WIN: Last leg of DAPL aborted

Today is a great day in the history of environmental activism and non-violence. The much protested final segment of the Dakota Access Pipeline has been halted by the US Army Corp of Engineers.

To rewind a little bit, the DAPL is a 1,172 mile long underground oil pipeline project by Energy Partners, that connects North Dakota, across South Dakota all the way to Illinois. The final segment involved a path a path under Lake Oahe, a sacred burial site to the Standing Rock Sioux and a source of community drinking water.

Since the spring of 2016, thousands of people have gathered to protest the construction of the pipeline under Lake Oahe, in fear of contamination of their drinking water source. The protest saw representation by various Native Indian tribes and non-Indians marking it as one of the largest non-violent protests in the history of the United States. What could very well have been contained by military brute force, snowballed into a momentous victory of unarmed resistance in the face of capitalist greed and environmental nonchalance. 

And the work is far from over. But at least it has begun. This is an alarm bell for all us dormant environmental well wishers, do-gooders and activists.

I started following the DAPL protests around the same time I was researching the coastal SEZs approved in Telangana and its impact on the fishing villages surrounding it.The villagers have already seen a 60% drop in catch which results in them having to venture further into the ocean, consuming more diesel. These generational fishing villages are now left with utter scarcity in terms of livelihoods and sustenance. And to make things worse, the ground water quality index reports poor ground water quality. Surprise Surprise!

It made my blood boil to read excerpts from a human rights forum (which unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore, strange I know) that demonstrated how the villagers were suppressed/threatened during public hearings before the sanction of the project. Steps involved :

• The land is procured from farmers at a fee of INR 2.95 lakh per acre
• Owing to inheritance and other factors, familial land has been getting divvied up leaving many farmers with somewhere close to an acre of land.
• So 3 lacs compensation is a far cry for something that you depended on for subsistence right?
• Now the land is sold to companies for quite cheap, with also heavy tax rebates for a period of 10 years
• Then a supposedly neutral agency will conduct the environmental impact assessment stating that the SEZ (all conditions adhered to) will not be detrimental to the environment, no catch will be reduced and no, the ground water will be safe.
• When the incentives are stacked in your favor, what is the motivation to :
  • Do everything in your right minds to ensure effluents are treated before discharge?
  • Make sure you don’t pollute ground water tables?
• My Guess is its not strong enough. Who pays the price? – the displaced people and the coastal ecosystem. Pretty soon, everyone who ingests fish too.
• Can all companies adhere to the same set of standards? Doesn’t how much they can invest in treatment technology link to their P&L ?

Coasts are some of the most fragile and diverse ecosystems there are and we are looking at constructing big fat industries that can discharge directly into the oceans. This will destroy livelihoods of communities along the coast, who will then need to be rehabilitated by the corporates who decide to set up factories in the SEZ. But how can they absorb everyone?

Secondly and Thirdly, Climate Change !

In my country the concept of ‘smart’ cities sound more like short term quick win sure shot death penalty procedures. And its time a lot of us learned a lot more about our vicinities, our climate patterns, our water bodies and all the very things we have taken for granted.

But Today is a good day. Because people can bring positive change when they stand together.

Why Mumbai will drown.

Yesterday I dropped in at the Times Lit Fest and attended the conversation with George Marshall, acclaimed British Campaigner for Climate Change. It was to put it in a nutshell, highly haunting. In fact if one were to attribute a keyword to that conversation, it was Haunting.

Will Mumbai drown – below are some of the highlights from:

• The cost of sea levels rising will amount to 71 Bn USD in comparison to the cost of the 2005 flash floods, which was 2 Bn USD
• The INR 11,300 crore coastal road along Mumbai is not well thought through . Citizens need to campaign against it. There is no point regulating the flow of cars once it is built, if there’s a road, there will always be cars!
• Climate Change needs to be a conversation topic. 2/3rds of people in Britain and US haven’t had a conversation about it. (Let’s talk about CC baby!)
• We need to break down our communication tailored to various groups like say, farmers, bankers, religious groups
• India has the most inefficient power distribution centres and seriously subsidized energy prices that WILL accelerate the deterioration of the climate
• Around the world, money is being taken out of coal plants…India needs to learn from the mistakes of the West and not copy their approach to development to the T
• Solutions broached:
  • Levy tax on producers and not only customers. Cost of extracting and using non-renewable sources must be levied on producers
  • Shift taxes so that one can tax what’s bad and reduce tax on what’s good
  • Present opportunities to companies and citizens to participate and innovate in the climate change space.

