What I learned in the last five months of the Young India Fellowship

🏔Reflections from the top

One slip, I might fall and die. I’m 2,000+ metres high. I’m panting as I reach the last leg of the Triund Trek. Far below I see Dharamshala cloaked in a carpet of mist. The air is cold and it stabs my neck and face like tiny pins. All I wanted was to lie on a plush sofa and sleep. But I wanted to climb further. I had to look at the Dhauladhar Range.

‘It would all be worth it,’ my friend Navya told me when I spoke to her a night earlier.

‘I was told it’s very hard,’ I said.

‘No no, you can do it. The view is priceless. Don’t miss it.’

14 hours later, here I was trudging through the narrow path roughly flooded with sharp pebbles and slippery stones. To my left, huge boulders, wild creepers, roots and other things that are on a hill were splattered crisscross. To my right down below, I could see the specks of toy-like homes and very faintly — if I have to trust my eyes — I saw cars that moved like ants with glowing eyes. And there was the bright red roof of the Dharmshala cricket stadium that I could spot distinctly.

I peeled my focus away, and looked forward, dragging my leg with each pounding step. The last of my water was scuttling in my bottle. I was tempted to drink but I didn’t budge.

‘You will feel like turning back mid way but don’t,’ I remember Navya saying.

Throughout the trek, I passed about 7-8 folks. First-time climbers to pros. They waved hello and said the summit was about an hour left. The last 2 km of Triund gets too overwhelming. I was walking on fumes, pausing every 10 feet. I cursed myself for not exercising regularly or cycling enough.

The steep path was getting steeper. Slowly but surely, I could make out the last bit of the inclination. I dragged myself to the final beyond, fighting gravity with every bit of energy I could muster. And then I was overlooking the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

The massive grey Dhauladhar range towered majestically with its snow-capped hills. Clouds dashed over the peaks leaving a trail of white like whipped cream. It was bitter cold now.

We hear phrases like ‘My heart stopped a beat’ or ‘It took my breath away’ when someone says something to describe beauty or the act of pausing time. Sometimes you don’t get the words until you get to witness their actual meaning with your own eyes. I was feeling all this feeling as I looked in stunned silence.

It took a moment for me to realise that I was crying at the range, the nature, the quiet and the cold. There’s something about the hills that makes you feel so small in the grand scheme of things. I found a spot in the massive summit of Triund — a rock that resembled Lion King’s ‘Pride Rock’.

On the other end, the space was dotted with tents and a dozen or so tourists. I sat on the mini pride rock, legs folded, listening to ‘Song for Zula’ by Phosphorescent. I kept looking at the range, mesmerised. My mind was replaying how I landed up here, several hundred km away from my home in Chennai.

🏃🏼How did it all happen?

Since July 2023, I have been crafting a new sense of life as part of the Young India Fellowship (YIF) at Ashoka University, learning alongside a group of 100 fab folks. 2023 has been an exceptionally brilliant year of opportunities.

My mind was buzzing with a billion emotions: I felt grateful that, unlike my brothers, I had access to premium education. I felt grateful that I had an amazing group of mentors helping me out at every step of my career; people like the Director of the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program (EJCP) Jeremy Caplan, Founders of Splice Media Alan Soon and Rishad Patel, and Director of BoomLive HR Venkatesh.

My career flourished since joining the EJCP fellowship, evolving through pandemic-induced challenges: Starting as a reporter with 2.5 years of experience back then, my stint at 'News Today' and 'Talk Media' helped me explore hyperlocal journalism.

The pandemic, however, led to job loss at 'DT Next' in June 2020, propelling me into freelance work. Doing this amidst uncertainty became a blessing in disguise as I fostered connections with journalists and entrepreneurs online. Venkatesh emerged as a valued mentor, guiding discussions on journalism practices.

Curiosity about surviving the Covid crisis led me to explore industry challenges: financial struggles of newspapers, print media's shift to digital, and low salaries in media. Extensive reading from sources like Neiman Lab and Poynter ignited my interest in entrepreneurial journalism.

