By: Pranav Chopra
Back in 2012 my brother, Ankit Chopra, and I seated in our local coffee shop, F*ckoffee, were discussing setting up an overarching entity, Jaune (our favourite color), which was to be a charity of some sorts and would also be the banner under which we would run several projects with a social mission.
This sudden urge of changing focus in our lives arose from the typical dilemma faced by most "change makers" - we both had worked across the world and achieved success in our respective careers and now were looking to do something more than basically what everyone else is seemingly ok doing day in day out. With this, the setting was set for both of us to get out there and do what we were always meant to do.
We both had different passions: cooking for my brother (after all he trained as a chef from France's acclaimed culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu) and travel for me having covered most of the world on a shoestring budget. So it goes without saying, we both set out to start up an enterprise (which we later found out to be classed as "social enterprises") that was close to our heart and also somehow give back to the community. We didn't really know how we'll give back and in fact whether we could in the first place if we were planning on making any money given it had never been possible in the previous 10 years of corporate slavery!
Ankit, set up a chutney making business, Eat Me Chutneys, in Sydney, Australia where he set out to reduce food wastage - which is an issue he got deeply exposed to during his cold dark days of working as a trainee chef at L'Astrance in Paris, France. Over time this even made business sense as he was able to source local organic produce at a much lower price than buying the fancy perfect-looking produce to make his chutneys - because at the end of the day, a tomato will remain a tomato regardless of its shape or size!
Now fast forward to November 2015 and he has gone strength to strength and has rescued 1.2 tons of produce, reduced 3.4 tons of CO2 emissions, hired and trained women asylum seekers and taught around 1200 individuals how to make rescued chutney!
Over to me, I established Slumdog Travels which I like to describe as a "kick-ass tour company showcasing the real India to tourists who are looking for an experience of their life-time whilst making a positive social impact".
Right from the outset, the team at Slumdog Travels had defined the company's mission to ensure "every child in India to have access to good quality education". Given our passion for travel, we decided what better way than using the power of tourism to tackle the issue of illiteracy in India.
We decided to codify our own routes that we took whilst backpacking India into formal itineraries and sell them to tourists - but of course we do personalise each and every one of them to the travellers' needs and budget. And then using the funds raised, we invest in education projects as selected by the traveller which are run by two amazing NGOs that we have partnered with - Pratham UK and CRY UK. And guess what, we are on our way to realising that mission every single day as we sell more and more tours to India!
So you must be thinking what about the dichotomy? Well it's the fact that the two of us simply set out on a journey as we were sick of the corporate world and wanted to do something else - something that just seemed more meaningful to us.
Now over the past three years, we've gone from two guys who set out to 'do something different' to being classed as a 'positive change-maker' to a 'social entrepreneur' to running a 'social business' to being a 'for-profit business with a social focus' to a 'company with a social impact' to just a 'company'!
Throughout this journey, we weren't really sure how, when and why the outside world started classifying us in to a particular category. It wasn't the case we were looking for any sort of recognition - we were still simply looking to do 'something different' than the norm with our lives.
This is where I feel individuals in this so-called "social-sector" get lost these days - there is no real need for defining such terms. At the end of the day, if you are in this space to do good, then that's all that should matter. No real point in introducing yourself as a "social entrepreneur", or a "do-gooder" or any other fancy title you've come up with to please yourself and others!
It's about time we stopped caring about the outside world and realised our true potential.
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About Pranav Chopra
Pranav, founder of Slumdog Travels, is an ex-Management Consultant and is passionate about making a change in this world. With close links to India and education as his passion, he set out to tackle a rising social issue of illiteracy in India. He set up the social enterprise in 2012 and since then has built a leading socially conscious travel brand in the industry and now using the power of tourism he wants to help create a brighter future for millions of children in India.