From the Desert to the Himalayas...

Written on a Plane En Route to Delhi March 29, 2014

I just realized that the chronological ordering of my blog is a little confusing and incomplete, not to mention I am way behind on blogging, so here’s more or less the itinerary of the last month of my travels: 

• February 24-March 4: I returned to Mumbai from Kerala to help Dasra prepare for the Dasra Philanthropy Week, one of the premiere philanthropy conferences in Asia
• March 5-7: Attended Dasra Philanthropy Week where I had my mind blown while learning from some of the most seasoned corporate executives, philanthropists and impact investors talk about creating social change (covered in my reflections blog entry)
• March 8-10: Took a 23 hour train to arrive at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan (covered in this blog entry)
• March 11-13: Took a 6 hour bus to Bikaner, Rajasthan (covered in my last blog entry due to the depth of experience I had there)
• March 14-15: Took a 12 hour train followed by another 6 hour train to arrive at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh (covered in this blog entry)

To be covered in future entries:

• March 16-23: Took an 8 hour bus to Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh
• March 24-25: Took two buses spanning 7 hours to Amritsar, Punjab
• March 26-29: Returned to Mumbai by flight to attend the Dasra annual retreat
• March 30-April 4: Hanging in Delhi and the Taj Mahal
• April 5: Nepal! Itinerary TBD

Confused yet? Me too. Let’s get blogging.

The Thar Desert of Rajasthan

A romantic yet deadly place, the desert has captivated the heart of many people throughout history. I grew up influenced by Frank Herbert’s Dune and recently watched Lawrence of Arabia – needless to say, I was pretty pumped to visit India’s Thar Desert in Rajasthan via Jaisalmer and Bikaner.

Jaisalmer: The Golden City

Jaisalmer might just be one of my favourite places in all of India. When the setting sun strikes the sandstone architecture of this amazing city, it magnificently earns its alias as the Golden City. 

Overlooking the Golden City with its mighty fort in the background

The view from my guesthouse room within the fort itself (for only $8 per night!) 

I didn't realize until after I booked my guest house that staying in the fort is actually bad for it. Apparently the fort is sinking due to water usage within the fort itself and is at risk of structural failure. I did what I could to preserve this historic site by conserving water during showers and avoiding street food to minimize subsequent toilet flushings.

Besides being an amazing place to just hang out in itself, Jaisalmer also served as a fairly badass starting point for my camel trek into the desert.

All camels...

...all the time

The camel up ahead took at least 6 shits during the 90 minutes I was right behind it

A desert sunset is possibly one of the most magnificent sights to be seen in the natural world

I was obsessed with trying to get good photos of this dung beetle

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

This beautiful dog from the camel trek base-village was a major benefactor of local tourism. It followed us into the desert and chilled out until we were done with our meals and left our scraps to him

The Mouse (RAT) Temple of Deshnoke

The only sightseeing I did while in Bikaner was an afternoon trip out to the Mouse Temple of Deshnoke, a couple hours away from the centre of Bikaner itself. The locals here believe that rats are a reincarnation of their ancestors and encourage thousands of rats to take residence in the temple.

One rat nibbling...

...while another one sleeps...

...five more joined for an afternoon nap...

...while the rest decided to make the best of their Sunday afternoon

The white rat just behind the gate from the water pan on the right was an auspicious sign. I was blessed by good fortune to spot him

The temple shrine where the "ancestors" are worshipped

Did I mention that you can only go into this temple barefoot?? The occasional rat did try to come up to me to sneak in a couple nibbles 

A second photo demonstrating that the foot does indeed belong to me

If you step on and injure/kill any of the rats in this temple, you are expected to repay the weight of the rat in gold. Most. Ridiculous. Place. EVER.

From the Desert to the Outer Himalayas: A Rough Journey

There are four classes of sleeping-class train tickets in India: SL (Sleeper Class), 3AC (3^rd class air conditioned), 2AC and 1AC. I usually buy 3AC class tickets because I have heard many horror stories about the SL class cars from other travellers, not to mention the price difference is usually less than $10. Well, I booked an SL class ticket for the first time because the other cars were full.

I’m glad I experienced it but it’s one of those things I think I’ll only do once.

