Just Think !!!

Merry Christmas

When I hear one of the most fondly quoted statement "Hate sin, not the sinner", I feel  we do have hypocrcy when there comes a similar ground for "Love good acts, not only the good doer". We as a society across the world get swayed away by hero worshipping and most of the times it happens that while we worship the hero, we forget the ethics, the prophecies, the actions that hero spoke about.

Yes !!, This is more special on this Christmas morning. Lord sent his only son Jesus, to spread the message of peace and love for everyone and its just 2000 years back & If one considers sentiments of all communities across the world, this message in one way or other was propogated by Lord Rama, Holy Paigambar, Guru Nanak, Lord Buddha & Mahavira and many other's unnamed who spread the message of humanity.

But when we look around incidents around us it makes our heart sad, the violence, the hatred of one  community against another, fight among nations and within nation........... I feel like questionining "Do we as humanity are actually  worshipping & in a way practicing those noble ideas of love & peace or  are we simply satisfying the formality of worshipping the preachers of these noble ideas and  in real sense have forgotten the cause for which they were here on earth at different point of times and in differen parts of the world".

I still dont have a answer but Every celebration be it Diwali, Id, Christmas, Holi, Gurunanak Jayanti must be making Almighty sad, not becauseGod.Ishwar/Allah doesnt like celebration and worshipping but because the real essence of peace & leave supposed to be propogated by these celebrations is somewhere getting lost. Somewhere we the God's children are at one end respecting our creator but at other end are missing the respect for peace & love he stands for !!!!

Lets along with loving the good doer, love & practice their good acts 

The Journey till now- Life Ahead

Subconsciously, its all like dots of life are joining by themselves.

I had at some corner of my heart feeling to contribute my little efforts for the marginalized & as anyone slightly interested in this would do, I wanted to enter to the civil service.

But as they as "Man proposes God disposes". ALmighty possibly had somethign else in mind. I still remember Prof. (___) came to my hostel room early morning of 18th dec, 2005 and we had a good discussion for about 2 hours. At the end he told me to stop preparing for UPSC, i was bit stunned as i had invested 3 years to this and he was asking me to leave even without giving a single trial of exam. In any case he was among most revered Prof's I had at NIT-Surat. So i told him "Sir I am ready to follow your advice but still I am curious to know why you dont want me to give even a try." His reply was possibly true to a greater extent as he understood " Sharda, i dont doubt your efforts or capability of clearing or not clearing the exam, only issue is whatever you intend to do as civil servant u can do by voluntarily. You r softhearted and you wont be able to fight crime and corruption and I fear you might not do what all u dream now". Innocently i asked him do these Voluntary organizations come for placements. He said here they don't , u take placements in any organization from here and then shift to this field in a year or two.

With this, another dimension got added up. Since the feel was soemwhere true to heart, possibly that's why my steps couldn't restrain myself from teaching kids at the Orphanage in baroda on weekends while continuing my Job at GM. As the days passed i realized, i am possibly getting the inner satisfaction of doing something beyond self, but still i was unable to contibute significantly to life of tose kids. Possibly it needs a full time devotion rather than week-end  task.

 This led me to apply for different ngo's so that i can take social work as a profession, unfortunately none of them called me up even for interview, bit tensed with this i took courage and asked the HR person of one NGO "Why r u not giving a chance for interview-afterwards you can reject me". Their reply was that my socalled profile didnt match with their requirement and i need to change it by going for masters and suggsted IRMA/TISS. Tiss dates were already over by then, fortunately i could apply for IRMA and by God's grace i got admission at this wonderful place (http://shardagautam.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-do-i-love-irma.html)

IRMA had its own deep influence & parents on the other hand didn't want me to join the developemnt world at the cost of socalled career,. Moreso my health trouble also was bothering me at some corner whether i would be able physically able to put some contribution or not.

It seems, this was the first time i got broken down completely and was on the verge of leaving the development thoughts seeign parents firm opposition and my health, But Almighty as always had far better solution which human mind can think of.

The MTS organization, where i m doing MTS, they offered me to join on a project which was a mix of field work & policy development which will not cause much strain to health and on the other hand will enable me to remain in development world. To my utter surprise, parents also don't have any objection (possibly bocz the field rural electrification matches somewhat to my fathers' field of renewable energy :) & to them name winrock doesn't sound like that of NGO for which they don't have high regards :)]

Lets see what future has in store from here. But i am happy that by grace of god, i am still with my dreams of contributing my little efforts to the marginalized & weaker section of the society.

