00:00:17
well thank you randy for joining us uh just wanted to start off by asking you to help us
00:00:22
understand literacy in there and what it is and what you do there it's an organization where i feel that
00:00:30
whatever my vision was when i started to make it come true day by day and reach a particular level where
00:00:37
india is nowhere right now i started about 15 years ago with just five kids and right now we have
00:00:47
touched over 10 to 15 000 children women and youth as i see it's hardly any kind of a scale
00:00:57
i have gone up per year if i see but it has taught me this whole organization has taught me um
00:01:05
something different about india something uh which needs to be done urgently for india something which has
00:01:13
to be addressed by people like me or many people who are working in this field for india so
00:01:22
it is an organization which is trying to address many things at the same time the
00:01:26
literacy education empowerment employment of all kinds of beneficiaries that be it
00:01:33
youth be it women be children adolescent but i feel that many of us are trying to
00:01:41
do that and i think miners are just a small little uh drop in the ocean which i'm trying to
00:01:48
do through literacy india how did you become interested in this uh as a kid i think since my childhood
00:01:58
i could never see like i am in a better off position and i see children on the street i'm
00:02:03
going to school and i find children on the street i feel that there got to be something
00:02:08
you know someone got to do something about it i said why it is not being helped and i
00:02:13
am clad properly and there is nobody i mean i find people they are not clad properly they are sleeping on the street
00:02:20
and i think it was there since my childhood and it just happened that it got a little more
00:02:26
when i was in kolkata i was supposed to there i was there for a long time i used to watch these nuns
00:02:34
working so selflessly and you know picking up this little child on the street and how they
00:02:40
will take them and take them i visited the orphanage and i felt that i need to come to a position where i am going to
00:02:49
do something like this i didn't know how it was like a frustration i had this
00:02:54
restlessness in me and i was thinking that when is that time gonna come when i'm
00:02:58
gonna actually go do something about it and i you will really not believe it i really didn't
00:03:06
go places to ask somebody how to go about it how does it happen what are the regulations what what am i
00:03:13
supposed to do i learned abc's right from the scratch to going places and i felt shy asking
00:03:22
anybody who's running an organization and take some lessons because they would look at me because
00:03:28
once a while i tried they would look at me in a very cynical manner you're a pilot
00:03:33
you're doing pretty well what i mean you must be a nut case or you know looking at this sector you're
00:03:41
well off they're going to be some internal hidden agenda for getting into this
00:03:47
so for small little things i really had to work hard to find out details and i learned a lot there was so much of
00:03:57
self-learning i i can't tell you it was a great it was a fantastic journey so that's it what you just mentioned so
00:04:05
you don't have a sort of a usual background for anybody in india or anywhere across the world
00:04:10
for example so can you tell us where you started off obviously your dad was also a pilot
00:04:16
and uh can you tell us whether he had influence on you becoming a pilot as well and how did he
00:04:23
end up being no my father is not a pilot oh he's not a problem my father-in-law is a pilot
00:04:28
okay um no my dad and my mom i think they have didn't realize it but they have an
00:04:36
important role to play because they both come from very humble background my grandfather worked
00:04:43
when the english rule was there and i heard a lot of stories as to what happened in the villages
00:04:51
i heard a lot of stories my father lost her dad and how a single mother struggled her way up and bringing up her
00:05:00
daughter so all those stories actually had a deep impact on me i think i was making base through my parents and
00:05:09
my grandparents so this background actually is has helped me and made me think about you know if somebody is in
00:05:20
that situation what will that person think and try survive what will the person do
00:05:26
so when i reached the level where i was so comfortable staying in a five-star hotel going
00:05:34
places you know whatever i wanted with my money i could do i could relate to somebody who didn't
00:05:42
have you know i had seen both the sides and it made my life much easier when running an organization
00:05:50
stepwise growing so made me a streetwise smart for uh getting into a situation and how
00:05:58
to get out of it and how to resolve it and it's a learning for me whenever i
00:06:03
meet people from any kind of background be it industry education i'm forever curious to find out where
00:06:16
india is heading because if i know how we are getting developed what all areas we are working
00:06:22
on it becomes easier for me to handle my beneficiaries give them that kind of a channel and
00:06:28
that kind of a path that these are the areas they can you know grow because literacy india is working on
00:06:34
three e's and that three e's also took me by working on first e and the second e and
00:06:41
the third the first t was the empowerment part you know go on motivating go on telling them over and
00:06:47
over again that you you guys can do it you guys can do it and the second e was the education
00:06:53
that it is important for you you can't do without it and the third e that after getting
00:06:58
educated employment is so very important because i've seen there are graduates no
00:07:06
jobs there are school pass-outs no jobs so what were what were the answers and they i had
00:07:15
you know sleepless nights trying to find out the answers go and read the mint papers and i
00:07:23
you know pilots reading a business standard or any kind of this kind of a paper it
00:07:29
doesn't interest they will read about the aircrafts what the engines do and blah blah blah and how many
00:07:36
aircrafts are coming in what are the new aircrafts my interest diversed when i stepped into
00:07:42
this world and it's intriguing day by day as to what all areas india is diversifying to
00:07:50
and it makes my vision more and more clear that what am i going to be what's my
00:07:56
goal for the next 10 years you mentioned a step-by-step process for your organization could you walk us
00:08:02
through what the process was how did he go about setting this up very simple say i started with five
00:08:07
children okay we adopted these five kids and i had other co-founders also we discussed
00:08:16
and they said okay good school you know they must go to good school so the background is parents are
00:08:22
completely illiterate so we put them in good school uh what is the definition of a good school
