Source Of Enlightenment

In continuation with the first part of an exclusive interview,with Ms. Rashmeet Kaur, the irrepressibly passionate and extremely dedicated former team manager and current mentor of our team, the second part is here! 

Q.5. Any story that particularly stands out in reference to your team?             This is a very personal story and I think it needs to be shared. I did this project in my first year as well and my team got selected. It was a team of three – the smallest team in the world to ever participate in Shell Eco Marathon. After all the logistics had been sorted and we were ready to fly out we got to know that a natural disaster had occurred in Malaysia and so, the event had been postponed to the next year – February 2014 in Philippines. It was traumatizing that the thing I had devoted so much time to wasn’t materialising. I felt I could not continue with the team till the next year. It hurt me really bad, and I was too immature to continue and I just couldn’t work on it any further. So, a new team was made to substitute for us. There was no member from the previous team in the new team. There was nobody who could take the project further. The team could not go even in February and we were certified because it was a natural calamity. Deepal Khatri was a part of that team. So, both of us had this unquenched Shell dream. We met each other at Indo-US Knowledge Expo. This vehicle was apparently Asia’s first bamboo chassis super mileage vehicle. So, in November 2014, there was this expo wherein we were invited specifically to represent this vehicle and there were sponsors and people coming down from states and we were selected as one of the Top 20 innovations of the country. So, our HOD called and told me and Deepal that we are parts of different teams, but I got to lead the team and make a new team and go and represent the vehicle. 

It was a brilliant experience. Me and Deepal were sitting on the round table the other day how both of us always knew that we had to do Shell Eco Marathon. And we did it.

Q.6. What are the qualities that someone wishing to undertake a similar project needs to possess?
Ninety percent of the people or the managers or the captains will say there has to be a minimum technical know-how. But I never interviewed my team. I never took a technical test. Every team does that. The only thing I did was, saying that I will be training you and you should be willing to learn and give me that passion that you have for mileage because that’s what we do. We call ourselves KILOMETRAJ NINYAS, which means super mileage girls. So, I said that I want patience, willingness to learn and prioritising the team. It really feels proud that I built this team.

I am not a hardcore technical person but I do feel proud when I look at this team, they are the ones who are technically sound and come up with new things daily. The reason why I am connected and so close is because all of these girls and me, we started from the bottom and now, we believe we have reached that place wherein we can learn new things as well as make others learn. So, to sum it up, the willingness to learn, no extra brains as they say, just persistence and the patience and putting the team first – not your family, not your selfish reasons – always putting the team first. This is what I have taught to each and every member and I have ensured to put each and every member in the team in a very comfortable zone.

Q.7. You have been the Team Manager and now, you are the Team Mentor. Which role do you find more challenging and why?
Without any doubt being the Team Manager is a tough role. Being the Team Mentor has its own perks like you are allowed to skip the meetings, you are allowed to focus on your career – for once, but being a Team Manager, the team comes first, compromise on your personal life because you are the only one and until and unless you show them the dedication, they won’t give you dedication in turn. This is a rule in every team – the leader has to show the way and then everybody follows. And this is about ensuring that technically the team is sound, and satisfying everyone and keeping them happy. So, it includes the work of an HR, it includes the work of a person who keeps his attention on the technical aspects. So, I was not the Technical Head, I was the Corporate Head and I used to ensure that the corporate work is going with the flow. Being the Team Manager means ensuring that everyone is happy, the deadlines are met, every department is working, that there is no problem amongst the team and all the paperwork is on time. You need to make sure that your team is represented beautifully on a different ground, and if there is a problem with the team, you are there for them and solve it for them. So, being a manager is a very, very dynamic role especially for an international project.

Q.8. Is Rashmeet an altogether different personality now? Back at school, were you the same Rashmeet that you are today?
No. That Rashmeet Kaur was a nerd who used to just care about what her parents thought of her, never bothered about what her true dreams were, never knew what her passion was. It is like- Rashmeet, then and now. On a very personal note, I have lost all my friends because they say, “You are an absolutely different person now!” and I have found better people, in the process. I have learnt how to be more patient, how to be my own self, it is like a self-discovery. I never knew I was capable of this. I never even imagined that I could do all of this. It’s like, I have completely evolved. It’s not just Team Panthera. My journey starts long way back from 2012 from Team Resonance and that Bamboo Chassis project that we did and it gave me everything. Like I said, I have lost many friends in this process but I have also found my soul sister from this process - my first senior who taught me everything in the first project, the one who ideated to come up with bamboo chassis. So, everything changed. If I look down, the timeline has been like an evolution.

Q.9. As you said, you have found yourself in this process. At your age, we have thousands like you who are not able to find jobs as per their qualifications. And then is you who has been offered so many jobs, internships and platforms. So, how do really feel about being at such a phase, right now?
When I get interviewed for campus placements, they say that– you deserve better than this graduate engineering training programme and then when you walk out of the interview, you definitely feel very good. But then you see somebody who is less deserving, you somehow know that the person didn’t work very hard, then why is he sitting there? It, kind, of gets hard, really hard to accept that somebody is getting that place but I keep telling myself that I have been offered better things in life, I have bigger things to do and achieve. At this stage where I am right now, acceptance is the biggest lesson that I am still learning. So, at this stage, it feels amazing to hear words of encouragement from people. This project was also associated with the global association run by Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. I wrote this in my blog once when I was challenged that “Can you do engineering? That too, mechanical?”in response to which I wrote – “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”. And that was exactly quoted by Sheryl Sandberg when she talked about this. So, when you hear people on global platform talking about you and appreciating what you’re doing, you keep telling yourself that the patience period for something really beautiful is definitely very long and right now I am in that zone.

