Jai Bharat, an initiative for uninitiated youth

Whats Up Bharat is an attempt to encourage a dialogue between youth

A perfect example of what the youth of today can achieve if he sets his heart at it, is ‘What’s Up Bharat’.

A platform to encourage dialogue between the youth of all classes through discussions and popular arts,‘What’s Up Bharat’ has already generated enough interest in Delhi’s youngsters in just about an year of its existence. Its centre at Hauz Khas Village in South Delhi is already buzzing with youngsters who are getting to meet varied artistes, discussing issues and broadening horizons.

What’s Up Bharat was conceived by Kartik Desai, 30, an investment banker, brought up in New York, who left his job at to start this venture. Kartik says, “During my stints in various parts of India as an investment banker, I realised that the youth here is a huge section of the population and a potential powerhouse for future growth. The largest section of the youth in India is from the Northern belt which is socially, educationally and financially backward. I realized that they must be brought into the mainstream.”

He further says, “In the meantime, I met my partner in What’s Up Bharat Arvind Kavadiya. Arvind belongs to the socially backwardKavadiya tribe of Gujarat, who are by tradition art and antique dealers. I realised that art is a huge crowd puller for even those who are illiterate, since art has a language of its own, and hence if we combine forces, we could come upwith a great social entrepreneurship model. And so began the efforts to set up the Jai Bharat Centre in Hauz Khas.”

Today, the Jai Bharat Centre houses an art gallery on the ground floor, a seminar room to host various discussion programmes on the first floor, and an office on the second floor. They call this the Kala-Kalpana-Karma design. Kartik has personally visited and contacted over 70 college campuses in India to inform students of the venture and enlisted their support. 

Today, many students visit the Centre to take part in its various programmes. The centre also invites various artistes to hold programmes that would interest the youth. Some of these include a photography session with acclaimed lensman Raghu Rai, a graffiti session with Remolec Insame, Founder Delhi Graffiti Group, music recital by sitarist Zakir Khan, dance recital by Odissi dancer Supriya Nayak etc. 

It’s not only art sessions, What’s Up Bharat has many other plans up its sleeve. Kartik says, “Once we have enrolled enough students, we are planning to start a very active website which would engage in online polling. We will ask youngsters relevant questions like ‘Do you think homosexuality should be legalized?’; ‘What do you think about women’s reservation?’ etc.

I am planning to model this on the Pew Research Centre in the US. In fact, we are launching our website within the next two weeks.Hopefully, this website will be able to gauge the mood of the Indian youth in the time to come.” We say, power to the youth.