So, what are you doing in India?

Unpacking your suitcases after several weeks of packing, unpacking, repacking, traveling, unpacking again, repacking again, and traveling with a crap load of stuff on a crowded, smelly train feels good. In general settling into my life and job in Bangalore is a welcomed relief. My apartment is a comfortable two bedroom shared with a great roommate in a safe and family oriented complex. Ujjivan, my new employer, is organized, doing fantastic work, and providing me with challenging projects. Bangalore has a ton to offer in terms of culture, food, nightlife, friends, etc. It’s rare that so many pieces seem to fall into place, and I’m really going to take advantage of this.

I wanted to give a sense of what I will be working on over the next 10 months, since that will be occupying most of my time out here. As background, Ujjivan is a 2 year-old microfinance organization that is focusing on providing credit and other financial services to the extreme poor (those living on less than $2 per day). In comparison to most Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), they have some huge advantages that will enable them to be successful. Their primary asset is that the CEO and most of the leadership team has significant banking experience, which is noticeable in almost every process and procedure in the company. The MFI was set up with a firm understanding of banking operations, and also best practices within the microfinance industry. For these reasons, in less than two years they have reached over 33,000 clients in Bangalore, Kolkata, and Delhi, with plans for expansion to two additional cities and to over 2 million clients in the next 6 years.

Ujjivan is also opening up an non-profit branch called Parinam, that is focusing on delivering social services to Ujjivan’s clients in three main areas: Health Care Services, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Services, and Community Development Services. They are partnering with existing, local Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to deliver the services, rather than reinventing the wheel.

My time is going to be split between the two organizations. At Ujjivan, I’ll be developing a communication’s toolkit for new and existing financial products, creating and managing a financial education product for increasing the customers knowledge of basic financial principals and the landscape of financial services available to them, and building their external communications and P.R. to potential investors and the microfinance industry.

At Parinaam, I’m going to be helping them to incorporate into a non-profit, leading their branding process (including creating logo, letterhead, business cards, and website), developing a fundraising strategy, and working on gaining initial funding for their programs.

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, fortunately Ujjivan and most companies in India have a six-day work week and my company has instituted a “no internet” policy to increase efficiency.

Beyond logistics, work seems like it will be a comfortable environment that will provide a good balance of Indian cultural exposure and the typical western work environment. English is spoken by everyone at Ujjivan, but there is a diverse mix of Indian’s in terms of ethnic background, religion, age, and gender. Plus there is a rotating group of western interns, employees, etc. A major perk of working at Ujjivan is that individual initiative is highly encouraged and bureaucracy and inefficiency are minimal. I think I will be able to achieve and learn a lot, in a relatively short period of time.


One of my goals is to remain aware of the full spectrum of reasons for coming to India and taking this fellowship, and ensure that I maintain a healthy balance of work, life, culture, travel, etc. I’m starting to get a sense of the broad spectrum of things to get involved in and slowly starting to expand my extracurricular activities. I’ve recently started up yoga (at only $25 per month for unlimited classes, how can I not?), and am looking into weekend trekking groups, and Hindi language courses (all of which I am sure will be subjects of future blog posts).

Have any ideas of what else I should do while I am here? Post them in the comments.