THE LEADERSHIP JOURNEY!

Here is an experience of the LEAD PRAYANA 2015 for the people who missed experiencing it. I hope you have the same amount of joy and pleasure that the students faced during the journey!

This is how the journeys story starts!

DAY 1: January 23^rd

The first day of the journey began with a Kick off of Prayana by all the participants and the other staff with a lot of enthusiasm and joy. The Prayanies fastened their seat belts and reached Nizamabad with the introductory tour to Kakathiya Sandbox with a lot of masti and enthusiasm.

Prayanees had a great opportunity to go to Ankapur Village, richest village of Nizamabad district; prayanees interacted with villagers and learned the technology used for farming. They also experienced how Ankapur village has become a model village.Later the participants went to Narsingpally and met a great person named Mr.V.Narsimha Reddy. He established “Ma Palle Charitable Trust” in 2007 and started water schemes and Oxygen Donation. He is a man behind ‘Save Democracy’ and other development projects of Narsingapally. The students were staying there in the village and having lot of fun and fun filled activities and were waiting for the next day’s visit.

DAY 2: January 24^th

The participants began their journey with more enthusiasm, had a lovely walk with the nature and visited the entire village. There, they got a chance to meet great personalities from the film Industry like Mr. Dil Raju and CEO Founder of SRDS Mr.Sikindar in the village Narsingapally. Mr. DilRaju is one of the most successful Telugu film producers. He has produced successful films such as Dil, Arya, Bhadra, Bommarillu, Parugu, Kotha Bangaru Lokam, MaroCharitra, Brindavanam, Mr. Perfect, and Oh My Friend. His latest releases are Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, Ramayya Vasthavayya, and Yevadu.He interacted with the Prayanees for more than 3 hours and shared his life story, challenges faced during his film industry journey. 

The Prayanee’s got a chance to ask questions and got inspired. Mr. Sikandar the CEO Founder of SRDS introduced the youth and gave them more inspiration by narrating about “SRDS is a non-profit organization founded in January of 2008. SRDS focuses on building rainwater collection systems that guides the resource back to earth to be stored for future use. He work to bring about awareness in rainwater conservation practices and protection and recycling of water is essential.Sikandar devised method of reduce the cost of constructing the structures and he could actually brought about package where the cost construction by 60% in rural and 50% in urban areas”.

This day ended with great zeal and zest by conducting a successful!

DAY 3 and DAY 4: January 25^th & 26^th

On a gloomy morning the participants traveled to Hyderabad with great amusement and went for a mini excursion to the CARE Hospital. The Introductory tour was taken by Mr.Mahender Pala and the journey care was by Col. Rajagopal – CHRD. These personalities gave them a lot of information through fun filled activities about the recent updating in the field of Medicine which is very important these days. 

The great Cardiologist was one of the Role Model's of LEAD Prayana 2015. Dr. N. Krishna Reddy has graduated from Osmania Medical College in 1984 with honors. He completed his MD in Internal Medicine from the prestigious Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh in 1987. He did his fellowship in Cardiology leading to DM from GB Pant Hospital, Delhi University, New Delhi. He co-founded the Care Hospitals in 1997, which has grown rapidly from 100-bed strength, single hospital, and single specialty entity to more than 1500-bed strength, 12-hospitals, 6-states, and multi-specialty within a short span of 10 years. Through these experiences students learnt how to serve the society and what other people are doing to save the citizens. After the hospital visit, they were taken to a Residential school called Sri SaraswathiShishuMandir.

On the next day, in Hyderabad to keep the Prayanies fit for the rest of the journey they were guided to do Yoga and celebrated Republic day in the same Mandir.On this auspicious day the participants visited the great IIIT-H and got a chance to grab many pebbles which will turn into gold later, from great entrepreneurs like Chinmay, Venky, Sanjeev, Deepesh, Manoj and many more gave them appreciation of various fields which included Mr. Srinivas Kollipara(COO), IIT-H Foundation.

Mr.Srinivas Kollipara (Chief Operating Officer of the IIIT-H Foundation) gave them great insights about how this great Institute, runs the Centre  for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. CIE is one of the largest incubation centers in the country with 29,000 sq. ft. of space and around 60 startups on site. He is an active startup consultant and mentor, and advises startups on building viable, fundable and profitable companies by refining business models and strategies in order to build sustainable competitive advantages.

