Krushi Home: Mission Accomplished

Saturday a group of three (Jinjun, Michel and myself) went to Krushi home to deliver the projector. We got to hire ourselves an A/C car with driver, and left the hotel by 9 am. Luckily the driver spoke both English and Telugu as the map we got from Krushi home was not always intuitive to read. We arrived around 10 am and the kids were all excited. After some first interactions with the kids, we got into a nice conversation with Koshy, the manager of Krushi home with his wife Grace. We learned about the history of the conception of Krushi, the former location being Secunderabad near the old airport, about 100 streetkids being housed there now and the availability to house 120 actually. Of course we handed over the projector: our puspuse for getting there in the first place. Besides that, we also handed over some treats, pencils, post-it, and some IBM merchandise.

An extensive tour over the property followed, where several means are available to supply themselves such as vegetables for one meal a day, waterwell and watercleaning system, classroom, computerroom kitchen, boys bedrooms, the guest house was shown: a very nice place where four people comfortably could stay overnight.

kDiscussion took place on whether Krushi could maybe be included in the ABV- IBM CSC program. I think the conclusion would be no as it is a very remote area. So maybe some more local IBM On Demand Community (ODC) volunteers could be found to help out on specific areas.

The kids were all gathered in the local classroom.so that we could hand out the candy. In a very well organised manner, the kids came forward to each receive some candy from us. After the candy, we decided to sing some songs. Frere Jacques quickly was sang in Dutch as the kids had been thought that in the past.

After Krushi home, we visitied DholarRiDhani, a Rajestan village nearby. It appeared to be kids fun-park. We took the camel ride anyway, but were not that hungry to stay there for lunch. Instead we moved on the oldest Chinese restaurant in Secunderabad. Upon consulting this manager, the driver seemed to know where to go. Nearby Paradise Restaurant he however confessed not to know so got us to BBQ 36 instead. A very nice restaurant, somewhat spicy food, but raita and lassi helped a lot.

Back “home” for a little siesta, 5 km run on the treadmill for me, and prepping for dinner with Sundara and his wife. They took us to a very nice vegetarian place up in Secunderabad again. We had a lovely dinner and handed over our gifts as we weren’t sure if we would meet them together again. At the end we however were invited for lunch or dinner on Wednesday … a home-cooked meal was offered.

We were back in the hotel by 10.30pm. Quickly get ready for the next day and order early breakfast as we are off to the country side to visit a kiosk and farmers.

Work done 10-12 March and plans up to March16

Tuesday all day working on the deliverables: presentation preparation on my side, for Michel translations into french: presentation, emails, other info ... whatever is needed to get African countries in the loop. During the eve and night: downloading a trial version of the software needed for the brochures .. have to learn a new tool in a day or so.

Wednesday meeting with DCB bank to see if they possibly could fund at kiosk and/or mandal level. They have a CSR (corporate social responsibility) unit, which is beneficial in our case. We had a run of the new presentation; that actually went quite well. Just some adjustments needed, and another review will highlight some more adjustments I am afraid. For lunch (±2 pm), we explored a restaurant nearby the hotel (Dine Hill, just after the curve on Road 1, other side than Paradise take-out ... also a good place to visit). The restaurant is Indo-Arab ... so we had very nice kababs. Post lunch, I worked on the adjustments per the meeting in the morning, in the evening all eve. I was busy to install the downloaded software: nearly 2 hours for a trial version. Of course after, a little playing and testing to explore the options. Kept on going till 2 am.

Thursday all day work on the brochure instead of visiting the villages and farmers as was planned for all week. Somebody got murdered, causing a lot of rumour in one of the places we have to cross to get to our destination. This visit now is moved to Sunday. All of this morning (up to 1.15pm) was spent on page 1 of the brochure, all afternoon (post lunch ie. after 3 pm) on page 2. The result is surprisingly good I must say. In the eve all group wanted to come to the restaurant we "tested" for lunch: Fusion 9 on Road 1 across City Center (a local shopping mall). We had a very pleasant dinner: steak for me ... pretty unusual in India since the cow is a sacred animal.

Friday will be IBM 11-3 ... depart @ 10 from the hotel. In the eve we plan to see a local play at the theatre.

Saturday I will be dropping off the projector at Krushi home. After the drop-off I am recommended to visit Dhola Di Rhani (http://www.hyderabad.org.uk/excursions/dhola-di-rani.html) which is supposedly nearby. So am organising the Saturday trip for a group of 4 now. Upon return, a visit to THE pearl market is planned for.

