Cycling Across India to Understand India’s Invisible Business Systems

“It had been six years, with a lot of ups and downs, and I think I had reached a point where I really needed to explore and truly see Bharat, to understand the intricacies of what our country really has to offer,” Soham said during the conversation.

One of the most surprising discoveries from his journey came from Agra’s famous petha industry. Soham explained how the sweet delicacy is connected to the Taj Mahal in ways most people would never imagine.

“Because the Taj Mahal needs to maintain its colour, no coal-based industry is allowed within a 50-kilometre radius. And the petha industry primarily runs on coal,” he explained. “Out of nearly 300 petha factories, only around 50 remained.”

For him, it was a reminder that business in India is often deeply intertwined with culture, history, and environmental policy.

But beyond industries, Soham says the biggest lesson from his journey has been understanding people.

“One thing that resonated across all these small business owners was empathy,” he shared. “They didn’t want to reach the top by defeating everybody else. They wanted everyone to grow together.”

According to him, many family-run businesses that have survived for generations place greater value on community growth and relationships than on aggressive competition — something he never expected before starting the trip.

The journey has also transformed his understanding of humanity itself. Just days before the interview, Soham lost his phone and credit cards while travelling. What followed left him deeply emotional.

“Someone left his job and spent five hours helping me search for my phone. Random people stopped to give me cold water bottles and snacks,” he recalled. “I find myself crying every few days because of the kindness people have shown me.”

One particular moment in Gwalior stayed with him. After completing a long ride, Soham stopped at a restaurant asking for ice to soothe his knees. Instead, the owner prepared a homemade paste using turmeric and talcum powder and personally applied it to his knees.

“He told me, ‘If one human being will not help another, then who will?’” Soham remembered. The experience moved him deeply, especially when the restaurant owner himself became emotional while helping him.

As he prepares to begin his MBA journey, Soham says he hopes to continue learning from India’s hidden systems and local businesses. He believes many traditional business models across the country hold lessons that even modern corporations can learn from. “The idea is to go deeper into our country and explore more systems and business wisdom that we can learn from,” he said. When asked to describe the experience in one sentence, Soham called it “a fountain.” “There has been an outpouring of emotions, learning, and wisdom,” he said. “It’s been a fountain of wisdom and physical pain.”