DAY 5: January 27^th

LEAD Prayana a leadership journey to unleash leadership potential, from January 23^rd to February 7^th with 137 college students from throughout the country traveled across Karnataka and part of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh interacting with role models and experienced speakers and expose with their remarkable work.  As the LEAD Prayana tagline suggests, students became inspired in order to unleash their leadership potential through exposure to individuals and institutions that have innovated and implemented solutions to major challenges. Through this leadership journey on wheels, the LEAD Program aims to build in youth the need to bring a change through effective leadership. 

 Throughout the 16 day journey, the Prayana students traveled 1,800 km to interact with more than 20 role models and speakers throughout 9 locations. Each day was full of excitement, enjoyment and learning to ensure that Prayana participants kept their energy high.

Day 1 and Day2: Belgaum

Students started their journey at VTU in Belgaum. After, the students completed their registration process; they spent the day learning about VTU and its impressive efforts. The day ended with cultural programs. Next day , the flag off ceremony was hosted by Chief Guest Mr. Vivek Pawar (Founder of Sankalp Semiconductor), Guest of Honor as Naveen Jha (CEO of Deshpande Foundation), Mr. Ajay Suman (Functional Head of LEAD and LEAD Prayana) and Dr. H. Maheshappa (Vice Chancellor of VTU).

Day3:Tumkur

LEAD Prayana participants began its third day of the journey full of energy. They did Yoga under the guidance of Dr. Ramaswamy (Executive Director of Shri Patanjali Yoga Shikshana Samiti). The students also visited Siddaganga Math and were blessed by Sree Sree Sree Shivkumar Swamiji. They also participated in community activities at the Math.

       Later, in the evening students interacted with    Director of SIT,Tumkur, Dr. M.N. Channabasappa . He spoke about the market scenario for the engineering students.

Day 4: Dodballapur

The fourth day of Prayana began with celebration of 65^th Republic Day at SIT Tumkur. Director of SIT, Tumkur, hosted the National flag and spoke about the importance of constitution in a democratic country like India. After the celebration, the participants of Prayana moved towards Mavenahalli near Dodballapur where they met real life example of ''simple living and high thinking '' who is Dr. L. Narayan Reddy (National awardee of organic farming). 

        The participants of LEAD Prayana visited the farm of Dr. Narayan Reddy at Mavenahalli and learnt the importance of organic farming and the harmful effects of using chemicals and pesticides in farming and crops production.

Day 5 & 6: Kuppam (Andhra Pradesh)

The participants of LEAD Prayana arrived to Agastya International Foundation on Jan 27 to learn, explore and develop new perspective about their environment. During their two day stay at foundation which was on 27 and 28 of February. They created a high energy wave by working on science models and involving in community activities. The LEAD Prayana participants performed a street play in five villages of Kuppam; Mushtrahalli, Kothapalli, Dhonimadgu grama, Kamasamudra and Bangarpeth and created awareness about dowry, child marriage and superstitions. The participants also involved themselves in several community leadership activities like plantation of saplings and painting a bus stand at Salachinthanapalli.

Day 7: Bangalore

The LEAD Prayana participants spent their 7th day of Prayana journey at Bangalore with Rajinish Menon, Director of Microsoft Ventures and Team Indus. They also interacted with Ramji Raghavan, Founder of Agastya International Foundation.

     The director of Microsoft ventures interacted with participants and shared life incident which caused him to achieve great heights. Students were inspired by the unique dream of Team Indus and their dedication towards it. Later in the day, students interacted with the founder of Agastya International Foundation, Ramji Raghavan and learnt lessons on how a person can follow his dream and passion to achieve what he wants and leaving very high profile job in foreign country.

Day8: Mysore    

                                                   
Participants began their day at S-VYASA with a session by Pro vice Chancellor of S-VYASA, Dr. H. Nagendra. He spoke about the importance of Yoga in daily life and advantages of practicing it.

After the short visit to University campus, Prayana team began their journey towards Infosys, Mysore. At Infosys Mysore, the participants spent their day at Infosys Centre of Learning. The students were marveled at the brilliant architecture and the hard work that was put in to bringing a beautiful campus of 337 acres which trains 14000 employees. Along with the campus visit, students were given a session on leadership qualities by Mr. Sundar K, Senior Lead Principal of Education and Training Unit.

