A trip that changed my
life
During my stint with IBM in 2012, I got an
opportunity to visit Lima for a business meeting with Peru’s leading Bank. It
was so ironical that I started my journey on my birthday and ended when my
birthday was still on, despite a long 30 hours journey changing 2 flights with
2 stopovers covering about 12,000 miles.
This trip was destined to change my life from the time I boarded a cab
from my home to the Bengaluru Airport.
While conversing with the cabbie, I was
surprised to learn, that he joined an airport taxi company after he struggled
to make a mark in his chosen profession. Shastri was a Hindu Priest offering
ritual services but could not earn enough money to feed his extended family
thanks to declining patronage and his inability to gain a strong foothold in a
profession that is already controlled by few senior Priests. Being a junior in
the fold, he had to depend on his seniors to earn his income and perform odd
jobs to keep his home fires burning. This led him to become a taxi driver, to
earn an extra income to feed his family.
Only if he had a platform to offer ritual services to his clientele, he
would have just focused on being a Priest, a profession that is at a risk of
extinction for the next generation of Hindus.
The Bangalore to Dubai leg of my journey
was nothing much to write about since the destination was covered in barely 3.5
hours and I slept most of the time. However the real challenge was the Dubai –
Sao Paulo leg consuming close to 15 hours, which still remains my longest nonstop flight ever undertaken. During this
journey I was seated next to 2 young Asian looking guys, one of whom was
meditating most of the time while the other was watching only American channels
on his personal TV screen. The moment I
saw the “meditating” guy come back to the real world, I struck up a
conversation with him. Ali seemed to be a follower of Sri Sri Ravishankar and
showed lot of interest in the ancient culture and temples of India. He slowly
brought out a talisman kept close to his heart and showed it to me with great
devotion. Since outbound flights from Dubai normally carry passengers from
various South Asian countries with majority being from Indian cities, I asked
him which place he belonged to. I was shocked as well as surprised when he told
me that he belonged to Lahore in Pakistan. I was stunned for a minute before I
could continue any further conversation with him. It was sad to hear from him, that due to visa
issues he could never attend the Art of Living courses normally held at
Bengaluru or the temples he wished to visit in India. I wished then, that he
had access to a digital platform to offer Puja at a Temple in India, from
anywhere in the world.
Slowly I turned my attention
to the “Americanised” young fellow seated next to the aisle but it was
difficult to grab his attention since he was glued to the TV screen most of the
time. Somehow I managed to catch his attention when he returned to his seat
from the toilet. I introduced myself as the guy from Bengaluru IT world and was
not surprised when he introduced himself as an IT professional based out of my
city but working for a competitor IT company. He was more interested in talking
about American soaps, movies and their way of life and sounded more American
than an American. I quickly remembered a young European guy, whom I had bumped
into, at the Dubai airport terminal a couple of hours ago, clad in just a dhoti
and kurta with a vermillion tilak on his forehead. He was travelling to Delhi
to attend an ISKCON festival and was proud to showcase his look and attire to
the world. I was left wondering after
this episode…where is our Indian younger generation heading. They are slowly
drifting away from our rich culture and trying to ape the western world while
people from western world are showing tremendous amount of interest in the
Hindu culture and tradition. There are perhaps more younger people eager to
learn Sanskrit and Vedism in Germany than in India. The Japanese have a culture and tradition of worshipping Hindu Gods, most of whom have been forgotten in India. If our younger generation
is not made aware of our culture, tradition and importance of rituals then a
day will come when there will not be any Priest at all. Most of the rituals
will have to be conducted using DIY kits or through artificial means like
running pre recorded videos of ritual services. No wonder Shastri de-risked
himself by turning into a cab driver, realizing he has no future with our younger
generation.
During my stay at Lima, I
planned a trip to Machu Pichhu, which was on my bucket list of places to visit
during my lifetime. Machu Pichhu was named one of the 7 new modern wonders of
the world. No doubt I was left intrigued by this heritage site, which was very
well managed by the Peruvian government. It was indeed treated like a proper
UNESCO heritage site with barely any encroachment or eateries within a radius
of 5 miles; restricted entry with a cap on number of people who could visit the
site in a day etc. There were lots of tourists from all over the world enjoying
themselves and having a great time, with absolutely no touts bothering them.