The windows were left open because of the lack of AC so I had to dust sand off my computer every 10 minutes. Blankets, pillows and bedsheets are provided in the AC classes but not for SL. Any part of me that touched my berth became coated in black dirt. The lack of blankets definitely wasn’t fun during the night as the journey transitioned into the Outer Himalayan winter night. I guess I can’t complain since it was only $5 for a 12 hour train ride.

Luckily, all of the hard work was worthwhile. I got off the train at around 6am at a place called Kalka to ride a designated UNESCO heritage train up to Shimla. The train was built during the British colonial era to ferry the British up to their Indian summer capital. It was a beautiful train reminiscent of a romantic old-fashioned era that once existed.

They called it a "Toy Train" because it really looked like the model trains most boys play with as kids

One car was completely open and just held a couple water tanks. It was a ton of fun to cruise through the Outer Himalayas and ride through tunnels on the outside car.... until I got nauseous from the engine's diesel fumes 

Crossing a really cool bridge on the Toy Train

I saw this sign at the terminal station. Coolie was a derogatory term used in the colonial days, either they were too lazy to switch the sign or there's still some racism going on

Shimla: The Summer Heart of the British Empire

India is not a fun place during the summer, especially for those who are foreign to the country. The British developed Shimla from a small colonial outpost in the Outer Himalayas to a bustling summer capital for their empire. 

The Viceroy's Lodge in Shimla. 1/5 of the entire world's population was governed from this mansion during the summer months of the British colonial era in India. Today the builder forms part of a local University campus

The city itself hardly felt like India proper: there were no common sightings of public urination, cows taking huge shits everywhere and touts trying to cheat you of your money. It was a welcome break from an intense stay in India and a reminder of what I took for granted in Canada.

Shimla itself was extremely hard to photograph because it's strewn across a series of large hills and valleys

I didn't realize how much was in this vista until I looked closely at this photo in writing this blog. This photo alone depicts a Sikh temple (I think?), a Hindu temple further back and a cathedral way at the back. It also features European style lodges, shanty shacks and Indian style concrete houses

I am way behind on blogging so there is much more to come soon... stay tuned!!

Developing an Arid Desert: Grassroot Lessons From a Great NGO

Entry Completed in the Common Grounds Café at Mcleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh on March 22, 2014

I spent the second week of March in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, about 100 km’s south of the Pakistan border. This was actually my second time in Rajasthan and I intentionally returned to take up a rare opportunity to spend time with…

The Wisest Man of the Desert

I met Dr. Arvind Ojha, one of the most inspirational and wise leaders I have ever come across, in December during Dasra’s sector workshop on Child Marriage. He is the Chief Executive and Secretary of an NGO called URMUL Trust which focuses on alleviating issues of rural poverty in the deserts of Rajasthan.

My only shot of Arvind Ojha (on the right) taken during the Dasra Child Marriage sector workshop

URMUL is one of the most successful NGO’s in India, employing a broad range of solutions to promote the development of one of the world’s inhospitable regions. The organization began with more of a traditional charity approach until 1987 saw the worst drought of the century in western Rajasthan which made them realize that fostering empowerment and collective action was essential for sustainable development. Today, their work is well known in India and they are backed by major funders such as the Aga Khan Foundation and the Save the Children Fund.

Dr.Ojha carried an incredible aura of leadership and wisdom that I have never witnessed before. Whenever he spoke, the entire room went completely quiet and listened. During the workshop, he made a stand as a leader to create India’s first network of NGO’s fighting the issue of Child Marriage. This was the first time such a community has ever formed during a Dasra sector-focused workshop.

We chatted during a break at the workshop and he graciously invited me to visit him in Rajasthan to learn more about his operations. 

Needless to say, I gladly accepted the opportunity. 

Four months after our initial meeting, I found myself sitting with Dr.Ojha at the office of URMUL Trust in Bikaner with my ears and mind completely open to soak in his knowledge.

Photo taken from the roof of a school I visited during my time in Bikaner. It is without doubt a harsh and inhospitable region to live. I was drinking about 3L of water a day and didn't notice it at all by the time I made it to the washroom

I spent a couple days in Bikaner shadowing Dr.Ojha and his staff, learning everything I could about creating impact at the grassroots level. The site visit provided an unreal level of exposure because I was just an independent guest with no real objective, agenda or script to follow. 

