Tattoo artist Deepika Das lauds her own mastery over line work, sighs how men assume she’s of loose character because of her line of work, and advices aspiring artists to first furiously sketch on paper before getting acquainted with skin. Businessman Anant says he successfully killed his obesity with a 5:00am cycling regime, aspires to participate in an Olympic triathlon, and advises on using headlights and a helmet with your cycle. Fashion designer Neti Jolly of XOXO only uses scraps of cloth to make Covid masks, loves imparting mask-making skills, and distributes free masks to low-income groups.
These Delhi locals, narrating their life goals via 2-3 minutes long videos, along with other inspirational tales from Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai, are documented on Map of Me (MoM) –mapofme.in. Along with these live examples, this mobile youth channel has chalked out a 26-point plan to help the youth understand the entrepreneurial spirit and become problem solvers of issues that plague them and their community at large.
While 26 points can feel like a stretch and the word ‘mom’ can exude a vibe of being told what to do, the interface is actually quite easy to consume even during your solo traverse to school or work in public transport.
For instance, Point 1 is about creating a bullet journal (bujo) –creating bullet-point jottings and illustrations of your thoughts. Movies, quizzes with prizes being cycles and backpacks are the cherries on top. MoM is founded by Lisa Heydlauff, a multi-award winning educator who left UK 20 years ago, made Delhi her home for 18 years before relocating to Mumbai. In this span, she worked with UNICEF; and was recognised as a TED Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, for developing innovative tools to promote entrepreneurship skills in young minds.
For instance, her Going to School initiative – eponymous graphic novels on 25 children across India who attend school against all odds – is taught, printed and distributed in 1,000 schools in Bihar after a MoU with the Bihar government. By now, Heydlauff had predicted MoM would have been holding sessions on entrepreneurship, especially at schools in Gurgoan, Noida and Delhi where students have limited or no access to technology. But the pandemic struck, and like a true entrepreneur, Hedylauff is looking at the positive side of this puncture in planning.
“Pandemic or not, India always had millions of young people in search of work. Even now, they have to learn new skills and be able to get jobs. While our world is readjusting, this maybe the best space, time for them to get in there and start looking at big problems like clean energy, how to separate garbage, replacement for plastics, finding solutions to help themselves and others.” But in India, popular notion states that you don’t make money as a social entrepreneur, while pure entrepreneurship is often associated to profiteering and jugaad.
“No one is wholly good or bad. But we all want heroes, someone to look up to. And, in every hero’s narrative as shown in films, starts with a problem, followed by self-doubt, then epiphany strikes, and a giant risk to solve the problem. And, maybe the system doesn’t deliver, which is why corruption gets in. Ultimately, corruption is providing a service. So, it’s best to figure out how to formalise that service in a fair manner.
We also want to see more women in our hero narratives, leading businesses, instead of being stuck with childcare and cooking.” However, Hedylauff doesn’t want ‘hero’ to be associated to a lone ranger taking up the cudgels to end a problem “We are now looking at groups of people working together on an idea, where each member brings in their own skills onto the table. Plus, these are not success stories, climate change and air pollution cannot disappear overnight. But collective efforts can make everything better.”