Building a socially-conscious food company from the ground up: the Happy Roots story

India, the land of diversity, is also a land of opportunity. Our ancestors harnessed the largesse of Mother Nature and earned sweet rewards, considering the range of crops and vegetables India grew. More than 10,000 varieties of rice grew without the intervention of genetic modification! With increased experimentation and the race towards standardisation, we are quickly moving towards an uncomfortable situation where the knowledge of past centuries is being lost without being made constructive use of. It’s hard to see the grander scheme of things but when we speak of food and technology, initiatives that stand for indigenous knowledge and organic growth should get a voice in the ecosystem.

Reema Sathe, HappyRoots

Happy Roots, started by Reema Sathe from Pune, is one such initiative. In this modern context, where urban lives are increasingly getting disconnected from the roots, it is important to provide an option that is building processes from the ground up. Happy Roots is a young company that makes socially-conscious food. In Reema’s words: “We manufacture and market natural, healthy snack food which is not only good for our consumers but generates sustainable employment and incomes for rural communities in Maharashtra.”

After working for seven years in the food and beverage industry, there came a point in Reema’s career where she had an inner calling to work for and with the rural communities. “I had no clue as to what exactly I would do, but then an opportunity came through a startup to work with tribal farmers in South Gujarat. I quit my corporate job and joined the project. It just felt right,” says Reema.

Starting up Happy Roots

Over next 18 months of her work with farmers in Gujarat and Maharashtra, she got a sense of what was going wrong with small-scale food processing units, run by farmers and rural women. “These micro-enterprises are a hope for our small farmers to earn better incomes and find sustainable livelihood to offset risks associated with farming. Lack of marketing skills and product knowledge to match up to the rapidly changing consumer preferences (in urban markets), has forced a lot of these micro-enterprises to shut down or operate on losses,” says Reema. At the same time, through their market research in Pune and Mumbai, Happy Roots found out that there is a rising demand for healthy and preservative-free, ready-to-eat food. “The demand and supply gap was clear and I found a social problem which I felt passionate about to solve,” says Reema.

Farmer producers at a company meeting

Farmer in Maliv village

Products and the response

Happy Roots is focussed on making healthy and natural snack food that is free from preservatives, refined flours and additives. Their products include whole grain cookies, crackers and fresh dips that are made using farm-fresh produce and grains sourced directly from farmers and are handmade by trained rural women’s groups. “We believe microbial fermentation to be the best food technology, which is highly undervalued, to make modern food products. We plan to enter the fermented beverage market next year,” says Reema. Intervening at the root level and building a product gives Happy Roots a degree of control over the entire process and quality which will help them in making a sustainable business.

It took Happy Roots 6,000 man hours and 60 product trials to come up with their first four products. “We launched our products in August 2016 in Pune. Since then we have received tremendous response from our customers. In two months, we have sold 160 units and 25kg of our product. We have an exclusive health & wellness brand partnership with Faasos in Pune,” says Reema. The company ships their products across the country via online retail partner The gourmet food company, and is associating with some coffee shops and bistros in Pune. For corporates, Happy Roots has a snack vending model and has just completed a successful pilot.

Snack kit (on-the-go pack)

One of the products: Yogurt and herb dip

Processes

Happy Roots’ value chain is transparent and involves 50 percent of rural communities in its operations. They currently have a network of 10,000 farmers (directly and indirectly) across Vidarbha, Pune, Ahmednagar district and Kolhapur. The company also partners with local non-profits and some key State government bodies. “We source all the raw material from the farmers (except a few commodities like oil, salt, sugar) and pay them higher than market rates because of which our farmers ensure that we get the best quality grains,” says Reema.

Millets, wheat, indigenous brown rice and dairy are the main raw materials at the moment. Happy Roots is also working with Lokpanchayat (a local non-profit) on a CEE (Centre for Environment Education) run project to protect local biodiversity. The idea is to generate market for endangered Indian grains that are on the verge of going extinct, as they are no longer part of the urban consumer basket (see how this man in rural Uttarakhand has dedicated his life to preserving seeds). Under this project, buckwheat is being revived in the tribal areas of Shayadri hills. “I am proud to share that our first harvest of 1,000kg will be available end of October. We are launching an exclusive buckwheat snack, post Diwali,” shares Reema. Happy Roots started out by using plastic packaging for their products but is now moving to a fresh new, eco-friendly packaging.

Team and the way forward

HappyRoots team

Happy Roots is a small team of four- Kanak, the operations lead, has worked on a rice intensification programme with tribal farmers in Odisha at IIM-A. She has also managed several livelihood programmes with NABARD and WOTR. Prajkta is their product development lead and has been a chef and owner of a catering business in US and Pune. Devstotra is their food tech advisor and has a PhD in microbial fermentation and naturally functional foods from Massey University, New Zealand. "Together, we bring in expertise in rural linkages, marketing & operations, food technology & product development,” says Reema.

Happy Roots has developed a strong product pipeline and has a roadmap ready for next 12 months. Educating the consumer is a big thing on the agenda for Happy Roots and they’ll also be looking to raise funds to fuel growth now that the product line is ready.

