Watch: Aboard the Jagriti Yatra: This life-changing 15-day train journey showcases real India

The all-familiar vendor’s cries of ‘chaai’ and ‘samosa’ are missing on this train.

Instead, words like ‘startup’, ‘business plan’ and ‘SWOT analysis’ are bandied about in the AC chair car coach. Elsewhere, in another, an antakshari is in progress, with participants breaking into a rendition of ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ in unison.

Life inside the Jagriti Yatra special train is special. Every day is different and every passing hour, an experience. Yatris — as its passengers are called — often describe it as a “life-changing moment”.

It is. Conceptualised in 2008, this year’s edition of the Yatra picked 525 people from different parts of India, selected after a screening of 47,000 applicants in the age group of 21-27 who are interested in entrepreneurship. The participants then visit 12 destinations across India, covering 8,000-kilometres over a 15-day trip during which they meet role models, observe business enterprises and get a glimpse into how India works, with specific focus on tier-2 and tier-3 districts.

Travelling with them is a team of volunteers, some former yatris, and also a few foreigners, trying to catch a glimpse of how rural India operates. They eat at platforms, share seats and responsibilities in buses and wait for each other’s turn in restrooms. As the train chugs along the heartland of India, friendships are forged, introverts open up to strangers and somewhere along the way, business ideas are shaped as well.

The Jagriti Yatra, organised by non-profit organisation Jagriti Sewa Sansthan and in its 17th year now, aims to do one thing: build India through enterprise. “We want to create more job creators than job seekers,” says Ashutosh Kumar, CEO, Jagriti Yatra. According to some estimates, more than 800 million Indians live in tier-2 and tier-3 towns. “They don’t have ecosystems or role models to look upto and so, all of them are migrating to bigger cities for jobs that aren’t there. We need enterprises to nurture local development.”

Different dreams

“I hope to meet my co-founder here,” says Agam Agarwal, a chartered accountant by profession and entrepreneur by passion who is undertaking the yatra, “I have a crazy idea that I want to execute with someone on this train. A majority of the rural population don’t pay taxes, which leaves them away from the loans they can avail and Government subsidies that they can use.” For this, Agam hopes to create a platform to spread awareness, which will help the rural population file IT returns.

He is on the look out for a tech guy on the train to set his plans in motion. Like Agam, there are several others with business opportunities. Take Tejaswini Kapadia, from Solapur, for instance, who quit a corporate job to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams. “My younger brother and I now run a ghee business and we are looking to scale up. Ghee is an ancient Indian superfood and we want it to go to the global level,” says Tejaswini, who says she is undertaking this yatra to develop her personality and increase her network.

The yatris aboard the train
| Photo Credit:
S Shiva Raj

Also doing that is Shivam Porwal, founder of IT consultancy firm Expertsmania. A differently-abled professional based out of Ahmedabad, Shivam’s driving force was to meet like-minded people. “I strongly believe that your network is your net worth,” he says, “I was fascinated that I could meet 500 people on a single train. Through this journey, you understand the real India.” He credits his fellow yatris, all of whom he met during this journey, to have helped him during the travel. “Accessibility is an issue. I have felt exhausted on the train and found it difficult at railway stations. I understand we are a minority but just constructing a ramp will impact our lives greatly,” says Shivam, who urges every Indian with entrepreneurial dreams, including physically-challenged persons, to undertake this journey of a lifetime.

During this trip, some participants find investors or collaborators, while some others, find their life purpose. Some find life partners, like Jignesh Talasila, an alumnus of Vishakapatnam’s Gitam University, did in 2014 when he went on the yatra with his now-wife, Vyshali Sagar. Many other established professionals too attribute their success to embarking on this train journey, like Prachi Shevgoankar (Cool the Globe), Aditi Madan (Blue Line Foods) and Ayush Bansal (iDream Career), all of whom have also featured in the popular business reality television series, Shark Tank India.

Back to the roots

While in Sri City (75 kilometres from Chennai), these yatris got a peek into manufacturing business units, and a visit to the Akshaya Patra Foundation in Vishakapatnam gave them information on the workings of an organisation providing nutritious meals to school children. As the train journeyed into Brahmapur in Orissa, yatris took a trip to Gram Vikas, an organisation that helps rural communities lead a dignified life by concentrating on aspects of sanitation, hygiene and education, among others. Explains Chinmay Vadnere, COO of the Jagriti Yatra, “Someone on the train is from IIT but there’s also someone who is a farmer. The common aspiration for both is developing the country. In this diverse crowd, we see not just networking, but also the sentiment of collaboration because they are all on a trip together.”

An entrepreneurial session on, aboard the Jagriti Yatra
| Photo Credit:
S Shiva Raj

From more than 8,500 people who have undertaken the journey over the past years, 28% have started their own enterprises after the yatra. There are more plans in future, as Ashutosh reveals. “We are mulling on doing two yatras per year, considering the demand. We also want to do a ship yatra along the coast. Someday, we hope to make that happen,” he says.

The waters will have to wait, but for now, Jagriti Yatra 2024 – which is currently on, till December 1 – is journeying through places like Rajgir (Bihar), after which it will cover Deoria (UP), Delhi, Tiloniya (Rajasthan) and wrap up at Ahmedabad.

As the train travels past these towns and villages, late in the night, just before lights off at 11pm, the yatris are still up discussing the day’s events. During that time, they also touch upon business ideas and processes in their hometowns. Come morning, when the clock strikes 6 and the sun makes a shy appearance, the yatris wake up to AR Rahman’s stirring ‘Yeh Jo Des’ from Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades, which plays from speakers set up in all compartments. It is a brand new beginning – they could be in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa or Bihar – and they are awake and ready.

India is waiting.

Participants of the Jagriti yatra