Visit to Kashipur (Uttaranchal) in April 2010

Posted on May 30, 2010. Filed under: Activity Based Learning, Entrepreneurship, Social Venture |

It was Jet-lite flight, scheduled to take off in the evening from Mumbai. When I reached the airport, I got to know that the flight was postponed by several hours. This means I would miss my connecting train from Delhi for Kashipur, a small but vibrant town in Uttaranchal! I had changed my cell number and the sms regarding the flight was sent to my earlier Kolkata number. Reluctantly I moved to the booking counter outside to check if any other flight was available before late evening. There was one within 15 minutes and I was asked to turn back, run to the counter and request the checkin staff. Fortunately the flight was not yet closed and I managed to get in courtesy Jet hospitable staff!

While in the bus at the tarmac in Delhi airport, I thought it was good idea to have a beer with my old friend Rahul from Lucknow who is currently with Railways. He was on a visit and was expected to be back to New Delhi station by 8:30 PM approximately. I thought of spending some time in Connaught Place, the hangout of IIT days. CP is a mess right now as its being renovated. Hardly any place to even walk properly. But few joints are always crowded. Keventers – The milkshake corner in CP, still alive and attracts good crowd. One chocolate milkshake with lots of ice flakes in it! Ummmm so refreshing!

In a nearby music shop, I found Ramayana sung by Mukesh. A rare collection that I was searching for real long time. Proceeded to Ram Chandar & Sons shop for kids and found Kipper the Dog, hindi version! Superb animation and lovely stories and even I also enjoy with my son now! Some more time and KFC fit the schedule perfectly with lots of chicken on my plate. Being a vegetarian by choice, I had to chew the flesh a lot and that’s how I spent one hour in KFC before I got a call from my friend that he is getting back. Metro from CP till New Delhi! Travel in Delhi can be so relaxed. I wish it was there 15 years back!!

Rahul took me to a wine shop in CP where buying wine is itself an experience! Pick up and shop yourself. Much like any popular self-service shopping mall. Similar to the wine malls in western countries. I took a bottle of red wine for myself and my friend preferred the traditional whisky instead of experimenting with something new. Few sips led to debate over Swami RamDev getting into politics – should he or shouldn’t he? Is it a right move or wrong? Is it driven by hunger of power? Or is it an outcome of sincere aspiration to contribute to the nation building? I took the later view. My friend felt it as just another power hungry move. The debate remained inconclusive as I had to catch the night train for Kashipur. To be continued next time!

Got to Kashipur early in the morning. My home is some 12 kms away in a village and there is no direct transport available till 7 AM. As advised by my local friend Ravi, I took a bus for Jaspur and got down at Kunda where Ravi was waiting for me with his old but trusted Suzuki Bike. It was 16^th April and I met my mother at my sweet lovely home after almost one year. She was there for last 4 months living peacefully alone!

Next day, I visited my bank in nearby village Garhinegi and was happy to know that the local branch of Bank of Baroda is now on core banking network! Next time, I would get my account credentials for sure and would feel connected with my village through net always!

Also visited my family friend’s house. Sanjay has got one room constructed as his political office now outside his house. Must be strong influence of the local politician who is known to carry a massive personality around himself. Voting tactics sometimes spoil normal behavior beyond recognition and simple followers fall into trap of ego copying mechanisms. Anyway.

My hometown has lots of business opportunities now. It’s just the environment that I don’t trust else I would have been there long back. Setups of floriculture with strong state support, food processing, nursery, seed processing are aplenty. Some are supported by the tax benefits, some by subsidies and some by the corruption inherent but overall, there are opportunities. I liked the way floriculture and food processing are growing. These are also the growing business domains in the country and must see good growth in coming future.

The gap of quality pre-primary and primary education school was evident everywhere. Race to have schools to make money is there but very few really capable of offering the quality activity based learning model. Lack of resources must be the reason as to get commitment from trained teachers is difficult.

Met an old friend who is among the leading businessmen of the town with one of the leading paper mills in the country. Pawan, owner of Naini Paper Mill, is a shining entrepreneur of Kashipur. He has recently done executive management from IIFT, Delhi and claimed to get really benefited from the course. I also shared my practical insights with him especially regards organization setup and people dependency in different unknown environments.

While coming back, on 19^th, I took JanShatabdi from Kashipur and reached Delhi at around 4 PM. That’s also when I enjoyed the luxury of radio cab to the fullest extent. Booked MeruCab while on train as my mother and I had to meet my Uncle after long gap, then booked it again while going to airport from Patpadganj and finally in Mumbai from airport to home in Navi Mumbai. Excellent service every time. Funny thing was in Delhi railway station as there was hardly any space for Meru driver to park his vehicle and ultimately we had to cough up 50 Rupees to the traffic police for stopping the taxi outside the station on main road. On one aide, entire space is taken up by illegal shops or digging and on other side you can’t even stop the pre-booked taxi even for 2 minutes. Sad story of infrastructure building in India.

The visit was very short but full of plenty of insights especially on entrepreneurship opportunities near my home town. Floriculture, quality primary education, food processing and cottage industry are on my radar now. I hope over next 2-3 years, I would be able to develop some concrete plan in these lines.