There are many organisationsthat are being set up that focus on the complete value chain and focus on building sustainable businesses. The likes of Fab India began with this ethos, and scale dilutes things to some extent but the spurt of new smaller setups keeps the heart going. Someone like Earth Loaf, which focusses on making chocolate, or folks like Korra Jeans and Charaka when it comes to fabric, are building conscious businesses. Happy Roots is making food with love and the growth of such companies will in effect bring down the rates and make conscious food more accessible.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/10/happyroots-reema-sathe-pune/

Kargil and Kashmir war hero Deepchand Prakhyat lost two legs and one hand, but is the most optimistic person you will read about today

Sadaiva sainika pudhech jaayche, na maguti tuva kadhi firayche, daha dishatun tufan vhayche, sadaiva sainika pudhech jaayche…

(Soldiers must always march forward, never looking back or turning around in their paths. Come hail or storm from all ten directions, a soldier must only march forward.)

Most children of Maharashtrain soil, who are inherently valorous and patriotic like the Maratha warriors, have only grown up humming this couplet; but Deepchand Prakhyat lives it. Many soldiers who fight for the country lay down their lives and become martyrs, and multitudes more sustain permanent, often life-altering, injuries- but becoming disabled in combat is a matter of immense pride for most jawans.

However, having near-death experiences while doing extraordinary work in the greatest wars of the past three decades, and then becoming disabled in an accident is a sorrowful tale for any soldier, and only a few tell it with a renewed zest for life. Fighting enemies of the state, death and destiny with equal obstinacy, war veteran Deepchand Prakhyat’s spirited narration will leave you in awe.

His roots

Hailing from Hissar in Haryana, Deepchand Prakhyat came to Maharashtra for his military training. He started as a brave gunner in the 1989 Light Regiment. After procuring his army medal in 1989, he was posted to a part of Kashmir, where General G. K. Mehendiratta was in command.

In his decades of service, he fought in the Kargil war and also went undercover in the Lashkar district of Kashmir to carry out several risky operations. Even today, there is patriotism, kindness and undying loyalty to his army days in all his words. Deepchand insists that his work can only be testified to by his past commanding officers, as it becomes evident in the course of the interview that the hero is too modest to speak of his own feats. So, we get in touch with Colonel A. K. Mehendiratta.

In the line of fire

During the insurgency and terror threat in Kashmir in 1998, Deepchand’s regiment was stationed in a small post near Gulmarg. Colonel A.K. Mehndiratta tells us that a soldier like Deepchand was rare to find, and this thought was echoed every so often by the soldiers in the regiment. At that time, Deepchand was deployed by the Army intelligence as an undercover agent, living among Kashmiri locals, along with five or six of his colleagues – with the risk and responsibility of discovering the hiding places of terrorists upon their shoulders –Deepchand being the acting chief of the group.

No allowed to carry weapons, Deepchand ended up learning everything from the local language to the Kashmiri way of life in that six month period. It was after relentless surveillance that he and his team submitted a report stating that there was terrorist activity in a small village of 50-60 houses called Dargam.

His information turned out to be accurate. Knowing that the army was active at night, terrorist groups operated during the day. With the help of Deepchand’s quality intel, a plan was devised. As per the plan, commandos in disguise - including Deepchand - surrounded the house. But the terrorists in the building were alerted to the army’s presence by women living on the ground floor of the building. A firefight ensued, after which the building was laid siege to by the jawans.

Forbidding anyone from entering or leaving the house, the firing continued all day and into the night. By morning, they managed to kill both the terrorists, but one of our men was sacrificed too, and another officer was injured. Operation Dargaam was widely hailed by the media.

“In our two years there, we managed to make that area completely terror-free, simply because of courageous soldiers like Deepchand,” says the General. Because his men were scattered intelligently across locations, terrorist operations in 50 villages within 40 sq.km. were cracked down upon with ease.

In the eye of the storm

Deepchand’s regiment also had a part to play in the victory at Kargil. Stationed at the border around May 1999, they were armed with 120 MM motors that could fire as far 8 km into enemy territories, with enemy troops similarly being able to attack deep within Indian territory. Deepchand also commanded that operation, and fired over 15,000 bullets. His sole job was to target and destroy the ammunition of the enemy.

Soon came the vicious attack on the Parliament building, creating a tense war-like situation. Deepchand’s regiment was posted to Rajasthan at the time. With no sleep for days and nights on end, his regiment was on ‘standby’ mode constantly, ready to be deployed to fight at Pokhran as soon as insurgencies surfaced, but the matter was being resolved through dialogue. That was when the fateful incident transpired.

They were just in the process of packing up their belongings from Barmer after the situation subsided when there was a misfire and one of the canons exploded, injuring three men. Amongst them, was Deepchand.

Colonel Mehndiratta gets a little choked up at this point. “The soldier that fought bravely and escaped death in Kargil and Kashmir got brutally injured in a blast like this. It was so serious that doctors had told us that there was almost no chance that he would wake up and recover,” says the Colonel. “But I told the doctor to revive him at any cost. That was when he informed me that Deepchand had lost a lot of blood, and that they would have to amputate both his legs and one of his hands. Even then, there was no guarantee that he would survive the ordeal. I was prepared for the worst,” says the Colonel.

Still some fight left in him

The operation began at 4 am, and Deepchand regained consciousness only on the next day. 17 bottles of blood, and the prayers of all the comrades he had entertained through singing, dancing and making merry while they were out at war before the era of the TV, he says, are what got him through the risky surgery.

“Both legs gone, one hand lost, and yet, Deepchand didn’t once rue his situation,” says the Colonel, adding, “In fact, when he regained consciousness, he was reassuring me that everything would be all right, instead of it being the other way around! There are very few men as brave as him.”

