1) It is easier to be outside class than inside class – all you need is a bit of creative talent (Creativity, Acting Skills)
2) Every year you have to have a new professional interest till you are in Grade 10 (for some it even continues further) (Deep Thoughts, Variety in Planning)
3) Every grade seems extremely easy only after crossing it (Flair, Excellence)
4) Everybody wants to sit next to you if you are among the top 5 rankers in Class as it is believed some habits can just be copied (Xeroxed) into others; After 10th, stop scoring and you are an even bigger star (Popularity comes with Marks first and later vice-versa)
5) An innocent face is a boon which helps you discover a lot of new pranks yet escape punishment every time (Creativity, Artistic Skills)
6) If you are a good cricketer, singer, poet, writer, or have any well expressed skill, you must be ready for stardom in school (God-gifted Talent gets Solid Exposure)
7) If you are a few teachers’ favourite, you are in for a lot of slack in every domain (Favoritism, How to Get It?)
8) Participate in what you want to participate and challenge the norm, in case there is one. (Challenging Attitude, Entrepreneurial Spirit)
9) Question a teacher and his methods when you do not understand, go out of class if he cannot bear you inside (Free Time to Think and Plan once Outside)
10) Make friends with everybody, and especially the folks from the other gender (no, they are not your enemies), you learn a lot of skills on your communication and behaviour front that will always actually help you a lot later in life (Smartness, Communication Skills)
Written by: Priyadeep (PD)
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
I'm ... I'm ...
All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go
(Lyrics from I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane)
This is the kind of thought that is running in my mind at the moment. All my belongings have been packed neatly and boxed in brand new cartons. Here I am ready to leave Manipal as my hometown and move to the start-up capital of India – Bangalore. This was to happen long back in January but I kept juggling between places. Now, it is finally time to say goodbye to Manipal, a place where I have spent nearly the last 6 years of my life (69 months to be precise).
Manipal has been the greatest learning turf in my life so far. While I will learn more at various stages of my life, these past years will help me shape my life towards something meaningful and enjoyable.
I came here as a kid wanting to become an engineer. At that point of time, I was fascinated by cars and designs. So, I chose mechanical and never regretted it much. I had super fun during the first one and half years. The first year was spent in bonding. Being in P section, attracted a lot of wrath of other section people due to the large mobs we used to move in. Infact, there was a joke which went like – If you see 20 – 25 people in a cluster, it is P section!’
But there was one disrupting moment in those 18 months which changed my life forever. In my 2nd semester, I attended this workshop by some random club named Akshay Urja Club (AUC) on Paper Presentations by Team Energia. They were the most successful team on campus in terms of technical paper and business plan presentation. It was inspiring. I wanted to do it too.
Lesson: There is a life changing moment hidden somewhere for all of us. At the time of occurrence, it does not give us that impression; it does so when you look back into the past.
First Year in Manipal I along with four other friends of mine ended up joining the club as well. During my 3rd semester, I also presented my first ever technical paper during Techtatva’08. It went horribly. I had forgotten to make a powerpoint presentation and remembered it 2 hours before the event and ended up messing everything up.
Lesson: You could go ahead and give up on something if you have hit a roadblock. But then you would be a coward. To constantly keep fighting automatically brings in an entrepreneurial spirit in you which is a lesson for life.
I worked for the club selflessly. I never wanted anything back, just wanted to work and keep learning. I voiced my friends’ names when our seniors were selecting organizers for Techtatva’08 and still ended up working during the entire time without ever asking for anything.
Lesson: This is especially for the present Manipal batches. Please deserve before desiring something. And nothing happens in a day, you have to have the patience and perseverance.
I, along with a couple of my friends (Bales and Vaibhav), had previously written a Technical Paper on Sea Water Purification for Potable Water Extraction. We worked on it again and it was presented in IEEE TechWeekend 2009. We won the First Place there. But there was a catch there. I had two other friends who wanted to present with us (the team limit was 4 people per team). So, I asked Vaibhav and Bales to go ahead and present the previous paper as they had worked hard on it as well, while I formed another team, sat down to write a completely new one on Waste Management (Portable Toilets) to accommodate the other two friends. And the second paper ended up not creating even a stir. I gave up my 1st ever possible glory (unknowingly) but was happy that I was able to work with my friends.
Lesson: Winning is good, winning trust and goodwill is most important. Things might not go according to you everyday, but they will do so someday (you will find out soon about this)
We kept working at AUC and the club was doing well for itself. But we were not a muscle organization like a few other technical clubs. We were a small bunch, few 1st years knew about us. People chose everything else over working for us. It just did not feel right. Meanwhile, it was time for Techtatva’09 and I was still searching for my mojo in paper presentation. I was asked if I wished to be the Category Head for Energia (AUC’s) Category. I refused as I was taken into creating my own new event. A month before Techtatva, our club saw the biggest internal conflict that was fuelled by ego more than anything else. Our Faculty Advisor then, Mr. Sudhir C. V. intervened and offered everyone a very fair solution. It was not acceptable to a number of people and they left the club. We had to regroup and start working from scratch. We had earlier proposed one of our batch-mate as Category Head but when Mr. Sudhir C. V. offered to bring in a senior as the same (to avoid more trouble), my batch-mate just left. And we regrouped. With the senior (Anurag Sir) busy with placements, he asked me to attend the Category Head meetings and take the work ahead. I did as asked (for no credit at all but happy with the trust my seniors had in me) and there I got introduced to the Technical Secretary (Animesh bhaiya – bhaiya means elder brother in Hindi). He inspired me a lot to do things right. We would speak at length where he would talk about the complete management of the fest and I kept learning from him.