 

This led me to think more about what can one do about this, and how do we talk about it to the point of acting on it. Something to delve deeper into

Clothspeak

Photograph by Jay Mantri

When we used to go shopping as teenagers, I used to wonder how my brother would buy far fewer items for the same amount at the same store than me. I would smirk. How can such drab fashion be more expensive than all this variety we have as women. Now I know better.

Men’s wear has traditionally been aimed at comfort and utility while women’s wear for the most part at looking good. This calls for two very different skill sets — the science of creating durable and practical clothing and the art of accentuating and adorning (except maternity wear)

A man’s body serves a purpose while a woman’s body serves as a canvas.

Back in the day, when the men were fighting wars and Britain was rationing clothing, the women began to wear their husband’s civilian wear and head to work. Keep calm and wear his trousers. Use the rations for more pressing needs like tea. Since then trousers have become mainstream for women.

History, culture, perceptions of gender roles and business influence fashion. And vice versa. Take for example agender clothing that is blurring the lines between male and female clothing, an extrapolation of today’s voices uniting for gender equality. Or the victory of this Australian mom’s petition for trousers as girl’s school uniform!

But coming back to comparisons, one could hypothesize that given women consume so much more fashion than men, they may want to spend the same amount of resources on more items. This means every ingredient ranging from the fabric, to the trim would need to be cheaper. Maybe even the wages of those who make it.

‘Fail fast, replenish faster’ might be the hidden agenda then and not democratizing fashion as they have us believe.

But this impulse to shop, our ‘retail therapy’ as we call it combined with ample supply of fast fashion has resulted in a devastating load on the earth’s rapidly depleting resources.

I think it is the need of the hour for women to see the big picture as choices shape the future of the planet. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but it is true!

I appreciate that men put comfort over appearances. It is my sincere wish that women will put themselves first too.  But hey, we don’t need to skimp on the appearances bit. We just need to choose smart.

A version of this article was first published here on the 100 Naked words publication on Medium.

The heat of the Hustle

Photo by Redd Angelo for Unsplash

As an ex-entrepreneur, it feels gloriously horrible to hang your boots. You are moved by the worn out ness of the heels. Yet it doesn’t quite look too tattered as you hang them. A sign that there’s more to where that came from. Once you are ready again.

But for now you gently close that closet door and sit on your laptop looking at Linkedin, Fastcompany, Indeed, Angel.co and whoever’s hiring. Maybe not you, maybe you are going to take a break. But I am going back to work. I want nothing more than to learn things I didn’t learn in time, and get a chance to own something again and see it to fruition.

The hustle is a frame of mind where there’s no way out. The only way out is to take a step. So you don’t wait, you take action. Sometimes there’s a burning sensation in your belly, all the way rising to your throat the other times.

How do I pay them? Do I have to downsize? Having the dirty conversations. Walking door to door to find clients. Going to great lengths to service them well for a repeat order. Repeat. Chasing defaulting customers for payments. Building a company culture.

When I look back, I realize I didn’t celebrate enough. I was gunning so hard, I was putting all of my life energies to move my company forward that I couldn’t stomp on the brakes. Slow down. But how? Money was running like a tap.

Sometimes that is a sign for a drastic measure – usually for a pivot or complete overhaul. But these signs need to be flagged for in advance, like red alerts – Road bump ahead. However, in my case I reached a point that said – No road ahead.

You don’t have money to pay the toll.

I remember downsizing. The agony of having to tell my tailors who had worked with me for a whole year, that it was over. I dreaded that day the most. I cried every week religiously, for a month until I took that decision and then some more before I mustered up the courage to have that conversation. First with my co-founder. Then with my lead tailor.

