The Jagriti Yatra

15 days

12 destinations

8 Role Models

5,000 miles

1 country

1 train

450 Yatris (participants – from nearly every state in India, and 23 countries).

 Physical Conditions

I lived on a train for 15 days. If you have never been on an Indian train, that sentence doesn’t do much justice. Government-run sectors in India are overrun, dirty, outdated, and unorganized; the Indian Railway system is no exception. I’ve heard foreigners refer to Indian trains as “prisons” – their steel bars as windows, 5-foot bunk beds stacked 3-high, and a “catering service” that is reminiscent of death row.

If you’re a germaphobe, an Indian train is you’re worst nightmare. The word “clean” now has different standards. A friend living in Jaipur recently joked that the most germ-infested places in the world are door-handles on Indian trains. General sanitation in India is noticeably different from Western standards. On the train, food servers would walk the aisles passing out food with their bare hands. Nothing like the server sticking his hands deep into a giant vat of sliced cucumbers and tossing a heap on your plate. Again, there’s no choice but to put the cucumber in your mouth. You just do it. For my fellow Indian Yatris reading this, I’m sure you’re laughing. These are such negligible details about the train, but they stick out for a foreigner like myself.

Many Indians were impressed by the way many foreigners were handling these differences. While I had been on an Indian train before, I too was a bit taken back by these harsh, grotesque, realities. Yet, to be blunt, I had no other choice. There was nowhere to hide, no food alternatives, nowhere quiet to clear your head for five minutes, no real showers, no clean toilets, or first class amenities. Sometimes you just do things, and you come out stronger on the other side.

There was nowhere to escape, which made the experience more unique. I have no voice from talking for 15 straight days. As a person who enjoys from privacy, there wasn’t a chance to even read in a quiet place, or just sit and think. Thinking became a communal activity; we built trust within days, and broke privacy barriers immediately.

Layout of train:

There were a total of 450 “Yatris” – participants like me, 100 food staff, 30 volunteer staff, and 15 full-time Yatra employees. Maneuvering, feeding, and pleasing 500+ people on a train – from all different backgrounds – was a logistical nightmare. Train delays were a common occurrence, even for eight-hours on our final day.

Even moving around the train was a challenge. Simple things required planning and patience. With one sink shared between 40 people, brushing your teeth was a process. There were often four people huddled around the sink at once – one soaping their face, one shampooing their hair, one brushing their teeth, and the other applying toothpaste. Maybe even another trying to gel/oil their hair in the mirror. To change clothes, you had to displace four people to stand the aisle, causing a traffic jam and people yelling “Side, side, side” to allow them to pass. Going from one end of the train to the other took nearly fifteen minutes (not counting any stops for conversation). It was often a relief to finally get back to your “bed” after venturing to the other side of the train.

What we did:

Role Models and Yatri Interactions: The Jagriti Yatra brought us to 12 accomplished “role models” around India. These role models ranged from accomplished social entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, CEO’s, doctors, and more.

While the Role Models were impressive and thought provoking, they more provided a starting point for our conversations. In fact, I found the 450 yatris around me to be the true Role Models of my experience. They were the ones that pushed my thinking, and exposed me to many varying perspectives.

Biz Gyan Tree and Panel Discussions:

Every yatri (participant) was part of a 7-person team called a “cohort.” Together, 3 cohorts made a “group,” and each group had a focus area. Here were the 7 sectors of focus:

1. Agriculture and Agro Business
2. Healthcare
3. Energy
4. Education
5. Water and Sanitation
6. Manufacturing
7. Arts, Culture and Sports

My group was assigned to the education vertical. Each group was responsible for preparing a business plan to be implemented in “middle India.” When we visited villages in Deoria, we had the opportunity to test how viable our plans were against the market. Finally, we had a Biz Gyan Tree competiton where each group pitched their ideas to Role Models and experienced professionals. A few winning groups were chosen to return to Deoira next month to put their ideas into practice.

We also had a number of panel discussions throughout the yatra, which varied in topic. Overall, these panel discussions were more casual than our Role Model speeches, and provided the opportunity for us yatris to ask questions and engage wih the panel.

Why we did it:

The founder of the yatra, Shashank Mani – who traveled with us most of the way – admitted that the journey isn’t supposed to be comfortable. In fact, it’s meant to be opposite. You’re supposed to get claustrophobic. You’re supposed to be disgusted, frustrated, and humbled. You intentionally sleep next to someone with the most radically different background than your own, and you’ll learn to respect them. You’re living in an environment where you’re bound to get sick, where your body will ultimately shut down, where you’re so tired you become a walking zombie. It’s all part of the master plan. It’s part of the yatra.

2015 commemorates the 100-year anniversary of Gandhi’s train journey around India. After retuning from South Africa, Gandhi wanted to see the “real” India; he wanted to experience the struggles of his Indian comrades, he wanted to see the rural lands that his affluent colleagues wouldn’t tread near. As such, Gandhi rode in 3^rd class on the Indian Railways for three years, packed into tiny compartments, rubbing shoulders with lower castes, and witnessing India through the most authentic lens possible. Our yatra attempted to mimic this journey.

The aim of the Jagriti Yatra is to “build India through enterprise.” The mentality is that India, the largest developing economy in the world, will be built by its middle classes. The notion goes as follows: the rich have enough money, and the lowest economic tiers get enough attention from NGO’s and volunteer organizations, which leaves Middle India: 60% of the population, 750 million people, located mostly in rural areas – neglected, poor, and stagnant. The yatra aims to bring entrepreneurial innovation from the train back to these villages. It aims to create jobs for Middle India, and develop this growing country through a conscious strategy. The Jagriti Yatra “seeks to inspire a new generation that recognizes that the only way they can discover purpose and find meaning is by self-employment.” Entrepreneurship, or social entrepreneurship to be more precise, is at the heart of this mission.

What I learned

I’ve seen a lot, and I’m incredibly grateful as a result. At age 22, I’ve witnessed more than most people have the chance to see in a lifetime. I’ve been to 18 countries, and in the past six months I’ve managed to cover nearly all of India.

So, now what? People on the Yatra refer to the experience as L.B.Y., (life before Yatra) and L.A.Y. (life after Yatra). My L.A.Y. starts now, and I feel more motivated than ever.

The Yatra exposed me, not only to the plethora of issues that India faces, but the number of people that are affected as a result. In that recognition, I also see opportunity. To me, this seems like a rare and critical time for India, and the world for that matter. I’ve returned to Bagru with a new perspective. I see more change and development than I did before. I see a threatened community on the cusp of opportunity.I see people’s lives changing dramatically in the next ten years, but they don’t see it coming. I see a need for guidance. It is concerning and exciting. It is threatening and challenging.

Naturally, people tend to surround themselves with similar individuals: same hometown, field of study, personality types, or even political affiliation. On the yatra, I was surrounded by the most diverse community I’ve ever seen, but palpably motivated – for change, for challenge, for development. We all had a hunger, a yearning for something, anything, in terms of both individual growth in addition to Indian development.

I had countless conversations of eerily similar nature: a twenty-something who went to a prestigious university in India, in the UK, or U.S., who has been left unfulfilled. How can we collaborate to create something with impact? This was our constant mindset. I routinely felt in the presence of greatness, on the cusp of an unknown drive. After every person I met, I truly thought to myself: Wow, that person is interesting. That doesn’t happen everyday. You can’t buy it, and people search for that type of energetic culture and never find it.

If you are interested in learning more about the Jagriti Yatra, I recommend visiting their website or Facebook page. An American yatra alumnus, Patrick Dowd, founded a similar journey in the United States. You can read about it here.