Camels are still very much an essential part of life in Rajasthan. It is not uncommon to see them on rural highways pulling carts loaded with agricultural products 

During my time in Bikaner, I learned that the retired patriarch of my guest house actually used to work URMUL. He spoke with incredible respect about Dr.Ojha’s vision for a great society. He is striving to create a society that looks at people as people, rather than through the lens of their respective castes, ethnicities, economic means or social status. Dr.Ojha’s once turned down funding from a large corporation because he saw the corporation’s interests as a PR ploy which would actually URMUL’s beneficiaries. It takes serious vision and courage to turn down free money as an NGO. I am grateful to have met a role model for the style of leadership I would like to demonstrate one day.

India: The World’s Sausage Fest

You know when a group of young men show up at a club expecting plenty of buxom ladies to try picking up, only to realize it’s full of dudes? It causes some serious disappointment, frustration and often even anger. Well there is at least one place on this world where the sausage fest isn’t in just one club, but an entire country. Imagine the social consequences in such a society.

Female infanticide is a real serious issue in India. Dr.Ojha has been observing the national census closely over the last 30 years and has been greatly alarmed by the demographic changes in his state. There are 888 females to every 1,000 males in Rajasthan, meaning that roughly 10% of female babies are either aborted or murdered post-birth. 

Sadly, in a way you can’t blame them. The poverty level in Rajasthan combined with extremely conservative cultural norms place incredible odds against girls. While India does not have a universal one child policy similar to Chinas, a country which has created a similar demographic problem, there is an enforced two-child limit for those who work in the government (a coveted employer in the country). Generally, boys are strongly preferred in developing countries across the world because they carry on the family name, inherit the family’s possessions and can provide much needed muscle in rural agriculture. Cultural customs in India, such as the expectation for the bride’s family to bear wedding costs, disfavour the economics of raising a girl and create further reason to give her up. 

I came across these kids while visiting another village as the starting point for a desert trek. The two girls in the middle were absolutely adorable. It saddens me to think that there's a 10% chance they would not even have existed. 

Recognizing the issue, the Government of India has banned sonargraphies and sex-preference abortions. Unfortunately, doctors still perform sonargraphies under the table (the price of a human life in this context is sadly around $100 US) and surely they have many avenues to circumvent the rules for abortion. The combination of weak enforcement and corruption opposes the effectiveness of any judicial intervention of this frightening challenge.

Dr.Ojha taught me that the greater the sex ratio gets distorted, the more vulnerable women become. As they become scarcer, their safety even in public places is severely compromised and this is one of the reasons why rape is a real risk for women in India. The state of Haryana has legalized the marriage of one woman to multiple men… I can’t even imagine what her life would be like.

Empowerment is a major theme in helping alleviate gender issues in India. The economic empowerment of girls helps negate the cost advantages of raising a boy. The social empowerment of girls makes it harder to let go of a bright and happy daughter to child marriage. The personal empowerment of future mothers allow them to the stand up to the pressures of their family and society to produce a boy, and to say no to the option of a sonargraphy and female infanticide abortion.

Authentic Fair Trade

One of the challenges of desert life is the frequency and devastating effect of droughts which can completely compromise the livelihoods of entire families in a single season. Poor villagers cannot diversify their income generation effectively into alternate streams such as handcrafting because their customers are usually other poor villagers who face the same cyclicality that they do.

URMUL established a fair trade store called Abhivyakti next to its office to link rural handicrafts to the urban market of Bikaner and the broader global tourism market. These customer segments do not follow the same seasonal cyclicality that the rural poor do which opens up a market for their goods through even the toughest of droughts.

The building infrastructure is fully covered by URMUL and the operating costs (retail staff, electricity, etc.) are covered by the margins charged on the products. The rest goes to the villagers who created the goods. As an NGO, URMUL can’t profit on the goods beyond covering their costs, so the beneficiaries receive a respectable margin in return for their work. Awesome.

Rocking a silk Kurta. I'm actually tempted to wear this to a business meeting sometime

Unfortunately, there is a lot of money to be made off tourism and sometimes “Fair Trade” stores can actually be fake. I usually don’t write reviews on Tripadvisor but I will make an exception in this case to make sure more visitors support a great cause.

The Milk Man Cometh (Pun Intended)

I spent part of an afternoon with two of URMUL’s veterinarian doctors who are working on implementing Mission Milk, a government scheme created to improve the dairy yields of cows across India. I learned more about cow mating and sperm in an afternoon than I ever thought I would in a lifetime.