Lesson: Life will sometimes bring everything that you have worked for under threat but you have to have a clear conscience and keep moving ahead because the most rewarding moments follow soon.
So, I created my own event called SWADES. I worked over a month to create a problem which could not be rigged. That is right, even if someone got the paper even earlier, you just could not find the right answer. In this event, you had to optimise the resources given to you, place buildings on a map and create a well balanced energy efficient city. To rig the event, you needed to create a virtual simulation of the map and test each and every of the 2000 grids placed on the map for optimized location of all the 6 buildings to be placed (this is something that was used on a smaller scale of accuracy while creating major games like RON, Caesar, etc.). The event was a roaring success getting over 400 participants in Round 1 and 40 moving to the next round. People even said that the event paper was tougher and more draining than writing CAT! I think the event might be still alive (not very sure though). But I was and am happy. I got more participants in an AUC event than ever before. People started knowing us.
Lesson: Excellence comes with genuine effort and belief. If your belief is small and lowly, your execution would suck to the core.
Organizing Various Events as part of Akshay Urja and Swades Event Simultaneously, I re-wrote my Portable Toilet paper and it ended up winning the first place at an event called Engenius. There was also a business plan event called ‘None of Your Business’ but being a proud technical student, I had never participated in B-plan events before. I decided to shed my stupid ‘pride’ and presented a Plan (on which I had worked for over a year) on Burning Rice Husk to Create Electricity. It won the second place. At the same time, another team from India went to win Dell Social Innovation Challenge, MIT Ignite, GSVC and Darden Challenge working on a similar principle and then created this very, very successful start-up company called Husk Power Systems based out of Patna which has touched over 200,000 people giving electricity to people who are off the nation’s electricity grid.
Lesson: Life will not wait for you. I waited for over a year to present my idea on rice-husk based power-plants and I lost an opportunity that could have worked for me. For anything new and noble, there is no better time than now!
I had found my mojo. I went on to win the 2nd place at B-Plan event at IIT Kharagpur in February, 2010 with the Portable Toilets business plan. I had real data, I had material configuration sheets from China, I had data from Sulabh on users and I had spent more than 300 hours on the 3rd Floor of the Central Library (Main Library) where nobody goes today. Back then it was me or people who wanted to make out. I had even become friends with the Library folks because I worked with those dusty Technical Papers dating anywhere between a year old to 25 years old. The idea was also generating good interest and one of the Investors present wanted to fund the building of a prototype but it was too early for me to plunge into such deep research without having much time for it. I also ended up becoming the President of AUC which came as a big shocker to everyone and me too! I know it was not like being President of USA but yes, I was happy and really wanted to prove that it was not a mistake. I, with the guidance of our new faculty Advisor – Mr. Raghavendra Prabhu P (PRP Sir), went on to change the face of the organization. He was my mentor and a friend who taught me a great deal of things during my tenure as President.
Lesson: It is good to get a pleasant surprise once in a while but that also makes it necessary for you to justify the surprise that was bestowed upon you.
And then I decided, we would start a fest of our own at AUC. Bold and daunting for a club with just 100 members and a few thousand in cash but we will do it! So, SYNERGIA (Manipal’s 1st Renewable Energy Fest) was born and it was my baby. I had to ensure it survived. So, I spent the first 2 weeks of my winter vacation pitching to various companies for sponsorship for an event that did not even exist but it played well with a number of companies. I was honest. I did not tell them that they will get a 5 by 5 feet space on my banners, no! They are large companies that can buy the entire number of billboards between Manipal and Mangalore at the snap of a finger. I told them the money was for a good cause that would make people in our catchment region aware towards renewable energy and is CSR as well. I also promised to send them a complete report once the fest ended and they could even go through the books if they liked. I was able to impress people with my honesty. So, we had Alok Industries (India’s 2nd Largest Cloth Making Company with Rs 4000+ Crore turnover), State Bank of India, Pratibha Industries (a Rs 800+ Crore construction behemoth from Mumbai working on a number of Greenfield projects), Texas Instruments, Philips BOP and Maxx Flex (India’s largest Flex and Print company with 85% of all flex banners in India being imported by Maxx) as our sponsors. Then I rused back to Manipal alone to hand over the money to PRP Sir and get the plan sorted. I booked all the banners in MIT, got posters printed, booked rooms in NLH and got the entire MIT Management (Director Somnath Mishra, JD Radhakrishna Aithal, various Associate Directors and HODs) on board as well. PRP Sir and I worked as a team here and made sure to get the basics right for the fest to be held in February. Once our Management Team members and juniors were back, the work was distributed among all. They all did a very fine job.
Lesson: A Leader does not sit and boss around, a Leader leads from the front. You take any hit on your team on yourself and you share credit and success with everyone.
