We sat in a large circle in the seminar room of the DCSE building. It was my first day in Hubli. “Desh” Deshpande was there with his wife, Jaishree, too. For most of us, this was our first time in India and we didn’t know quite what to expect. The room was starting to fill with anxiety and it was apparent from our faces. Desh sat a few chairs down from his wife in a seat directly in front of the stage– it was the perfect spot. He was the boss, the one running the Deshpande show. Softly smiling and examining the room, he looked around and asked us three simple questions: What is your name? Where are you from? And, why are you here? One by one, we went around the room. The first two questions were simple. But surprisingly nobody answered his third question– nobody! Most answers to the third question sounded something like this: “The project I’m working on this summer is…” Maybe it was the pressure of being in a large room full of people or maybe it was that no one had anything powerful and provocative to say, but we all defaulted to a question he never asked– What are you doing here? Looking back on it now, the best answer to his third question was just as simple as the first two– to learn.

And that’s what our team did this summer. We learned and saw a lot- that, by far, was our biggest success. The fact that we were able to experience India through four different sectors provided us with a well-balanced and fair understanding of some of the biggest challenges faced in this country. The raw information we collected in the areas of Education, Agriculture, Health, and Livelihood was captivating, eye opening, and at times shocking. With that information, we were able to accomplish the following tasks:

• Interviews: six NGOs, three government officials, two journalists, four doctors, and one politician
• Field visits: five village visits, three school visits, and a visit to Karnataka University
• Footage: 20 hours of footage
• Videos: two videos completed (education, agriculture) and one in process (health)
• Documents: Developing Challenge Videos Manual, Sangha Process Flow Diagram

There were many obstacles along the way. From delayed and postponed interviews to illnesses within the team, we experienced a range of impeding challenges that constantly tested our ability to stay poised. Initially, our biggest challenge arose when we discovered we didn’t have a way to offload video from the camera and onto our hard drive for editing. After a week of getting the run-around at local tech shops with faulty and nonexistent computer equipment, we discovered that a colleague had the ability to transfer the data via his laptop. Challenge #1, solved. The next challenge, and undoubtedly the most significant challenge, was getting our web platform developed. The feasibility of our project’s biggest component was essentially an unknown for weeks until we were able to develop a relationship with a qualified web developer. After making a connection through a DF staffer, we were able to make a trip out to Bangalore, meet with the development team, discuss our design, and create a timeline for final delivery. I’m happy to say the website is now in the process of being built.

Even with all the setbacks, the experience this summer was incredible and full of many lessons gathered along the way. My time in India has taught me just how important patience and communication are when working in a foreign country. And working with such a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds has exposed me to others’ talents, skills, experiences, and knowledge. And if I can be remotely honest with myself, I know there’s still a lot more to be learned.

-Zlatan

Given the Deshpande Foundation’s vision for development and innovation through global exchange, it should be by no surprise then that the DCSE building itself is innovative– architecturally speaking. Located at the southern end of the BVB College of Engineering and Technology, the home of the Deshpande Foundation utilizes unique form, expanding space, and a varied palette of construction materials. Don’t get me wrong, the building is by no means an architectural wonder. But with its distinct design concept and construction methodology, along with its 10,000 liter rainwater harvesting system and extensive stormwater management, the DCSE is by far the most innovative building on campus.

What does this have to do with anything, you might ask? Well, first let me ask you this. Do you think it’s a mere coincidence that the organization most preaching innovation is the one with the most innovative building? It’s no coincidence. The Deshpandes clearly had a vision. They understood that physically taking an individual out of a literal “box” building was the first and most important step in helping that person to start thinking outside the box i.e. thinking innovatively or creatively. Quite simply, they “encourage” us – whether we know it or not – to be innovative by making the environment around us innovative. Think about it, it makes sense! With that said, very few things exist outside of the Deshpande Foundation in India that encourage creativity, imagination, or innovation.

I have just briefly discussed this issue from a physical perspective, but let’s take a look at it using both categories: mental constraints vs physical constraints to creativity in India.