Sunday: the farmers. Leave hotel @ 7 am and return in eve

Monday - Tuesday: with Michel to Chennai as we get to work this weekend (yes also on Saturday somewhere) and Michel could not take that planned trip. Of course I will be joining him with this new opportunity :-). We will return "home" on the eve Telugu (or Hindi ... I have to look it up) year is celebrated.

So I will try to blog...but given the schedule it might be lighter. My apologies for that.

Deliverables become clearer, opportunities arise

Tuesday all day was spent to refine the Executive Overview presentation by myself, Michel focussed on translations into French for the country reps we met last Thursday. To be honest, I am not sure this translation effort is worth it, as Sundara will not be able to provide any consulting or PM services that he plans to sell ... given the fact he does not speak / understand french, nor the french guys speak english. Dead end lead in my view, but hey ... the men would like to go ahead and pursue so ... meaning I have not been able to convince them otherwise.

During lunch time, we visited local printshops to inquire for cost to print brochures and business cards. These two items have to be created, as they are out of stock or non-existing at present time. The hotel had suggested a printshop nearby, and the address ... yes that is not used here. So we got Indian directions: find xyz (we could not understand what they were saying); continue until police station, turn right at lights. Of course, somebody else has a somewhat different view, so we collected 3 more directions, and surprisingly we found the place by ourselves by combining all hints & tips. It only was a ±2kms walk in 43° ; quite a challenge actually. But ... we got a pretty good offer -after we explained it was meant for a local business :-) - so we seriously consider to both invest a bit to get the Janani Group back on track with some tangible company items.
On our way back to the hotel, we found a nice Indian restaurant (is called Maks ...something, but can be found using Indian directions: passed the mosque, left side of the street, before police station reach; 3 steps up). We had a good meal there, for 100 Rs each.

Back in the hotel, we learned Sundara had passed bye to visit us -while we had asked for an IBM working day-, so instead he came bye in the evening. He entered while we were having dinner in the hotel resto to exchange some files we both had been working on. It was an early dinner (7.30-8 pm) as our team meeting to exchange all projects started again @ 8 pm. We continued until about 10, then I merged some files to be ready for the next mornings invite --we were kindly informed at 7.50 pm the next a meeting was scheduled for and that the Exec overview file should be in ready to use state @ 9.30 the next morning. Every day a surprise I would say :-)

Weekend in Mumbai (6 & 7 March)

First shock when leaving the Mumbai airport: imagine an old Simca 1000 - for those who do not know how it looks, type Simca 1000 on Google and you'll see how it looks- ..... This car is the taxi over here; in fact "our" Simca 1000 is dirty and dented like all its cousins around us and has to carry 5 people (including the driver). The front seat is one piece coated with a "pretty" red fabric with large black flowers. The important thing is that the driver takes us via an Indy-car type race to the hotel which is located ar the southern tip of the peninsula -- if only the driver had heard of the hotel we would get there in the regular 45 mins giving ignorance of speedlimits and red traffic lights. Now it took nearly an hour because the driver got lost. Finally, our driver asked his way several times.
Second shock: many people are lying on the side of the road over several miles, sleeping on their "matrasses". This is a facet of India that you cannot avoid, but seems to be more visible in Mumbai than in Hyderabad.

After a quick drink in the bar that is about to close, appointment is made for 8: 15 for the little breakfast. The breakfast lasts for an hour as we are dwelling into all types of foods - and for me cheeses and very nice fresh fruits all over the place. I cannot have the cruesli as well, safe that for Sunday morning.

Saturday: we decided to explore on foot the most interesting sites near our hotel (called Taj President, it is part of the Taj chain of hotels whose boss is TATA, a huge industrial group in India who also owns a car brand telecom, a services company, etc., in short TATA is present everywhere here in India). One of us adventurer at heart, has already prepared the itinerary. We therefore leave the hotel towards the Gateway of India, it is the India Gate at the seaside which was built in 1911 to commemorate a visit of George V and Mary lrene ; it resembles a triumphal arch of yellow basalt. A large crowd crowded here as it is also the place of rendezvous for the departure of vessels traveling to the island to the cellars of elephants (our plan on Sunday morning).