My tailor was empathetic. He’d seen me shrink in the last year. In his words I was ‘losing personality’. But I think he meant vitality. He said that it was not realistic to work with so much loss. He said that in losing to run this business, I had learnt to run one. Yes all that and more.

But its been a locked vault honestly after a stream of writing. A vault I don’t want to shake. I just pull up the relevant details for interviews because turns out this seems to be the most exciting part of my application. So I answer.

‘What could you have done better?’

‘What did you learn?’

‘What would you do differently?’

I think I am ready to dig deeper.

Minimalism in Fashion

 

We humans do not require a lot. We might acquire a lot but we will always have our personal favorites – be it people, clothes, jewelry, hairdos, books, food or coffee shops.

If that is the case, why do we chase after deals, like there’s no tomorrow ? The ease of online shopping, the lure of clothes at throw away prices, the combo meals and two for one offers. We are hoarding and its breaking our pockets, our closets and our ability to live well with what we have. We lose our clarity when we constantly pile up for the future.

When it comes to fashion, there is no dearth of options and the market competition between e-commerce giants lets us feast to our hearts content. Bring em on – the tirade of leggings, shoes, dresses and tops.

Minimal living is a way of life that calls our intention to the fore. When we live with intention, we stay mindful and aware of our needs and desires.

Minimalism in fashion isn’t about purging out the color and wearing only black and white. It is about investing in a few staples and pairing them with auxiliary items to create multiple looks. The word ‘capsule wardrobe’ has been doing the rounds for a while but its important to understand the WHY before embarking on any journey.

Because you invest in pieces you love, you wear each outfit with aplomb thereby looking great in what you wear.  

In order to do this, you evaluate what you look great in. You understand your proportions and play to your strengths and confidence.

• Do you have a longer or shorter torso when compared to your legs?
• Do you have a full bust or derriere?
• What are your favorite features and how can you call attention to them?
• Do you dress for comfort or style?
• What is your signature look – classy/ bohemian/ contemporary etc?

It wasn’t just the price tag that got you but the touch of the fabric, the finish of the garment and its promise of companionship rather than a fickle one day wear.

• You pay attention to the quality of a garment – does it start fraying with friction, does it undo at the seams real fast?
• You understand what fabrics work with your skin and your lifestyle
• You take care of your clothes because they are items you love and invest in

It leaves room for experimentation (Quite literally)

Imagine a closet that isn’t spilling out but one that has things where you want them to be. This leaves room to add seasonal favorites or accessories for your ‘looks’.

When you see a fashionable person, you are besotted by the confidence they exude and their eye for fashion – pairing colors, prints, cuts into a potent cocktail of style.

Experimenting with looks, enables you to discover your signature style making your relationship with fashion a personal and memorable one.

You evolve into a conscious consumer

There’s a lot of talk these days about conscious shopping and for good reason. As a person who’s built a fashion company from scratch, I can vouch for the need to shop ethically.

The person who makes your garments is probably not paid too much to get by. It can be quite rough in certain countries and it is a tough problem for even the big brands to monitor their supply chain. At the end of the day, businesses are run by profits and a case for human rights wont fly high unless there is demand for a clear conscience.

When your relationship with something as fundamental as clothing becomes a personal evolution of style, you will not want to wear blood on your sleeves.
Wear your heart instead.

 

#DYK Fashion is the 2nd most polluting industry in the World.

I didn’t know that. Did you?
But given the rate at which our population is growing, and consumption is exponentially rising..maybe it is not so surprising. I’ve been spending a lot more time reading up on the usual suspects.

1. Synthetic Dyes

Azo dyes (R-N=N-R) are chemical compounds that have two adjacent Nitrogen atoms between carbon atoms. The chemical reaction to create these compounds happens at regular temperature using water, so industrially it is easy to manufacture.

These account for 60-70% of all dyes in the industry! (They are also used in the food industry fyi) Azo dyes are the rockstars of color giving vivid high intensity shades to your fabrics especially those striking shades of Reds.

However…there’s always a however…Azo dyes aren’t the best for us, health-wise or planet-wise. It has been known to metabolize into carcinogenic (read cancer-causing) sub components. This means that when broken down, they tend to be quite harmful.

