Mumbai in a Month

April 23, 2015

Today, we delivered our final handover presentation to UnLtd India.  I can’t believe how quickly the month flew by!  Not having had any exposure to the non-profit world previously, this was an incredible learning experience for me.  I felt really fortunate to be on this project because in addition to learning about social incubation, we learned about the diverse entrepreneurs and organizations supported by UnLtd India.  It was incredible to see their innovative approaches to solve a wide range of social issues.  It has been a very inspiring, insightful, and rewarding month.  We also lucked out in terms of the caliber of people we had the opportunity to work with – UnLtd has an incredible team of bright, passionate, and just plain awesome people!  Our team meshed very well with theirs and I only wish we had more time to hang out with them socially.    

They seemed happy with our recommendations for them around performance and impact measurement.  It was great to hear that they felt we provided realistic and achievable solutions that they could begin working on immediately.  

They were so excited, they insisted on recording the video below, featuring my esteemed teammates, Dave and Masa.  They also gave us UnLtd India mugs to remember our time with them, as well as a “poo paper” notebook.  Poo paper is produced by Elrhino, one of UnLtd India’s investees, out of elephant and rhino poop, agricultural waste and weeds.  They are saving trees, protecting the natural habitats for many animals, and providing jobs to rural villagers - see what I mean about innovative solutions?!

April 21, 2015

This weekend was all about staying local.  Since it was our last weekend in Mumbai, we wanted to make the most of it. Friday night, a few of us went into South Mumbai and had dinner at the Barking Deer.  This bar was on our must see list because it brews a beer containing honey produced by Under the Mango Tree.  Under the Mango Tree is a social enterprise supported by UnLtd India that promotes beekeeping to increase agricultural productivity, enhance incomes and improve livelihoods of marginal farmers in India.  The honey beer was pretty tasty!  

On Saturday, Hannah, Dave and I did a tour of Dharavi Slum with Reality Tours.  Dharavi is Asia’s largest slum with over 1 million people living there.  I had heard about slum tourism before coming to Mumbai and did not think it would be something I’d partake in.  But UnLtd’s CEO highly recommended this company and said they give most of the proceeds back to the slum.  They also don’t let you take photos out of respect for the community.  I am so glad I did not pass up this unique opportunity as it turned out to be completely fascinating.  Our tour guide, Bala, is a resident of the slum and his family has lived there for 3 generations.  One of the tour’s main objectives is to change public perception of slums and they definitely succeeded in this.  We got to see how several industries operate within the slum, such as recycling, leather tanning, pottery, and baking.  The industries have an annual turnover of over $650M USD!  Bala also showed us the various communities that live there (Muslim, Hindu, etc) and we got to see how the earlier communities have nicer homes and more land whereas the communities that moved into Dharavi later have smaller homes tucked away with only narrow allies between.  In some areas we could only walk single file between the buildings. I was surprised to see that there are places of worship and shopping areas within the slum.  It is like a city within a city and although most people living there are very poor, there is definite variation in levels of wealth.  One thing that was nice to see was that the children living there were just as happy as the kids I see playing in my neighborhood in San Diego.

After 2.5 hours of walking through Dharavi in the boiling heat, we agreed it was time for a cold beverage and some air conditioning. Someone had told me to check out the Taj Hotel by the Gateway of India while in Mumbai so we headed there for lunch. There could not have been a more extreme contrast after visiting Dharavi.  I must confess, I felt a little guilty!  

Bala let us take a few photos from a rooftop in Dharavi.  This building is located in the recycling area of the slum.

April 14, 2015

On Thursday, my colleagues and I had the honor of joining a few UnLtd team members on a road trip to Pune to visit some of their investees.  It was a great opportunity to put some perspective around the impact UnLtd has on the social ventures it works with.  We met with Equal Community Foundation (ECF), Spandan, and Lifelab.  Each organization has a unique mission.  The work ECF does to change the attitudes of men regarding gender equality and create leaders to spread the message within the community at large to end domestic violence was particularly inspiring.  They may have also won my favor with the delicious spread of Indian food they put out for lunch!