I get reminded of Letter to elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose on September 22, 1920 by Subash Chandra Bose

"You will readily understand my mental condition as I stand on the threshold of what the man-in-the-street would call a promising career.There is much to be said favour of such a service. It solves once for all what is paramount problem for each of us -- the problem of bread and butter.One has not to go face life with risk or uncertainty as to success or failure. But for a man of my temperament who has been feeding on ideas which might be called eccentric -- the line of least resistance is not the best to follow .Life loses half its interest if there is no struggle -- if there are no risks to be taken.The uncertainties of life are not appalling to one who has not , at heart , worldly ambitions. Moreover , it is not possible to serve one's country in the best and fullest manner if one is chained to the Civil Service . In short , national and spiritual aspirations are not compatible with obedience to Civil Service Examinations."

रोटी कपड़ा और मकान बनाम Pizza Suitings and Duplex

भारत बनाम India saga

There used to be a time when India could be easily subsituted with "Bharat". So-called economic reforms began in disguise of Opening the economy under influence of Brettwood institutions and we saw India growing at an unprecedented pace which we never witnessed earlier. The quest for economic prosperity, mechanization and above all urbanization became a centre point. I cant say it was bad, but then there was happening a subtle change. India was going away from Bharat. This progress appeared to cause a drift. On one hand Bharat was moving at 2-3% growth rate and on other India was heading at 8-9% growth rate.

One insane guy who was neither in Bharat nor India (a middle class which constitutes a major chunk), intended to explore this nation (nations ?).

भारत (Bharat what he saw)

In some remote village not to far from state capital of a state, he found that electricity poles have not reached and to talk about electricity is a good joke, where parents feed their kids with "Madh"(its simply rice with about 3 times more of water not bcoz it tasted good but bcoz they didnt had enough to feed if their child asked another time for food.), where after 6 o clock in the evening, they want to remain in their home (just to ensure any naxal doesnt kill them), where if they fall ill, they can't take their dearone to hospital (not bocz they dont want but bocz nearest hospital is some 60 odd km's and they dont have money to arrange a vehicle) and so on......................... रोटी कपड़ा और मकान is still a big dream

India (India which he saw)

It was some IT-city near the capital of the nation (nations?) where let the sunset and innumerable buildings were lit with extravagent lighting, where escalators were running on some power source for the people who could easily climb up 12-15 stairs, where having food was no longer to satisy hunger but to have a change in flavor form xyz dish to abc dish, where for moving a distance of say 500 m people put fuel in their luxury cars, where for a simple cold or cough there exists a hospital (or a five star hotel) with best doctors and so on.........Pizza, suitings and duplex are in line

He got puzzled ánd asked his colleagues some of whom who have move to India and some still in Bharat (by choice or by compulsion is a different issue), none had an exact answer but inspite of all love/hate one has/had about Mr. M.K. Gandhi they admitted "Nature has produced enough to fullfill everyone's NEED but nor GREED". India's fast track growth is fully supported but lets not forget their exists a भारत in some greater parts of the nation/s, so lets take out some time/effort/resources to ensure that Bharat doesn't ask for becoming a different nation seperated out of India like we saw CG got seperated of MP or Jharkhand from Bihar on grounds of some differences.

The saga of भारत बनाम India goes on from रोटी कपड़ा और मकान to Pizza, suitings and duplex

Why Do I Love IRMA ?

“Why do I love IRMA”

The memoirs of a Participant

 

“Why do I love IRMA” is possibly a succeeding question to the most truthfully questioned and most flowerily answered J question “Why IRMA?” I am not sure how genuinely it was answered in past interviews of IRMA or will be answered in future but one thing remains precise that somewhere in the corner of our heart we have an unadulterated answer. I too had my own insane reasons which my diary quotes as

 

“I am not sure whether I would be able to contribute to underprivileged section after passing out from IRMA. I am also not sure whether this institute will be able to mould me into a capable rural manager, but I am happy that next 21 months of my life would be spent in an environment where tea-time gossips wont remain restricted to film and sports stars but will include talks about the marginalized and weaker sections , where class room discussions won’t  restrict to just increasing profits for organizations but will include humane aspect too, where exams wont test your capability of simply managing monetary aspects but will test how delicately you can integrate development (not sure what it meant then) in it.”

 With all these whims and fancies I entered into this wonderful campus. The very entry left an unforgettable mark in my memory. As per my earlier dispositions, guard at the gate was at maximum supposed to let me know the direction of hostel block, but to my utter surprise he took me to the hostel, put of my luggage from the auto rickshaw, took & filled up the empty water bottle, asked for my bed-sheet and set the things comfortable for stay of any new comer like me. I was dumb struck at the thought that if non teaching staff is so supportive then I am definitely going to have a homely stay here.