And considering that most of this industrial waste is dumped into rivers that contain bacteria…chances are that these Azo dyes are getting broken down into tiny monsters.

Really NOT Cool. While creating the collections for DFYNorm, I spent quite a lot of time looking for dyeing units that did Azo free dyeing as well as lab tested all our fabrics to make sure there were no traces of Azo dyes or Formaldehydes.

2. Leather Tanning

Source : National Geographic

Tanning is what makes leather durable, that converts it from the hide of dead animal to fabric. You can read more about the various processes used to tan leather here but the gist is that the most popular option is also the most noxious. In comes Chromium tanned leather, the leading option used these days. With it comes its annoying cousins, who announce their exit by polluting the waterways with Chromium, a heavy metal !

Considering that most of such tanning practices happen in developing nations like Bangladesh, India and China, the workers and the general population (including animals and plants) is at risk of consuming water laced with heavy metal. So ask yourself – is it really worth it?

3. No Fur For me

Sometimes fashion industry spokespeople take consumers for idiots, thinking we have the attention span of a fruit fly and the memory of well a fruit fly itself. Let’s bring back fur, fur is ‘trending’ this season and a lot of people will jump in on the bandwagon. Some will suggest fur is not harmful at all and dunk a bucket of ice cold water on the work of animal rights and environmental activists. And there with one snap of grandeur and a few glamorous catwalks, the world is ready for fur yet again.

To Fur or to Faux-Fur, yes let’s ask that pertinent question (sarcasm). Fur is renewable you might say but as we have just seen – to transform it from the luxurious coat of an animal (that has a whole engine working inside it to keep that coat alive and stunning) to one that nests on a human, takes chemical work. Et voila! in walks the rockstar of havoc, the heavy metal Chromium and its crew.

This argument might help those who have been so spoilt by Fashion that it doesn’t really matter at what cost, that article of luxury was sheared off a writhing animal. Fortunately, for all fur lovers, there is a new wave of companies that are looking to create fur from Alpaca wool, one that is obtained with minimal harm to the animal itself. As for the others, buy vintage please.

Source : Eluxemagazine.com

 

4. Textiles

The backbone and the body of Fashion is Fabric and there are a variety of them : the biodegradable and the non biodegradable ones.

The biodegradable ones comprise of natural fabrics like cotton, silk, hemp, jute, bamboo, raffia and so on as well as man-made fabrics like viscose and rayon which are made from cellulose.

The non-biodegradable ones comprise of anything made from hydrocarbons (read polymers, double read plastic). They are non-renewable because the root source of them all is oil and they do not decompose, meaning they last in the soil (and oceans) for a really long lime. Much after we are gone.

These non-biodegradable textiles were invented prior to the world war and were a big hit, back when the natural fabrics needed to be rationed.

Polyester is a great fabric in terms of properties, it can take great structure so its a designer’s dream to work with. Think of all those amazing pleats and folds that can be done with right heat settings! It is wrinkle resistant and it can stretch!

But in terms of being second skin, it is an absolute snob. No breathability. In humid countries like India, I am often surprised at how it still sells!

I personally hate it because of fast fashion. I almost want to cry when I think of the rate at which these end up in landfills. When I travel by the local trains in Mumbai and pass by the hubs that are teeming with tailors, I see shiny scraps of fabric all over the streets…and I am pretty sure thats polyester. When I used to live in the US, almost everything I bought was polyester! Blouses that looked like silk, dresses from Ann Taylor for work, stylish dresses that hugged the curves for the dance floors. I don’t think I gave it much thought before I actually started to read up about it. I mean we learnt these things in school!

But we forgot them by the time we grew into decision making adults who consume at a rate that would make Aldous Huxley hang his head in shame.

Polyester is not the only fabric that gets a rap (although it being non-renewable lends it the crown) but Cotton, that amazing breathable fabric that has a mind of its own when it comes to creasing, is not clean either. Such a bummer.

It is a lot more complicated to understand though, so I shall explain it in detail in an upcoming post. To sum up, it has to do with how water intensive growing cotton can be and the lackadaisical attitude of everyone involved in fast fashion that is leading to some irreversible changes in crop cycles as we speak.

