Reflecting On The Eventful, Impactful, Celebratory 30 Days That Passed By!
I was just reflecting on how the events in the past 30 days have unfolded and how I responded to them. I spent around 15 days traveling to Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, and spent rest 15 days on ground. I am super excited about restarting the schools in Bagpath; in one of the schools we work, only 79 were present out of 250 student strength! Herculean task ahead!!! That said, I am very happy with how our schools in Bangalore are doing – Brindavan Tent School in Indira Nagar, Pyramid School in Magadi and GMPS in Dollars Colony. These learning spaces are the perfect case studies for community led schools!
When In Hot Chennai!
I was in Chennai for a workshop on scaling our social impact 10x times, conducted by Mr. Arun Jain, the founder of Polaris & current CEO of Intellect. It’s heartwarming to witness this unique and blessed soul, who brings in innovation traits of Steve Jobs and compassion traits of Mahatma Gandhi!
Before the workshop, I was part of our monthly ritual, the team retreat, this time held in Chennai!
When In Cloudy Bangalore!
Then I was in Bangalore, mainly to attend the Social Business Day and see Professor Yunus. What stood out really was meeting Rajni Bakshi ma’am and meeting Sadhana!
Rajni ma’am talked about being “tactically impatient” (to gain focus on immediate tasks) and “strategically patient” (on long term plan and investment). Our Monday Truclusions columnist, Ashwin Karthik wrote about this here. Sadhana is a god level illustrator volunteer who is crafting something super significant which will totally change the lives of a lot of high school students! You will witness her genius in the Know Your Star series to be revealed soon!
When In Rejuvenating Ahmedabad!
I was part of Head Heart Hand retreat in Ahmedabad for 3 days. There was lots of learning, plus I got a chance to meet one my role models, Jayesh Bhai, and soak in his “maitri”! I was in awe of Dimple‘s (a participant, her story in next blog since I am still synthesising!) youthful energy which contributed greatly for a wholesome masti-filled retreat for everyone!
About Team Milestones
This month marked 2 work anniversaries in my team! Congratulations Pranita (my partner in crime from day one!) & Gaurav (his story in upcoming blog!) for leading so many young minds, teachers and volunteers to become role models like Dr. Kalam for last 2 years! 🙂 Many more to come!
Love From & Through The Media
This month brought couple of media mentions as well!
To start with, I am very grateful that we were featured in the editorial of Karnataka’s #1 daily newspaper, Vijayavani! Thank you so much Deshmukh Ravindra sir. We strongly believe that all government schools need to blossom and flourish. Every child will get equal education and hopefully this article seeds thoughts and initiatives in many to empower government schools!
But wait, this was not the first time we were featured in Vijayavani. This story by Ravindra Deshmukh sir was published exactly 4 years ago with the same title as our recent The New Indian Express feature-“Shooting for the stars.” It just reiterated to us how our commitment for shooting for stars is 4 years strong and how our vision has remained unwavering!
The response we received to the Vijayavani story made my heart full. Four strangers reached out to me after this story reached 10 lakh readers. One said that he is the retired principal of a government school in Bijapur and wants to ensure that it survives; so he wants to “intern” with us! The second instance was a girl from Bellary who comes from a poor family, but her parents always kept her education as their first priority, and now she wants to give back to the society by giving the same opportunity to other kids. The third contact was from a village near Mangalore; a 75-year old school which needed help and love! Lastly, a brother who sent 1000 INR and said he’ll continue sending us this amount every month as a tribute to his parents and as a remembrance that he also studies in such government schools. My heart is so so full. We are hoping to support these 4 friends to transform the schools near them through them! 🙂
The Nimbu Paani Experiment In Khekra!
Lastly, I want to share little leadership insight I gained from a recent yellow hat activity we conducted as part of Guardian recruitment process in the Khekra village of Bagpath district in Uttar Pradesh. As part of the yellow hat activity, we challenged participants to serve nimbu paani (lime juice) to as many people in the village within 20 minutes with zero money and zero given resources. It was a very very hot day and they managed to serve 40 people altogether! For me, it was heartening to see how none of them drank even a single glass of nimbu paani while profusely sweating, but they were constantly serving. I feel my primarily role as a CEO is going to mostly push me to put across audacious goals for the team and nourish them (my family=team) to be able to achieve these goals!
Few of the reflections from the participants from the process were just mindblowing with so much wisdom, also because many of them experienced access to role models (who are self aware, have an ‘I can’ mindset, are unstoppable) in the streets for the first time!
Have you seen/met/observed everyday role models on the streets? Would love to hear your stories! 🙂
Enjoyed reading about this? Then you might like to read Program KnowYourStar – Moving From “Who We Are” To “What We Can Contribute”
If there’s a story that needs to be told, we are ready to tell it. Write to us at contact@knowyourstar.com with your story lead, or contact us on Facebook or Twitter.