Synergia put AUC as one of the most known technical clubs of Manipal. It was very successful. We managed to organize the fest in just 60% of the money we got as sponsorship (huge thanks to PRP Sir for that). This was also the first time in MIT when the Sponsorship amount was more than the Fest budget. We had around 150 teams in the various college events, turnout of over 1000 people during the 2 days of informals and over 150 school kids for the school events. We increased membership to 400+ from 100. We had a good amount of cash in the Club Account. And for the 1st time, girls joined the club in good numbers! That was a feat for an organization that sort of looked like Bajrang Dal earlier. To prove it was successful, we had Synergia’11 the next year, Synergia’12 in 2012 and Synergia’13 this year.
Lesson: It is not people who create legacy, it is an organization that does. Do not propagate the person, build the brand!
Synergia - Learnt a lot while getting it done In April, I came to know that even non-members can apply for IAESTE Internships during the latter rounds. On the insistence of my good friend, Gandhi, I applied for the same and got an offer from UK in the 5th Round. Not only had I got one of the best paying offers out of nowhere, I became a member of IAESTE after I got my offer. I could not get a better deal. And I got chosen to work on Biophotonics! It was nowhere in my domain (Mechanical) but I had to work with lasers and it was fascinating. I had huge help from Rathi and Neha (IAESTE IndiaMIT NS members and my friends) during this entire duration of application and preparation. I went to UK in July and came back in mid-August having spent just 6 weeks in Glasgow, UK but it was the best time of my life. I had a great learning relationship with Gale (my mentor who is one of the youngest RCUK Fellow with a Gates Foundation Grant), I made the most amazing friends and we are the best of friends even today. Over 60 people from 35 countries staying together was just amazing. Tobi, Mario, Katarina, Milos, Lars, Ines, Maria, Olja, Diego, Ernest and the list goes on and on. Infact, Lars visited me last year in Manipal. It also started a strong relationship with IAESTE IndiaMIT and it still continues today to a great extent. I also had many friends of friends (David, Nelin, Jovana, Kristine, Jana – may her soul rest in peace) come here to Manipal and learning experience got even better.
Lesson: The finest moments in life are unexpected but they need to be preserved well. Building relationships is an art and might need more giving than taking. Are you ready for it?
And once I was back, it was time for Techtatva’10. I was offered to become the Sponsorship Category Head but I was in no mood to work hard again. I wanted to win a major event. And it so happened that we were having a mega B-plan event during this TT called the Venture (thank you Sana and Allen – the Technical Secretaries of MIT in 2010). Also, a person who also owns a big thank you is Udit (by the way, congrats on getting engaged buddy!). Udit was the Category Head of the event and a mastermind of the same. So, I was back into action for the last time before I went on to finish college and get a job. During this while, I asked Abhash and Mikhil if they would like to team with me on my latest b-plan crusade and they were more than happy to come on board. And we created a very first draft of what ADD-on-GYAN is today! Yes, that was way back in September 2010. We slogged for 4 long days and won the event. That is right – 60k cash prize! And, while we were celebrating our victory on the last day of Techtatve’10, we read a poster that read ‘Provenance’ by the new Business Incubator of Manipal – MUTBI.
Lesson: The ‘Let us do it one last time’ is a great asset. It makes you create invaluable things without even knowing
The prize was good in Provenance so we participated. We went on to finish 5th because few of the judges did not believe that the concept could work with the exception of Mr. M Chandrasekaran (Shekar Sir) and Dr. Manohara Pai. And this was historic. We became the 1st ever student-run startup of Manipal. The company became the precursor to the huge entrepreneurship buzz in Manipal and I am happy we could inspire so many people.
Shekar Sir went on with helping us setup our pilot and start the company as the Chief Advisor of ADD-on-GYAN and Dr. Pai (as CEO of MUTBI and Board Observer) helped us at every step in making ADD-on-GYAN the epitome of entrepreneurship in Manipal.
So, we got started with the process on 24th December 2010 and finally got incubated on 20th January, 2011. Mikhil decided to go after stocks which he loves most, and Abhash and I started the company. And, as we created our 1st team with 6 members (Sonali was one of them as well), we won more laurels at IIT Kanpur in February and Next Big Idea at IIM Bangalore. We ran the company with Rs 150,000 from January to November 2011 that was generously invested by my parents. At the same time, we also inducted Sonali as a part of our founding team as we found a true spirited smart-working entrepreneur in her. Our seed fund was granted in November and we kept growing as an organization in terms of R&D and quality of work. We won more laurels at NIT Surathkal, EDGEx Manipal, Global Achievers Award among others. In February 2012, Abhash left his place in the team but that was no result of any feud. He left as he believed he was not contributing enough to the start-up and we are good friends even today while he evangelises for and pitches Gyan Lab at various forums, helps us in our hiring process and in demos at schools as well.
Lesson: Life is more about understanding and adjusting. I have an amazing rapport with Abhash and Sonali (the two co-founders) and I value it more than anything else.
I got to meet Mr. Luis Miranda while we were showcasing Gyan Lab to him on his visit to Manipal. He was taken by our idea and even spent an hour with us the next day. Slowly, this relationship grew and I requested him to advice ADD-on-GYAN and he readily agreed. Since then, Luis has been a huge inspiration. He is so friendly and tells you the right things always. Infact, he spent 8 months chasing me to make me call him ‘Luis’ and not ‘Sir’. I finally had to yield!
Confession: I so wish to retire as and when I want (just like he did)
Lesson: Great people are always pacific. It is the wannabe greats who are too jumpy and finally end up not even being close to greatness!