5. Plastic Bags

If it isn’t worse that we wear plastic, we use them without batting an eye lid for everything we purchase! Isn’t it astounding how much plastic we accumulate in a DAY? It’s a conscious choice we must try to exercise, but taking a bag to shop will not only save the earth from one extra bag but it might just help you make better buying decisions.

Nick Waplington’s Photography of a Landfill

6. Import Export

Fashion is a global industry. The distribution of raw materials, of labor and artisanal gems is distributed in the developing world. This has enabled amazing fashion to be available to all. However, there is a lot of travel involved in the creation of fashion products : sending samples across countries, interim products, finished products to be distributed in retail houses. Oh wait, add to that ‘International Shipping’ and before we know it we are ordering a scarf thats being delivered from Bali.

What do we do? Should we just go on or should we just stop? Is there a way we can work through this quagmire. I think it isn’t too late. Fashion requires an overhaul in terms of awareness, technical proccesses, planning, agriculture innovations, logistics, packaging, design and waste management in order to become a sustainable industry.

For starters we can start with educating ourselves and making investments in clothing rather than buying them on an impulse. It is a journey we need to embark on to discover how happy we can be with things that are made by happy people. Stay tuned.

Bibliography:

• http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/is-fur-trade-sustainable
• http://gizmodo.com/how-leather-is-slowly-killing-the-people-and-places-tha-1572678618
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1964887/
• http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1651375/toxic_chemicals_used_for_leather_production_poisoning_indias_tannery_workers.html
• http://www.alternet.org/environment/its-second-dirtiest-thing-world-and-youre-wearing-it

The case for slowness

Today I woke up with a realization. It was a very drowsy one but it was stern.

“I need to slow down” said a voice to me. It was the voice of my body. And I have heard it before, twice. Once when I was in the emergency care after a botched surgery and the next when I was spiraling into depression.

I work hard and am very results oriented would be a nice line for Linkedin but what happens when your results always need to be delivered at the right time?

It results in racing towards your goal like a bull, fast and furious. Many a times blinded by all other signs like losing touch with friends, snapping at dear ones, losing sleep and finally fatigue. Until the body stomps its foot and says enough is enough. By then you are already rendered invalid in some capacity…ailments, breakdown or depression.

I don’t know if its because I have a tendency to think I am invincible and/or that time is in very short supply that I hurry and push myself so hard.

I think its both. Although one health-scare down, the notion of invincibility is slowly eroding. I had these benchmarks I had set for myself – milestones and plans based around achieving these milestones. And when everything was taking much longer than accounted for and a lot of energy than envisaged, I kept pushing.

I thought why not, I am young and I have got the energy – better to use it when its abundant and drive myself hard before it dries up with time right?

But strangely enough I wasn’t applying the principles I am championing with my slow fashion brand.

Just as fast fashion has dwindled our resources at an alarming rate (did you know fashion is the 2nd most polluting industry in the world?), running so fast depletes us of our life force.

There’s a word in Japanese for this – its called Karoshi. I love how nuanced and deep that language is but now is not the time to gloss over its beauty when I am talking about something this morbid. Burning out is Not something one must carry to their gravestone.

So I have decided to trust my work, trust my journey and trust that things will fall into place when the time is right. Show up for what you love, give it your best shot, trust in the unknown and learn to sign off and live your life in the meanwhile.

To build any muscle you need to give it time to recover. To grow any plant you need to let the soil regenerate. And to build your big idea, you need to give your mind, the space to rest and rekindle its spark.

