Day 2:discussions galore and better food!

It was 6:00 a,m, the mild pattering of the rain against the windows, the coziness, and warmth of the bed and my subconscious mind thousands of miles away, in Bangalore were all jolted into reality when the telephone rang.

Every day, we all had to assemble at the lobby by 8:10 a.m. sharp and they were very strict about it and to ensure that none of us delayed, they used to give us a ring exactly an hour earlier and it took some time getting used to the routine calls and now that I am back, it would take a while not having the punctual privilege!

Ever since we formed our teams to prepare for the final pitch presentation on our business ideas, we could see the usual crowd and inter-mixed groups slowly mold into swarms of covert, deep discussions.

We all headed towards the main library of the campus where our first session was by Mr. Rongjun Liu. the founder of Welian.

His discussion covered the various aspects of Hangzhou as a Silicon Valley and how the latter term was more of a virtual space rather than a geographical one. Having studied automatic control at Zhejiang University, Mr. Liu always looked for ways to make life more exciting and looked for various opportunities, hence he founded Welian and raised 50mn RMB. He explained with a lot of conviction, the root of Welian, which means network, it helps connect investors and entrepreneurs. There are about 500,000 users of this application and more than 1000 roadshows and competitions are conducted through this platform. Welian taps the network, making sure that the investors revert to the entrepreneurs. 

What was really inspiring was to see the initiative taken by the government to encourage budding entrepreneurs; in Hangzhou, there exists a policy wherein 50 RMB is given to the event organizers for connecting one entrepreneur. The entire city has free WiFi and most of the startups born here focus on tapping this and is based on mobile internet technology.

He left us with his two cents on Alibaba being  China's Fairchild and is the main reason why its birthplace, Hangzhou is now the Silicon Valley of China.

We then headed out to attend another session by a professor of Management, Yongyi Shou at the University who gave us a glimpse into the entrepreneurial environment at Zhejiang University and the conducive atmosphere of Hangzhou. He stressed on various ethical and moral principles which one must stand by such as following a leader, going by a certain vision and garnering public support.

It was then time for our lunch and we all headed out to a common area with our buddy and, I was so accustomed to the routine by then that I felt one with the students on campus and yet seeing a bicycle zoom past us, I realized that there was still one rite of passage left to bring wholeness to my experience on campus!

Pizza!!! Never have I ever respected, loved and adored junk food as much as that day. Entering the common area, as a famished vegetarian, I was very close to considering gorging on some non-vegetarian delicacies but my test of patience had borne fruit. I was presented with the Margherita pizza and I was the happiest person on the planet! Finishing up the pizza in a jiffy, I licked my fingers clean without a care for mannerisms, I was elated. As a bonus, we all had received a 30-minute extension to our break time and I had just one thought ringing in my mind; Let's ride a bicycle!

If you think you are great and efficient because you use Paytm or Phone Pe, then you are in for a shock if you see the efficacy in Hangzhou! You can see at least 1 in 3 people riding a bicycle in this city at some point of time if they are not already on an electric bus or an electric two-wheeler. Yes, this would cause quite some congestion on the road but as long as you realize that you have a price to pay to make this planet healthier and greener, you are set!

Every student on campus either uses an Ofo bike or a Mobike, they are the Ola and Uber of cycles. All you have to do is use the app on your phone and scan the QR code and Voila! you have the combination to the locks of the cycle! Hassle free, isn't it? 

It had been five years since I had set foot on a paddle and though I felt a little wobbly, soon I caught up and in a group, we cycled with the wind in our hair and nothing to care and halt! It was time for our post lunch sessions and it was time to say goodbye to my little, yellow colored friend.

Soon, we all rushed to our beloved Neospace where a very interesting and a rather inspiring talk by Mr. Chen Fang, the founder of JoinSeal, awaited us. As usual, we were all huddled up, chatting about the seminars, how the day had been and of course about the lovely pizza but once we saw the following slide, we all realized the gravity and the essence of the next session.

It was the educational system and its policies that were to be targetted and India and China sharing similar concerns when it came to the methodologies of education, we all sat at the corners of the common school of thought and waited for the magic word to bind us.