               

Day 9 & 10: Dharmasthala

Participants of Prayana were fascinated by the holy town of Dharmasthala. The cleanliness, rural development programs, sewage treatment, organic farming, waste management are followed through SKDRDP and SIRI programs at Dharmasthala. The participants of LEAD Prayana 2015 were inspired. They also interacted with the man behind the success of Dharmasthala activities, Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade.

Day 11: Mangalore

 On the eleventh day of the Prayana, LEAD Prayana participants had an educational tour to Kalbhavi cashew nut industry at Mangalore. Students saw nanoPix Cashew Sorting Machine first-hand. While cashew sorting can be a lengthy process because of the need for visual inspection, the nanopic Cashew Sorting Machine relies on its ImageIn Technology to inspect the cashew nuts more quickly and efficiently. The students then engaged in a session with Sasi Sekar (Founder and CEO, nanoPix). He inspired the students with his advice to identify passion and channel it to become an entrepreneur. 

Day12: Manipal

On twelth day of the journey with LEAD Prayana 2015, participants  visited campus of Manipal University and interacted with Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal University, Dr. Vinod Bhat. He spoke about the great heights that Manipal University has reached recently. It is imparting education in all the fields including medical, management, hospitality, etc. 

 On the same day they reached Hubli and attended session at Seven Beans, a popular hangout café in Hubli. Mr. Gautam Ostwal, the President of TiE Hubli addressed the gathering and spoke about starting up a business. He also spoke about the advantage of having good networks.

Day 13: Dharwad

Akshay Patra (world’s biggest kitchen) and Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (unique music school for rural kids) was the destination of LEAD Prayana on their 13th day of journey. The participants learnt about the functioning and operation of Akshay Patra kitchen and interacted with Pramod Swamiji. 

Pramod Swamiji spoke about the history of Akshay Patra and how it is serving food to 9000 schools and thus covering 8 lakh students. Later in the day, the participants had a pleasurable experience of exploring the campus of Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya and interacted with the students.

Day 14: Hubli

LEAD Prayana participants 2015 interacted with Mr. Gururaj Deshpande and Mrs. Jaishree Deshpande in the morning on 14th day of their journey. Gururaj Deshpande advised students to concentrate on their health and develop the habit of yoga every day.

He said that - without health you cannot achieve much. So do not ignore health. Later in the day, the participants interacted with Gaurav Shah, founder of seven beans and Shravani, co-founder of safe hands 24x7.

Day 15: Hubli

The Prayana students also visited the LEAD project displays and LEAD Talk sessions. Later in the day,

the students participated in the YUVA Summit, rally held to create awareness against child labour. The rally was held from Deshpande Foundation till The Taj Gateway, Hubli and it was surprised for the participants of Prayana to see Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, Mr. Narayana Murthy, Dr. Gururaj Deshpande and thousands of guest and youth accompanying with them on the rally against child labour.

Day 16: Hubli

The last day of the Prayana was spent interacting with entrepreneurs Mr. Phanindra Sama (founder of  redbus.in), Mr. Raju Reddy (founder of  Sierra Atlantic) and Mr. Anshu Gupta (Founder of Goonj). They had their last Prayana dinner at hotel Taj Gateway and bid farewell to each other with a heavy heart and lot of live experience and bounding with each other.

LEAD PRAYANA… the life transforming journey

It was in the holidays after a hectic 7^th semester that, I was waiting for some kind of tour for a break from the daily routine.  For my surprise, on 8^th of January I received a forwarded email from the college which was an application for “LEAD PRAYANA”.

It was a journey of not 3 days, not 5 days, not even a week but a grand 16 days. What stuck my eyes immediately was an opportunity to meet the role models like Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, the 2014 Nobel peace prize winner, N.R. Narayana Murty, the cofounder of Infosys, Phanindra Sama, the redbus.in founder, Suhas Gopinath, the founder, C.EO.  and chairman of Globals Inc., at the age of 25 and so many other legends whom I had seen only in the media so far!

A journey to 10 destinations across Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,  meeting role models and more than anything 15 days completely away from the routine chores made me to apply for it immediately. My application with the resume got selected for the next round of telephonic interview and I cleared it successfully too. I was one of those lucky 150 people who had been selected for the Prayana among the thousands of applications across the country.  But when I told this with my best friend, the only exclamation she made was, “Are you crazy? You are going for a long tour with all the strangers!” I really didn’t have any answer for it!