Stylespotting at the TATA Literature Festival

Yesterday I met a school friend after more than a decade! She lives in the same city as I do and has an adorable 4 year old daughter, who I have read much about on FB. My friend posts snippets of what her daughter talks about and it is innocent and fascinating all at once. The innocence, the straightforwardness and most of all that glorious imagination. Finally the jinx is broken and we parted agreeing to meet more often. Also she lent me her precious hard cover of Big Magic! How very generous of her 🙂

We met at the TATA Literature festival happening at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Nariman Point. We decided to attend a play called Comedy of Horrors which was a mashup of 3 stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Pierce. Unfortunately I only remember two of these stories, both by Edgar, The Man that was used up & The System of Dr. Tarr & Prof. Fether

I arrived at the venue half an hour later than what I had promised due to train delays. It was a beautiful venue and the weather for a change was behaving. There were many senior citizens in the house, the veterans of Mumbai who congregated at cultural and stimulating events like these dressed in the finest and most elegant of khadis and tussars – a bygone era where what went into the making was as important as the outcome. But then I saw many millenials so to speak, some as young as undergraduates and some in their seasoned 30s. And they were dressed in what my mind processes as the journo attire, which I personally love.

A journo attire in India is a lose Kurta worn nonchalantly over a cotton pants combined carefully with a pair of Kohlapuri chappals which is all then combined deliberately with a jhola. And it always manages to take my breath away.

Src : http://quirkyconnection.tumblr.com/post/131164121694/

Then there are the connoisseurs of the Saree. These are people who ‘invest’ in a saree and believe that a saree ages like wine. Rightfully so! India has an abundance of textile art that is available to those who look for it. Your education begins at home, when you see your mom decide which saree to wear.

When I was really young, I used to observe my mother draping her saree with wonder. I also told her which ones I liked and would like to be handed down to me. I even made one of her beautiful silk sarees into a shift dress which had a few mishaps in terms of construction…so it stays in my wardrobe, waiting for another makeover.

But as I grew up, I lost interest in something I considered to be a garment only for ones that had inherent grace. One that is worn to friend weddings. It always puzzles when I see people wearing that same garment while traveling on a train. How?

Coming back to the connoisseurs, they enchant with their taste in the saree, the pairing of it with the blouse and complimenting jewelry. Such a sight to behold. Indian beauty.

One such lady I saw yesterday was none other than Sarika Hassan.

Sarika Hassan in a beautiful Tussar silk kalamkari saree

My friend and I stole glances at her as we walked ahead of her to our seats. We were also excited when we spotted Naseerudin Shah, the poster boy for Indian theatre (or parallel cinema as they call it) and the talented Ratna Pathak Shah, who also is his wife . Such a power couple. I have a weak spot for celebrities as you can tell.

All of us thoroughly enjoyed the depiction ofThe System of Dr. Tarr & Prof. Fether. My friend’s little one, who she calls P, was giggling through bits of it. I think she was the only child in the room. With a bibliophile for a mom, I am sure little P is going to more than dabble in the literary arts!

All in all a fun evening replete with histrionics, friendly banter, style spotting and Big Magic 🙂

My Love for Train Journeys takes me to Goa.

I live in Mumbai and swear by the Mumbai locals. So much so I started a tumblog on my adventures in the city’s local trains/ with the city’s locals last year.

While the local trains are intense sessions – densely packed, sometimes with tempers rising and arms flailing, inter-city commutes are more conducive for reflection and sight seeing.

However traveling in trains within India also entails conversing with people from various walks of life, exchanging stories and chai and other pleasantries. It is an understated rule that people will ask you questions. That is how most people pass time on trains barring Millenials I guess. But thanks to the patchy telecom networks between hubs, no one can escape this chit chat.

On my way to the Startup India conference held at Goa on Oct 7th and 8th, I met a mixed bag of people. They were so warm!

One was a middle aged man from Gujarat who was also a marketing manager, heading to Goa for a business meet. The other was a duo – a young boy named Fahad, in his 20s, who was studying M.Com and an old man named ‘Kunjumon Haaji’ who I took to be his grand father. They had just returned from a pilgrimage to Ajmer’s famous ‘Dargah’.
Then there was a young athletic lady who was employing my usual tactic – listening to music in the corner.

The young boy Fahad had this wide welcoming grin on his face. He was attempting to speak to me in his broken Hindi. That meant he was from South India. One word more and I knew he was from Kerala. It takes one to know one I guess. He asked me where I was from. I said ‘Cochin’. He was like ‘What! You are Malayali too!’ (almost with indignation at having been made to struggle for that long). But I had the same difficulty speaking my native tongue as he had with speaking his mother tongue. India and its many tongues I tell you!

