Monthly Archives: July 2011

The Great Indian Train Journey: Entrepreneurs are Everywhere

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The first book in our Be! series is an adventurous and inspiring journey to meet entrepreneurs across India—told through a series of postcards sent by a young man named Jeevan to his sister in the village.

As a young boy, Jeevan is enchanted with photos. They catch forever, in a still moment, people’s hopes and memories. Photos tell stories.

A portrait of Jeevan's family

Jeevan harbors a secret dream of opening a small photo studio in his village. But his parents tell him, “Cameras are just toys.” And a business is just too risky. When he finishes school, they decide that he will work for the Indian Railways. But Jeevan never forgets his love of photography; he buys a secondhand camera and takes pictures everywhere he goes.

Jeevan travels all across India by train

Through his travels across the country, he discovers people who have started businesses and have found innovative ways of solving problems in their lives. In short, he discovers that entrepreneurs are everywhere—from Raghav, a boy who starts dance classes on the beach, to a fisherman who uses a mobile phone to find the best prices for his fish. Jeevan mails these photographs to his school-going sister Sarita in the form of postcards, along with encouragement to follow her dreams.

With Jeevan’s postcards as inspiration, Sarita finishes school and becomes a teacher in the village and continues to inspire young boys and girls with stories about entrepreneurs across India.

Sarita becomes a teacher

Madhur’s Book of Memories

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Be! skill: documentation and intellectual property

Madhur lives in a village surrounded by big green forests. Every morning, his grandfather takes him on walks among the giant trees and teaches him about the magical plants and trees that can be used to create natural medicines. Madhur loves these early morning lessons but as he grows older, the forests start to disappear and so does his sense of wonder. He longs for a different kind of life in the city.

After he finishes school, he moves to a nearby town but city life is not at all like he had imagined. Madhur sees that people have lots of health problems because of poor sanitation, nutrition and housing in the city. Healthcare is expensive and hard to access. At the same time, he sees that people who have moved to the city have lost touch with traditional knowledge and ways of healing. Although he knows that tribal medicine is not the cure to everything, he sees worth in his grandfather’s lessons. He wonders what will happen once his grandfather’s memories fade. Who will remember to cure using the plants and trees from the forest? And if no one remembers, who will care about the ever-decreasing forests?

Madhur realizes that documenting knowledge is the first step to building a trade around tribal medicine–one that will provide economic opportunities for young people in his village and help save the forests.

But his grandfather believes that knowledge cannot be owned or sold. Will Madhur be able to convince his grandfather and other village elders to support him?

Will he be able to create a trade—and opportunities for people in his village?

And who will own the knowledge he collects?