The Mission Milk plan is to identify a handful of champion bulls (who can naturally produce over an amazing 25 litres of milk per day) and to artificially inseminate all the lady cows of India with their genetic superiority. The milk yields of the offspring are then monitored to continue finding the best bulls for the next generation. The long term increase in productivity has potential to stimulate the economy while providing more food for the people. Villagers often have their own cow so a significant increase in dairy yields can lead to great leaps forward in fighting rural malnutrition and poverty.

This type of genetic selection might seem like a common practice in many countries but India has been challenged by poor agricultural education and countless stray bulls who rampage across the country spreading their genetic inferiority in milk production. 

This epic bull would probably go after any good lookin' lady cow he can get his horns on. The milk productivity of his offspring is not guaranteed or refundable.

Mission Milk is a major national endeavour. URMUL alone has hired 58 artificial insemination technicians for the task and it is only one of dozens of NGO’s selected to implement the program. The entire plan and process was explained to me by a passionate Dr. Sahoo. I even got to see some cow sperm. Apparently it moves much faster than human sperm. Learn something new every day, right?

Nourishing the Desert Poor

I joined a couple of URMUL’s program officers for their routine rural site visits in the desert. First, we dropped by one of the beneficiary’s homes to see how they were doing. 

Anaemia is a serious problem in rural Rajasthan, especially when combined with the issue of child marriage which leads to high mortality rates for both the newborn and the adolescent-mother. Getting food to the poor in a sustainable way is one of the most effective interventions against malnutrition (duh!). URMUL helps villagers grow food in their own backyards by providing tools, seeds and training, helping them save $1.50/day on groceries while introducing fresh natural produce into their diets. 

I just wanted a photo of the garden patch but the son of the family eagerly jumped into the photo. Given what I know about how much Indians love photoshoots, this didn't surprise me at all =)

A wedding ceremony was happening when we arrived to the village and we were eagerly invited to join in. Before you knew it, I was busting out my best (albeit limited) Indian dance moves with some random dude’s turban on my head with the entire village cheering me on.

Dance dance revolution... Bollywood style!

This was THE craziest dance move I have ever seen. It is a special tribal ritual dance, starting with a sand-filled cup on the floor with a needle sticking out the top. Yes, he's doing exactly what he looks like he's doing...

...and there's the needle sticking out of his eye. Gangnam Style's got nothing on this. Mind. Blown. 

Self Help Groups for Development

Self Help Groups (SHG’s) are a common best practice across the international development scene. As the name suggests, they are cooperatives to help with the mutual development of a community. SHG’s are usually run by women because they are proven to be far more effective at directing resources for long term sustainable progress than men.

I got to sit in on an URMUL check-up with an SHG leader and learned about how SHG’s work. Each URMUL-organized SHG comprises roughly 20 members who contribute 100 rupees (~$1.67 US) per month to the group. The women are aged 21-45, after which the women are unfortunately considered too senior to be relevant for community conversations. 

The woman in yellow is Padma, the leader of the SHG. She is known to be an incredibly hard and dedicated person working towards the development of her local community

The money contributed to the SHG is managed as a pool to help develop the community, for example: 

• Issuing loans at 1% monthly interest to its members. If a member wants to purchase a cow, she can borrow money from the group to do so and the money stays within the community rather than going to a bank
• Providing insurance against catastrophes. If a member becomes widowed and all of the sudden she has to burden unaffordable funeral costs, the SHG can provide assistance
• Constructing common infrastructure such as community toilets can be funded with SHG money
• Purchasing shared assets such as goats which can produce more income for the SHG pool

To date, the SHG I met has collected 25,000 rupees, 20,000 of which were loaned out to its members and the balance held in a bank as a cash float.

Two more women from the SHG. I heard you can tell if a woman is empowered just by looking at her eyes. This was definitely the case for these women.

I gained exposure to URMUL’s ability livelihood and adolescent girl education programs firsthand as well as part of my visit, where URMUL plays a role through the provision of financial support.

This visit was one of the most educational experiences in my life and I am incredibly grateful of Dr.Ojha’s generosity with his time and his invitation to join his staff in observing their work. If anybody is interested in supporting URMUL, do visit the website at http://www.urmul.org. They are an outstanding organization doing great work in the deserts of Rajasthan.