Just beside this gate is the Taj Mahal hotel (and yes, TATA again, as all TAJ hotels are), a large old-style grand hotel, where we do a tour (we got ourselves into the entrance, the white skin is a pass here, we realize once again the privilege of Western), hotel for less luxurious, a shopping arcade as you can see in old films with propeller fans, overlooking a beautiful swimming pool built in a lush garden. We stop at the restrooms, it is also worth a visit as there was a lady to turn on the faucet and the sink ... and we were offered a towel. I told you luxury, it's really the case here.

In short, we find the streets bustling and rather dirty (but less battered than any of Hyderabad mm and at least here there are sidewalks like we have in Europe, othewise it is expected to walk on the street and we wander from street to street along the route provided by our "guide". We end up with a beautiful circular space surrounded by buildings that keep track of the passage of the Portuguese in the 16th. We are entering a library, and there we find a system of classification of books that our grandparents have probably experienced a whole row of drawers furniture scrap gray with small cardboard postcard on which are inscribed by hand details of lending books.

We are here in a cosmopolitan city with many cultures have marked the history of the city, many tourists. So less "exotic" than Hyderabad that we can walk without being disturbed for pictures with the "white people".

We seek a place for lunch and everyone voted to go to sea, the breeze makes us feel good because the temperature is well around 35 degrees. This place is on the "Walk of English" of Bombay, is the avenue from the sea here is called the necklace of Queen Victoria as at night the streetlights illuminated along this avenue arc is reminiscent of a pearl necklace. Huge bay on the Arabian Sea. We had some famous pizza "Veggie" (and yes it is in Indian culture, we often eat vegetarian, very good in general).

Thereafter, down to the Hanging Gardens the other side of the bay, taxi, we are made in minutes instead : beautiful gardens with plants and trees that we do not like here eg mango tree, eucalyptus, palms course and others whose names we know, bright colors and varied palette of colors, beautiful, plus we perceive overlooking the sea.

We decided to visit a house where Gandhi lived. It appeared a large square house with 3 floors of galleries. Rather exciting to visit this place where we find many photos and writings of this amazing character. The proclamation of independence is framed here (1947), many photographs of Gandhi with all the great world of the time. And to complete our exploration of the city, Jain's temple by taxi. -taxi drivers don't speak english here, so a challenge to get anywhere near the destination of choice, but after this 3rd ride we get to understand the pricing mexhanism here ... we have been overpaying the other guys for sure :-). Anyway, the temple: beautiful paintings and a dome of very ornate sculptures. Upstairs, a gallery overlooking the Shrine's main square, makes us realize that there are several places of worship. The gallery continues outside chance and oh, the end of the day with a sunset over the bay. Pollution does not yet appreciate the beauty of the landscape!

Back at the hotel and dinner with candles around the pool lit (what a treat after that day despite the hot sea breeze, it could be worse ... ).

Check out Sunday morning to the basement of the island of elephants, 45 minutes by boat from the loading dock near the India Gate. Very enjoyable trip, it's really hot on this island, we find some rock carvings of Shiva, Ganesh and others ... and very large columns with fluted capitals crown. We decide for a group photo, trying to imitate the carvings on several arms around us, guided in this by an Asian woman very friendly and insists that we show how we have, great moment of laughter!

After the boat return we realise this weekend ends, head back to the airport to get "lunch" at 6 pm and then after a quick flight to the Golkonda Hotel. We arrive "home" at 22.30 and head to bed as work early starts again on Monday.

Work on Deliverables has started - March 5 & 8

Following the meeting on Thursday, more clarity has come to the deliverables of our project. One of them being an executive overview of the presentation, the other being a french version of it to possibly serve African countries. Friday morning, Michel and I drafted a layout for an Exec overview .. of course increasing the number of slides at first. This to great joy of Sundara, who already has guessed we would not be able to condense .... wait and see. Unfortunate to say, not much capacity building goes into rebuilding slides for a person. But hey, on the other if it helps to get on track. Some other soft skill capacity building can be done as well as we have identified some soft skill areas that could be improved. Friday afternoon we worked with Sundara to review our progress. And we had to stop in due time to pack bags to leave for a weekend trip to Mumbai -more about that in another blog-.

Monday we were off to ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics). ICRISAT a non profit organisation that does innovative agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with a wide array of partners across the globe. Their mission is to help empower poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in dry tropics through better agriculture. (http://www.icrisat.org/).
Very much in line with what Janani Foods is aiming for.


The ICRISAT meeting went very well. Both IBM Hyderabad and Janani were present to outline their respective objectives for Rural India. Basically it comes down to the message that ICRISAT may have a "slot" for some funding. Of course, some more conversations are needed to come to a final statement, but lobbying now has started.