Friday evening, 8 members of our SAP team flew to Delhi and set out early Saturday morning for a 3 hour drive to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.  It was  really  exciting to see one of the seven world wonders and it was as impressive as I’d hoped.  After driving back to Delhi, we headed out to Connaught Place for some appetizers, drinks, and team bonding at Monkey Bar.  We might be from all around the world, but we all speak Tequila! 

On Sunday, we went to see the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid mosque.  We did not have the best experience at the mosque because the “guide” tried to rip us off and charge us extra fees for the “tour”.  We mentioned this to our driver afterwards and he was uncomfortably open about his dislike for Muslims and their “crazy” views.  It is not the first time a local referenced the tensions between the Hindus and Muslims in India.  He also mentioned that many Hindus detest Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy as he is believed to be responsible for allowing Muslims to stay in India once the country gained independence from Britain in the 1940′s.  At that time, they partitioned the country and Pakistan was formed.  All Muslims were supposed to move to Pakistan but 30% stayed in India.

We arrived back at our hotel, the Executive Enclave, late Sunday evening.  It is located on Dr. Ambedkar Road, and today is  Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday.  He was  an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Modern Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Dalits, women and labour.  In typical Indian fashion, they are taking his memorial birthday celebration to the extreme!  The party started last night at 11:30pm and went until after 2:00am, with a parade of drums, singing, dancing, and fireworks moving up and down our street.  My hotel room is not even street side but it was so loud and the fumes pumping through the hotel were so intense that almost none of us could sleep until it was over (Hannah has a gift for sleeping so she slept through it!).  The celebration continues and we enjoyed watching a lunchtime parade today.

It is hard to believe we are more than halfway through our Social Sabbatical.  Time is flying by and I’m enjoying every second of it!  

Typical Indian street market in Pune

Meeting at the Spandan office 

No caption needed!

April 6, 2015

I had a much needed relaxing weekend in Colva Beach with my teammates Hannah and Dave.  Colva is in the Indian state of Goa.  Goa was a nice contrast after a week in crazy, chaotic Mumbai.  We relaxed under a rickety straw cabana for 2 days with frequent dips in the ocean for relief from the blazing heat.  We ate most of our meals at our favorite spot, the Garden, where we made friends with the staff.  Here are a few observations about Colva that set it apart from San Diego: there are many stray beach dogs, people walk their water buffalo on the beach, a beer is only $1.20 USD, the water is much warmer, and there were very few non-Western women on the beach (although this may not be the case during tourist season).  If you visit Goa and someone tells you to try the cashew feni, don’t!!  Just have some locally grown local cashews instead.  They are delicious.  

April 1, 2015

We just wrapped up day 3 with UnLtd India.  What an impressive organization we have the privilege to work with for the next few weeks!  UnLtd India is non-profit that serves as a launchpad for social entrepreneurs.  They provide both funding and coaching support to passionate, entrepreneurial-minded individuals striving to develop sustainable solutions to some of India’s social problems.  One of the things that sets UnLtd apart from some other incubators is that they are willing to engage before other investors - before the entrepreneur has anything more concrete than a socially motivated idea!  UnLtd’s management and staff have been very generous with their time over the last few days and we are almost at the point where we have all the information we need to start making progress towards our project deliverables to help the organization address some of their challenges.  (Dave and Masa pictured below during an intense whiteboard session.)

March 29, 2015

No one can prepare you for the madness that is Mumbai.  The taxi ride alone from the BOM airport to our hotel in Bandra West completely blew my mind.  From the chaotic late night traffic, to shocking site of the slums right outside the airport, to the sheer quantities of people, unfamiliar smells, and incessant noise all around, it is like nothing I’ve experienced before.  Although I only got a little taste of what is to come on my first night, I could tell this is going to be the start of an incredible experience.

I am here in Mumbai for 1 month with 10 colleagues from various parts of the world as part of SAP’s Social Sabbatical program.  This program is part of an SAP Corporate Social Responsibility initiative designed to:

Provide a unique leadership development opportunity to SAP employees with a cultural immersion component

Foster growth in countries identified as SAP’s emerging markets

Positively impact the regions identified both economically and socially through pro bono project work with hand selected entrepreneurs, NGOs, and government agencies

 Some of the highlights of the weekend included getting to know my fellow team members, eating delicious Indian food from various regions of the country, exploring Bandra on foot while praying I dodge the auto rickshaws in time, and of course, visiting the Gateway of India.