Reflections on My Journey to Date

Entry Started on a Local Train En Route to Bundi, Rajasthan on February 8, 2014 and Completed on a UNESCO Heritage Train to the Himalayan Mountains on March 14, 2014

I am starting a new “Reflections” series of blog entries focused just on, well, the name says it all. I am a month past the halfway point of my sabbatical and reflection is something I knew I needed to do. Putting my thoughts on paper helps me think through where I have been, what I have learned and where I would like to focus going forward.

Articulating the Struggle of Being… Me?

The first half of my sabbatical has been a truly transformational time of my life. I am starting to get a sense of how my time in India will shape me over the long run.

Nearly six years ago, I was a pretty happy backpacking traveller without much of a care in the world. My journey in Asia was nearing its closure and corporate life in Canada awaited me. I was faced with a real tough decision: should I keep doing what made me happy or pursue the corporate ladder?

I went for the corporate ladder and wondered ever since if I had made the right decision. Part of me often daydreamed of a parallel universe where I chose a different path.

I have always struggled with the trade-off between pursuing happiness and ambition. Even during my sabbaticals, my ambitious nature doesn’t allow me to simply relax and I find myself filling my time with courses and volunteer work at the global level. At the same time, being a part of mainstream society saps my spirits and geographical isolation has been the only effective antidote I have found to date.

My internal struggle led to an identity crisis. Am I the Henry that walks through a live mine field in Laos for fun while dressed in rags? Or the Henry who kills it in the corporate board room while rocking fancy tailored suits and French cuff shirts? The Henry who wanders into a slum hoping to get lost? Or the Henry who saved an energy company $11M USD four months into his management consulting career? It sounds like I’m describing two different people here but all of that is just… me.

My idea of a good time: This photo was taken in Bolivia during my six week trip to South America in 2011. We set out at 1am for a five hour stroll in a high altitude Andean desert to try and catch flamingos sleeping. Our only assurance that we would not get lost was that we were on a flat desert and would be easily found by a search party. We were dismayed to realize that flamingoes did NOT sleep where they fed on the lake. 

I am on the left in the photo with a tablecloth draped over my head to protect me from the desert winter. Stupidity had nothing to do with our adventure, my travel companion was a member of Mensa. It sure is tough to find these sorts of adventures as a working professional in a developed country.

Where This Sabbatical Fits In... I Think?

I think the life I'm living now is the life that I would have lived if I never returned to Canada and kept travelling. It is helping put my mind at ease about the "what if" of continuing to live as a homeless backpacking bum.

After travelling the world and realizing its awesomeness six years ago, I concluded that creating a better society and planet was an important part of what I wanted to do with my life. One of the intentions of my sabbatical was to figure out what exactly this meant. With the rise of impact investing and social innovation across the world, I knew now would be an opportune time to ride the front of the new wave of social change. 

The other goal of my sabbatical was to create a sense of inner harmony. The same relentlessness and drive that attributed to my success in life also tore apart my health. I simply cannot turn off my brain. Seeking spirituality is deeply important to me and there is no better place to do it than in India.

I have made tremendous progress in the last five months, especially as I now read some of my darker blog posts that I wrote during the early parts of my journey but didn’t publish. I am lighter than before, more willing to strike conversations with strangers, generous to those around me and overall starting to turn around what was a fairly precarious psychological state when I first embarked on this journey.

Enough Philosophy... Where in the World is Henry?

Here are some fun statistics (as of 3 weeks ago):

• 14,400 kilometres travelled within India, mostly by local trains and buses
• 19 cities/towns visited across 9 states
• 3,200 photographs captured

What I have covered to date. Because Mumbai served as my central base of operations, my travels around India were by no means contiguous or efficient. On the bright side, I am a pro at navigating India's railway network now

Much of my time to date was spent volunteering for an NGO called Dasra, India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation for large scale social change. I was serendipitously connected to the organization through one of my Senior Managers who happened to be the sister of Dasra’s co-founder.

Dasra is a phenomenal organization which has directed $38M USD to date towards impactful NGO’s and social businesses in India, not to mention countless NGO-sector executive education courses delivered and capacity building hours offered to leading NGO’s in the country.