It was very good and meaningful to have experienced both the Conference last Thursday and this ICRISAT meeting, especially to identify the areas where support is needed. For example, many organisations have a clear and short slogan on their business cards, in their presentations and brochures, on their posters ... you name it and it has a slogan. This is one of the things Janani has not at present, so we suggested to start including this.

After ICRISAT, where we had a great lunch, we moved on to IIIT to give them feedback on these last two appointments and progress. A constructive discussion took place on the African "lead", and it was decided Michel still should translate some core materials into French just to see if maybe some consulting and project management services could be sold to these 20 odd countries ... an income generator though not necessarily the one Janani would like to see.

On our way home, we got to try the coconut on the street ... this after the bananas in Mumbai. Yes, we dare to try more things as no one as of yet has been suffering from any stomach issues. And that while we are here for 2 weeks already. So we try more local restaurants, and now slowly move on to safe street food :-)

Indian - African exchange

A day in one of the best hotels: Taj Krishna. A hotel run by the Tata Group - what is not in this country?. Africans were collected to hear about Indian experiences to build up the country in order to learn. Indian agri stakeholders were present as well, the reason for attending for Sundara. He was so kind to take us there. We have learned a great deal on the current way of marketing and communications at Janani Foods compared to other companies, we have heard about companies trying to do the same kind of things more or less, generated ideas on fund raising, and due to Michels speech in French for these African countries with that background we also got 3 requests for information to market Janani in Africa. This besides 4 requests of local companies. So ... all excited we got back to the hotel at 4 pm to work on setting agendas for meetings, discussing what to sent upfront and what later, what to get out of a meeting, putting yourself in the shoes of the other "what do they want to get out of this" and where could we possible meet and partner? Prioritisation made whom to address first with what, and Friday will be spend to creating these tailored presentations and documents as part of the marketing plan deliverable. It seems we can start breaking the cycle of chikcen - and - egg conversations

In the evening, Michel and I had arranged for an appointment with IBM. We were picked up in a very nice familiy car, and were brought to a luxereus restaurant. We had Western style of food, meaning we could recognise our food, it looked the way we would cook it, had some vegetables, desert and wine. All was very overwhelming to me, as our living standard is pretty low compared to all of this. The cost of my main course already was a full days allowance, the wine 3.5 days allowance ...an excessive eve for me. And really, we are in a good hotel with internet in a nice area by the way, but this was up to the extremes. I got to experience part of the upper class life here. Concluding the eve, we even an invite for the entire CSC group to go out to a more out of town friend was done.

March 3

After mostly working with Sundara from the Hotel and being overwhelmed with information that had to be shared with us, today we moved on to a different way of working. This Wednesday an appointment was arranged for Michel and myself at YES Bank - a subsidiary of Rabobank. We had requested interviews at financial institutions as money is needed at 5 different "layers" in the pyramid we drew. A "layer" represents a group of people with each different monetairy needs in the expansion of Janani Foods. A farmer is the bottom layer and only needs 300 Rs to hook up to the system that enables the farmer to receive crop advise to increase the yield using the right amounts of fertilizers and pesticides (F&P) etc. Of course working capital is needed for the F&P, and seeds, and those things a farmer usually uses. A kiosk is at village level and resells the goods, but also transfers the specific crop advise by IIIT. A kiosk franchisee hence needs to buy some equipment like PC and camera to have some working capital to open up a shop and have a stock of F&P, seeds, etc. This goes on like this up to the highest level in the pyramid.

We had a very open discussion at with a agri consultant at YES Bank to understand what may be improved in the present materials like business case, business plan and the way the markets and stakeholders are approached. Some issues have been identified, and after the 2.5 hours meeting, we stopped for lunch (only 50 Rs a meal) on the way back to the hotel where we worked with Sundara going over these issues, sharing thoughts and ideas and brainstorming on KPI (key performance indicators) for one of the levels.

Upon return in the hotel, we learned a plane crash had been taking place in the area where we were - the old Begumptet airport where an airshow was held -. We had not noticed the crash, but only been stuck in traffic jams - an unusual thing in Hyderabad as traffic always keeps on moving despite the number of cars, mopeds, trucks, temples, cycles, etc etc etc on the road.

We have learned that brainstorming is not a known method, as each topic was discussed and explained at length so for us it felt rather unproductive. Sundara was showing similar body language, so we called it a day around 17.15. This enabled us to get some fresh air and rest a bit before the 8 pm team meeting started to further discuss our projects.