“When I found out that I had lost my limbs, I did not once think about myself. I was only concerned about my wife and my one-year-old son. When my wife came to see us, I’d cover up with a pillow or a blanket, because I did not want to put her through the trauma,” recalls Deepchand.

We ask him if he received any aid from the Indian government post the accident. His answer to this question was short and heartbreaking- “This did not happen at war, you see.”

Count your blessings

Faced with his new reality, he never once wallowed in pity or hatred – he knew that he would be able to survive this last and ultimate challenge with acceptance and optimism. And sure enough, today, he is living his life in an absolutely self-dependent manner.

“At the hospital, there were hundreds of injured soldiers with me, many of whom were alive, but almost like lifeless corpses. Some couldn’t even get up without support, and one colleague even lost his eyes. I was the most fortunate of them all, in that I learnt to stand and walk without both legs. If you want to truly understand your blessings, look at those less fortunate than you. You will never learn such philosophies about life from a guru – these learnings come from a human being who has truly lived,” he says.

His children are in school, while his wife now has a government job, which she procured with great difficulty. Unlike other people with his condition, he has trained himself to get around without a wheelchair. Relocated now to Maharashtra, he lives in the township of Devlali in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, a retirement haven of choice for many officers.

Soon, his second son came along, and life’s greater joys made sure he always counted his blessings, and never his sorrows. A true mark of his independence is that rather than relying on others for help, he in fact puts his own abilities to full use and contributes fully to all the chores of the household.

The survivor

Eventually, he even started his own provision store, in order to send his two sons to medical school someday – for this proud man has refused to accept help from anyone, to this date. “I have fought from the jaws of death, and all the credit goes to my doctor. So, of course, I would be immensely happy when my son becomes one!” he says.

In his provision store, he also provides the services of bus and train ticket bookings, air travel booking, mobile recharge, jeevan bema premiums and all kinds of payments. His wife and children also join him at the store and assist with his work in the evening, which is something that he heartily cherishes.

Today, all the officers that once fought alongside him avoid visiting him even if they are in his town. His own wife’s family sometimes looks down upon his disabilities, but he says he is still a lucky man, for he gets to live with his wife and kids. “What else do I need?” he says.

As if fate hadn’t piled enough adversities on his path, two years ago, a fire at his store caused losses of nearly Rs 3-4 lakh. But this braveheart was never deterred. He dusted himself off, stood up straight again, and started over aggressively and enthusiastically, saluting life. Deepchand certainly serves to create a mental image that all of us can fall back on when life flings anything at us that we think we can’t handle.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/10/deepchand-prakhyat/

How Pooja Kumar lost 25 kg in 25 weeks and is now helping others get fit with JogoApp

For many out there, losing weight is a life-long battle. Thus, when you hear of someone who has lost 25 kg in 25 weeks, it gives you hope. That is what Pooja Kumar did. She lost 25kg in 25 weeks. That’s not all, she went on to help others like her who have been struggling to lose weight. She founded JogoApp that helps you lose weight while having fun at the same time.

So Pooja sees the corporate wellness market as an important space for them to leverage. They have so far partnered with players like ‘Running and Living’, and JogoApp is the running partner for their upcoming marathons in multiple cities.

Revenue model

While it is still at an early stage, JogoApp aims to earn revenues through multiple streams from their product marketplace and the monetisationof their ‘Challenge’ feature for large enterprises. Pooja noted that while regular users can post open challenges to their peers, the reach is currently restricted. Enterprises that tie up with them, on the other hand, can post private challenges for all their employees and encourage them to stay fit.Pooja said,

Corporates can create private challengesand encourage employees to participate by contributing proceeds from the initiative to a noble cause that employees care about. Apart from the intrinsic benefits, this helps with team building.

Jogo is also in talks with insurance companies to leverage the fitness data that they are able to track from users (with their permission). On the consumer side, JogoApp aims to be a product discovery marketplace for individuals to stay up to date about the market.

Sector overview

A recent report notes that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading causes of illness in India, affecting about 70,000 youngsters in the country. The report also noted that India is now the diabetes capital of the world, with an estimated 67 million out of the 422 million global diabetes patients residing in India. Preventive healthcare is a big market in India, and there are many startups that are trying to get Indians to lead healthier lives.

Micromax backed Healthifyme is a popular calorie counter and digital fitness coach. Other interesting players in this space include Vishal Gondal’s GOQii, Delhi-based FitSo and Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori’s yet to be launched- Curefit.

Future plans

So far, Jogo has been relying on both online and offline marketing channels to get users onboard. Pooja noted that almost all of their current userbase has been acquired organically. While a majority of the userbase is from India, Pooja notes that they currently see around five percent of global users active on their platform as well.

While JogoApp had raised an undisclosed round of angel funding from Ravi Srivastava’s Purvi Capital in 2015, the startup aims to raise a larger funding round in the coming months to help them accelerate the pace at which they onboard partners, service providers and curate products.

Pooja noted that the feedback has been fairly positive, with users liking the in-app step tracker and gamification features like leaderboards and challenges. Going forward, Pooja aims to grow the platform and reach 100,000 users in the next six months to create a vibrant social network of fitness enthusiasts.