The Dasra Story

Dasra’s founders, the husband-wife dynamic duo of Neera Nundy (an Indo-Canadian) and Deval Sanghavi (an Indo-American), are two of the most inspirational people I have ever met. They met during a prior Investment Banking life at Morgan Stanley on Wall Street and identified a need to direct the same level of screening rigour to social investments in India as financial investments in the developed world.

A passionate Deval arrived to India first, 14 years ago, and was joined by Neera shortly after she completed her MBA at Harvard. The early Dasra days were stuff of legend. They held their wedding at a school run by Neera’s mom, providing pretty strong incentive to upgrade the rooms and toilets at the school in the process. Deval painted the school himself in the scorching Indian heat. They travelled the country by train, met philanthropists and social entrepreneurs, and slowly but surely figured out their model for success.

Today, Dasra is one of leading and most respected NGO’s in India with 65 employees and backing from some of the top funders in the sector such as USAID and the Omidyar Network. Neera was recently awarded the Governor General of Canada’s Medallion for her outstanding work in creating social change. There is no doubt that Deval and Neera could have become immensely wealthy and lived a life of luxury in America, which is why I admire them so much more for directing their vast talents to a noble cause.

Moral of the story for Henry: marry a social do-gooding woman and gallivant into the sunset with her, spreading love and peace across the world in the process.

Here's a nice article about Neera and Deval's philosophy to building a great office culture.

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/X8LlZtYnSwgHO1R5yMgHpM/The-social-multipliers.html

Photo of Deval and Neera borrowed from the linked article above

Where Dasra Fits in the Ecosystem

The world has a lot of kind hearted people doing amazing things to create a better society. India is no exception. There are over 3 million charities, non-profits, trusts and foundations in the country. The challenge is that many of them lack the resources and pragmatic business acumen to exponentially scale their programs. Philanthropists are weary of this and are painfully unwilling to part with their money because they want assurance that their investments will create their intended impact.

Dasra addresses this gap by channelling much needed knowledge, funding and connections into the sector. Its innovative approach combines research, investment due diligence, capacity building and education to enable leading NGO’s across the country to do what they do better.

The organization has done great work in illuminating the profile and knowledge of great NGO’s in the overall areas of health, education and livelihoods. Its focus has now shifted towards adolescent girls. Believe it or not, some conservative philanthropists believe that girls are not worth the investment because they just become housewives in the future. This is a mindset that Dasra aims to shift. Studies show that adolescent girls are actually an area of high social return on investment. Here are some quick stats often cited by Dasra:

• 37% of girls marry after the legal age of marriage in India
• An extra year of secondary school increases a girl's potential income by 15-25%
• Girls are the largest reservoir of talent in the world
• Delaying adolescent pregnancy could add 12% to India's GDP

Invest...

...in...

...their...

...futures!

While focusing on the social sector at the issue level, Dasra brings together high potential organizations for educational workshops focused on combating those issues, helping them create a sense of community amongst each other in the process.

A snapshot of the Child Marriage sector workshop. This part of the workshop is called the "Gallery Walk" where social entrepreneurs showcase their work, learn from each other and have opportunities to share best practices

So where does Dasra fit in the ecosystem? Well, Dasra sort of IS the ecosystem. It is the glue that sticks all the social impact players together and helps them work in greater harmony.

Dasra’s website is http://www.dasra.org, but if any readers of this blog want more information on the organization, certainly do get in touch with me and I would be ecstatic to share.

Dasra colleagues cheering on the runners of the Mumbai Marathon

The office cat. Some hated him. Others tolerated him.

My Role at Dasra

I was extremely lucky to have a chance to contribute to the organization as a volunteer and get exposure to the sector at a strategic level in the process. I kept busy on a number of initiatives during my time at the organization:

• I helped improve a corporate CSR initiative where Dasra partnered with Vodafone to place employee volunteers with organizations across the country for two months to contribute their skills to the sector. I visited one of the volunteers in rural Rajasthan to identify improvement points for future offerings of the program. The organization was Educate Girls, an NGO focused on getting out-of-school girls back in school (and keeping them there). With Dasra’s help, the organization has been able to scale from 50-5,000 schools in the last 5 years and aims to expand to another 6,000 schools over the next year (I hope I remember my numbers correctly there!)

