It's rainy and windy!

Well it rained yesterday, enough to bring the umbrellas out of the closet. And it resulted into windy days and nights. The days are still beautiful with the wind blowing in your face and the sunshine soothing you. It's a cocktail of embracing warmth and chilling cold. And I'm loving it.

In the past few days, we had meetings with the States' Department officials from various departments such as Economic Development Administration of Department of Commerce, Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in Domestic Policy Council, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and Office of the Special Advisor for Global Youth Issues and organisations such as Ashoka, Kairos Society and DC Social Innovation Project. None of the conversations with the people from the above departments or organisations, I must say, was one-sided. As much as we were eager to understand the rise of entrepreneurship and the participation of the youth in US, they were keen to learn the scene of social entrepreneurship in India and inclination of the youth towards it. The insights, to both the parties, were undoubtedly interesting. In India, whereas the estimates say that on every 400 people there is one NGO, it is highly debatable that how many of them are really functional in true sense. Free market keeps checks and balances on the NGOs in US and only those survive who are delivering value to the masses. Government really doesn't do much to keep a vigil eye on the NGOs. However, access to capital is an issue for the non-profits in US especially after the economic downturn when the foundations and philanthropists pulled out from many investees. Nevertheless, the social entrepreneurship is on rise with facilitation from the government (federal and state) and participation of the youth in considerable number. It still has to go long way as many youngsters from reputed universities of US are still going for stable jobs. Good thing is that, unlike in India, failures here are admired and respected by the society. This allows youngsters to, without worrying for the society, freely take the path of enterprise, or for that matter social enterprise.

While the women in India still need to come out of their homes without the big ghoongat, the challenges for the women in US are altogether different. As per Caroline Pugh, President of the Washington Region, The Kairos Society, the women entrepreneurs here feel intimidated in reaching out to the male mentors. There is a need for more female mentors. 'Why women still can't have it all' - an article by Anne-Marie Slaughter provoked an endless ruminations about gender quality and work-life balance. Similarly, the controversial book - Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead - by Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, who is successfully managing  a career, a happy marriage and motherhood, has become must read for every aspiring woman entrepreneur.

Kennedy Centre

We managed to steal some time to do the cultural visits as well. The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the American-Indian National Museum, both with impressive architecture and rich content amazed us and made our day. The day culminated in a visit to Serge Bulds', our program officer's home at DC. After enjoying a good dinner and some Metaxa brandy at his beautiful small home, we walked back to our hotel room braving the chilly wind. Tomorrow we'll be moving to Philadelphia.