An article by The Washington Post introduced me to Substack, where laid-off journalists found success with independent newsletters. This concept of independence and audience connection captivated me. To understand the landscape better, I delved into books by new-age entrepreneurs like James Clear, David Perell, Chris Guillebeau and Nicolas Cole, learning about the challenges of making a living online.

By this time, I was working with the Hindu BusinessLine. Venkatesh encouraged me to apply to EJCP. I got in. Later, I got to know about Splice and joined their Slack community. Eventually, Alan and Rishad invited me to attend Beta, a media startup festival in Thailand. I met a lot of people here who were building their online publications and solving the problems of the community they serve.

Visiting Thailand made me fall in love with travelling. I wanted to meet and see a lot more places. Every place I visited, I decided to collect the local newspapers or tabloids of that city. It has become a hobby. Some collect stamps, some collect currency notes, I collect newspapers.

I kept applying for more and more opportunities across India and abroad because I wanted to move. I was seeking new things, a new chance. A few months later, I got into Erasmus but I couldn’t secure a scholarship. I rejected it. I was upset, yes but I know I couldn’t get everything every time. However, a few weeks later, I got an email that I got into the YIF.

What the heck is YIF⁉

The YIF is a post-graduate diploma program where over 100 fellows learn diverse courses mashed up in one year. So in the last few months, I have learned subjects like history, sociology, investigative journalism, Generative AI, and economics, among others.

Each month, we go on a roller coaster ride of new studies, theories, discussions and group projects. There are lot of stuff to read but it’s amazing. But more than the professors or the courses, it’s the fellows from whom I keep learning one thing or the other.

Here’s how it has been:

1) How I learnt the importance of consistency

A couple of days ago, Dyuti, my friend from YIF told me that for 2024, I should "actively (become more active) write and create my own Brand Identity as an Independent Journalist.” Amen to that. Her message made me wonder about a few changes that I have been making:

After I came to the YIF, the first thing I stopped doing was reducing my time reading the newspaper. What?! Heck yeah, I did. To be fair and honest, I did this to fully immerse myself in the fellowship. I wanted to begin with a new clean slate for learning. That meant dropping a few rituals like reading newspapers for hours and also Netflixing.

The schedule of the YIF is designed in such a way that most of us hardly have time to do stuff we would generally do like watching OTT. Plus, with so many exciting things and facilities here on campus, you don’t feel like wasting time by watching series or movies. Occasionally it’s fine but not always.

Apart from the academic commitments, many fellows here have creative ventures they are building. Take my very dear friend from the cohort, Sankalp Sharma who runs the Abstract Room — “a community that organises online and offline events around films, books, poetry, music, and anything 'Abstract'!”.

I have seen Sankalp’s Instagram community grow one day at a time in the last 5 months. If there’s one thing that he aces at is that he is very consistent. He is consistent in organising events every week, sharing new updates online, and holding talk shows. Sometimes when I call him to chill with us, Sankalp would respond saying he has ‘some Abstract work’ to do. I’m always impressed by his commitment and discipline.

I have been someone who believes that things need to be right to launch something — be it a podcast, a newsletter or any creative stuff you want to share online. But often, just putting it out there matters more than anything. Creating out in the open helps out too. Folks like Sankalp just put it out. Showing up matters, even if we believe the time isn’t right. No time is the right time. We just have to do it. Consistently, one day at a time. Small daily steps for a big win.

2) Forging connections online

Another fantastic friend from the cohort is Pubarun Basu, a photographer, from Kolkata. He is just 22 but he has a lot of feathers to his cap including Forbes 30 under 30. Apart from his warmth and his sense of humour, what I love about him is his dedication to the craft and his art of networking with people from diverse fields.

