something. Next moment his wife was almost about to fall into our feets. We were embarassed. Tears dropped from her eyes and he explained that because of the new net his business has grown way better and amount of effort has also reduced a lot. This was such a wonderful feeling. A small help from our side changed his life and happiness in their face was worth a million dollars.

Things continued we continued to eat their for next few months and he never accepted money from us, and time had come for us to leave college and go in search of our peice of bread, but this man's attitude made a deep impact in all our lives, Had found happiness in helping others.