• I played a role in helping the due diligence team screen social investments in the area of Menstrual Hygiene. This included a series of due diligence phone calls and a screening site visit out to the Centre of World Solidarity, an organization near Hyderabad which is like a mini-Dasra for grassroots NGO’s with an educational curriculum for menstrual hygiene management

My site visit to a school in rural Andhra Pradesh to evaluate an implemented menstrual hygiene program. I was accompanied by my Dasra colleague and all-purpose Finance all star Anisha (top row, third from left)

Sanitary pads produced by the NGO and sold at a subsidized rate. Sadly, the NGO ran out of funding and could no longer run the manufacturing operation

• I spent around 3 weeks off-site just outside of Bombay helping deliver Dasra Social Impact courses, India’s largest and most reputable education program for social entrepreneurs. These courses were awesome and my role included anything from mentoring the attendees in crafting their business plans to acting as the course photographer. Over 200 graduates have completed the DSI courses since inception and Dasra is in the process of launching a marquis program in partnership with Harvard Business School over the next year

The Strategies for Scale class. I supported the delivery of three similar courses and had invaluable networking and learning opportunities. I rekindled with a number of these contacts and visited their operations as I later travelled the country

• As a true consultant, I couldn’t resist trying to find ways that the organization could work more effectively. My Manager challenged me to find opportunities for improvement and I came up with 70-something slides of recommendations to help Dasra keep up with its own growth through institutionalizing its processes and practices

Yes, they turned one of my Powerpoint slides into my going away cake as I wrapped up my tenure at Dasra. I have had my slides printed, projected and whiteboarded but never caked. Thanks Dasra for a memorable going away! My consulting colleagues should note that I am still using proper MINTO headlines and all boxes are both horizontally AND vertically aligned. Don't worry, I haven't lost my magic Powerpoint touch yet... ;)

There were some times when I could have been busier but overall I think I managed to squeeze a measurable degree of contribution during my sabbatical while learning a ton in the process. Because Dasra operates as an ecosystem builder for the entire social sector in India, it provided a strategic perch from which I could quickly gain exposure to the sector and unravel how all its different agents come together to create social impact. I will always value my time with the organization and can't wait to see where it plants seeds in my future impact initiatives.

Life Outside of Dasra

I spent up to three days a week studying at The Yoga Institute after work and finally found some of the answers to inner peace that I have been looking for. I will write more about my spiritual experiences in another reflections entry.

Between Dasra, Yoga, and my body’s inability to adjust to India in general, I spent most of my spare time just being a total vegetable. I spent my weekends exploring the city, meeting new friends or taking trips out of town. For the most part, the Bombay experience was like life as usual but I was living in a whole different part of the world.

Bombay is hard to describe. It is a city of 20 million people (2/3 the population of Canada!) and serves as a commercial and cultural hub for all of India. Below are my best attempts at being a documentary photojournalist:

A rickshaw stand at the Bandra Railway Station. Rickshaws vary in shape, color and engine type all across India. These black and yellow rickshaws are a signature of Bombay's rickshaw style. I call them "bumblebees" because of their color and constant annoying disruptions to my peace and quiet

It is more common than not for people to hang outside the city trains even much further out than shown here. The trains in Bombay do not have doors simply because of capacity issues. People jump on and off the trains to the station platforms while the trains are still moving (sometimes you have to, the trains don't wait for everybody to get off). Sadly, this is all very dangerous and there are deaths pretty much every day related to railway safety incidents in the city

Ladies only. Given the crazy crowdedness of the trains in the city, separate cars were set aside for the comfort and safety of women

This is the Bandra Railway Station, the nearest station to my home. As the gateway to my exploration across the entire city, the sight of this station reminds me of adventure

A narrow lane of the largest slum in Asia. My full blog entry can be found here

The Global Vipassana Pagoda of Bombay, an off the beaten track gem which Hank the Travelling Domo thoroughly enjoyed

The inside of the pagoda boasts the world's largest unsupported stone dome. This meditation chamber can seat an astounding 8,000 meditators

Sarees drying at the Dhobi Ghat, Asia's largest open air laundromat

The view of the Dhobi Ghat from a nearby overpass. It is a laundromat at an industrial scale which largely serves local hospitals and businesses

The boiler room within the Dhobi Ghat where hospital uniforms are thoroughly sanitized and washed

