Law Student Discovers a Love for Documenting Others’ Lives, and Builds a Portfolio as an Aspiring Cinematographer

VIvek Gawade came to Enterprise India Fellowship at a very difficult point in his life. At that time he was pursuing a BA-LLB degree from ILS Law College in Pune, and was lagging behind in academics with a couple of failures under his belt. As someone comprehensively dedicated to studies at that point of time, this marked a question for their professional and academic future. Vivek was debating whether to continue with his course of not.

Like many other eventual partners in the Fellowship, he had a sibling who was already a partner at the institute, and it was through him that Vivek was able to learn of it and its activity. His brother, who was a partner at that time, had organized a football tournament, and Vivek was invited to help out in the process. When he witnessed the proactive nature of the individuals involved, and the momentum of work that kept everyone moving with intent and discipline, peaked his interest in the institute, which was further stoked by his conversations with Aditya Jhunjhunwala, a Co-Founder of the Enterprise India Fellowship. His energy seemed to exemplify the philosophy of #Karo, and Vivek decided that the Fellowship was worth attending.

Even so, his journey as a partner was not always smooth. He had joined the institute as a way of figuring out what he wanted to do with himself, professionally and personally. And while the institute provided its partners with different opportunities and avenues of exploring their potential, Vivek wasn’t immediately drawn to any of them. Thus for the first few months he was left in a listless limbo, motivated to work, without a direction to implement that energy in.

As a child, Vivek had had a violent streak, which his teacher had helped channelize better through Boxing. So he knew that his frustrations in adulthood were also stemming from an untapped reservoir of energy that waned an outlet. Thankfully, it was around this point of time that he got his hands on an iPhone and began using it to document his surroundings. Photography had always been an art he was interested in, but this proved to be turning point, as his engagement with the activity became denser, as he experimented with different styles, and mediums.

Vivek’s journey into loving and adopting photography as a primary skill owed much to the Karo 2.0 project, which was fitting considering his inspiration to join the Fellowship was Aditya’s proactive energy. He was already marching around the city, photographing everything from nature, to people on the streets, to still life and portraits. But as part of the #Karo initiative, he was able to work as part of a crew, and the process of shooting and compiling videos. Through it, he discovered a love and need for documenting the work that goes into setting up and executing events, much of which often gets lost in translation once the work has been accomplished. It also lent to him learning the art of editing, and becoming cognizant of the politics of the media that can be employed through manipulation of that skill.

In effect, Vivek sculpted a new experience out of the Fellowship. Unable to relate completely with its formal structure, he was nonetheless able to lean on his partners and mentors to make meaningful discoveries about himself, and changing himself for the better. Over the course of this long journey, he has become more open to asking for help when he needs it, as well as offering it to people who are struggling as well.

An inveterate realist, Vivek stops short of articulating any major change in himself, perhaps sceptical of its veracity. But he delineates a clarity of vision he was initially lacking. His mentors, including Akash Bhalerao, whom he considers one of his closest friends from the institute lends his agreement to this observation:

Vivek Gawade

Hometown: Silvassa, Diu & Daman

College: SSR College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Silvassa
Subject: Bachelor of Business Administration – Human Resources

Interests/Cares About: helping businesses solve problems
Fellowship Span: Apr 2020- Aug 2021

Fellowship Activities Sneak Peak:

-Worked on 5+ projects including Enterprise projects like #start & #karo, and Chandrayaan 0.0  (with the Client – Area Sabha Association of Pune)

-Wrote 2 blogs, hosted a Green Room community story-sharing evening, 3 #karo workshops, co-designed and co-hosted a session for peers on ‘Decluttering the mind’

-Co-led a team of 7 new Enterprise Partners to organize #karo, and help them kickstart their fellowship experience by activating the “doing”  mindset 

Plan after Graduation:

– Working with the MD of KlugAvlon, the first Indian company to indigenously develop safety systems for cranes all the way back in the year 2000

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“As a mature organization, we were finding it difficult to incorporate today’s technological tools in our business. Under our internship programme, we hired Shiv, a student at the Enterprise India Fellowship. Shiv has been working for the last 6 months and has already successfully implemented CRM for the sales department. He is currently working on integrating cloud telephony with CRM and automating the communication through email and Whatsapp. He is hand-holding our sales team to help them get more productive using CRM. Shiv is focused, hard-working and doesn’t shy in taking the plunge to learn anything new. The organisation has greatly benefited from Shiv. With his approach and attitude, he is onto building a great success story.”

Rupesh Gupta
Managing Director, Klug Avalon

His love for cinematography and visual documentation has opened up a career path for him which he hadn’t initially considered. His current professional aim is to shoot a documentary with an iPhone. But there are discoveries about himself that go beyond his artistic knack.

Vivek was surprised to discover an ability to network with relevant people, and seek out opportunities that he is interested in. For someone who struggled with a lack of direction in life, it is a huge accomplishment that deserves celebration.

Having joined the Fellowship in 2019, it has been a long journey for Vivek, with several ups and downs on the way. But he has managed to maintain a humorous outlook upon life throughout it. As a new batch of partners enter the fray, he advises them to ‘try new different things, that might not be relevant to your field, that gives you a peak into a different perspective.‘ As a person who went beyond his academic responsibilities to explore and develop his peripheral skills, Vivek has certainly lived by his words, and thrived for it.

Interviewer: Akash Bhalerao
Author: Jagruti Jethwani
Video Editor: Rahul Devkar
Story Editors:  Aditya Jhunjhunwala, Akash Bhalerao, Ankita Parashar, Shakko, Yusuf Hakim
Webpage Designer: Dnyanesh Chandewar

His love for cinematography and visual documentation has opened up a career path for him which he hadn’t initially considered. His current professional aim is to shoot a documentary with an iPhone. But there are discoveries about himself that go beyond his artistic knack.

Vivek was surprised to discover an ability to network with relevant people, and seek out opportunities that he is interested in. For someone who struggled with a lack of direction in life, it is a huge accomplishment that deserves celebration.

Having joined the Fellowship in 2019, it has been a long journey for Vivek, with several ups and downs on the way. But he has managed to maintain a humorous outlook upon life throughout it. As a new batch of partners enter the fray, he advises them to ‘try new different things, that might not be relevant to your field, that gives you a peak into a different perspective.‘ As a person who went beyond his academic responsibilities to explore and develop his peripheral skills, Vivek has certainly lived by his words, and thrived for it.

Vivek Gawade

Hometown: Silvassa, Diu & Daman

College: SSR College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Silvassa
Subject: Bachelor of Business Administration – Human Resources

Interests/Cares About: helping businesses solve problems
Fellowship Span: Apr 2020- Aug 2021

Fellowship Activities Sneak Peak:

-Worked on 5+ projects including Enterprise projects like #start & #karo, and Chandrayaan 0.0  (with the Client – Area Sabha Association of Pune)

-Wrote 2 blogs, hosted a Green Room community story-sharing evening, 3 #karo workshops, co-designed and co-hosted a session for peers on ‘Decluttering the mind’

-Co-led a team of 7 new Enterprise Partners to organize #karo, and help them kickstart their fellowship experience by activating the “doing”  mindset 

Plan after Graduation:

– Working with the MD of KlugAvlon, the first Indian company to indigenously develop safety systems for cranes all the way back in the year 2000

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