Day 1 - Welcome to India

After a weird nights sleep.....jet lag, that sporadic a/c, and one of the firmest beds in the history of beds (don't they say that firm beds are good for your back?....silver lining in every cloud), I'm eager to get to the Drishtee offices to meet the team and embark on my assignment.

 

What better way to do so than in an "auto", which isn't an auto at all, but rather a rickshaw.   My initial hesitation upon boarding the rather flimsy, beat-up three-wheeler is immediately erased as the driver jumps out of his seat with wrench in hand to tinker with the motor in order coax it to start.....and a minute later we are off into the frenzy of New Delhi rush hour traffic.  

 

How do I begin to describe it?   How about a maelstrom of dust, exhaust, humanity, and vehicles of every sort (bikes, motorcycles, cars, farm tractors, cow-drawn wagons, human-drawn wagons, you name it) combined with an absolute caucophony of shrill sounds - the constant high-pitched beeps of the rickshaws, competing with the horns of the cars, ambulance sirens and the bellowing, make-you-jump -out-of-your seat blasts of the occasional bus barrelling down the backside of the rickshaw that I happen to be in....and that's just the straightaways....all bets are off when an intersection is reached, at which point a massive game of "chicken" ensues, usually with the bigger vehicle winning, but not always, particularly this morning with my rather aggressive driver was clearly intent on deferring to no one, much to my chagrin, as on a number of occasions, the bumpers of several cars found their way within inches (literally) of my right knee!  Nothing like a little excitement in the morning to get your day started right....who needs coffee when you can take a rickshaw to work?

 

Upon arrival at the Drishtee office, I was introduced to several of the Drishtee team and immediately invited to sit in on a meeting with a group of Japanese students who were here for a short internship project and were receiving an overview of the organization.  

 

So what is Drishtee?  Self-described as a "social business", it attempts to address issues of access in rural villages of India - access to information, goods, services, markets.   The organization has been in existence for 11 years and has successfully developed and evolved a innovative business model that has allowed it to reach 5,000 villages in the northern Indian states, principally serving families that earn 3,000 - 5000 rupees per month, the equivalent of US$70 - $115...that's $2 - $4 per day per household.   The Drishtee model identifies local entrepreneurs in each village who deliver the goods and services for nominal fees.  The local entrepreneur gets a cut as does Drishtee, which it plows back into its operation to allow it to expand its services to additional villages.   All in all, quite fascinating stuff.

 

After the morning introductions, I spent some time in the afternoon meeting with one of the Drishtee team members who was explaining to me one of the challenges that the organization was facing with the financial inclusion "vertical".  This refers to the basic "no frills" bank account that Drishtee offers to villagers who do not have acccess to banks, ATMs or any other sort of financial services.   Financial management in these villages is old school, typically consisting of cash under the mattress and God forbid, if a loan is required, a visit to the local "loan shark" who charges extortionary interest rates and isn't the type of person you'd bring home to your parents.   Long story short, Drishtee has a cash management challenge in that deposits with the local entrepreneur typically exceed withdrawals, leading to unutilized cash balances sitting with the entrepreneur.   Sounds like a simple problem to resolve, but after looking at four highly-detailed decks analysing the problem and spending a couple of hours understanding the business model and its challenges, my head was swimming in data and questions.   

 

Which leads me to big question that I'm having as I finish Day One:  is this project, which is largely operational and technical in nature, really the right one for me, given that operational and technical are not two words that one would use to describe me!  So I left the office today, intrigued to learn more about Drishtee and its business model, but concerned that there's a significant mismatch with the project that I've been assigned.....the agreement is that tomorrow I will meet with the leadership team to assess if this is the most appropriate project given all of the organization's priorities and my skill sets....of course, these conversations had occurred before my arrival in India, but unfortunately, it looks like we didn't quite nail it on the first go round, so hopefully we'll identify a more suitable project on Day 2.

   

So upon leaving the office, I'm a bit frustrated and concerned, but no better distraction than to jump in a rickshaw piloted by a kamikaze driver for the ride back home.   Mr. Kamikaze decides that the best way to get to the other side of the road is to take off directly into traffic, but going the wrong way.  Yes, folks, you heard that right.....this nut case literally began barreling down a three-lane street head on into traffic, swerving left and right to avoid the other vehicles for about 200 meters until he found a break in the median and jumped over to the other side of the street..... to continue with correct traffic flow...how boring!   Of course, my boredom didn't last long.  As we approached an impossibly-congested intersection, Mr. Kamikaze decided to go off road - so this guy literally takes the rickshaw onto the potholed sidewalk at full speed, swerving to avoid women, children and cows, and then deftly maneuvers it back onto the road on the other side of the intersection without blinking an eye.....though I did notice a self-satisfied grin flash across his face through the tiny rearview mirror.....or maybe he was just laughing at me and my ashen face following what I thought for sure was my demise.

 

Back at the Drishtee Guest House, I retire to my sweltering room to say a prayer of thanksgiving.   Day 1 is complete.