JogoApp team

The backstory

JogoApp (initially called TheNewU) was inspired by Pooja’s own decade-long struggle with weight. After giving birth to two babies, she found that she was unable to get rid of the post- pregnancy weight. Pooja thought that weight loss was the most mind boggling, illogical endeavor where one needed ‘magic skills’ to succeed.

After going through a lot of resources like Jane Fonda’s Pregnancy, Birth & Recovery for pre & post natal DVD, among others, Pooja realised that weight loss was a science and went on a path of self-discovery.

She adopted an ‘ERER’ philosophy, which is – for Eat Right, Exercise Right and started supplementing her diet with healthy alternatives wherever possible such as opting for jaggery instead of sugar and brown rice over regular rice.

As a new mother, she looked at everyday opportunities with her baby as a means to exercise — starting out with walking baby in a pram, rocking the baby to sleep in a cradle. Pooja said,

If the baby wanted to be hugged during the walk, I would use the baby carrier. This helped me work on my strength and cardio. Rocking the baby to sleep in a cradle involved a combination of strength, oblique’s and cardio combined!

After her baby was old enough and didn’t need constant attention, Pooja decided to take up more active forms of exercises like Zumba and running, to speed up the process. She found that Zumba worked best for her as she loved dancing. Also the endorphins helped her be high on energy pre, during, and post the sessions.

Pooja also took up running. She started out with the goal of running 5km at a stretch and setout a four-week plan. She then went after bigger challenges like 10km and 21km marathons. To ensure she was getting the right nutrition, Pooja opted for a 1050-calorie weight loss diet plan to monitor her food intake. While she was getting fitter, Pooja noted that her stomach area which obviously was most affected by the pregnancy, wasn’t progressing as quickly.

She realised that trouble zones needed intensive efforts that are disproportionate in terms of effort and time to see results. So she worked on specific ab exercises and started seeing results. By the end of 25 weeks, she found that she had lost 25 kilos.

Pooja Kumar

Through her weight loss process, Pooja realised that she had gained valuable insights about fitness. So she launched a website, a fitness community and a Youtube channel to share tips based on what worked for her. It was at this stage that it dawned on her that there was a large potential market for a business, along with the opportunity to create a big impact on people’s lives.

Starting up

Founded in June 2015, JogoApp is a gamified health and fitness mobile app platform. Pooja turned entrepreneur to start up her own venture after working in leadership positions in leading startups like Ujjivan andEko and well established companies like American Express. For the initial few months after their launch, JogoApp constantly interacted with its beta users to gather feedback and rolled out over four updates in one month.

The venture currently consists of a seven member team, with five focusing on the product and two focusing on sales, marketing and other responsibilities. Pooja believes in losing weight in a structured and natural manner through a combination of superfoods, effective workouts and also ‘cheat days’, which allow one’s body to recover.

Pooja noted that they have got good feedback from users and also got recognition from the startup ecosystem. In March 2016, the startup rebranded from TheNewU to JogoApp, where Jogo in Portugese means ‘play’ or ‘sport’. Pooja said,

We were recently shortlisted as one of the top 10 startups of 2016 by Conquest, and have been in the Top 50 for multiple contests over the past four months, includingTiE the Knot, Tech Rocketship, Start Tel-Avivand Mindbatteries.

How JogoApp works

Positioned as a gamified one-stop health, fitness and wellness app, JogoApp allows users to earn SweetSweats (reward points) for being active, and then redeem those as discounts against goods and services. Users can either rely on the in-app Jogo tracker or integrate a third party fitness tracker(like fitbit) to ‘auto-track’ their activity. Data gathered on the calories burned gets converted into SweetSweats. Pooja said,

Jogo encourages users to enter a (good)vicious cycle of exercising and redeeming products that are good for you. We currently have over one lakh products curated across 10 product categories and 1,000 entities offering fitness-related services.

Some other interesting features of the app include :

Challenges and Leaderboard- Users can join challenges and invite onboard their friends, family or peer groups,and watch the groups' progress on a live leaderboard.

Create ‘Fitfies’- Another gamification feature, users can take fitness-selfies(Fitfies) of their fitness and transformation stories to encourage others and also earn bonus SweetSweats. Recommendations- Users are encouraged to voice their opinions, contribute to the community and make their opinion count.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/10/jogoapp/

This techie started a buzzing hotline for the 33 lakh cancer patients in India

Cancer can be a traumatic time for the patient as well as their loved ones. And at a time like this, every worry or apprehension – right from choosing a course of treatment to loving your body as it undergoes a whirlwind of change – is equally valid and must be harmonised in order to overcome the tribulation, rather than just survive it. Sonali Srungaram, a techie who had always nursed a ‘what if’ for the field of medicine, decided it was never too late to return to her passion for the greater good of the 33 lakh cancer patients in the country.

On the other side of the phone…

Sonali Srungaram, 37, holds a B. Tech (Honours) in Computer Systems Engineering from Massey University in New Zealand, and a Post Graduate diploma at ISB. She jumped straight into a 12-year stint at Accenture,after her BTech, as a consultant for transformational projects for large multi-national corporations – working out of three home offices in three countries (New Zealand, India and UK)‑and eventually became an associate partner in their strategy consulting.

Her job was fulfilling, but she wanted to create something of her own. “I had started fleshing out ideas for my own firm as early as 2006, but never had the courage to quit. Finally in 2012, when the Indian entrepreneurial market was picking up, I told myself it was now or never,” she explains.

