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.