Day 319: 25th Jul, 2010

Wow, woke up at 8.10 in the morning - all by myself. Not bad. Rushed for the e-Choupal visit (8 am was the time the bus was to leave, but come on :) , one knows better :P ). I reached at around 8.35, thankfully not much blame on me as 2 others came in after me :D. A two hour journey to a place called Hardoi. I tried to get some sleep, but as usual, wasn't able to doze off in the bus.

The visit itself was quite interesting. We first went to the Choupal Sagar where we had a small session on the way the whole thing works. Came to know that ITC comes second in procurement (roughly 10%), after the government. There is a strong insistence on quality. The whole process has ensured much fairer prices to farmers. And while I was imagining that their biggest obstacle would be to sell the concept to farmers, the ground reality was something that I had not expected - competition from the government while procurement!

Then we went to an actual e-Choupal center a few kilometres away (walking some distance because the bus driver wanted to avoid scratches from the tree branches :-| .. ). We met the Sanchalak, who happens to be a popular person in the village, whose responsibility is to share the information with the farmers. And one of the most noticeable things about both these sessions was the interaction level of the students. Some super-duper CP levels were reached - just shows the students will be enthusiastic if you feed them something interesting.

I guess it's true when they say there is no such thing as a free lunch. Paid Rs. 75/- per lunch - not very subsidised eh? :P . Indulged in a little walk inside the Choupal Sagar retail outlet. Treated myself to 3 hours of my ipod shuffle on the return journey.

Late at night, got a call from Hariya - our Retail Marketing CR. One of those ominous "Kabira speaking" type of calls which you know is going to bring some bad news :-p . I was told we were to submit a presentation on 2 chapters. I took it up, and spent some 4 hours in building the ppt. I guess it is much more than what I should have taken, but I am hoping the output will be appreciated tomorrow. Lets wait and watch.