Hello Everyone
This morning we traveled to Enable India, a partner of AIF that works to allow disabled people to find jobs. We listened to the founder, Dipesh Sutariya, speak about his personal motives of founding this organization: his brother in law had degenerative eyesight and Dipesh and his wife wanted to teach this man to live an independent and fulfilled life. After successfully helping his brother in law find a job, Dipesh, and Shanti (his wife) decided they needed to help others. Dipesh spoke about innovation and thinking outside the box. He did a wonderful exercise with a plastic chair with us to help us see how we can come up with solutions to any problem if we think and look for solutions. We toured the Enable facility and observed five visually impaired men learning how to use the computer with the assistance of speakers. They were all very inspiring and driven towards their goal of living independent lives. After the tour we got to interact with some of the other candidates of the program and talked about their achievements and aspirations. Each had very unique stories. One man that we talked to got into an accident in seventh grade leaving him blind in one eye. He told us that he was sick of being treated as an inferior instead of an equal in his family due to his disability. He told his parents that he needed to be independent and blaze a path of his own in order to feel that he had lived his life to the fullest. He came to Enable to do just that, and after nine months of re-learning and polishing his skills we were ecstatic to learn that he has been offered a job interview tomorrow at one of the largest tech companies in southern India, Infosys. We all wish him nothing but the best!
After our visit at Enable, we got back on our bus and traveled to a local mall where we dominated the food court and stuffed ourselves with western luxuries such as subway! After this 30 minute lunch break we rushed off to the number one ranked hotel IN THE WORLD, The Oberoi. We were greeted by men and women in prestigious uniform with extremely warm hearts and welcoming smiles. We proceeded through the immaculately decorated lobby and entered a conference room. We were quickly served an exquisite refreshment, homemade lemonade with rose petals and we were all given cold towels to revive ourselves. We then refocused and went back to learning about the water at the hotel. We were talked to about how this hotel chain gets its water and then recycles 100 percent of it. We then walked down some less luxurious looking stairs as we entered the machine room which pumps 200,000 liters of water through its system each day. We learned about the sewage treatment plant in the hotel and how they maintain such purified water for their guests. Many of us pondered the juxtaposition of how luxurious their jobs are compared to their homes and water access at home. After this tour we were all extremely excited to watch some of the best chefs in the world prepare traditional Indian snacks. They cooked samosas, cheesy chili , Kathi rolls , and mouthwatering vegetable pakotas. They were all well received to say the least! The outstanding service was so appreciated and the hotel was a great experience for all of us. Sophia and I are writing this from our new (and even more luxurious) bus as we race through the madness of Bangalore en route to eat even more at the Cable car restaurant in Indra Nagar!
Lastly we want to touch on Ashoka fellows, a term for social leaders, and how many we have met so far on this journey. We have been so inspired by the positivity and ingenuity of so many different types of innovators. We have met with panelists who have created their own businesses, helped others and pioneered all types of change in the world around them.
Tomorrow we are off to Mysore where another pair will blog!
Hope all is well back home,
Amy and Sophia
This morning we traveled to Enable India, a partner of AIF that works to allow disabled people to find jobs. We listened to the founder, Dipesh Sutariya, speak about his personal motives of founding this organization: his brother in law had degenerative eyesight and Dipesh and his wife wanted to teach this man to live an independent and fulfilled life. After successfully helping his brother in law find a job, Dipesh, and Shanti (his wife) decided they needed to help others. Dipesh spoke about innovation and thinking outside the box. He did a wonderful exercise with a plastic chair with us to help us see how we can come up with solutions to any problem if we think and look for solutions. We toured the Enable facility and observed five visually impaired men learning how to use the computer with the assistance of speakers. They were all very inspiring and driven towards their goal of living independent lives. After the tour we got to interact with some of the other candidates of the program and talked about their achievements and aspirations. Each had very unique stories. One man that we talked to got into an accident in seventh grade leaving him blind in one eye. He told us that he was sick of being treated as an inferior instead of an equal in his family due to his disability. He told his parents that he needed to be independent and blaze a path of his own in order to feel that he had lived his life to the fullest. He came to Enable to do just that, and after nine months of re-learning and polishing his skills we were ecstatic to learn that he has been offered a job interview tomorrow at one of the largest tech companies in southern India, Infosys. We all wish him nothing but the best!
After our visit at Enable, we got back on our bus and traveled to a local mall where we dominated the food court and stuffed ourselves with western luxuries such as subway! After this 30 minute lunch break we rushed off to the number one ranked hotel IN THE WORLD, The Oberoi. We were greeted by men and women in prestigious uniform with extremely warm hearts and welcoming smiles. We proceeded through the immaculately decorated lobby and entered a conference room. We were quickly served an exquisite refreshment, homemade lemonade with rose petals and we were all given cold towels to revive ourselves. We then refocused and went back to learning about the water at the hotel. We were talked to about how this hotel chain gets its water and then recycles 100 percent of it. We then walked down some less luxurious looking stairs as we entered the machine room which pumps 200,000 liters of water through its system each day. We learned about the sewage treatment plant in the hotel and how they maintain such purified water for their guests. Many of us pondered the juxtaposition of how luxurious their jobs are compared to their homes and water access at home. After this tour we were all extremely excited to watch some of the best chefs in the world prepare traditional Indian snacks. They cooked samosas, cheesy chili , Kathi rolls , and mouthwatering vegetable pakotas. They were all well received to say the least! The outstanding service was so appreciated and the hotel was a great experience for all of us. Sophia and I are writing this from our new (and even more luxurious) bus as we race through the madness of Bangalore en route to eat even more at the Cable car restaurant in Indra Nagar!
Lastly we want to touch on Ashoka fellows, a term for social leaders, and how many we have met so far on this journey. We have been so inspired by the positivity and ingenuity of so many different types of innovators. We have met with panelists who have created their own businesses, helped others and pioneered all types of change in the world around them.
Tomorrow we are off to Mysore where another pair will blog!
Hope all is well back home,
Amy and Sophia
