HARFAN MAULA

One fine morning, I got to know about TEDx event happening in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. I grabbed the opportunity to attend the event. I met one young boy of age 23 there who was introduced to me as the organizer of the event. First interaction with him was small & formal. But that meeting gave me a hint of his distinct personality. His name is, Utkarsh Garg.

I was sure that knowing more about him would be interesting. So I decided to meet him. And here I am, starting my series of stories – “Ignite – stories of invincible youths” with his story.

The story starts as a story of any common middle-class boy. Shy, introvert Utkarsh entered NIT Raipur with a simple dream of getting a degree and job. But this place had something different in store for him. He felt left alone because of his shortcomings in presenting himself, interacting with others, socializing. But instead of being depressed about it, he consciously started to work on himself. He faced his fears, actively participated in extra-curricular activities & soon was a hero in college. He found his inclination towards poetry because it was a medium to express himself. Working for college “Committees and clubs” developed qualities of managing & coordinating teams and gave him exposure to the world literature. Entering sports committee helped him gain physical freedom (he says precisely 20kgs reduced in 8 months was the 1st successful task for self), taught him “how to be a true leader even if circumstances are all against you”. His well-thought choice of internship at a start-up gave him knowledge of managing finances too & was cherry on the cake in this journey of self-discovery. The mythological stories heard in childhood made sense while reading Speaking Tree Column in TOI. (He makes his notes based on his understanding of the topic in the column – amazing!) This developed spiritual angle towards true meaning of life.

The dots started connecting, introvert – poetry – expression – spirituality- leadership – discovering/identifying the objective of his life. Next step in a common person’s life would have been well-paid job & materialistically happy life. But Utkarsh is different & special because of his different & special choices. Next dot for him was an urge to give back to the society where he lived i.e. Chhattisgarh

This urge made organize a TEDx event, He started a business on Consulting brands and managing their Public relations. Alongside this he also started Alphapreneur – a platform for all creative people who want to follow their passion which unified it into a holistic concept.

Some of the well-thought & well-executed activities of Alphapreneur include–

Start-up conference – The Largest Startup Conference of Central India and the most diverse in the whole nation.

Passion directory – Phonebook of people organised according to their passions. So that they can connect more synergistically.

Passion talks – A direct interaction with people who want to follow their passion with an expert in the field which we might think is impossible to have a career in.

TEDx – To bring innovative ideas by people of the state on the global stage.

Exposure trips – Visits to remote tribal villages in Chhattisgarh (His thought behind such trips amazed me – it keeps you grounded, connects you to nature & culture, gives you a taste of vulnerability of life.)

Utkarsh also runs a start-up Arz kia hai – A community of poets & writers, which recently got funded. To add some facts, Arz Kia Hai was the first platform to organise open-mic poetry slams in India back in 2013 while he was still in college. The organization caught up slowly with just him being the admin of the page to 250+ registered members all over India with over 5 dedicated chapters today. And guess what! They are launching the first literature digest in coming months while opening a first high-end digital library with its offline outlets.

This, indeed, is a list of ‘most weird’ ideas for today’s materialistic world. But Utkarsh’s conviction behind these ideas is so strong that I am sure he will make this list work for him & others like him. And I can see more such ‘out of the box’ ideas added to his list the next time I meet him.

If I want to sum Utkarsh Garg’s personality in one word, that word would be – HARFANMAULA.