Recently, he attended the Forbes Summit in Singapore and before that, he held a workshop in Odisha. He regularly tells me about the new projects that he does with global organisations and I’m just impressed by his energy. Despite the many laurels he has grabbed so far, he is downright hilarious when I speak with him and stays grounded.

Hanging out with him, I have realised that letting our craft/profession do the talking goes a long way. For Pubarun, it’s his photography that makes people reach out to him and he effectively uses Instagram, LinkedIn or his website to forge new connections online. When I see him reach out to new people, I’m reminded of my journey that started during the pandemic: talking to people online and asking, ‘How do you do what you do?’.

All it takes is one cold mail to someone’s DM. The chance of building something new after that is limitless. In this digital age, tapping the Internet to build your network and a tribe of believers gives you an edge, unlike others who don’t. All you need is just a phone or a laptop with internet connectivity to get heard and find new possibilities.

3) ‘AI won’t take jobs but a person knowing how to use AI will’

Apart from learning valuable life lessons from my good friends at YIF, I have also learnt some fascinating courses. Among the coolest has been ‘Decoding Generative AI’ taught by Jaspreet Bindra, a "Thought Leader, Advisor, Author on Digital Transformation, AI, Blockchain, Future of Work".

Several daily acts of our lives such as writing are changing because of Generative AI. We now have AI-powered summarizers, paraphrasers or grammar-checking tools that make your writing crisper. Is it cheating if you use them? To be honest, I don't know. However, I do believe that these tools help you in creating the first draft. It saves time if you happen to struggle with ‘writer's block’. The generated drafts can be the skeleton over which you flesh out your actual writing.

The one key takeaway I learnt from the course is that AI won't take away my job but a person knowing how to use AI would surely do so. AI tools should also be seen as a productivity enhancer. There are hundreds of new AI tools out there waiting to be tapped into our work life. Learning to use such AI tools will increase your efficiency.

4) Good writing involves disciplined reading

Another fascinating course that I had a chance to learn was ‘Investigative Journalism’ taught by Nikita Saxena who had earlier worked with Caravan Magazine. Nikita introduced us to the art of long-form literary journalism.

We spent hours reading great profiles and pieces published by The Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Times, Caravan and many more. By the end of the course, I learnt how reading the topics you would love to explore is perhaps the best act of learning you can do to become a better writer. The more you read, the better writer you become. There’s no other way.

💻Platform 2024

Having spent over five years witnessing how media publications function, here are two big lessons I can broadly draw upon:

• As with every creative activity we do in the digital age, writing to share our thoughts and feelings opens up new possibilities.

• When you write for a community of followers (read email subscribers of your newsletter), you are one step ahead in converting them into a loyal tribe of well-wishers/supporters.

In the last few months, I have been reached out by several dozen people over LinkedIn asking about what they need to do to become a better writer or get published in a newspaper. I’ve also been asked by people about how they can create a newsletter or strategies they need to follow to become a niche online writer.

I realised that India lacks resources for journalists or entrepreneurs to understand what it takes to make a living from the Internet. While you can certainly read articles written by creators, most of the time it is often addressed to Westerners.

There is a large information gap for entrepreneurs from India on how to build their Internet business or brand. That’s why I created ‘The Marina Emailer’.

💌What is The Marina Emailer?

It’s a newsletter that guides Millennials and Gen Zs to seize the Internet's potential through journalism, writing, and digital entrepreneurship. 

🔎Who is this for and what to expect?

• 💪Whether you're an aspiring writer, a college student, an entrepreneur, or anyone exploring the digital realm, we’re going to learn how to harness the full potential of the online world.

• ✍🏼I’ll publish articles every week about the art of writing for the digital age, how to forge connections online, and you’ll read stories of Internet entrepreneurs from writers to media publishers, and about folks with traditional day jobs making a difference online.

• 📲I’ll also curate a list of essential readings, videos or podcasts on digital productivity, travelling, personal growth, financial independence and self-discovery.

I’m excited about 2024. There’s a sea of opportunity that awaits us. I will be back in your inbox very soon. God speed!