We started off with a 2 seater open cubicle as our office till November when we go our own room as office. Soon, it expanded to 2 rooms and then 3 rooms, today, which forms our R&D Centre. My life’s biggest laurels came with the advent of 2012 as we won Scale Phase Award at DSIC, won at the ET Power of Ideas 2012 (heralded at one of India’s top 20 young start-ups from 14000+ is a huge thing for me) and won second place at Dell Education Challenge (representing not only ADD-on-GYAN or Manipal but the entire Nation)! There is nothing that can beat the satisfaction I received from doing well at these events. We now believe even more in our ability to make Gyan Lab a positive disruption in Indian Education. I made more good friends through these events – Sudarshan (my legal consultant), Sneha (my prospective CS), Vivek, Piyush and so many of them. I now have the finest start-up CXOs of India as my friends. Isn’t that so rewarding?
Lesson: Treat awards as confidence boosting tools not the goal of life!
And finally the decision to move to Bangalore had to be taken to grow the organization pan-India. And here I am sitting in the Manipal office having sent a one tonne cargo comprising of my logistics, R&D materials, etc to Bangalore already and leaving myself tonight. A new chapter is dawning in our lives at ADD-on-GYAN and an old chapter called Manipal is coming to a glorious end.
THANK YOU MANIPAL FOR SHAPING MY LIFE. Indeed, this town is ‘INSPIRED BY LIFE’!
Written by: Priyadeep (PD)
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
In the 2 years and few months I have spent running my education start-up company, it has been a major learning curve for me. The fact that I now believe in doing is the impossible more often can be contributed to my experience at ADD-on-GYAN.
But, it has not been a smooth ride. It is human nature to resist change. And when a change is more likely to become a disruption, the resistance is even more. I was a good student in school, I believed in the system but something made me feel very incomplete about my lessons in school and even in college. It was the fact that the system ignored me being a different entity from my friend and he being a different entity from another friend. It completely discounted that I could think differently. If I could get correct answers in geometry and co-ordinate mathematics without knowing any formulae but by simply drawing out figures, am I am outcast?
There are hundreds and thousands like me, who want to develop their own line of thoughts. They do not wish to be chained under the jailed system. They wish to be left alone and explore the beauty in nature and science around them.
I created Gyan Lab for such kids. Kids, like me, who are considered educational outcasts. We came out of the British Era in 1947 but the assembly line education forced by them upon us still prevails in 2013. Who needs to bring in the change? Whose job is it to ensure that the disruption happens soon?
The answer lies within our little genius minds. It is us. We have to ensure that a new era of prosperity is brought over in India with a stronger education system. A system that will take away all the evil and let good prevail.
But, our social structure is stopping us from taking up the change. We want our kids to become a rock solid investment. We want our kids to be things we can boast about. We want our kids to do things we failed to do. We want to see our dreams through our kids. Why???
Can I really ask why? Have you ever thought that he/she might have a dream for himself/herself! Are those dreams worth nothing? Why do we want our kids to get 90% marks just so that they can beat the neighbours’ kids? Why do we want them to learn swimming, badminton, tennis, cricket or horse-riding when the moment they become good in these sports and might become a national asset, we just snatch their glory away from them?
If your child does not behave well, it is your fault. If your child is mannerless, it is your fault. If your child does not respect elders, it is because you do not. Don’t enforce your nature on their fragile, growing minds.
Please, please wake up! Those marks are meaningless! Your dreams are yours; don’t force it on your child. In many cases, your child will have the same dream as you but in equally good number of cases, it would be something else all together. Let them play, let them learn from the environment. Let them benefit from the upcoming disruption. Don’t resist this change too much, we will all benefit from it.
Let us take the road less traveled and bask in the glory of our kids. Because there is nothing more beautiful than seeing them happy and satisfied.
Written by: Priyadeep (PD)
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
After going through about 1200+ CVs in 15 days, I am frustrated, saddened, heart-broken and worried at the current status of Education in our country. Why do we boast about having rapid economic growth? The youth of our country is treading on the path of apparent failure. It doesn’t matter whether they have been the high school toppers or they have presented their work at an international platform. The current situation is such that I wouldn’t even shy away from making this caustic remark.
This blog was quintessential not only for people like me who are searching for the right fit for the post, but for students who are freshers and want to apply for internships and jobs. This blog is about the 1st step of recruitment process i.e. presenting yourself optimally in front of your prospective employers.
 Time to stop scratching your head and start perfecting 1. Everything should be written after planning and organization of facts. There are several formats available through Microsoft Word which makes your CV presentable and interesting. Sections are highlighted meticulously which makes it easy to search for a particular thing. Believe me or not, people get bored by reading the same monotonous, unprofessional CVs. Yours can go for a toss too. So be careful.
And if, my friend, you are from the lot who hate Microsoft Office (I doubt), then take help of the tables wherever possible. Use larger font size while writing the headings of a section and comparatively smaller one when writing the content. Is this an unbearable ennui? Surely it is! But, it is a small sacrifice you will be making to get a much bigger opportunity. Secondly, you are the one to hate Office. :P
2. Write your name, details and address at the top. It is advisable to write your Institute too at the top - where you are currently enrolled. This might not be of any use to the employer but, this is a part of your identity. While you mention the details be certain which contact numbers and email-ids you want to give. We all have 3-4 phone numbers where people can reach out to us. We all have 3-4 email ids. Keep just one for mentioning in CVs (and a little professionally named email id will not hurt ;) ).