In her mind, whenever she thought entrepreneurship, she thought healthcare. “This was in a way a reconciliation, since I always doubted if I made the right choice by becoming an engineer instead of taking up medicine,” she says, adding,“and this was backed by my research. I noticed that most models were focussed on healthcare providers than patients. I felt that something had to be done for patients.”

A glaring gap

Around the same time, one of her close kin was diagnosed with cancer and she noticed how fragmented the market was with respect to cancer-care.“I saw that though the doctors noticed symptoms, they constantly misdiagnosed the condition. So, I decided to work in the space of creating awareness and cancer prevention.”

This was the genesis of CIPHER Healthcare, in 2012. They first started by visiting MNCs for awareness drives. In six months, they accomplished 33 awareness sessions,which put them on the radar for around 50,000 people. “We even spoke to over 3,000 people on a one-on-one basis and assisted in the preventive screening of over 500 people,” she recalls.

During one such screening, they noticed that one of their subjects was in fact, testing positive for stage II breast cancer.“At this point in time, I realised that we had to deliver this difficult news to this person, but were not in any position to offer any further help thereafter. My conscience would not allow me to leave them in the lurch like this.”

This was the defining moment in the journey of CIPHER that birthed the idea of the Cancer Helpline – something she felt was rather similar to her consulting job, where a client came with a problem or a question, and they would find personalised solutions for them.

Healed, if not cured

Their nationwide free helpline service, on 18002002676, is available for cancer patients and their relatives Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. For all the calls received outside of these time constraints, the team mandatorily calls back as soon as possible. The doubts could range from where the nearest cancer hospital is, to where one can get a wig for a loved one undergoing treatment. After all, when the cost of treatment is nearly Rs. 2.5 lakh, everyone could use a second opinion.

For example, someone from Ranchi once called in to find what the best hospital would be for the treatment of a specific kind of cancer along with the cost, schemes available and insurance details. Some call in to understand what they can do to prevent cancer after they have newly quit smoking. Several calls also stream in from desperate family members who get very worried looking at a patient going through the side-effects of the treatment.

“The key is that each case is unique, and our job is to provide the appropriate amount of empathy and information to each individual so that they are most empowered. We have even helped callers with body-image issues, with a simple ‘you are beautiful,’” says Sonali.

Sonali’s helpers

Sonali has put together a team of 21 people who are not from the medical background, but are passionate about medicine. They then undergo rigorous training by studying the research books on cancer as well as learning how to be empathetic towards the callers. Moreover, they never give direct advice or a treatment solution; a panel of doctors has joined them on a consultancy basis, and is available for an hour for any tricky inquiries. Even while making recommendations, no single hospital is recommended. “If someone is confused about two different procedures, we give them the breakdown of both the procedures so they are in the position to make an informed decision," says Sonali.

They have two methods of revenue generation. With the first, monetising their skill-set, they help other healthcare institutions create patient-centric models. “We have created helplines for other hospitals and have helped healthcare startups figure out their footing through market research,” she explains. Having no previously established models to emulate, this was accomplished with trial and error, and on a shoestring budget.

The other model was monetising traffic – which was a little tricky since it is difficult to convince people to pay for information.

In the two years since the Cancer Helpline has been active, over two lakh people have accessed their resources and over 21,000 people have approached them for personalised help –something she is immensely proud of. “In the last few months, we have had several offers of mergers and acquisitions, which validates that what we have built is valuable,” she says.

High mortality rate for women in entrepreneurship

This might be one of those places where she was a supposed ‘outsider’, whose perspective wasn’t welcome. Not only was her passion questioned as a techie taking on a field that always had her heart, she was also doubted as a woman, taking on a man’s role of heading a company.

“It is tough for someone without a medical background to break into healthcare in India. This meant that we had to work harder to build our credibility in the industry. But, I also facedtwo-fold skepticism, as a woman entrepreneur. There are several biases out there,and a lot of people who believe that a male entrepreneur has more dedication to offer to his job, but a woman does not have the capacity for the same. These perceptions are tough to deal with. I am trying to find my way in this environment,” she candidly relates.

What keeps it going

Bootstrapped initially, she realised, over time, that there were people passionate about what she does, and hence opened the company to friends and family for a small round.“Currently, we are pushing for an angel round of funding to raise $500,000 to create the pilot and prototype for a new model we are coming up with,” she says.

This new model is the result of a small survey they conducted to understand if they met all the patients’ needs. “While they were extremely happy with our service, they still felt that they needed someone who could offer them direct support services. So, we established that the time had come for us to start providing direct services to patients instead of just connecting the dots,” she lets on.

So, the next step for Cancer Helpline is to launch the Cancer Helpline Centre to support integrative medicine. “Integrative medicine as a concept is still new in India. It is the support layer that aids in improving the success rate of the treatment while keeping in mind the emotional health of the patient and their family and friends,” she concludes.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/10/sonali-srungaram-cipher-healthcare/

Bhollu’s journey to becoming a master didgeridoo maker in a remote Himalayan village

There are a few things that always make me wonder. One of them is how incredibly mouldable we are. We are always a work in progress, always a story in completion. Every day, we are shaped by endless influences. And when we truly allow each colour to add onto us, what’s created is something special. This is the story of a boy who chose to follow signs, allowed life to lead him and became adept at creating a musical instrument that some say is the oldest in the world.

