AuRevoir to SELCO

Today brings to end one of my most cherished and deeply enriching journeys of my work life....no actually, even in life itself. 

The decision to join SELCO, was at one time the most spontaneous, and I guess courageous steps I've taken,  as it was the quintessential stepping out of comfort zone moment.

It started when I was comfortably ensconced in my job at Google. One (well) fated day, I attended a talk  by Harish in one of the Google speaker sessions. His passion, commitment,and statement that 'forty percent of India is not even connected to the grid', touched me somewhere deep. And the seed was sown.

When I started to talk about it to friends and family, they were like, 'kya selco selco rut rakhi hai, its not easy, you don't know what kind of place it is, how the work will be.... if you have to go, just go on a sabbatical and try, but don't quit'. 

The want stayed. Then the usual conflict...want to do it, but all reason says 'no'. Agreed I knew only the romantic part of the story, 'solar energy for the underserved', but guess that's where taking the plunge comes in.

And here is where a conversation with a friend comes to mind, he quoted Brucelee ' when you go into a fight, you can't let bruises and broken bones stop you'. And that, I believe, was the defining moment.

I called Harish, and I'm proud of that moment when I put everything at stake and said ' Harish, I want to work with you, give me a role....... any role......any salary.... I'll quit and come'.

And that's how it began........living shifted from Hyderabad to Bangalore, pay shifted from grand to basic, offsites shifted from LasVegas to Udipi, travel shifted from international flying to local buses, fancy hotels to rural lodges, cutting edge technology to single bulb lighting systems.........and I'm happy to say...... it's one of the best decisions I could have taken.

Also, through this experience, the real significance of 'know what you want' got sorted. The experience of living in 'what you want' is what so fulfills you as an individual, that nothing seems like stress or hard work, no issue or problem too big. You seem to then be equipped with an abundance of energy and love, and you actually become a better...more complete, individual, not just within but also without.

And there's bonus...once your mind can think and experience at that level of clarity, it's already an acquired trait....before you even know it, life has changed for you. Each thing you do is just that much more clear, decisive, focused, energized and fulfilling. (allowing for the mistakes and the learnings ofcourse :)

A few pictures to relive the experience:

Our office at Dharwad

Kariyamannagrahara, a slum in Bangalore. It's a slum of 600 shacks, with no infrastructure of any kind, no electricity, no water, no bathrooms, and ironically situated plumb in the middle of the hitech part of the city. 

You can see the small solar panels on the poles.

In the Kariyamannagrahara Slum. We had an entrepreneur here, Kumar, whose pan shop we extended to make into a small integrated energy center, from where he would charge and supply batteries on hire to the residents of the slum at Rs.8 for 4 hours of light. He also had a mini theater with a solar projector, and charge Rs.10 for adults and Rs.5 for children for a movie twice a week. He was also our pilot for a solar refrigerator. 

Another slum we worked with. This one had about 50 shacks, and it was pretty much all daily labour. We started a energy center there and tied up with an education based ngo to hold classes for the children and women during the evenings.

One of our solar sewing machine entrepreneurs, they are a tailoring couple. This was a small village of about four thousand I think. I remember they said that practically all the youngsters of the village had migrated into cities, and that had impacted their tailoring business badly. So they could get large contracts from the nearest town provided they could meet dead lines, and it's for that we did the solarization of their existing sewing machines.

Yet another village not connected to the grid. The solar panel is seen above the hut. This is a hamlet of about thirty houses, high in the hills. Their houses are so dark on the inside even during the day, that I couldn't imagine what it would be like at night. One of the residents we spoke to said, 'now I can see what I am eating'.

A petty shop on a highway, she was one of our solar fridge entrepreneurs. I remember she had so many questions, smart lady she was for sure. She'd said the highway authorities could ask them to vacate anytime, and what then would she do with the fridge and the loan. It's for her that we incorporated a buy back arrangement in case of such crisis.

This is Deshpande trust in Belgaum, a center for aids affected children. I'm talking to this really smart lady who helps run the center, must have been about thirty years old, and we're sitting and talking about AIDS and the stigma and difficulties, and then after the whole discussion, she tells me that she is aids affected too. One of my most lost for words moments. 

At Tiptur, a dhabha where we did biogas cook stoves. This was an amusing episode, where i ask this dhabha owner, how many customers he might have per day, and he says "kaise patha chalega madam, kaise ginenge, phir bhi ......kaisa behuda sawaal hai wo" :)

A picture which, to me, symbolizes the Entrepreneur Fund Project, one of my most fulfilling projects ever. We conceptualized, struggled,  innovated and implemented fifty micro solar entrepreneurs in Karnataka, Bihar and Orissa. Micro, meaning from Rs.20,000 to Rs.3,00,00 of loan at interest rates below 5% and repayments matched to inflows. 

And I'm so happy to note that the concept has now been scaled through the banking system, with a start with Syndicate Bank. 

This was Ganesh mess, our favorite lunch time joint near office, hot paratas, dal, and a sabji of his choice, all at Rs.40.

And this was our daily supply of dessert, on the walk back from Ganesh mess, we'd buy mysore pak for Rs.5. I know it sounds a little stretched, but I guess it epitomizes our identification with our role, our company and our work.

Today, after I left office, I got this message on what's app: ' You can try leaving SELCO, but SELCO will never leave you'. That was the best possible farewell.