I have received so many queries stating they weren’t contacted. But, they didn’t really have the time to give the right details.
3. There HAS to be an objective statement which isn’t very complicated. You might want to be an astronaut but if you are applying for a clerical job, you will HAVE to change your objective statement to suit the job. You will have to edit it every time you even think about sending your CV to another organization. Going wrong here is tantamount to not getting the offer.
4. Educational Qualifications, Branch of Study, Subjects, Areas of Interests etc. is all simple stating of facts which you can’t change or make them sound better by a huge margin. But, you can at least highlight those which will complement the profile you have applied for.
Everything was fine until now. Most of you would have cracked the task even before I wrote this blog. Here comes the challenging part. You have loads to write and you are ought to make mistakes here. This is one of the most irritating parts for a Human Resource person.
5. You have acquired certain technical skills during your previous Internships. You have to explain what projects you worked on, what were your responsibilities, what skills you made use of, what technologies you learnt, etc. The list goes on and so do the paragraphs which look like essays on the CV. Oh! How could I forget those who think ‘Internship at Microsoft’ answers all the queries which as an employer I would have. I am liable to hire you because Microsoft hired you once, is it?
What should you actually write? Mention the project name and the position you were working at for starters. Then in WELL ALIGNED BULLETS briefly explain your job profile. In the end HIGHLIGHT important words which catch the sight of the reader and also which aid in scanning your CV better. No one will have the time or the interest in reading the essay we all want to write.
Make sure your previous experiences are in the reverse chronological order i.e. the latest one will be written first.
6. Next comes the section of Skill Sets and Additional Activities. No matter how much technical the job profile is, everyone wants to select a prospective candidate who is different. This section suffices that need. So the CVs which I received went on like:
“Leadership qualities, Good Communication skills, Management Skills, Teaching Skills, Ability to work under stress….”
You can also quote: ‘Ability to become President of my country’. But, this is all vague. You have to support your statements with valid reasoning. You have to show that you have certain qualities because you developed them doing so and so work. E.g. ‘I was my Section Representative for the year 2012-13, which helped me in honing my communication & management skills’.
7. Now, you would have at least made your CV more presentable. It will definitely be different from other monotonous ones.
8. Save your CV but as a PDF. Why on earth will you send it as a .doc? Any person with insidious intentions can edit your document and forward it for further approval. At least saving as a PDF provides some level of safety. Also, it looks more professional.
9. The biggest mistake in this universe while working on a CV, which almost everyone does, is NOT CHANGING the name of the your saved CV file. Last time I approached ABC Company for Internship my CV read - SonaliGupta_ABC. Now, I am applying for XYZ and I will edit my SonaliGupta_ABC file and send it across as SonaliGupta_ABC.
Would it look professional at all? The answer is clear!
10. After having done all this – check your entire CV for any errors.
These 10 points aren’t really the benchmarks for a CV. Neither do they define how to WRITE a CV. They talk about how to look more professional and GROWN-UP in front of your prospective employer. There is no point in being lazy and then putting the entire blame on the other party for not selecting you. The first step is to check if you have done your part or not!
Written by: Sonali GuptaCo-founder and CTO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Ideator at Gyan Lab
We, at Gyan Lab, talk a lot about Gyan Lab, education, problems and solutions. What we never talk about is our dedicated hard working team who are always working "hard" behind the scenes (what? really! I am serious...everyone works hard!)Anyways, here are 5 Things You Did Not Know About the Gyan Lab Office:
1) When Gyan Lab turned 1, we asked Rajarshi and Daksh to cut the cake, and when Gyan Lab turned 2, we again had Daksh and Rajarshi cut the cake so that just as we survived the 2nd year, we should also survive the 3rd!
2) Sonali puts in over 50 hours of work per week at Gyan Lab even after having 30 hours of classes per week, which is more than an average salaried person!
3) There has not been a single week when someone or the other has not had Pending Work carried over to the next week!
4) There is no office which is messier than ours in our vicinity! This is because whenever someone cleans up a space, all others mess it up due to the fact that there is a dearth of clean places!
5) Asha Ma’am is the only person in the Office who is addressed with respect (Ma’am) by all team members!
Written by: Priyadeep (PD)
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
I always felt the need to explain a lot of people that what is it that we aim to achieve or you have so many competitors, how do you plan to survive? I never wished to answer those questions because I had a firm set of beliefs when we started off with the concept of Gyan Lab. About competition, I believe that competition is good, it makes the world a better place; it makes us organizations work hard to provide the consumer with the most desirable goods at most judicious prices.
But, along with that, I also need to tell each one of you as to why Gyan Lab is such a difference from the convention and how we are on track to play a role in changing how we look at education.
Here are 5 things that Gyan Lab is changing in the education system:
i) Make independent, self-styled and paced learning possible
ii) Change the role of a teacher to that of a facilitator, make knowledge flow either way – from teacher to student and from student to teacher
iii) Make the concept of a ‘Bad Student’ or ‘Poor Student’ go away; giving a possible road of excellence to every child who goes through the Gyan Lab system
iv) Make peer to peer learning a core learning concept where students would help each other in knowledge acquisition without any disturbance
v) Build social values in kids through attempting to understand the present social structure and build a value system based on empathy and compassion
Written by: Priyadeep (PD)
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
It is quite an intriguing risk for us to start a program in a field which is considered as ‘bad for kids as Sex Education’, which is about economy, money, taxation, investment, stock market, etc., etc. I call it intriguing because while human behaviour fascinates me, I am even more fascinated by the behaviour of the ‘Indian human’.
