My 100 rupees story brought me to the 'Smiles next door'. Let me begin about how all this started. I, along with my co-learners had a challenging task to earn minimum Rs. 100 as part of a survival activity given by our University. Here we were bare handed and we had to earn the amount in 2 hours and that was the twist in the task. As a personal opinion, I feel a twist makes a task more challenging and exciting. So, moving further we were dispersed and everyone went left, right, up, down etc. So it was a very enthusiastic start. Now let me sweat out my 100 rupees story.

The first thing I did was to set a lesser time period aim, i.e., One hour. We were dropped at Harsiddhi temple and from there we had to start our 100 rupees journey. So I went straight towards the city and started to exchange words with people. Well, in the start I got a lot of rejection but as I believed firmly – “Earn hundred, sweat thousand and learn millions”, I wasn’t going to give up this easy. Well I didn't learn millions but surely some really meaningful lessons.

So let me take this journey ahead, sit tight and keep reading. Finally, I found one medical shop and tried to convince the shopkeeper for 15 minutes but he wasn’t willing to give me any job but only Rs. 20 as a token of not stopping from convincing him. But I refused and explained that I only wanted to get paid in exchange for my work. So, finally, he agreed and let me work for 20 minutes in which I had to cut medicines straps and give it to the customers. But this was not it. I still had to earn more. So switching my body from one store to another and using my convincing skills, I played the role of a ball used in Volleyball match. Each shopkeeper started sending me to the opposite shop but finally, I found the one. It was a ‘Second-hand’ bookshop. So when I entered this particular shop and explained to the shopkeeper the challenge, he asked me, “What work can you find in this shop”, I started galloping my eyes all around the shop and answered his 'test me' question saying the books were piled up in an unhygienic way, like big books on top of small books and also a lot of dirt had settled on those books, and this may cause the whole bunch of books to fall. So, he gave me an offer of Rs. 50, I accepted it and started working the next second. After 20 minutes, I was done with re-arranging the books in a proper manner so that the heap does not fall and explained to him what I did and why I did. He was very impressed with me and gave me Rs. 100!

But the journey was still not over! No, not yet. Happily returning back to report I saw a Mahakal exhibition but the lady there was quite busy on call and was not able to deal with customers simultaneously. So I offered her help and earned 20 more bucks for 20 minutes of help. Then, finally, with my head held high, I reported with my earnings and completed the task.

So my learning in the ‘Rs. 100 Challenge’ was:-

1. One needs to establish an interesting communication with his client.
2. Convincing the customer is very important.
3. Once we convince, our work further speaks for us and we get the reward.
4. Never keep 'Giving-up' an option in your journey.
5. Enjoy every moment in your sweat and even the sweat will smell good.

With this note, I thank my university for planning such an exciting activity for us!

Written by
Jill Chheda

Organized by: iConnect Team