He told me about his trip to Ajmer and his old man chipped in, peppering it with elderly warmth. Fahad was a natural conversationalist, pulling people into conversations like a suave Salsa Casanova switching partners. He got Gujju uncle into the loop by asking him about his role with Nice Pharma. Fahad himself had a part time gig marketing pharmaceutical products in Calicut, Kerala. Turns out there is a huge health city in the making and a lot of OTC businesses are setting up shops there. They exchanged emails and promised to be in touch.

Then he turns to me and says that lady there is a referee. I am excited ‘WHAAA! Really!’. And for the first time ever, I prodded her (Yes, I shattered her wall of ‘don’t disturb me’ to hear her story) and asked ‘You are a Referee? How cool is that!’

She was definitely a lady of few words but she obliged. She told us how challenging it was to be a referee. Imagine running the length of a football field for 90 minutes watching every move. She also said that it was thankless – your verdict invariably rubbed one team the wrong way. She narrated the times when she had actually made a mistake – the hurl of abuses from athletes, the guilt at setting back a team and the shame of being incompetent were all incredibly challenging. I was genuinely touched by her open nature even though she seemed reserved. She wasn’t glossing over it, she wasn’t hiding…she was so real.

I believe we need to celebrate people and their journeys. And to do that we need to shatter our ideals of beauty, of being, of aspirations – ones that are invariably more warped for women. One way to do this is to share our story and to listen to theirs as they take us on a heartfelt journey. It doesn’t matter how long or short, how happy or sad, triumphant or turbulent it is. What matters is how we are able to listen. How we are able to share. Wearing our heart.

So I took her email address to stay in touch after.

After she went back into her zone, the 4 of us kept talking about various things. Then Fahad left to do his namaaz. Kunjumon Hajji bought all of us some hot chai and then he proceed to have his dinner. He wasn’t too happy with the dinner on the train so he sprinkled his go-to powder. I took a guess ‘Chemeen? (prawns?)’. He laughed and said, ‘Yes!’. Goes with anything and everything!’.

I was eating an orange I had packed for the trip. K.H offered me some Prawn Powder. I was bewildered and said a big NO. I offered Fahad an orange. K.H offered him the prawn powder. Fahad obliged us both and then made a face to me as K.H went back to having his dinner. Oranges and Prawns weren’t quite the combo. Later I got to know that they weren’t related but were neighbors in a small town near Calicut. KH was single and doted on Fahad as his son. When I was setting up my berth, I heard KH tell Fahad to help me but then he also said ‘Although she seems the type who’s quite used to traveling on her own’. I liked the old man.

Finally we all called it a day and crashed. I had my elevator pitch to think about. The next day Mr. Marketer, Ms. Referee and I woke up at 4:20 a.m as we were scheduled to arrive at 4:30 am. We huddled by the exit and watched the scenic villages of Goa roll by. 4:30 turned to 5 and then 6…and we were just inching our way to Madgao, our destination. People had gone back for the second leg of their sleep cycle. Fahad joined us and we stood by the doorway, chatting away.

Finally we arrived at Madgaon. We exchanged emails and goodbyes. I met my driver Doris who was amazing and ever helpful during my stay in Goa. It is always heartwarming to come across beautiful strangers and I was sure my trip had got a head start.

Notes from Startup India conference @TheGoaDiaries – I

Last week I attended a global start-up conference held in Goa. I first got to know about it from our mentor, Nitin who said I should look it up when I met him in Mumbai.

He introduced me to the organizers and I registered as DFYNORM after. I was told that I was eligible to pitch at the event. YAY! So I took a train to Goa the day before the event, conservative as I am (both monetarily and definitely ecologically). I made friends on the train. That’s one reason I LOVE traveling by trains in India. It is an understanding from the time you step into your coach, that you will be befriended, or at least questioned.