I can narrate a couple of short stories to drive the entire idea home. I distinctly remember how I used to read about the Stock Market and find daily prices of the top 30 companies which formed the base of our BSE Sensex while I was a 10 year old 5th grader. I would talk to my dad and, even, advice on what stocks to look into. To this my mother would think that I am a kid and definitely should not be involved with such ‘activities’. Another incident is one where being an 8 year old, I would talk at home about not eating eggs or fish eggs (I have nothing against the food items and they both taste wonderful) because we are killing a business here! My idea was why buy and eat an egg for Rs 1.5 when it can be grown into a full sized chicken and sold for Rs 45 (then the price) within a few months. The cost of growing the chicken would roughly be Rs 20. And a similar story for the fish egg which was even more profitable as every fish egg cluster has 1000+ eggs!
I think it is important for us to let kids start learning about the whole concepts of micro and macro economics bundling it with life skills for them to have a basic idea of life around them as economics form a very important role in our day to day life be it at home or work.
I leave the point of accepting the same to our modern active parents who know that we are earnestly working on this program to prepare their kids for a better and more secure life ahead. The choice is theirs and we, at Gyan Lab, know and respect the same.
Written by: Priyadeep
Founder and CEO of ADD-on-GYAN | Entrepreneur | Educator | Creator of Gyan Lab
What has been working at your own little education start-up been like in the last two years? I get this question a lot. People around me feel happy and satisfied because they are seeing me grow as a person and become more mature as the company matures. They feel happy because I am hope to them.
I love being the guy who carries the hope of all well wishers around me, especially my parents, friends, mentors, team mates and many such people who would love to see me succeed. However, it is not what I crave for. I do not find pleasure in being popular, nor do I dissent it. The truth is I do not care much about it. Fame will come one day and so will wealth. If an effort has been made, it will bear results to satisfy the world.
But what is it that I exactly want?
I want my problems to not become the problems of an 8 year old. I want a child to smile every single day he wakes up and yearns to go to school. I want every 15 year old in control of their lives. I want no kid to drop out of school. I want my children to be born in a world that will not push them to meaningless competition and burden. I want kids in developing nations not to feel inferior to the ones in developed nations. IN ALL, I WANT EVERY KID TO WRITE HIS/HER OWN DESTINY!
How will we do it? Truly speaking, I am as clueless as you are. But that will not stop me from trying; I will use millions of permutations and combinations to strike the right chord. I have exceptionally supportive parents who would carry the burden {I say burden because I have barely been able to even fulfill basic criteria which most parents would use to value their kids – they won’t tell me to give them the joy of seeing their child live happily and independently – but I want it for them because they deserve it} of my well being as long as they can. So, the onus is on me to ensure that I am able to bring the same joy to kids whose parents, in coordination with the schooling system, brutally murder the child’s own wishes and fancies.
I have worked with many kids and seen them leave behind their old, scared-to-take-risk-and-innovate-selves and bring about a complete transformation in themselves and their confidence which will take them miles ahead in life – just because someone came upto them and said – ‘YOU CAN’. If as a teacher you have told a child that he/she is a failure, then probably you don’t deserve to be a teacher; and as a parent told your child he/she is a loser, then you are the biggest loser on this planet. I say this openly today and I will keep saying it till the problem is eradicated. You may hate me but I do not care. Because I may not know curriculum or methodology or delivery mechanisms as well as you do, but I do know what will make your child love what he/she does.
We priced Gyan Lab to ensure affordability; people took it as a meaning that the product is substandard. We tried talking to parents about how we would hold their children’s hands and tell them to paint the world in their favourite colours. While 10% came forward and trusted us (I am grateful and indebted to them), rest said – ‘But how will that get him/her to IIT or AIIMS?’ If you start trusting them enough, they will make sure they make it to IIT or AIIMS in case sciences or medicine fascinate them, and they would be the best engineers and doctors ever.
For me, my heart and head is set at the right place and I shall rest only when a serious dent has been made on what we perceive as ‘education’ and I would be finally able to say that I have partially achieved what I dreamt of.
Ever since I came back from Austin after participating in the Dell Education Challenge, I have been asked by everyone I met about my experiences there and how did I go through the entire process. So, here is the next blog post dedicated to the same and to tell about the entire experience.
We have been associated with the Dell Social Innovation Challenge (DSIC) family for quite some time now. In fact, we were one of the top semi-finalists and winners of the Scale Phase Award at DSIC 2012 in May this year.
So, when DSIC announced its Fall Spotlight – Dell Education Challenge, we knew we had to participate in the same. The DEC was dedicated to the K-12 segment and any team/start-up that was working in the K-12 segment was invited to participate. We, being absolutely focused on the K-12 segment in India, were a good fit for the challenge and knew it was a good opportunity to showcase our work on a major international platform.
So, the 1st round involved applying on the DSIC website based on which 21 semi-finalists were chosen from across the globe, from mere ideas to fully functional projects. After this stage, every team was assigned a mentor to work with for a few days and finally make a 9 page Road Map to Success document based on the guidelines provided by the DEC.
