Here I am, all alone, chasing for the unknown, with a mind of my own!

After receiving an overwhelming response to my previous post on completing ten years as an entrepreneur, I'm compelled to share the mail I wrote to my close friends after I left my job in GE Aviation to pursue a career in Sustainability and Climate Action, starting with Solar PV projects at Selco Solar. This mail was written in September 2010. I don't know if it serves as an inspiration. Still, I really hope it showcases how little I knew about the subject that I was embarking on, and yet it turned out fine over the years - it should be a good enough validation for anyone aspiring for a career in Climate Action and Sustainability to take a plunge immaterial of what background they are coming from.

?Hello friends,

It's quite some time since I have updated some of you on things I have been doing and trying to do. Here is a small write-up on the same.

After quitting GE, I relocated to Banglore to pursue my dreams of starting a company in the solar energy domain. Before I go more on that, I must say GE was very kind to me from the day I joined - they took me even when I didn't turn up on my joining date - didn't ask me for my degree certificates after I joined - paid me two months salary for which I wasn't required to work - it's a fantastic company. Anyway, I am trying to get over GE and focus on renewable energies.

?After coming to Bangalore, I had great fun hanging out with my friends from IISc, friends near my home, catching up with my relatives at some family functions and also had super awesome fun in Malaysia. I was at absolute leisure, spending my typical day watching TV, following mail chains, social networking via Facebook, Orkut and Twitter, reading some random novel and various other time pass activities. While enjoying my paid holidays, I indulged in a small project that illuminated a garden with LEDs, which had to be powered by solar energy. I also visited India's largest solar PV (PhotoVoltaics) based electricity generation plant. Well, I did try to educate myself on solar energy technologies by reading books, talking to people and, of course, through the Internet.

?I realized that starting a business in solar PV would require hands-on experience, that is, to have field experience. For this purpose, I applied for a field engineer job in a few companies. I was lucky to connect to an IISc professor through a close friend. That professor hooked me up with some people in this company called Selco, which is doing great work in rural electrification through solar. Fortunately, things worked out, and they hired me to do both R&D and Fieldwork at their incubation centre (Lab), which is located in Ujire (350kms from Bangalore).

?I was pretty excited to work in a small town, a starting point for millions of trekking spots in the Western Ghats. Kudremukh, Jamalabad fort, Bandaje falls, Anadka falls, Arabi falls etc., are some viewable trekking spots from the incubation centre itself. Ujire is located at a very strategic point. Its 7kms from Dharmasthala, the most visited pilgrimage centre in Karnataka; hence there are umpteen buses from Bangalore and various other places.

I joined the company yesterday (27th Sept' 10). I work in a lab on the 4th floor of an engineering college called SDMIT. This college building stands out in terms of its Architecture, just like a European in an Indian gathering. The buildings in this town mostly have tailed roofs adorned with 19th-century architectural style, while this college building is of 21st-century make, with glass all around and stuff. As per accommodation is concerned, I am right now staying in a lodge and will soon be shifting to SDMIT faculty quarters.

?The company operates six days a week and gives 10 days of holidays for various festivals. The lab has three full-time employees, including me. Dr Anand and Sandeep are the other two. Anand is my boss, who is also the head of this lab. He seems like a very cool person. He has done some quite adventurous stuff in his life. Like this one, after doing his BTech from IIT Madras (1992), he got a 10-acre land and started farming. He was an assistant professor in IISc ASTRA for some time. Anyway, there is so much to tell about him; I will tell you some other time. Sandeep is my 'go-to' person here. He completed his Master's in Social Work (MSW) a few months back and joined SELCO. He interacts with the villagers to discover their problems and tries to provide the technological solution offered by the company. If there isn't any solution available, he communicates the same to the lab, and the lab works on it. The solution developed by the lab is given to the villagers free of cost, and the same will be monitored for its reliability and usability. If the solution is reliable and robust, it will enter the company's product line, which will be manufactured in bulk and later sold at an affordable price. Here comes my role, I will be part of the team which develops the solution and do the first-time installation at the villager's house. Well, you might be wondering who else is in the team here? This lab has always been blessed with brilliant interns from various universities, including MIT, Cambridge, Stanford and also over own VTU. Right now with us is Sam; he is doing his Master's in Mechanical Engineering from Cambridge University, UK. The lab also gets a few interns from the college, who are selected based on their performance in the tests and interviews conducted by Anand. I am yet to meet this gang.

?This lab is a junkyard. There are so many things here, but nothing is in any specific place; probably, I have to apply some of the lessons I learned in GE to make this place more convenient to work in. However, the best part of the lab is the view from the windows. I could see greenery all around. I can see places I have trekked and the places I aspire to trek. There are hills, waterfalls and whatnot. In fact, I bought a DSLR camera before leaving Bangalore to capture all this stuff. I have pasted the link of some snaps that I took yesterday and today below, do check it sometime.

?So guys, here I am, all alone, chasing for the unknown, with a mind of my own :)

regards,

Ganesh

Sep 28, 2010 - Ujire, Dhakshina Kannada, Karnataka

Link to the snaps: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZmbcLz9Y6vVuenai9