From ‘Firsts’ to ‘Usual’

Clueless about what’s on my plate for next year, I joined the fellowship, fiercely walking into the unknown and actually desperate to work for the betterment of society. I had never imagined that I would be coming to a rural setup in Maharashtra and that would require me to explore entrepreneurship as a fellow. Secretly I wanted this from the very beginning, deep within, I wanted to own something. And my secret wish of working for the cause of migration and livelihoods came true through this fellowship and the project that I had been assigned.

The journey of one year has ignited entrepreneurship in me- I will talk about this in subsequent blogs. But before this, I’m would like to talk about all the firsts that I have got to live through this fellowship, and how these first have become the norm for me.

My firsts are a long list- moving to a rural setup for work, switching the sector of work, travelling in a ac sleeper bus, my first flight, delivering a presentation, cracking a business deal, building a product, marketing my product, functioned as call agent for a market research, attending a conference, pitching the project, owning my space and my living, a feast in the farm, a solo trip, adventure sports like rafting and its not ending here. In this one year, all these firsts have become a usual, and some became monthly rituals. But every time I approach these, it feels like I’m still experiencing them for the first time. Responses and responders get different and I get to improvise. But here I’ll be writing about how my few significant firsts are turning usual.

Before this fellowship, I have lived in another city for months during my studies, I have worked as well but that was from the comforts of my home. I have never moved out for work. Joining this fellowship required me to move out of my city to a rural setup in Maharashtra. And let me tell you this- is one of the objectives of the fellowship to place candidates far from their home, in the rural setup, to break their comforts help them drive change for the better, for the fellows as well as the communities. Why moving to a rural set up hit me differently? Because I have lived a joyful 24 years of my life in a tier 2 city as well as in a metropolitan city, but never had I ever seen or experienced life in a rural setup.

The fellowship brought me an exposure to rural life for the very first time- I moved to the rural town of Beed, Maharashtra. Honestly, I loved the experience- the mud houses, narrow lanes, small colonies, greenery around, rural food cooked in chulhas, fresh fruits, vegetables and milk, and the warming neighbours and people around. This had an impact on my lifestyle as well. In the past one year, I have had pizza only once, that to away from my field location. For the very first time, I explored the farms and the agriculture, had a feast in one of my colleague’s farm, and almost every month, my colleagues invite me for a meal. Through this fellowship, I have enjoyed this lifestyle and now this is coming to conclusion, I fear, If I got to move out back to a city, would I get such natural things around – the fresh milk, fresh vegetables and fruits directly from the farm. This puts me in doubt, whether I would like to get back to city life? I might not!

I have been the one to travel the most in my family by the age of 24, first one to leave home and move to another city for studies and work. For me, the railways were the only mode of travel before joining the fellowship. Never had I imagined that I would be boarding a flight at such an early age. As a part of my work, I’ve travelled almost every month except in March, and they were mostly long distance travel. My first flight was from Delhi to Aurangabad to reach my work location, an early morning flight where I saw the sunrise from the plane, rising from the white cottony layers of clouds. It was beautiful and deep within me I was happy. And after that long distance travel has become usual and I have boarded three flights during my fellowship period. Not just flight, I had also never been in AC Sleeper Bus and I had least idea about these buses, how they look like, how they operationalise, and guess what my first travel to reach my project location was through an Ac sleeper bus from Pune. I hadn’t slept the whole night, full of emotions and nervousness or maybe because of the view of a rainy night, blue light and cozy ac cabin. Before, I suffered from motion sickness, I was of the opinion that I could never travel by bus, but I have travelled almost 15 times through an overnight bus it was all good journeys. My motion sickness got cured and bus journeys have become little more regular as ambajogai has a great road connectivity with major cities like pune, mumbai, nagpur and Hyderabad and I’m quite excited about my last bus journey in the fellowship period returning Pune for my convocation.

I have graduated from an average government college with a science subject and no need to ever give a presentation. I had never worked in a role which required the delivery of presentations. And guess what, just after 5 days of joining the organisation, I was asked to do the presentation for my project. The founder of my organisation had given my name for delivering a presentation at Quiver programmer by Drishtee who was supposed to invest in our project. And I was shocked in the moment as I hadn’t prepared the ppt. I had just reviewed it 10 minutes before the presentation and when they took my name. I was frozen for a second, but then I accompanied the founder and we together delivered a great presentation. Later as I moved with my project, gathered more information and in a span of 10 months, I have given more than 10 presentations to various stakeholders. I have presented my project before district agricultural officer, in various conferences, at jio world convention centre, participated in pitching competitions like yes summit and Unpollute’s sustainability conclave. I also won a first runner up prize at Unpollute’s sustainability conclave with a award money of Rs 1,00,000. These subsequent presentations have helped me improvise and brought me learnings like understanding the audience, time management and speaking with clarity. And with every new presentation, I get better.

Through this fellowship, I have a very insightful experience of being a budding entrepreneur, developing a product, marketing of the product, selling in various exhibitions, cracking a business deal, onboarding stakeholders, doing business negotiations, all of these were my firsts and it has become usual as I moved ahead with my fellowship. Through this fellowship, I have got an opportunity to develop a product and I’d made sitaphal rabdi and sitaphal kulfi. I’ve also got to understand the market and I have coordinated with more than 30 buyers, From my first exhibition to attending 4 exhibitions along with women. From my first customer to happily serving more than 3000 customers. With the first sale of Rs 40 to earning a revenue of more than 1 lakh Rs. In this one year, I have got to make my first business deal which has brought earnings of Rs 75000 through selling custard apple. This is the first and wholesome experience being an entrepreneur and has provided a direction to my career. I am very excited about carrying this skill and experience further in my life post fellowship.

Many of such experiences that have turned usual from the firsts and if you’re a fellow, you can definitely relate through this and if you’re wishing to join such fellowship, you must go as you never know which project gives a direction to drive your career. Do share your firsts turned usual in the comments.