Named after the Shiva temple in the vicinity, Bhagsu is now a bustling tourist town in Himachal Pradesh. But look closer and you may still find some hints of a village hidden behind the cafes and the cars. From the tales we’ve heard, Bhagsu was once a gypsy town in the truest sense. Dusk to dawn, the village would see raggedy travellers gathering at random places, singing and dancing. Their instruments and their tunes were all the excuse that the villagers needed to celebrate. Much has changed today, but the legacy lives on through those who have seen the village in its vagrant avatar. One such person is Bhollu.

Bhollu is celebrated among travellers as a skilful didgeridoo maker. He’s 29 and has been creating smiles through his craftsmanship for the past seventeen years, having started when he was just twelve. Always experimenting with new materials and techniques, he is a perfect example of what happens when the creator falls in love with the created. When he’s not making a dig, he’s sitting somewhere playing one.

It intrigued me. How did fate conspire for a small boy in Himachal to discover an instrument from aboriginal Australia? So I finally asked him one day, and this is his story.

Instruments at the workshop

“When I was about nine years old, Bhagsu was visited by mostly European tourists. My family, like many others, ran a homestay for them. One day, a tourist came in with an unusually long and oddly shaped bamboo staff. Every morning, he carried it to the fields, saying he was going to meditate. This was enough to make us jump up and stealthily follow the stranger. We sat behind the rocks whispering softly, when the man suddenly put the staff to his mouth and made a pulsating, monotonic sound. We ran through the fields screaming and shouting!”

Bhollu laughed and continued, “But I was still curious and so, I followed him for a second time. I was smitten, how could a simple bamboo structure make such a sound!”

This traveller became the connecting point between Bhollu and an instrument from thousands of miles away. He carefully answered all the questions of a curious village boy and then bid him goodbye.

“The man left, but he sparked something inside me. A year after that, I had a passing thought that maybe I should try and make a digeridoo for myself. Why not, it would be fun! And that’s how it started. There was no internet back then, so it was a lot of trial and error. But I managed to make something close to what I had seen. Then one morning, a fakir passing by heard me play this instrument. He stopped and immediately asked if he could buy it. I had never sold one before but he willingly paid two hundred rupees for it. I was just twelve then, and you can imagine how exciting this was”.

“When I got to work a second time, my family noticed and asked me to focus on my studies, and I conceded. I had an active student life, actively participating in painting, yoga and playing the Indian flute. This went on for a few years. But life has a mystical mechanism for course-correction. When I was sixteen, my uncle got some bamboo shafts for repairing the roof of his home. I immediately felt like making a digeridoo again. It had been a few years now and it took some work. But it happened. This time again, a traveller passing by asked me if I wished to sell it and paid seven hundred rupees for it.”

“It was not a coincidence anymore. I knew that I could make a living through making and selling didgeridoos, but then again, it felt like much more than that. It was my calling, and to ignore it would be unwise and unnecessary. So I started planning my days, making sure I studied and spent time on improving my crafting techniques. Today, it’s been almost fourteen years,” he smiled and nodded gently.

We put our discussion to rest and sipped slowly on some tea. Along with didgeridoos, Bhollu now also makes Cajón – a percussion-based drum, originally from Peru. And there’s also another instrument he’s been quietly working on, but has requested not be mentioned just yet.

The cup of tea was over and so were the words. I bid goodbye, promising to share the details of his story, if and when it got published.

It is normal to meet people through places, but rarely do we meet places through people. And I can say, from personal experience, that the latter is far more fulfilling. I’ve met Bhagsu through Bhollu. And through him, I’ve met not just her today, but all of her yesterdays as well.

Bhollu's workshop where anyone can learn to make their own instrument

The process – from tree log to instrument

It depends on the wood. There are hard woods and soft woods. Bholu has experimented with didgeridoos made from cactus wood, eucalyptus and poplar. A didgeridoo can be made out of any wood. We start by getting a good piece of wood and then decide on the sound tone that the player wants. When you make one of hard wood, it’s cut into two parts along the centre and is carved from the inside based on the note. After carving, it is smoothened using sand paper and cleaned. This is followed by applying a coat of lacquer.

The next day, it is sanded on the outside. Another round wooden ring is added to the rear end of the did to avoid cracks. Then, bee wax is boiled and poured inside the didgeridoo. This helps in keeping the tones warm. Using too much lacquer gives it a plastic finish, which doesn’t look good and also disturbs the warmth of the tones. The instrument is then cut from the top and checked for tones.

If you use a soft wood, you heat an iron rod and use it to create a cavity in the wooden piece. Here, it need not be cut into two pieces and glued back together. The sound of the digi depends more on the channel for air flow. It is easy to create a dig out of bamboo as it naturally has a cavity running through the centre.

People often ask Bholly his favourite but he says, "For me, they are all special, and I cannot choose one over another. It’s special when people come and participate in making the instrument. Most of the people who come here ask me how to make it and work on their own instruments. That is always special, when you make your own."

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/10/bhollu-music-didgeridoo-bhagsu/

Young Indians should take risks, says Bhavin Turakhia

Bhavin Turakhia of the Turakhia brothers-fame is a self-confessed geek. The brothers recently made news when they sold their venture, Media.net, to a Chinese consortium for $900 million.

Bhavin Turakhia

Bhavin, who is also the Co-founder of Directi Group, believes that technology is the biggest enabler in driving innovation. Founded in 1998, Directi today has 11 business units, four of which were sold to Endurance International Group in January 2014. At present, Directi’s business units include Ringo, Flock, Zeta, Radix, and Codechef.