Mental Constraints

Take India’s primary education system, for example. Like education in the U.S or in other western countries, India rewards its students for memorization. Like us, they too have quizzes and exams that test their students’ ability to memorize things they have either read or learned in class. But unlike the U.S., India doesn’t offer subjective learning- mainly in the form of art. Drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and many other creativity-demanding activities don’t exist in India’s primary school curriculums, whether public or private. Walk into a classroom here and you won’t see any of the children’s artwork hanging around the classroom. Why? Because they don’t do it.

“Why is it that no original research is being done in India?” asked Dr. Sanjeev Kulkarni, a practicing gynecologist and founder of Baala Balaga, a progressive Indian school located in the nearby city of Dharwad. Dr. Kulkarni decided to start his own “school” – from the front room of his house– for his young son after seeing the limits India’s education system places on students. Now in its 14th year, Baala Balaga (www.baalabalaga.org) has grown into a legitimate school composed of three building complexes and roughly 500 students. Here, the belief is in learn by doing, where activities like drawing, cooking, and sports are an integral part of the curriculum just like mathematics and science. For Dr. Kulkarni, these types of nonconventional activities sometimes offer the same value, if not more value, over the course of child’s life than traditional school topics.

Baala Balaga is not the only school with this type of unique philosophy. The Blue School (http://www.theblueschool.org/) in lower Manhattan offers a similar approach to learning where creativity, collaboration, and play are vital to a child’s learning process. In a similar story (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html), Ken Robinson explains the limits traditional schools place on the imagination and how they kill creativity in children rather than foster it. Mental constraints aren’t the only killers of creativity. Physical constraints are there also.

Physical Constraints

I’d like to talk about physical constraints for creativity in India on two levels, the building level (individual) and the city level (societal). I talk about these constraints from the perspective of human collaboration–the foundation of our team’s project this summer. To understand this, we’ll first have to agree on two things: human interaction is a prerequisite of human collaboration and human collaboration advances human imagination.

Individual, or building level constraints apply more to small groups, such as families or classrooms of students. Going back to India’s education system, the physical design, or lack thereof, of schools and classrooms greatly puts students at a disadvantage to be imaginative and interactive. If you can recall my earlier argument about the design of the DCSE building and how literally being inside an actual “box” presumably traps a person from thinking outside the box…..then you’ll understand my problem when I say the design of nearly every public and private classrooms that I’ve seen in India- with the exception of Dr. Kulkarni’s classrooms- is in the form of an enclosed box that isolates students from one another. With steel bars on the windows, the rooms look more like prison cells than classrooms. Where’s the creativity in that?

Moreover, public schools don’t provide the basic infrastructure for children to learn, let alone be creative. About three weeks ago, my team and I did a ride-along with the education NGO Agastya to a local government school. To my surprise, the children had to sit on the concrete floor because there weren’t enough chairs. There weren’t enough tables or books either. We later learned that the children neither had a suitable toilet nor clean drinking water; to use the bathroom, they had to go to nearby fields, and to get water, they used a pond across the road. As they later told us, all they really wanted was a proper playground to play with one another.

Have you (referring to my USC colleagues) ever asked yourself what purpose the courtyard in our Scholars House serves? Is it just for natural light and ventilation? Is it simply a garden for plants? Or was it meant to be something more? If you haven’t noticed, our Indian neighbors on the second floor have placed plastic chairs around the perimeter of the courtyard; they sit there and talk. Why? Because they want to use the courtyard. They want to be able to sit and interact with each other and the other people living here. They want this to be their playground. Think about it and ask yourself this: does the design of this courtyard- or the schools that we’ve visited for that matter- encourage interaction?