On 23^rd January morning I was at Viswesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Belagavi, which was so innovatively decorated by the young LEADers of Belagavi location. A part of the campus was filled with enthusiastic youngsters, who were finishing up the arrangements for Lead Prayana, wearing the blue t-shirt which read,  Complaints start with they… Solutions start with I

The program for the first day was a VTU campus tour. It was rather a frustrating day for me since I didn’t know anyone in the crowd. But the mesmerizing cultural events that evening by the Belgaum location cheered me up.

Next day an amazing activity whose aim was to make us know one another was organized. The activity was to move randomly with the eyes closed, when the organizers inform we opened the eyes and made a group of a particular number with whoever was around us. This was conducted for a long time and each time we made new friends, knowing a maximum number of people by the end of the activity.

After the session with V.T.U. vice chancellor Dr. Maheshappa, the journey started from Belgaum which is officially known as Lead Prayana kick off.  Prayana was not just visiting the sites and interacting with role models, every second of Prayana had learning with fun. Brain storming & leadership activities were conducted in the buses during journey.

Every prayani had an inspiring story to tell. There was a girl called Varsha who had just graduated from her bachelor’s degree being the topper in the whole university but was surprisingly practicing tailoring. She had denied even an offer letter from TCS. The sole reason for her craziness was she was following her dream of starting up something related to tailoring where she could train and employ hundreds of women who are in need.  Such was her passion and determination in realizing her dream. Sooner or later but without any doubt she is going to realize her dream. There was another brave gentleman called Dinesh who was an engineering graduate, was all set to start up his own food processing industry unlike other common graduates.

Like these, there were countless motivating stories of my co-prayanis, which were no less than any epics.

We reached our next destination- Siddaganga Institute of Technology, in Tumakuru we had the privilege to take the blessings of Dr. Shri Shri Shri Shivakumara Swamiji the so called walking God of Karnataka, who continues his humanitarian work even at the age of 108 and follows his routine time table strictly without any laziness unlike the majority of today’s youth.

Siddaganga Mutt Education Trust provides free education to around 8,000 poor students. At the surroundings of the mutt, we conducted so many activities like organizing games for the children. We also gave them cloth lines. We collected funds from the visitors and bought necessary items for the children, made them aware of cleanliness, we even cleaned the surroundings of the mutt which were made so dirty by the tourists and simultaneously conveyed the message of clean India to the public.

Next we headed for Doddaballapur to visit the organic farmer Dr. Narayana Reddy. I witnessed the real Indian culture at the place of that ‘karma yogi’. I had never seen a person so simple living than him despite of being a well known international resource person. His methods of cultivation have been studied by international experts as well as reputed scientists.We worked in his farm along with him and lost ourselves in the arms of nature. By evening we left the place unwillingly with loads of learning and lessons of simple living. 

Next we reached Kuppam of Andhra Pradesh where Agastya International Foundation is located. It is founded by Mr. Ramji Raghavan with a vision to build a creative India of “thinkers, solution-seekers, creators” by making practical hands-on science education accessible to students of government schools.

We witnessed a scientific and hyper innovative world there, where each and every concept of science was demonstrated and taught practically. It was a wonderful day at Agastya which currently is the largest hands-on science program in the world.

That evening we went to a nearby village and performed a street play with child labor as its theme with hardly any rehearsal. The play was so successfully enacted that the villagers received the message and requested us to visit them frequently.

It was a new experience for me, interacting with the village people where 90% of them were living below poverty line. Agriculture was their main profession but they did not have adequate water supply. All such miseries of the people reminded me of my ‘duty’ to serve the society. 

The stay at Kuppam ended with a grand cultural evening with dandia, folk songs, dance and unlimited fun.

Then, the next destination was Bengaluru and was the most exciting one because here the 40 LEAD Prayanis of route 2, Andhra Pradesh, joined us to travel the further journey together. At Bengaluru we had an exposure visit and session at Microsoft ventures.

There was an interactive session with TEAM INDUS and it was the most inspiring, most surprising session in the whole journey. TEAM INDUS was started by space enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and industry experts, who weren’t astronauts, weren’t scientists but they just had a dream to go to the Moon.

Many people in this world say that their dream is to land on moon but they actually don’t mean it since they already consider it is impossible. But these people actually followed their dream, they contacted the ISRO SCIENTISTS and learnt from them, did a research on space science and finally with such reckless hard work, now theirs is the only Indian entity in the prestigious Google Lunar XPrize. Soon they might create the history of being the first private organization to land on moon and that would be a very proud moment for Indians.