In a free-wheeling chat with YourStory on the sidelines of TechSparks2016, Bhavin, 36, said it was love at first sight for him when he first laid eyes on a computer. “This was before the internet. Before even Windows, when there was only MS Dos and GW Basic and stuff. I was programming since then,” he said. According to him,

“We couldn’t afford a computer at home so I used to spend three hours everyday after school skipping the school bus and taking the regular bus home. I did this for three to four years. I love maths and physics so programming was a natural extension.”

How to inculcate a mindset for innovation

On the question of why Indians lack a mindset for innovation, Bhavin feels that it is not as if a person is inherently innovative or not. “It is the environment you are brought up in that makes you that way,” he added.

Giving the example of the Indian mindset, he said parents often want their children to take up a job with an established large corporation or a government service. It is like, ‘Mera beta will join a big company, marry and settle down.’ Bhavin said, “Yes, there are inherent high risks in entrepreneurship. But the rewards are equally high, and at the end of the day you are making an impact.” He added,

“I fundamentally live by the credo that it is our moral obligation to make an impact that is directly proportional to our potential.”

Besides parents and families holding back an individual to take the path less travelled, Bhavin feels the second problem is our education system. “It guides us towards this process of learning and acquiring skills but not towards building and entrepreneurship,” he said.

However, things are changing fast. He said,

“Acceptance will come when we and media celebrate victories and do not criticise losses or failure. Think about it as pivoting instead of failure. A person who has failed has tried. He/she has put a life’s efforts and persevered but did not succeed. Let’s celebrate that.”

Calling out to the media, he said the more the media will celebrate failure, the less it is going to be a taboo as a subject. Consequently, it will become easier for people to acknowledge and say, ‘yes, you know, this is what is acceptable and this is what I want to do.’

Parental support important

Recalling his own childhood spent in Mumbai, Bhavin said that his parents were very supportive. “Our parents were amazing. My dad read a lot, and that influenced me too. Between the ages of 10 and 14, I must have read loads of biographies like IBM, Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and Xerox. My dad always said you can achieve anything you set your mind to,” Bhavin said.

He added that though his father did not always agree to the route he took – he switched from science to commerce and dropped out and started his own company – but he was supportive and said ‘you should make your own mistakes and we’ll support you no matter what.’

“Everything that I am today, 99 percent credit goes to him,” said Bhavin.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/10/bhavin-turakhia-on-taking-risks/

A Chinese intern’s experience at a Bengaluru tech startup

On July 3, 2016, I found myself surrounded by people with Indian English accents, not very easy to understand for non-native English speakers. I had arrived in Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India, where for the next four months I would be working at Helpchat. However, I would not be working as a coder or product manager. Instead, my role would be in the capacity of a consultant — helping the Helpchat team know more about China and its staggering mobile internet industry, while learning more about the Indian mobile industry. The role really excited me — it was a great opportunity to understand the behaviour of 40 percent of the world’s population (Chinese & Indian!) Here’s a quick overview of my initial experiences.

Why India and Helpchat?

To begin with, most people would be curious to know why a Chinese biotechnology graduate ended up interning at an Indian startup. The answer to this is actually quite personal. I feel very inclined towards business and tech and felt that before pursuing higher studies, it would be great to get some international experience and understand the world better. What better place than India to do that? Accordingly, I started to search for an opportunity through AIESEC.

I wanted to be somewhere I would be surrounded by brilliant people and get to learn new things. In a sea of Indian startups, Helpchat, an all-in-one app similar to Baidu in China, grabbed my attention. Given the fact that it is smaller than the Indian giants ( Flipkart, Ola, etc.) but not too small either, I felt it was just the place for an intern. I would also get an opportunity to work closely with the product team.

This was both interesting and challenging. There is a saying in China that if you can survive in India, you can survive in pretty much any part of the world. Here I had the opportunity to work on an advanced product in a diverse country, and there was no way I was going to let go of it.

Resembling the Silicon Valley and the Chinese startup ecosystem at the same time

I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical before entering the Helpchat office for the first time. Imagine a room full of Indian people who speak a language you struggle with, most of them being tech guys who think differently, talk in fancy technical terms, and type code with their headphones on. All this was enough to intimidate a young Chinese woman like myself. However, this stereotype was cleared the moment I stepped in. Painted in bright colours, here was a neat office with inspiring slogans and young, energetic Helpchat employees brainstorming. It was all pretty Silicon Valley-style — open plan offices, friendly and relaxed. I can say that with authority as I had seen the same during my visit to offices of famous high-tech Silicon Valley corporations and startups before coming here.

Sam, the Helpchat mascot in the Helpchat office

As the only Chinese citizen in the office, it was like I became a Wikipedia page on all things related to the country. People kept approaching me, introducing themselves, discussing the way Chinese entrepreneurs have solved various problems, and what the differences or similarities between the Chinese and Indian startup ecosystems are.

The hierarchy is pretty flat here! Even the Helpchat CEO, Ankur Singla, came to my seat out of the blue and grabbed a chair to sit down. Since I hadn’t prepared for it, we had an impromptu but really nice and inspiring conversation about a lot of topics, including my expectations and future. He also has a lot of admiration and respect for Chinese entrepreneurs and asked me a lot of questions about innovative apps from China.