Even the guides had to be pre booked at the entrance, who could speak almost
all major international languages. I suddenly went back 8 years ago (circa
2004) to another UNESCO world heritage site called “Hampi”, located about 200
miles from Bengaluru. If someone was made to visit both these heritage sites,
assuming similar infrastructure, I bet Hampi would win hands down as the most
enthralling among the two. Unfortunately the infrastructure has let Hampi down
very badly starting from bad approach roads to encroachments all over the place
with touts, guides bothering you at every step. There is absolute chaos the way
this site has been managed and you would want to quickly visit the place and
just run away from there. Hampi, a wonderful heritage and cultural landmark, is
sadly not marketed well especially in the world tourism circuit. Though there
are few foreigners who have made Hampi their home, yet how many people outside
India or even within India are aware of this historic site. The same is true
for the famous Ellora and Ajanta caves. The Kailasa temple at Ellora was built
out of one single rock from top to bottom. This is one of the biggest wonders
of the world. But where is it languishing currently, in the honor list ? Are
people even within India aware of this marvelous site, leave alone the
foreigners? What if awareness was created about wonders like Hampi or Ellora, firstly
among Indians themselves and then to the outside world? What if these places
were marketed efficiently to the foreign tourists? Though we cannot change the
infrastructure overnight, which is controlled by the Government, but what if
the tourists were given the real taste of Indian cultural heritage sites by
providing the best of facilities, that is well within private control? These
were the thoughts running in my mind as I was returning back from Machu Pichhu
to Cusco in a glass topped train offering me great view of the Andes mountain
range and the heritage site we left far behind.
The long journey back to India from Peru
was undertaken via a different route this time … Lima – New York – Dubai –
Bengaluru. This leg offered me enough
time to think and come up with a solution to the problem statements. The seeds of entrepreneurship were sown
during this trip and I decided at that moment, that if I became an entrepreneur
I should be focusing on creating a solution to the above stated problems and
challenges leveraging on technology as an enabler.
Vydik also offers Puja @Temple service
offering, wherein people like Ali can book a specific Puja at a Temple of his
choice, sitting anywhere in the world, while the “Prasadam” will be delivered
to his home within few days.
The itinerary based niche Tour offering
from Vydik, will attract the foreigners especially those coming for medical
reasons (medical tourists) to visit places like Hampi and Ellora. The tourists
will be given the real taste of Indian hospitality in terms of stay, local
cuisine, friendly guides who can speak their language and overall a
trouble-free travel experience from airport to airport.
In addition to above, Vydik also offers
services like Book a Purohit in advance, at religious centers in India like
Varanasi, Nashik, Allahabad, Haridwar etc. ; Book an Event wherein Vydik
manages the event end to end, which is related to rituals in a human lifecycle
that includes marriages etc. and last but not the least, managing the entire final
rites related event for the bereaved customer.
To summarize and conclude the venture with
a social cause is bound to create disruption in the most unorganized sector
operating today in India. The venture, that offers a 360 degree solution in the Hindu ritual space, aims to bring is some method into the
madness by streamlining the pricing mechanism which is currently not in vogue and a technology platform, that should automate most of the processes
related to ritual services.
About the Author:
Arvind is a new entrant to the startup
world and his entrepreneurial journey started only a few months ago. He has co
founded a venture in a rather unusual but less crowded "Rituals &
Religion" space. The flagship brand called "VYDIK" brings
together the Hindu Priests and the Users on a digital platform (mobile and web
based). The service offering ranges from rituals at home/temples to eCommerce
to managing events and tours. Prior to this journey, he worked for companies
like IBM, HP, Infosys, iGate, Ramco and Unisys over a period of 24 years in
various roles ranging from Finance to IT. He has taken up the challenge by
quitting the corporate world to enter the mad world of entrepreneurship, so
that he can contribute something back to the society, using technology as the
key enabler. He can be reached on arvind.kamath@appventure.in or arvindakamath@gmail.com