Chen Fang considered himself privileged and thanked his stars for having an affluent family because he could bypass the horrendous Gaokao test ( just like a CET or IIT examination) which every college student needs to fare well to get into a good university. If one performed really well then he or she secured a seat at the IITs of China (Tsinghua or Peking University in Beijing) and even then the students had one huge issue, accommodation! With the burgeoning influx of student population, the housing prices went up and the quality decreased. And if the students didn't perform well enough to secure a seat in one of the better-known institutions, his/her career was in for a roller-coaster ride and the family would be utterly displeased. Ha! this story sounds awfully familiar as the situation is no different in our country! Chen Fang time and again stressed on how lucky he was to go abroad for his studies and not succumb to the pressure. While all of his friends worked hard Day-in and day-out for six months in preparation of Gaokao, he sat back with offers coming in from foreign universities and with a lot of free time on hand he decided to do something with regards to this issue!

His quest started with the question, is Gaokao fair? And looking at the fair share of universities which have good standards of education and the number of students applying for them, he realized that the system might not be able to cater to all of them for sure. And looking at the extensively competitive phase that the parents go through for the junior high school admissions, we can only imagine the extent of pressure they come under when it is the University admission in question.

So, he first went around interviewing influential people, be it celebrities, sportspersons, writers about the educational policies, the reforms required and compiled all of them into a book which many of his colleagues and professors at Stanford encouraged him to publish.

Unfortunately, due to many restrictive policies that were formed in Beijing during that time, he was under pressure to not release the book and he laughs saying that the copy of it is still frozen in some administrative center in Beijing!

Yet, he didn't give up. He read extensively about educational policies, consulted with professors at Stanford and collaborated with his colleagues to found Joinseal

As a part of this team, they organize socio-educational projects to various places within and outside of China so that the students can take part in the hands-on implementation of what they have learned for the betterment of the society and in return help them build a stronger profile for their higher education. Joinseal in collaboration with WISE  has project teams in Greece, Syria where they have incorporated game box based education for refugee children between five to eight years of age because they aren't provided with schooling for that period of time.

He left us with the background for JoinSeal; a seal is a very good swimmer and his aim is to enable the Chinese population to swim like the seal, past all obstacles!

I found this talk extremely relevant to the objective of our team; tackling the issue of the giant baby ( a person who cannot think for himself and lacks creative, independent thinking) and we were elated that we finally had some course of thought we could follow.

Next, we had an exciting session which was completely technology related; VR, Deep Learning, and Big Data.

We had the co-founder of Kujiale.com, Victor HuVR-based based platform which helps in customizing home interiors. The client can use VR to take a peek into their dream home and alter the design according to their needs, order goods directly from the factories and hence realize their dream of the perfect home. 

A computer science, physics and mathematics enthusiast who considers himself a low GPA holder, Mr. Victor flew to the US and made an elevator pitch to over thirty professors and landed eight full scholarships to complete his studies. During his course, he built his own business model and collaborated with various designers and data scientists to start Kujiale.com. He spoke about the challenges of not having an office space initially and how it made it hard for them to recruit people into a small office set in an apartment, yet he is now proud of his 500+ employees and the passion and innovation they bring into the business model.

Followed by this, we had a scientist working on Deep Learning and its real-time applications and Big Data and how it drives decision making. All the three talks gave us a well-rounded perspective on hot technological fields and opened our minds to new avenues we could pursue.

At the end of the session, we were all taken for a really early dinner at the new canteen of the university and even though the vegetarian options were fairly limited, I always got to eat some new vegetable or a new dish which I could not even have imagined and it was a one of a kind experience for me.

What I had for dinner that day was highly nutritious and surprisingly tasty! There was a kelp curry, mashed egg, broccoli, spinach and other herbs which tasted so outlandish and enjoyable that I had to go for two servings of each! The rice, in particular, is very different, it absorbs no flavor and is quite sticky and extremely filling. No wonder most of the Chinese people I saw were extremely fit and healthy.

Back to the hotel, on the way, we walked in our project teams and discussed, laughed and shared a lot of insights from the day's seminar and back at the hotel, freshened up and got together for some intense discussion on our pitch! 

Our discussion started off with a glass of juice and some crisps and a swirling vortex of ideas flooding in from each one of us and ended up in a VR-based educational platform. We were quite happy with our idea, the next challenge was to propose a sustainable business model and the feasibility studies! That could wait for the next day, the comfy bed was calling and our eyes and mind seemed to follow suit! We had a whole new day of excitement, fun and learning to do.