The train arrived 2 hours late which didn’t leave me much time so I quickly freshened up and rushed to the Leela in South Goa. The venue was teeming with entrepreneurs and the men (and a few women) in suits. Following tea, we went into the ballroom where the session was inaugurated by Kaushal Choski, the president of SCAALE Group, an organization that connects investors and entrepreneurs around the world. He used this phrase ‘Collective intelligence’ and it’s been etched in my head ever since. There’s something so powerful about that with so much potential to tap into. And that room was brimming with C.I.

After this, he let Paulo Andres, the President of EBAN to open the session. Paulo is a seasoned investor who is as alert as he is animated, as sharp as he is a ‘shark’ (well I think shark serves better as a metaphor than an analogy in the case of angels)

He quickly dispelled the various misconceptions entrepreneurs had about investments & angels in particular.  A few pointers that stood out :

• Most entrepreneurs DO NOT see risks in their company which is worrisome because that shows you do not take off your polka dotted rose tinted shades for even a second. This has nothing to do with big vision thinking. You can have an amazing vision but if you do not assess risks, you are not also putting your problem solving skills to use. Because the more risks you assess, the more you think about mitigating them. Its actually a win-win for your business and for your investor
• Many a times, you have a great idea and you go to the investor demanding he puts in all the capital and he thinks ‘wait a second, what have you put in so far?’. If the answer is Zilch, then its not cool. You’ve got to have some skin in the game
• Do not just go and ask for a million dollars. Give scenarios based on risk factors. This spikes your credibility.
• Do not directly approach an investor sitting in a country outside of your market influence. First tap into local investors and this will build confidence for cross border investments. Think Local and then go Global.
• Choose your Angel wisely as this is a partnership. You definitely want somebody who can mentor you, open doors to people in your relevant industry and so on.Following this, all of us went to our respective rooms where we were to give an elevator pitch. I thought this was going to be exactly that – no ppt, just aim from the heart. Also It wasn’t a room with just investors, it had everyone! I was quite nervous.It was my turn. I didn’t have a pitch deck but I did have high quality images of our fashion that was role modeled by some amazing women we had connected with. Overall I think it went well. Anna Degtereva of Happy Farm Business Incubators asked me about the team and our traction so far.Apart from pitching, I enjoyed viewing the others pitching their dream to the investors. Some of the ones that stood out to me were:
•  OoWomaniya – an online platform that lets women ask health related queries. Women, particularly in India and other conservative nations, operate in stealth mode when it comes to questions about health – menstrual/ sexual/ mental and so on.
• Womenalia – a platform that helps women undergo professional training, get back to the workforce and so on (all the way from spain)
• Hope Doctors – These guys didn’t pitch but they are forming a network of on-call doctors for addressing the severe gap and stigma associated with mental health in India
• 5by7– one stop shop for corporate gifting in India. Already profitable and growing. Their business cards were so unique, a folded case that contained a screen cleaner. Nice touch!
• ARMagic School – All the way from Dalian, China this utilizes Augmented Reality to create some very exciting virtual playmates for young children.Ones from the other rooms that I got to know of :
• GymTrekker – an aggregator of all things related to fitness with unique group membership and sharing options to eat away at that nagging guilt (of never making it to the gym!) The guys behind this venture could pull off 50 push-ups with a lot of swag I hear. Too bad I didn’t get to see them work it.
• Docsapp – This platform lets users connect with specialist doctors with no need to travel. I had my bets on this as I saw the final pitch by Satish Kannan.I missed a few other great ideas because I was either prepping my notes, or calming my jittery toes.

While we pitched, we also got real-time feedback from Marta Emerson, Managing Director at SCAALE & Peter Braun, CEO of Mountain Club, Switzerland : NOT MORE THAN 5 to 7 slides please. We do not want to be reading while you are talking, so keep the slides extremely concise, with key points. 

I also gathered that the best approach is to Start with the Why and then build on why you are the people who will execute this idea the best  – TEAM, Advisory board followed by TRACTION, revenue projections and FINALLY the ASK.

All in All it went alright – even better when I got to know that I had made it to the final round to be held the next day. Double Yay! This meant I had solid work to do once I got back to my Airbnb room – create the final pitch deck, make sure my delivery did NOT exceed the stipulated time so that I had enough time to get questioned by the investors. I really wanted FEEDBACK.

Onwards to Day 2!