So, after the submission of the Roadmap to Success, 4 teams were finally selected to be flown to Austin where the finals were to be held at Dell Worldwide Headquarters. That’s right, the same building where Michael Dell’s office is! It was exciting and fascinating.
The other finalists were from other parts of the world. Next Step Leaders team (represented by Shaun and Jen) was the one from Austin itself, e-Learning in Gaza was a diverse team with the representing members in the finals, Doga, being from Japan and Forward Tutoring Team were a nice bunch of friends from Dallas who were all based in various universities in USA.
I was quick to figure out that the VISA Process might be deterrent and applied for my VISA even before the final 4 teams were announced. That was a very close call. After fixing my visa biometric submission on 3rd December and interview on the 4th, a very nice American lady at the VISA Interview ensured that I got a quick one and my VISA attached passport was returned to me on 5th! Can you believe that?
I was all geared up for my trip on 8th night. Every Indian whom I met on the way was generous enough to wish me luck – right from the Airport Ground Staff to the Customs Officer.
It was an amazing 31 hour journey via Zurich (which by the way is a very beautiful city) and Washington. Arrival in Austin was smooth and the ride from airport to the hotel was hogged by one thought – ‘Finally, America!’
Unfortunately, I could not sleep during that night, or any other night for that matter. No, it was not performance pressure but it was the near-12-hour time gap which meant that it was afternoon in USA when it was actually my time to sleep and incidentally it was the busiest period during my trip to Austin with presentations, interviews and all other important activities being lined up in the afternoons.
So, the very next morning I met up with Bailey who was our DEC Contact throughout the trip. I also met Doga, David and JJ at our Hotel Hyatt lobby from where we went to the RGK Centre for Philosophy and Community Centre where we met the 4th team – Jen and Shaun. The morning was spent in doing video interviews with Christian who is the Marketing Director of DSIC. These videos will be released soon as I remember Christian mention the same. I am very eager to see the same!
After a quick lunch, we moved to the Dell Headquarters at Round Rock in Austin Metropolitan Area. You are right; this is the same building where Michael Dell’s office is. We moved to one of the Closed Door meeting spaces in the building where the final pitches were delivered one by one by the 4 finalists including myself. It was amazing and I was in my flow while presenting Gyan Lab as well as answering the questions asked by the Judging Panel.
This marked the end of the presentations after which everyone was free. We had dinner at an amazing Argentine restaurant named Buenos Aires.
The next day we had a Dell Chatter Interview with Michele, Paige and Amy. We were also paid a visit by Catherine who is the Vice-President of Dell’s Marketing. We also did interviews for the Flip-Cam and ate Vegetable and Bacon Tacos which were amazing! Yeah, Austin is really famous for its street food especially in the Mexican category with burritos, tacos, nachos, fajitas, quesadillas, etc being extremely popular.
During the afternoon we had a mock interview drills and lessons on how to present ourselves for various forms of interviews. Following this, the evening was time to chill with free food stalls, free drinks and concert shows by local stars such as Velejo and Bob Schneider followed by a rock concert featuring amazing stars like Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda, Dave Navarro and others.
The next day was the one when the results were to be announced as well as the prime attraction of Dell World – Keynote Speech by President Bill Clinton was to be delivered. The morning was spent listening to the amazing keynote. The way Clinton spoke solidified my belief that he is the best orator alive.
The afternoon was the time when the results were announced and as you know we had a sweet time there finishing in second place while competing with teams across the world gave a solid feeling of satisfaction. This was followed by celebration with wine at Max’s Fine Wine.
I spent the next day roaming around downtown Austin and shopping for my family and friends. I also attended the closing keynote at Dell World by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Yes, I know you guessed it right – they are the authors of Freakonomics!!!
Next morning, I quietly bid goodbye to a sleeping Austin to catch my flight to Newark where I spent 8 hours before boarding my connecting flight back to Mumbai.
All in all, it was a fascinating experience and my 1st American trip was as good as it gets!
And today, I finally complete this really long blog-post.
For me, writing this part was extremely difficult. I have just so many incidents to tell about which helped me shape myself towards my ultimate goal – Gyan Lab. But, I had a careful analysis of the ones which affected me the most towards my decision and here goes the list.
Since, I was not really studying very well in 11th and 12th (baring a few exceptions such as Probability, PnC, Organic Chemistry, Fluids and… that’s it!), I was really worried before the competitive exams. I had to be – I had to get admission somewhere good. And God did not actually listen to me, so the best option available for me was Manipal. Paying fees of Rs 4.7 Lacs, I just never wanted to come here. It was too expensive – but with time, I realized this was the best place I could be and God did actually listen to me.
College was awesome during my 1st semester here. I wandered all over the place and I was overwhelmed with the lifestyle. After this period, I decided to start making some direction and progress as to how I plan to move ahead towards my career goals.
But wait, I had no career goals. I just wanted to have an independent course of action and do things that please me.
So, during my 1st vacation, I ended up visiting over 15 plants and facilities dealing with iron ore processing, rice mills, component manufacturing, etc. I was fascinated by the massive machines but during this process I learnt that this kind of business was boring. Nothing very innovative to do – and I just made sure I never got into such a business.
After the 1st year got over, I started getting serious about doing things. I was good at singing, a bit of dancing, poetry writing, etc but so were a zillion other people (lack of niche). So taking this factor and considering that I was in an engineering college, I stumbled upon the idea of writing technical papers.