The physical design of the city is just as unresolved when it comes to human interaction in my opinion. Like our courtyard, the major issue with Hubli lies with the use, or nonuse, of its streets and public open spaces. Wait, let me back up for a second. Public open spaces don’t even exist in Hubli! Other than the one public park that I’ve been to in this city, the closest thing you’ll get to a public open space is the crowded downtown market. Yes, the surrounding streets support high levels of pedestrian traffic, but it’s chaotic and there’s nowhere to sit. I have to stand to drink my coconut or eat my ice cream, while keeping one eye on the road so not to get run over by a bus. Streets here– and in most other Indian cities– rarely offer spaces of stasis. No areas to just sit and observe the human experience, the daily routine, or the “social drama” of the city as Lewis Mumford so eloquently once put it. Time spent in this city seems more like a constant scatter of empty experiences, waiting to be realized. Interaction on these streets is sparse and swift at best- often with little or no substance. Even with all the curiosity and interest that I and my friends attract, we rarely interact with people on the street. Can you remember the last time you had a conversation with someone on the street? With 1.2 million people, the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad offer some of the densest and least pedestrian-friendly streets I have set foot on. And yet we ask where the community involvement is? Where is the collective living?!

Hypothetically speaking now, just imagine for a second what Hubli could look like if streets connected activity-rich public spaces that actually brought people together for a purpose, like well-planned parks or plazas. Imagine outdoor shops and restaurants that incorporated dance performances, festivals, and Indian weddings, bringing different parts of the community together. Who’s to say it’s not possible? I’m not saying I have the solution. But what I do know is that Hubli’s current physical and mental formwork suppresses the two most essential elements of growth: creativity and collaboration.

Albert Einstein once famously said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Unfortunately in Hubli, imagination is a rare and difficult thing to find. But luckily for my teammates and I this summer, creativity and collaboration shouldn’t be an issue. Because if Wikipedia is our model for collaboration and the rest of the world is our imagination, I can’t wait to see the attractions life has in store for Hubli!

-Zlatan

I am from Cleveland. Recent sports media events have increased the relevance of this fact from “negligible” to “immensely personal.” The impact of Lebron James’ decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers has devastated my home town. But, to understand this and its implications for our work here in Hubli, you must first understand what it means to be from Cleveland.

Cleveland, OH is the junkyard dog of cities. It’s been deemed “The Mistake By the Lake.” It experiences roughly 300 cloudy days per year. Depression and obesity rates are unquestionably high. The city’s economic peak was in the 1930s (saw it on a PBS special), and it has subsequently suffered from sprawl and hosted serious racial unrest. It was the first city to enter default since the Depression. Even the mighty Cuyahoga River, dumping ground for the city’s industrial giants, famously caught fire in 1969. But, with a ragged tenacity, the people of Cleveland have hung on to an eerie sense of optimism about the city they call home. Although Cleveland has been plagued by a history of economic, media, and sports mishaps (read: The Drive), it was united by a single hope in 2003. That hope was 18-year-old Lebron James, first round draft pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I’ll spare you the details, but over the past seven years, he has become a symbol for the the city, brought the Cavs to four playoff appearances, one NBA Finals appearance, and brought some much-needed respect back to the city.

Most Clevelanders felt the stinging pain of rejection and anger at Lebron’s decision to play for the Miami Heat and the arrogance of his media spectacle. How could he turn on his own city? Where was the sense of legacy, of class and team play (see: the Jordan years). Where was the passion for a team victory over individual career advancement? Granted, he is now much more likely to get a ring with Wade and Bosh…but I firmly believe that not all victories are created equal.

My point is this: Disappointment comes in all forms; the strength of a team, of a community, lies in its ability to cope with change, manage expectations, and appropriately assess its long-term goals. And, while it’s much easier to put individual interests ahead of team objectives, true success is measured through overall impact. An ideal victory is a situation in which the outcome is greater than the sum of its parts. This doesn’t happen easily or quickly.

As a team, we have met with a host of unexpected and at times, unfortunate events. From the beginning, we have had to revise our focus. We expanded from initially documenting the DF’s Innovator’s Challenges and are now investigating the most deeply-rooted challenges in each of the Foundation’s program areas. This has meant broadening the scope of our interviews and documentaries… long story short, more work for us. When it came time to actually begin our work, we encountered a healthy amount of red tape to navigate before obtaining our recording materials. We have also had to deal with a lag in our timeline for meeting and working with our web developers. We even lost a teammate for a week due to illness (thankfully, he’s made a full recovery). So, how do we continue to recover from these setbacks? We stay calm, we revise our strategy, we communicate. We cut back on our expectations from others and focus on the work that sits in front of us. We remind ourselves that our team goals come first.