00:08:28
that i learned over a period of time that whether the school is teaching well so they go to the school when they come
00:08:36
back who's going to help them do the homework no answer so we we go to find a teacher
00:08:44
who would tutor them after school hours help them with the homework and that's
00:08:48
how the process started so what next i mean they go to the school they are not treated well because they
00:08:56
are poor class and mingling with the regular kids who are privileged class what next
00:09:01
so no this is not going to end here we must do something about confidence building
00:09:06
that you're good is your if your grades are good and if you are groomed well
00:09:11
nobody can make out that you're not from that class so that journey begun with the fight
00:09:16
with fried children then i realized that my five you know when i'm working i
00:09:22
might as well increase the number so the number went up to 50. and then 100 and then 150 and then you know that
00:09:29
multiplied now in this journey i realized that what is the quality of education we are
00:09:35
having what is that next step these kids when they pass out and what kind of a question they're going to be asking me
00:09:42
so i should be ready with their of higher studies and then further higher studies or
00:09:50
their what are they going to be getting into what kind of an employment what is their uh you know what i will be
00:09:57
thinking about my son i should be thinking about these kids until late even now all the planning is going on i have a
00:10:05
school i have few schools in fact um the principals and the teachers are counseled and
00:10:12
they're told that you should be doing this homework who are the averages who have very
00:10:18
little interest in the school they just want to quickly finish their schooling and who are the ones who are
00:10:23
you think they are studious type map those ones keep them aside now also when you map
00:10:30
them who have a scientific vent of mind so you can have doctors or you can have engineers and who don't so
00:10:39
the science and the non-science stream they diversify these are the things which i found none
00:10:46
of the non-profit organizations were doing they were just regularly doing the education but you know
00:10:52
if the chap is ready we'll find us or her way in the regular life but it doesn't happen i found that if we
00:11:01
do these experiment then it becomes a module a model for us to copy it to and give it
00:11:07
to any other non-profit organizations and tell them hey this is what you can do and believe it or not after 15 years i
00:11:15
am giving away whatever i learned in this process to others you know you can do this you can
00:11:20
do that many new people when there are new players who are coming into this field
00:11:25
they are looking for some sort of a mantra moola about what you can you know tell us please tell us
00:11:32
so i share it all i said this is how i learned and i think these are the things if you do
00:11:37
it'll be good for you it'll be successful and sure short it is so you've scaled
00:11:44
you've gone from five to you said ten thousand ten uh no i think fifteen thousand fifteen thousand students so
00:11:49
that that's a huge scale up or whichever way you look at it so how do you manage that scaling
00:11:55
process and how do you ensure unfair there was a very good question back there um somebody from america
00:12:01
india foundation came up with it that most of the non-profit organizations are running by individual a strong
00:12:08
leader and i i consider that okay i am the leader and i have about 174 staff now it
00:12:16
started with two staff two teachers now i have so many teachers supervisors and uh your coordinators
00:12:24
project coordinators because we have six seven projects going on at simultaneously and
00:12:32
ahead above that who reports to the trustees so uh yes it is leadership driven so
00:12:40
i was telling the watanians i said hey i'm here i was trying to wonder that there is it's a house full
00:12:46
so many uh you know young faces i see here why are you here you know i i and i was asking myself why
00:12:54
am i here so the answer came that i'm looking for leader so any of you who be interested in
00:13:03
taking my position do contact me so i am also actually searching for a successor who
00:13:09
will eventually next 10 15 years groom the young person when i started i was quite young
00:13:17
and down the road i am also looking for a successor i don't want this thing to
00:13:22
die i don't want and you require a strong leader because vision is very important in this field
00:13:28
and if you have a vision then you will go on strategizing come up with the new methods innovation
00:13:35
and it's an ongoing thing it can never uh stop at one place every year they've got
00:13:41
to be something new let's switch gears for a second and talk about flying so
00:13:47
how what's your experience like i mean you being the first person being the first woman
00:13:51
to fly no i'm uh actually um i'll make it little technically correct um i started on the boeing 737s
00:14:01
then came on the 320s when the 320s came in that time it was a fly-by-wire technology
00:14:08
and something new in the world it was introduced so i was the first indian woman that
00:14:13
time to go for my training there and i was asked questions how can india being in parda how is that you're here i
00:14:22
said no it's people are changing things are changing so that time it was the first time for
00:14:27
the 320s fly-by-wire aircraft but actual recognition came on the wide-bodied when i started flying i was given an
00:14:37
option whether i want to go back on the boeings on the 320s or remain on the 300s and fly in command
00:14:45
i said i'd like to fly in command i had no idea whether i'll be getting into a history book i said i'd
00:14:51
like to fly in command so it was kind of a shell shocking for many my seniors for a very simple reason that
00:15:00
no woman had been there on that seat in the left seat so i didn't realize it you know it was
00:15:07
for me it was a regular thing i had to go for my command till the day i got my command the day i
00:15:14
started doing my solo that's the time i realized that it was actually why people are worried about it because
00:15:21
a woman going on the left seat never before and it's a huge aircraft you see and it
00:15:28
has an impact it has some sort of an impact on you when you look outside and god there can be a
00:15:34
woman over there and the kind of system we live the tradition which we have in the
00:15:38
in our country uh women pilots it's a big thing so 1996 it was uh back then and that's when the day i got my command
00:15:53
and 95 literacy india had started i think they were all moving on parallelly in my mind so
00:16:03
you actually have a wonderful story to tell so i want to thank on behalf of knowledge1 want to thank you for
00:16:07
spending time with us today thank you so much you