I participated in a competition in my 3rd semester but could not prepare a proper presentation to the last moment even though the idea was worthy and messed up the whole presentation. That was a big lesson.
During the same time, I joined Akshay Urja Club of MIT (Renewable Energy Club) and was thrilled to learn more about the cleantech sector. 4th semester got our first laurel as me in a team of 5 friends were able to win the IEEE Ideation Challenge with our idea on sea water purification.
 People call it wasting time, I call it cultural assimilation! Oh, I forgot to mention about my academics. Pardon me; all was not rosy on this side of the story. I started off as a 7 pointer, fell to 6 in 3rd semester, went back to 7 in 4th, got down to 6 and then 5 and then again 6 in the remaining 3 semesters of regular college. Studies in college were outright boring as well. I was good at workshops, labs, graphics and management subject (I could have even started my car repairing garage!) but everything else was just not in sync with me. I realized that I was good only in topics where we were learning practically – an eye opener for sure. I knew there were a lot of kids like me who could not memorize huge formulae for long. Sometime had to be done about this. I also got a couple of backlogs, an Ordi (summer classes due to attendance shortage) and DISCO was the only thing missing in the picture (Not dancing, but a meeting with the Institute Disciplinary Committee).
Coming back to the rosy side, I shifted my attention from technical papers to business plans, won a couple of competitions with my Rice Husk Burning Idea to generate electricity (I saw a lot of those wasted during my rice mill visit) and with my new Public Toilet Design.
And then my big break was selection in the finals of IIT Kgp B-Plan Contest. When I told my HOD about this, he got pissed off and told me that I was poor in my studies, had poor attendance and should leave such activities to the ‘Academically Superior’ kids! In fact if it were not for my awesome parents, I would have missed it. They convinced the HOD and I was allowed only to win an award there for my revolutionary toilet design (I had read 700+ technical papers and over 100 journals in various topics including plastics and polymers to get there). It was a life changing event. I started believing in myself.
During the same time, I became the President of the Renewable Energy Club which was then known for its lack of funds, membership and female presence (that too in Manipal), decided to do something big and start the first renewable energy fest in Manipal – Synergia. We pulled it off successfully, got major sponsors such as Texas Instruments, SBI, etc, got over 400 students to participate, took the events to school kids as well and all that with 1/3 of the money that we got as sponsorship. We also got funds, members and female presence in the club.
 This is waht makes me really happy - LIVING A DREAM! I also managed to scrape through a Research Scholar position in Glasgow. Working with British people, living with people from 40 coutries gave me solid perspective and pick up good qualities of so many cultures. It was fascinating!
People started respecting me for my skills in business plan events, I mentored a few people as well (which seemed silly to me) and gave my business plans freely to people only to realize one day that a bunch of guys had presented my idea at a major event in a major college without my permission. Lesson learnt. Period.
And,then came placements. No company wanted me. But the good thing was that the feeling was mutual – I didn’t want them either. It was at that moment when we decided to bring Gyan Lab and ADD-on-GYAN to the world and make a real difference. We won at our college B-Plan event, an award at the University Business Plan event – and knew it in our hearts that this was the precise idea I was waiting for all my life. I knew this company would need all skills I had learnt throughout childhood.
And we became the 1st student start-up company in the history of Manipal University (err, not a great achievement, but it had solid sentimental value, my friends). And we kept winning awards and accolades in Spain, IIT Kanpur, IIM Bangalore, GSEC Washington, NIT Surathkal, Economic Development Forum, and others. We were working with kids, it was the most pleasant experience in the world – making learning fun! Every session I took at Gyan Lab reminded me of how thoroughly lost and bored I was in school. It motivated me, urged me to move further, and I kept doing so till today.
And that’s the story my friends. A quick recap of lessons learnt in this phase of childhood:
1) Value of investment is not a problem as long as Return on Investment is good (Manipal Fees)
2) Identification and working on a niche is important for success
3) Let no one, no one ever tell you that you are useless (least of all your HOD)
4) Academic excellence is in no way the decider of excellence in life, it could be one of the guiding parameters, that’s all!
5) Never give out your secret ingredients to idiots – they will try to copy and beat you
6) To be a good leader, you must prove yourself. Lead by example, people will follow you (Akshay Urja Experience)
7) FOLLOW YOUR DREAM – ITS PRICELESS! Let your thoughts, not society, govern you
8) Excellence takes time to come but if you never try it will never come (ADD-on-GYAN experience – still moving towards excellence – no clue as to when will I find it)
So, that’s all I had to say. I guess this post was a bit too long but these memories are fresh in my head. We won at Dell Social Challenge and ET Power of Ideas at IIM Ahmedabad. Working with 5 schools, 500+ kids, we are happy about the progress in work. We are on course to change many, many lives – and hopefully that time would come soon.
In short, I am living my dream. I am finding solutions to my own problems. I do not know whether I would be successful or not but I would always be proud to say, “Atleast I tried, and tried hard”.
 Even parents listen to me today - a 5 point someone guy. I offer them nothing but the truth |  Power of Ideas - a life changing experience! |
Written by: Priyadeep Sinha (CEO & Co-Founder of ADD-on-GYAN; Creator of Gyan Lab; Good Entrepreneur in Making; Mech Engineer by education only; Creates activity based learning modules for school kids for a living)
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