"Be the change you want to see in the world."
Wow, it’s so hard to believe that we have almost reached the end of our time in Bagar. I remember coming here two months ago with the main goals of getting hands-on experience and doing development work in rural India. When I look back, I realize that the most exciting aspects of my experience have been the entrepreneurship project, our interactions with the other fellows, and most important of all cultural immersion.
Let me tell you a little bit about my involvement in the entrepreneurship project team first. For the past two months, I have been working with Pulkit, a consultant from Booz & Company, and Apeksha, an ex-investment banker from Citigroup on a small business development initiative. This initiative, which aims to help small businesses start, grow, and prosper in rural India, was initiated at the beginning of this year by offering a business course for college-age students. During my time in Bagar, we have helped five different entrepreneurs with business planning and teaching them the basics of marketing and accounting.
As I do not have an operating knowledge of Hindi, my main focus was on primary research and the creation of financial models for our clients. It was particularly interesting to visit surrounding villages to collect information from suppliers, retailers, and end customers. It was somewhat challenging at the beginning to deal with the resistance from the local community as the concept of creating innovation here in Bagar sounded unrealistic to them. The fact that I have been challenged a lot actually means that I have also learned a lot. Living here for two months have definitely improved my problem solving skills and taught me how to live in adverse conditions. Hopefully, the entrepreneurship project will evolve in a rural consultancy in the next couple of months offering the following services when the next batch of volunteers arrive:

In addition to working with five local entrepreneurs, I also lead an independent consulting assignment with the Bagar Employment Institute (BEI) and created a condensed strategic and financial plan to refine the institution’s business model. As a part of this project, I had the chance to travel to Jaipur in order to talk to larger institutions, which Sasha has described in his last entry.
As a side project, I have been visiting the different historical sites around the village with a local student in the evenings. I am still working on the creation of a map and a tourism booklet for Bagar. I hope the tourists who visit the village and the next batch of volunteers at GDL will benefit from some of the information I have collected.
Be it strolling around the rat temple in Bikaner, or traveling through the contrasts of the streets in Jhunjhunu, or staying over at the farm of a family in Khudana, the most amazing aspect of my trip to India was to experience the spirit of rural India. The spirit of rural India is strong, alive, entrepreneurial, creative, and willing to step up to the challenges of poverty and despair. It’s a force that is helping transform the world we live in and will continue to do so for the incoming years. I feel honored to have had the opportunity to experience this spirit through my internship at GDL. It was a true pleasure to see how a young country with a centuries old civilization is working hard every day to improve itself and give its best to the world.
Cengiz Rahmioglu