Further in the journey, we visited Infosys Mysuru, Dharamastala -where we even had a session with Dr. Veerendra Heggade. Then we visited a cashew industry of Mangaluru and had an interaction with Mr. Sasishekhar Krish. Then we proceeded to the Manipal University campus & had a session with Dr. Vinod Bhat.

At the end of the prayana we returned to Hubballi. Next we had an exposure visit to Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest kitchen. They fed 1.8 million children daily with a hygienic, healthy and a balanced meal, just because of the fact that they realized that when the basic needs of a child are not met, education often becomes the last priority. So this meal is an incentive for them to attend school daily and continue their education.

Next we landed up in a musical world at Kalkeri. It was founded and run by foreigners who provide musical & academic education to more than 200 underprivileged children free of charges.

More than a school Kalkeri sangeet Vidyalaya is a living and working ideal where students were given modern education and also taught the ancient disciples of Indian classical music. The prime emphasis is on teaching English as the main language of communication. Even the first standard students speak excellent English there.

Back in Hubballi 6 and 7 February were very important days, not only for the prayanis but also for the whole family of LEAD from 5 states of the country because of the annual grand celebration, awarding and appreciating the initiatives and actions of the LEADers, the YUVA SUMMIT.

It is a renowned conference on leadership, development, innovation & entrepreneurship and is a meeting of galaxy of academicians, entrepreneurs & enthusiastic youth. The chief speakers of the summit were Mr. Kailash Satyarti and Mr. N.R.Narayana Murty. Prior to the summit, the Prayanis had moved around the entire Hubballi and collected pledges from thousands of the people against child labour in support of Mr.Kailash Satyarti’s  Bachpan Bachao Andolan .

We performed flash mob at Urban Oasis mall and at the end of the performance, conveyed Mr. Satyarti’s message to the people gathered there. Yuva summit was the most mesmerizing occasion I had ever witnessed in my life.  So many legendaries like Mr.Narayana Murty, Mr.Rajanish Menon, Mr.Naveen Jha, Mr.Goutam Ostwal were all gathered at the Deshpande Foundation. Young successful entrepreneurs like Mrs. Shravani, Mr.Abhishek Bendigeri, Mr. Phanindra Sama, Mr. Suhas Gopinath and countless others were guiding and inspiring the LEADers who approached them. The famous writer Rashmi Bansal was giving her e-mail address to the students who were passionate writers but needed guidance in that field. Thus Yuva Summit provided a golden opportunity for us to interact directly with the otherwise not reachable legends.  

There were interactive sessions with founders of Deshpande Foundation, with Mr. Kailash Satyarti, with Mr. Narayana Murty, Mr.Phanindra Sama and also Mr. Suhas Gopinath at whose session I got the privilege to propose the vote of thanks.

Yuva summit best LEADer award ceremony was held at Taj Gateway hotel with more than thousand people witnessing the ceremony & Mr. Kailash Satyarti presenting the best LEADer award.

I had started the journey with strangers and finally it was the last day of the journey- 7^th of February. By the,we, all the 150 special and unique prayanis had become the life time closest best friends and guides of each other. We learnt a lot from each other more than what we had learnt from the role models.

Before coming in contact with all my co-prayanis, I was just like a frog in the well! Most of the prayanis who were already the LEAD members & were in the first or second year of different fields like engineering, commerce, science, medicine etc. and  had completed so many projects in different fields - social, technical, agricultural, health and many more - and were making an impact in the society. They were literally following the idea of being the change that they want to see in the world.

Through prayana we got the courage to question anything, learnt excellent communication skill. We actually came out of that shell of hesitation and got that urge to achieve greater success in life by being different from the crowd. The journey taught us to be the problem solvers than being the complaint boxes. Throughout the journey we were made so close to the word entrepreneurship by providing us close interaction with successful, young and inspiring entrepreneurs. 

On the night of February 7, we had a dinner party arranged for us at the Gateway hotel Hubballi. We promised our friend and philosopher, LEAD and LEAD PRAYANA functional head Mr. Ajay Suman Shukla that we would apply the learning that we acquired during those golden 16 days into life and make an impact in society.

The Prayana was not just a journey but was a package of immense pleasure;  hardships at times but it instilled in us some life transforming values  which would inspire us to serve our society, and in turn, the nation.  With the end of Lead Prayana, the real prayana of our life had begun with a new sense of purpose and direction.