Yaron Chalo, badalne ki rut hai – Jagriti Yatra ’14
What drives them – Passion, what motivates them – Pain, what inspires them – Innovation. Meet our new age Entrepreneurs. Welcome to the Yatra that questions your beliefs, challenges your fears, critiques your achievements and helps you rediscover yourself. That’s Jagriti Yatra for you, literally meaning “Journey of Awakening”.
On board the train this year are those set of enthusiastic young men and women who chose nation-building over protesting against it. “India has several social issues and concerns, and there are so many enterprises that can be created to solve these issues” says Prabhat, an Ex- Yatri. Another yatri added “I rejoice entrepreneurship; I like this journey because it helps us reach our desired destinations.”
The official launch of Jagriti Yatra 2014 kicked off on 24th Dec at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Among those dazzling performances paired with stirring talks by experts; one cannot afford to miss the launch. The entire event was meticulously captured by artists from UK on paper canvas.
“What makes this Jagriti Yatra special is the uncertainty says Sesashank Mani, Chairman. “After all we are talking about entrepreneurs. This happens when reality dominates expectations and one gets to alter their expectations to deal with reality”.
A young mind falters and often wonders “Oh no what did I study! After cramming for 4 years, and working for long hours in a boring job for 2 years?” If you think it’s too late to ask that question, be rather glad you thought about it at least now. There are thousands of us leading a bland life. What if you suddenly begin questioning your significance? You better have an answer for this. If not, that’s where your Yatra SHOULD begin.
It’s often these people, who have asked the question, who become yatris in quest of the answer. They have their answer by the end of the yatra. They realize the answer was with them all this while; within them. This is the journey of discovering your passion and your purpose of life. Jagriti Yatra is perhaps the only platform that enables you to travel inwards and helps you in building that dream by crowd-sourcing ideas and expertise from across the Indian landscape. When one speaks to these yatris, they will be amazed by the herculean task that’s being channelized by passion. And what a pleasure it is, to be able to interact and work with 450 such simple yet stunning Yatris for 15 long days, day and night!
So how do they manage 450 people on one train, where diversity runs the show?
The uniformity in variance is always brilliant. This year there are participants from 29 states of India. To be able to manage a smooth journey, Jagriti yatra participants’ are micro managed within several teams. One such team is the “punctuality team” that ensures punctuality throughout the journey, deciding whether it’s a short pause or a long break in the Yatra schedule. When Team Youthopia spoke to a few Ex-Yatris, they explained how critical this team’s job is and how swiftly they managed the previous journeys with minimal interruptions. There are close to 20 other teams which are responsible for an awe-inspiring Yatra to happen. Team Youthopia will try and bring each of their stories to you in the coming days. The beauty of this Yatra is that no single task can be complete without coordination between all of these teams – making it a live example of a collaborative workspace. The learning starts from understanding each team and their roles. Don’t be surprised to know that most of these teams are made of ex- yatris, who put together the learning of their previous yatra, to ensure the current one succeeds and out does the previous one.
So long story short, this journey is one of those experiences that you cannot miss out. So if you are not on the train, welcome to this virtual-reality-ride on Youthopia. Pack your mental baggage, bring along tons of energy and read on. We will take you through this journey of nation-building over the next 15 days.
#YaaronChalo, badalne ki rut hai!
– Sushma Kongara for Team Youthopia