Malleability allows a team, a city, to move forward. Like Cleveland, we have to regroup, adapt, and remember that no success comes without some setbacks. We have to balance long-term outcomes with short-term decisions. We’ll get there… we just have to stay positive, make smart decisions, and maintain that dawg-pound tenacity that defines us.

Fast out the gates, slow to finish. We hope this will not befall our project. After a productive first few weeks in Hubli in which much was accomplished, the past couple weeks have slowed down considerably. Sicknesses, waiting for meetings, and general fatigue and tiredness catching up to us have all contributed to the deceleration of our project’s progress. However, signs are looking up and the engines are revving back up to full speed.

Since our first blog post, we have visited 10 villages to determine which 3 villages we plan to pilot SendHealth. Visiting the various villages was a breath of fresh air from the hectic and sensory overload lifestyle of Hubli/Dharwad. We were fortunate enough to rent a vehicle and a driver; while sometimes cramped (we were able to fit 13 people in a van that should only hold 7 individuals), it was relaxing to stare off into the blue skies with patches of white clouds lazily hanging above the farmlands. The clean wind whipping our face was a welcome relief from the hot, exhaust filled air in the city.

It was an extremely difficult decision to choose only 3 villages with which to implement our project. In the end and based on a variety of criteria including but not limited to health infrastructure, historical epidemics, health-seeking behavior, and willingness to work with us, we determined that we would initially pilot our program in Bennur, Kondikoppa, and Yadwad. Each village presents its own sets of challenges and strengths, which should lead to interesting results once we initiate the program.

After choosing the villages, we were feeling good and making solid progress. Then, out of the blue, it hit us: the dreaded wall. It came out of nowhere and we ran into it running at full speed. People got sick, people were suddenly exhausted, and our project champions finally fell under the weight of all their other projects. We took the time to catch up with other work and to settle on our next steps for the remaining month in Hubli.

Picture to the left: The process flow SendHealth will be implementing in the next few weeks.

We reassessed and focused on our workplan. Our workplan has gone through many different iterations throughout the past month. For example, we worked through different possible operational flows for SendHealth, eventually finalizing on the process flow illustrated in the picture below. The process flow we are implementing conveniently allows our partner NGO, the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), to expand the model and work with the government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) to improve existing epidemic surveillance, detection, and response systems. SendHealth has established the contacts, network, and awareness within the government to enable KHPT to use government resources, should KHPT determine it is advisable to do so after the initial pilot is implemented and adequately tested. In the process of distilling our process flow and consolidating our findings from primary and secondary research, we have been able to see how committed KHPT is to make this innovative pilot program a success. In particular, our main contact, regional manager Venkatesh Sabnis, has been a champion of our project, pushing us forward and providing constant feedback, “local” thoughts, new ideas, and valuable contacts. In addition, having a champion is an excellent luxury because working with field workers and their supervisors can be difficult with regards to scheduling meetings, honoring time commitments, and getting assistance when visiting villages. Venkatesh has brought accountability to the field workers on our behalf, thus helping to smooth the road for us.

In the process of distilling our process flow and consolidating our findings from primary and secondary research, we have been able to see how committed KHPT is to make this innovative pilot program a success. In particular, our main contact, regional manager Venkatesh Sabnis, has been a champion of our project, pushing us forward and providing constant feedback, “local” thoughts, new ideas, and valuable contacts. In addition, having a champion is an excellent luxury because working with field workers and their supervisors can be difficult with regards to scheduling meetings, honoring time commitments, and getting assistance when visiting villages. Venkatesh has brought accountability to the field workers on our behalf, thus helping to smooth the road for us.

Picture to the right: Villagers of Kondikoppa, one of three villages SendHealth is piloting its innovative program, listening to a field worker translating our questions and explanations into Kannada.