It definitely is a mix, not just happy, a blend of everything.

Stay tuned for more!

                                                                           Team Mentor: An inspiration!

Guiding Light

We bring you an exclusive interview, the first in a two part series, with Ms. Rashmeet Kaur, the irrepressibly passionate and extremely dedicated former team manager and current mentor of our team. 

Here she shares some valuable insights on what it takes to be the spearhead of a team aiming to showcase its brilliance on a global platform.

Q.1. Please throw some light on the kind of work that being of a head of a team involves, especially in a work environment like Panthera?

Team Panthera is actually participating in Shell Eco Marathon, Asia’s for 2016-17 edition. Besides seeing the technical challenges that are involved in making a super mileage vehicle, it involves a lot of corporate work, so, I think, the work profile is kind of a mixed composition of both – technical as well as non-technical work. For instance, in the technical aspect, we have to ensure that we get the maximum mileage we can muster. Besides that, there’s this whole list of sponsors and associations that have to be made to ensure that the project creates a buzz within the country and is highlighted well, because you are representing your country, your college on a global platform, and this involves dedicated work on the corporate aspect as well. There is this award - 'The Communication Award' which challenges us to ensure that we have a brilliant advertising plan in place. How do we integrate our project with creation of the necessary awareness regarding the global environment crisis? So, a lot of events are planned with our sponsors like organizing marathons, reaching out to schools and NGOs, so that, anyone and everyone of different age groups is completely aware of this global energy crisis and supports us in that process.
So, it is like you are innovating as well as creating awareness about this global energy crisis because the general public, seems to be unaware of the magnitude of the problem at hand. So, we are that kind of a bridge between the corporates and the people. We are serving the twin purposes.

Q.2. How have you balanced academics alongside the varied co-curriculars that you have been involved in?

Trust me, it really takes a hell lot of focus along with enormous patience to bear with everything that can possibly go wrong, because there is a huge chance that when you are investing your time and money in an effort to innovate, it might not take off as expected way after a long period of work on it. And in that process, sometimes academics takes a backseat, but then again, this is what I call and tell my team that this is the offering of the project. It is not the certificate of the project that you will get at the end of one year or two, it is the values that you take from it of how do you manage your time, because it is critical. This is not the only team that I was heading, there were like a bunch of other teams that I have been heading, but then again, I believe that the key is Passion. If you have passion for something, you eat, drink and sleep just that thing and nothing else. After which, everything just wipes out. I tell my team to not stress about academics, because when time comes, we will handle that, even. So, when we have exams, I ensure that nobody talks about work, at all. All that we say is – Hibernation Mode ON, wherein we only study and do not work, at all.

Q.3. How does a typical work day at Team Panthera turn out for you?

We have an automobile lab wherein we are building this vehicle and where every day, all the girls reach by 9:30 in the morning. The first major priority is to fabricate the vehicle. We work on building the prototypes. We procure the material a day before to maximize work time. The corporate head of the team then takes rest of the team to the computer center where they make calls, talk to our sponsors. This is a very rough kind of a plan, because definitely when you are working in such a dynamic project, any problem can arise any time and we need to be on our toes. Everyday is actually different, because we come across a new problem every day, for which a solution has to be thought of on that very day itself because the next day, it will be too late.
All of us always have with us a pen, a notebook, a water bottle and an inch tape in our bags because given anytime, we are ready for market surveys. The girls go for the market surveys, make updates and then again the corporate ones start working on the corporate aspect.The girls are back from market surveys, from all the corporate work and sit there and start working on the vehicle again. Once back home, we plan our next day – what all is to be done, or follow up, or what all study or research do we need to do.
Spending so much time together makes you grow close. We have multiple groups on WhatsApp, one for engine, one for transmission and one of the groups is Discussions wherein each one of us pours out our problems or our happiness. It’s like a family working together.

Q.4. What hurdles did you actually face in going forward with your project?

To name a few, basically what we have overcome till now – we made an association with a training academy and we pitched them because that kind of a training was a part of our curriculum before we even started building this vehicle. So, I pitched for a big bunch of my team and ensured that everybody will come. But that place was, in fact, an hour away from Greater Noida. We used to get down at Noida City Center and then again, it was a one hour journey to some rural locality. The first evening after training, exhaustion was writ large on everyone's face. A few of the parents got pissed off over the timings. So, over the next three days, the numbers at training went down steadily. And when this happened, the trainer at the academy called me up and said, “When I read your mail, I thought it was a fine piece of professionalism, and I expected that you girls will be different!”, further pointing out that being girls, we are behaving like that. This really pissed each and every member of the team, and we wanted to break this incorrect notion. So, I ensured and pitched the trainer again and gave him a proper explanation, a reason for everything that was happening, and I said, “Sir, it is a Wait and Watch Game. I think that the dedication of the few will ensure that you see that we girls have that enthusiasm and that zeal within us”. This conversation lasted a good two hours! Eventually, he agreed, and when finally he was satisfied, he ensured that he provided quality education to the girls. Since then, he has been pretty much happy with us. This is just one problem that I elaborated for you. Everyday there are new problems, new challenges that we have to face.

Stay tuned for more!

Team Mentor in action.