Thursday 7 January 2010

Hope and justice in an unfair world


04.Jan.2010

As I sat through yet another simple yet inspiring session in some tribal areas of Orissa, I realized that apart from 'awakening the entrepreneural spirit', the TATA jagriti yatra has given hope - hope that things can be changed, inspite of all the bureaucracy, hope that once u hv a committed set of people with you, you can do the seemingly impossible, hope that you will get such a team if you hv a good idea and u hv the leadership to pass the message across, hope that at the end of the day, there is justice in an unjust world.

All the role model visits have had some common streaks.. a pinching or a tipping moment that prompted them to take up a cause, strong ethics and values, lots of dark nights - some of them have recurring ones every year, the ability and willingness to dream BIG, a great team/support system, persistence and above all, a great deal of humility.

The learning so far has been tremendous - simplicity from the Mumbai Dabbawalas, the courage to dream big and not stopping at hurdles from G. Vijayaraghavan - the man behind Technopark in Trivandrum, the need for a 'vision' not vision from Paul and Sabriye (International Institute of Social Entrepreneurs - a.k.a the 'Dream Factory'), the joy of doing something beautiful at Arvind eye care, Madurai, owning a problem from Elango at Kutumbakam village, Chennai, emotional returns v/s monetary returns at Industree, Bangalore, outsourcing from the government to Naandi foundation to solve problems like hunger and basic education (what is 2/3 + 4/5 ?) - yes, it is shameful that we have the world's largest number of hungry people, empowering people to shape their destinies by Joe Madiath of Gram Vikas at Orissa... this is a long list of all that I have been touched by so far.. hope to write in more detail about each one of them soon.

AT IISE, we took some time out to put down our dreams in a piece of paper and that is what we see here in this pic - a box full of dreams.

1 comment:

ayaz said...

Good..
Expecting more on TYJ..