Nonetheless, we have not been able to re-visit the three villages we chose to pilot our program. The past few days has been considerably slowing down our progress. As we write this blog, we received another notice from a field supervisor canceling our scheduled visit to two of the three villages again. The village visits are crucial: not visiting them is frustrating and requires us to do other things earlier, such as ordering laptops, modems, and cell phones as well as working on training materials. We also are awaiting our physician contacts so we can confirm their buy-in and participation in the program.

With only three weeks left here in Hubli, we have a lot to do in order to be satisfied with the progress of our project. Time is creeping upon on us and we are fully cognizant that these next three weeks will fly by faster than you can say “thali.” After a bit of a forced respite, we are ready to finish strongly and sprint through the finish line. We look forward to updating everyone on our accomplishments at the end of our time here in Hubli.

Best,

SendHealth Team

“Things will change when you get to India”. This was echoed throughout the pre-departure planning stages for our project. We had a very clear understanding of our purpose for this project: resolve the technical issues and expand the software into other NGO’s, but we went in knowing that these objectives could change dramatically.

Now having spent over a month in India, we are fortunate in that our project has not deviated greatly from the proposal we began with. The NGO’s that are working with us are extremely organized and have realistic goals and expectations that were communicated clearly and promptly from the beginning. Despite the pre-departure planning, there have been many challenges that we did not anticipate. Specifically, the length of time needed to resolve the technical issues that these NGO’s are facing, the technical knowledge needed to implement the program, and the identification of possible expansion opportunities for the software have proven to be the biggest challenges.

However, we have been able to take a step back from the urge to focus solely on fixing the technical issues and analyze the most efficient growth for the SMSFrontline software. After meeting with multiple stakeholders working with the HIV/AIDS community, we have identified a need to expand the program and create a more efficient network to connect all the stakeholders that are currently using the SMSFrontline software. A centralized database would allow the NGO’s we are working with to share their data to create a more automated and structured tracking, referral and follow up system. In order to create this database, we have enlisted the help of various sources- LEAD students from BVB College, a software engineer and, our own teammate, Kailash! We are hopeful that this database will streamline the data flow currently being implemented and improve the overall data sharing between the NGO’s. So what do we envision? We hope that a specific NGO can refer a patient to register for a support group via SMS, and the support group will receive a message regarding the referral. If the patient attends the support group, the support group can then send a SMS message back to the referring NGO to confirm the registration of the patient. All of these messages would go through the central database and a history of the patient will begin to accumulate. With such limited resources, the NGO’s can benefit greatly from this system and will allow the NGO’s to spend more time working directly with the community members.

Because our program involves numerous stakeholders, there are many people we consider “champions”. Among the top “champions” is Venkatesh, our KHPT advocate, whose passion has allowed our software to be implemented seamlessly into key NGO’s. In addition, Joshi from BCT, who has a wealth of knowledge regarding SMSFrontline software and is eager to see the software become successful, and most importantly, we have our team of technical gurus- the LEAD students and Jaya, a software engineer who have been tirelessly working on debugging many issues within the current software. We have assumed the role of the facilitator for this project, and without the dedication of these various “champions”, we definitely would not be able to complete our project.

We still have much to do, but we definitely think that we can accomplish a great deal by remaining flexible and adapting to the needs of our NGO’s.

One of the reasons I chose to participate in this program was to gain international business and entrepreneurial experience. I can unequivocally say that my experience thus far has exceeded my expectations in this regard and that I made the correct decision in choosing to spend my summer in India. Nothing surpasses gaining international experience better than physically working in a foreign country. Sure, I read up on “how to do business” in India and I spoke with individuals who have worked here as well as with Indian nationals. This helped prepare me for this summer but there is no way I could have fathomed the various challenges, issues, and rewards unless I was working in India. I strongly believe the same goes for entrepreneurism; until you jump in and start working, there is only so much you can learn through coursework and readings. For me, part of my interest and passion for entrepreneurism lies in the unpredictable nature of it; you must be adept at thinking on your feet, being nimble and flexible, and taking calculated risks. No better way to further hone these skills than to work on an innovative and entrepreneurial project (in India, no less!).