“Beat the blues, and celebrate the day”

This might sound crafty, but it absolutely goes hand in hand with Utkarsh Choraria - an artistic and vivacious youngster, who believes in living a novel and exciting life each day. He muses on making people happy, exploring life around him, bringing new changes into the society, planning ideas and basking on a much bigger picture of life. He enjoys making new acquaintances and conflates his love for travelling with his daily vlogs and Snapchat stories. A multi-faceted student, a wanderlust, a laudable speaker and to top it all, a noteworthy changemaker.

When he was 16, he created a platform named “Alleviation”. Today after impacting around 75000+ individuals and influencing around 180+ youngsters around the city he stands as an inspiration for many students who wish to take a step towards working on their own ideas. Recently, for the exemplary work that he is been doing in the past three years, he was recognized by the Namma Bengaluru foundation, a very precious foundation of Bangalore, thus nominating him in the Rising Star category. He shares what is Alleviation about.

“Alleviation is an organization that helps school as well as college students. It is a platform that embraces college students who wish to make a difference to the society by working on various social projects of their own. I recall, when I was in my first year, there was nothing of a social cause that I could work upon during my vacations. Also working for other organizations was a long and dull affair as they expected some work experience that almost killed my enthusiasm. I realized this was the same scenario with my colleagues; they had so many different ideas but no proper platform that could channelize them. So I thought of creating a platform where students themselves can come up and organize social events. Parties and events are like a very appealing factor to the Bangaloreans, so they started liking it. They enjoyed, as well as their ideas were getting executed. This is how this entire platform came into existence. If any student has any idea for a social project, they come up to us, and we give it a proper structure and then work on it. For example, a girl said that the auto-drivers in Bangalore charge way too much. So she went on to make an entire survey, as to what can be the solution. It was that they could get a hike, a compulsory bonus, an idea which eventually Ola Company took up. So, we kind of try to get to the root of the problem. The idea is simple - Big problems have small solutions, multiply that by maximum number of people and that will result into a great change.”

That’s a magical equation that Utkarsh believes in and also noting that the general crowd might not be aware of the current situation that is affecting them and even if they are, rarely any action is being taken by the common man. It is the need of the hour that people must be educated of what is going on around the world. Utkarsh has also helped a Government school in the past that was suffering from a funding crisis. He has also organized many waste collection drives around the city of Bangalore. Together he and the volunteers at Alleviation have created an immense difference, impacting not only the students but also the society as a whole.

Sharing about his nomination by the Namma Bengaluru foundation he says, “When you do something without expecting anybody’s recognition and then somebody appreciates your work, it feels great. Namma Bengaluru is really huge and for me, getting into the finalists was a big achievement. It has really boosted me to work more enthusiastically. At the Namma Bengaluru’s, there were many people who had done exemplary works that kind of made me realize that if every person rises to do something like this, our planet could be such a better place to live in.”

Utkarsh has just completed his second year in BBM, and had also served as the General Secretary of his college for the current year. He has been very active throughout his academics and maintains a long list of achievements in his profile. With all of these phenomenal facts in his pockets, Utkarsh is a huge travel enthusiast. His crazy but upbeat travel dreams are something that he chalks out and makes sure he walks through them all.

“The only passion that I have is to see every place possible because every place has a lot to offer. This is what keeps me going. Every time I go to a new place I get to learn something new and that’s how I get more ideas. Meeting new people, getting to know about their culture, how they live is truly inspiring. After travelling so far, I have realized that people around the globe are just the same. If you want to do something good, it’s the same everywhere. If you give a random compliment to somebody, they feel happy; just as happy as they will feel anywhere else in the world. I also want to live in some communist countries where there is no TV, and I don’t know what language they speak. Life would get boring there, but I will get enough time to look into myself and that will value a lot more.”

This all stays, and on another mode, Utkarsh adores film-making. He has his own channel on Youtube, where he has some captured videos about his travel and life experiences. He is the Student Brand Manager at Red Bull and is involved into various projects; always ready to volunteer for a worthy cause. Currently, he is doing an internship with Moving Pixels Pvt. Ltd. and is sure making the best out of it.

“A person is all about the experience he has had up till now. So, if he hasn’t gone through a rough situation, never felt for a particular problem, then it is unlikely that he will step up to do something about it. On the other hand, the same person is more concerned about his career because he feels that that is more important, which is good because if the world has people doing the best at what they can, we will still be in a very good place. Some people really go all out to do something for others, and they do not earn anything out of it but what they earn are people. Once you start doing something for others, you enjoy it so much that it’s difficult to stop. If you can change someone’s mood, make someone happy, that too accounts for a big change. Small things in life do matter a lot. Do something that you haven’t done before and that is change-making”.

Utkarsh’s resolute nature, clear thinking and people oriented skills is what makes him stand out in the crowd. The cycle of dreaming, ideologies, planning and execution is a solid part of him, and so wherever he is and whenever he can, he is amassing something huge that delights him and inspires others. He still has a long wish-list and is looking forward to fulfill them all. It’s only when you revolutionize yourself, can you think of revolutionizing the world.