With Ankur Singla, Helpchat Founder and CEO

I witnessed not only how people here worked hard, learnt eagerly, and discussed seriously, but also how people celebrated achievements, a colleague’s birthday, or simply shared food in the office. Mind you, this is not an office with just 10 or 20 people where it would be easy to collaborate, but one where over 150 people sit and work together. There is definitely some magic going on here.

The Helpchat team celebrating during an off-site

Chinese startups work endlessly because the competition in China is fierce and the development of the internet industry is fast. It is increasingly the same in India. For example, Helpchat strives to be the fastest tech company in India as Vishal (CTO, Helpchat) explainedhere. While the company officially works five days a week, a lot of folks are in the office on Saturdays and Sundays as well.

Although India is the next big market after China, I feel the country is yet to see the kind of aggressive competition between startups (barring a few like Ola vs Uber or Flipkart vs Amazon) I have encountered at home. The truth is that while the Indian market is evolving fast, it is probably still three to four years behind China.

My work here

I was surprised to see how curious the people at Helpchat are about mobile internet development in China. My job here is to make the company understand more about Chinese customers, its culture, various apps, and the things that are going on in the Chinese tech industry. Why? Because no one can deny how great some of the Chinese tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have been in coming up with localised solutions targeted for Chinese users. By learning how the Chinese understand their people and localise apps, Helpchat would be able to accelerate its development towards building solutions for a billion Indians. The first assignment I got from Avinash (CPO, Helpchat) was to make the product team understand the Chinese news-reading behaviours and pop apps features so that their own news feature could benefit from them. Avinash asked me tons of questions while we were trying to understand the Chinese pop news reading customer behaviours and patterns. We dived deep into various apps that served this use case and discussed the reasons behind the differences and the logic behind the "weird" features. I was impressed by his sharp observations during our conversation.

Explaining Chinese apps’ UX to the UX designers at Helpchat

Bundling in India

Besides the Chinese news user behaviour and app analysis, I did the same for coupons, food, and public transportation with others from the product team. Every time, the first question I got was: "What do you use for x in China?" or "Do you have any app for y in China?"

The first app I always talked about was WeChat, followed by apps from Baidu and Alibaba Group, ending with standalone elegant apps with signature features. It was then that I realised how lucky I was to have grown up in a place with such a high performing mobile internet environment. As a millennial who has literally grown side by side with rapid developments in tech, unlocking my phone to get things done online is my first instinct. Since the BAT( Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) in China are bundling daily services into their apps, I can basically do everything from a single app like WeChat or Baidu maps or Meituan. Helpchat is trying to do the same thing in India; with most users having phones with less space and memory, a bundled app makes a lot of sense for a market like India.

Some interesting things I learnt

I am from Guangzhou, the paradise of food and one of the biggest cities in China. Since most of the people in India do not eat pork and cows are considered holy, I was quite concerned about how I would survive in a country dominated by vegetarian people. After a few days of having non-vegetarian meals, I decided to give a vegetarian meal a try, albeit with a little persuasion from an Indian friend. The food here is quite spicy for me, but I think I am already in love with the flavours of Indian cuisine. With thousands of varieties of food and sweets, India has increased my appetite. I think I may turn vegetarian after this experience!

The first Indian meal I tried

I also had a really interesting discussion with an Indian friend on why a lot of Indians are not interested in pork and beef. I was surprised to know that besides the religious reasons, Indians actually believe that vegetarian food keeps a person's mind sharp while meat makes people lazy. In China, vegetarian dishes are only a part of our food as a vitamin source, while meat is the main dish for energy. If people in China heard someone only ate vegetarian food, their first question would be: what happened to you that led to such a behavioural change?

Transportation is another thing I should talk about. I knew beforehand that Indian traffic was going to be crazy, but the first experience was still frightening — the noisy and unnecessary honking of cars, the dust and pollution created by the vehicles, autos rushing through the traffic, and everyone following a zig-zag lane. The traffic jams in Bengaluru were way beyond my expectations, too. Imagine: it can take you more than two hours to cover a 10 km journey. This is something which had never happened in my life, even in the most crowded city in China. Though I am frustrated with the traffic here, I am happy to see the Karnataka government building the metro. Roads, for a city, are like blood vessels for human beings. To develop a city, we need to build wide and proper roads first, something that is definitely missing in Bengaluru.

I live in an international intern house with people from all over the world. There is a map in my room on which all the previous inhabitants have pinned their pictures on the countries they belong to. Surprisingly, I am the only one from China and there have been only two people from Asia so far including me. Most of the others were from South America and Europe. With people from all over the world staying at the house, we often discuss things about India that surprise us. We discussed how Indians shake their heads when they mean to say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and how they wave their hands to stop the traffic when they need to cross the road. While there are trivial things to crib about, everyone staying in the intern house loves India and no one wants to leave after just six months or a year. I know for sure that I’m going to miss this diverse and united country when I go back.

Image of the map with pictures of people who have lived in our intern house

In the past two years, I have travelled a lot and experienced a diverse world, from Kenya to Thailand to the USA and now India. It is both interesting and inspiring to see how different people think and make use of the emerging technologies, especially mobile tech. I am surprised to see how smartphones have changed Chinese social behaviours and living styles in less than five years. With a large young population and culture as diverse as China, India can also use the power of the internet to regain its earlier glory.

Let's wait and see magic happen in India or be the ones to make it happen at Helpchat India!

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/10/helpchat-chinese-intern-experience/