A boy eagerly jumping into my shot of the cityscape. He shook my hand immediately after this shot and then ran off

The sun setting behind Bombay's sky line. India's sun is masked by pollution and mist so it always looks circular rather than bursting with beams of light like I'm used to in Canada

The colonial era architectural wonders of Bombay. The building on the right is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) station

The CST station is a complete monster. It is the main station which serves a city of 20 million and is one of the last places I would want to lose someone

Locals enjoying the beach scene. As a conservative nation, Indians love running into the water fully clothed. It's quite a scene to watch but I have never seen happier people so they must be doing something right

Bombay is a seamless blend of old and new, rich and poor, religion and everyday life. One can expect to see temples and shrines on nearly every single block in this city

The inside of the St. Peter's church five minutes from my home. I visited this church many times during my stay. It is the one place in Bombay I could find peace and quiet.

Hanging out with my landlord. Besides the fact that he is one of the most stand-up guys out there, he also works as a Bollywood extra as a hobby. I'd usually come home to stories of his day as a patron sitting at the back of a restaurant, one of hundreds of guests at some party, the father of a hot daughter or the man who got assassinated immediately upon leaving his car

My building and my park. I wanted to do Rocky Balboa style workouts at the park playground but sadly they had really strange hours. They weren't open on weekends and weekday evenings. What the heck??

My studio, measuring roughly 300 sq ft and cost roughly $500 US/month

The switch panel right above my bed. Even after 4 months of living there I could never figure out which switch I needed to press when I woke up in the morning 

My Journey Continues

I was really sad when my time in Bombay came to an end not because I was going to miss the city itself, but the people within it. My colleagues at Dasra were amazing and I will always be a part of the organization’s fan club. If I ever became super rich, I would totally help contribute financially to a Dasra Giving Circles which directs funding towards specific issues.

Because discovering social impact is the theme of my sabbatical, I have been meeting up with social entrepreneurs all over the country who I’ve run into throughout my journey. Some of them include:

• Vasudev and Lakshmi of The Good Karma Foundation, an organization set up by Vasudev, an early Hotmail investor in the Silicon Valley who now owns a Private Equity firm in San Francisco. His Lakshmi sister runs a couple social businesses, Wiksdom and Rolapena, through the foundation in India. I met both of them in Kerala and learned a great deal about how a Chartered Accountant was able to make tons of cash and give back to his home country
• Anita from Insights Applied, a co-owner of social business consulting firm I met during a social enterprise networking event in Bangalore. She is still in the process of tweaking the consulting model for the sector and I’m excited to see where it goes
• Anubhav of Care Companion, an educational platform that prepares patients and families to safely return home after a major surgery. He’s a stand-up guy and we actually share a lot in common despite being worlds apart in culture and geography
• Ridhi of Rainbow Voluntours, who I met while in a coffee shop in Kochi. She was working on the organization’s website on a massive laptop screen which caught my attention and we spent the afternoon chatting about the work we have been doing in India
• And my favourite to date, Arvind of URMUL Trust, a wise force of the desert. He is one of my greatest inspirations to date and I will write about my visit with him in my next blog entry

These social entrepreneurs are a huge source of inspiration for me. I have been fortunate to get to see some of their operations and am grateful for all the knowledge I gained from my interactions with them.

So What’s Next?

With my employer saving a job position for me in June, there is a sense of urgency to make sure that returning to a consulting career is the right decision for me. Ultimately, I am at a crossroads between diving right into an impactful life like Deval and Neera of Dasra did 14 years ago, or build up wealth first and distribute it later like Vasudev of The Good Karma Foundation.

…or maybe there’s a middle road? I feel that with the growth in the social innovation space, creating an impact and pursuing my career does not have to be mutually exclusive. There is huge scope for ecosystem building as a consultant. Or the application of financial acumen as an impact investor.

I am really at conflict right now about what it takes to create a great society. There are a lot of contradictory forces at work in the universe which make it hard for me to visualize what it means to actually make a positive difference.

For the time being, I do have at least another month to crystalize my thoughts. In the meantime, the rest of my journey will be focused on continuing my spiritual practice, getting my health in order and figuring out my next steps in life. I have an upcoming 10-day silent meditation course and I’m feeling like living like a Tibetan monk for a week in the Indian Himalayas.

Surely there will be more reflections to come over the next couple months!