 

The Unlearning

I still remember during induction field work when we reached the GVT (Dahod) office Prof. Arvind Gupta called all of us together and told us  “Forget what you are, forget what your qualifications are.You all are simply learners and therefore spend next one week as a true learner from the so seeming illiterate inhabitants of the village.” I possibly didn’t realize it then. “The Barefoot Managers” as IRMAN’s are supposed to have humility at heart and this necessitates that the baggage of past whether its educational background or work experience must be dropped down. And this was the first and fundamental lesson for me possibly one of the most striking facet of IRMA.

 The Learning

Possibly none of the so-called management institutes would be teaching about rural livelihood systems and as obvious to most of us, things taught in this course were going above head, specially the way poor & poverty was defined with the six aspects which didn’t restrict to financial poverty. The village stay at Jharkhand possibly was waiting for another starking revelation. The discussion which  left me spell bound

We: “Whom do you rate as most poor person in Supa?”

Replies” Jharia who lives toward field is poorest person here”

We (the most obvious question): “How much land he owes”

Replies “About 6 acres”

We: “And you”

Replies: “2 acres, 1.5 acres…….”

Stunned by the reply we asked him: “Still you call him poorest in the village”

Replies: “Sahab, you won’t understand, poverty is not simply related to land size, its something more than that”

We curiously continued the discussion and got to know that Mr. Jharia Uraon had big sized land but didn’t have ox and plough, therefore during cropping season he used to work in other’s field and during non cropping season along with his wife & children used to migrate to Bengal for working in Brick making foundries. He was somehow able to save 2000-3000 a year and was planning to purchase a pair of ox and plough when he is able to collect 10000 rupees. But then came the disaster. While he was in Bengal, his wife expired and left a one week child. Somehow he took back his children and this newly born baby. In tribal community, bridegroom moves to the village of his bride and same was the case with Mr. Jharia and therefore all social contacts in the village were of his wife who was no more alive. Now with three small children, his movement for work got restricted. He now cuts and sells log of wood locally in the village when his children are  asleep. He us waiting for them to grow up and take care of themselves so that he can move out and plan for ox and plough to earn from his large farm land ( Tribal’s cant sell their land to non-tribal’s as per law).

                                                          This is what possibly Prof. Hiremath wanted to teach in RLS- a lifelong learning.

 

The unanswered question

During PRA class room sessions Prof. Arunathan (who happens to be IRMA alumnus) showed us a video in which few poor families whose daily life, their sufferings etc. was depicted. I guess more then the video Arunathan Sir’s question “Why we are here and why they are there?” moved us. Our exploration for the question is still on but in very simple terms he gave a great lesson that since we are blessed up with certain richness and ability of good education &decent salary, it’s our duty to sincerely put efforts to pull up life of fellow beings who are not equally blessed with this.

This answered question will keep on haunting me lifelong!!!!

 The IRMAN way

When I told my friends that in IRMA, if someone breaks the rule, he puts a fine himself, none of them believed.  Possibly I also wouldn’t have known the tradition of integrity which IRMA values if had not overheard talk of two kids who came with their parents during Milaap08 (Alumni Meet). The conversation of two kids was over an incident in one of the fun-stalls during Milaap.

It was an event in which glasses were kept in pyramidal form and objective was to hit them with ball and scatter all the glass tumblers. Younger Kid [about 7-8 years] tried two or three time but couldn't dismantle the lower layer and same thing happened with the elder one [i guess around 12 years], both of them sat disappointed after this.

 

Younger one told "Bhaiya u know they stick the lower layer with glue, so it never falls". Elder one thought for a while and replied him back "Yaar it might be true but my father told that in IRMA people never cheat, IRMAN's are very responsible".

 

Awesome!!! Statement touched me- If an elderly person says one may presume he may be pretending but when a child says such words--they are from the innocent Heart.

 

The Glorious Past

 During MTS at Gurgaon, one conversation left me with mixed feelings. I was new to Gurgaon and therefore with my room-mate (was staying there as PG)  at Gurgaon , I went to a restaurant and was waiting for food. Our conversation somehow took turn towards IRMA. My Room-mate co-incidentally happened to be a relative of Prof. Vishwa Vallabh (earlier Prof. at IRMA) and told me that IRMA is virtually IIM of Rural management.

 

 Before I could react, another person (he must be in his early sixties) interrupted in between and said ‘Don’t degrade IRMA by comparing with IIM. IIM’s are nothing but a drain on tax payers money. IRMA used to be ‘Harvard of Rural Management”, & I hope IRMA will keep its glory.’ With moist eyes he left the restaurant, I couldn’t even ask him his name.

 

But who-so-ever he was, his statement left me in dilemma. I should feel happy or sad about this. Happy because the roots of the institute are among the best in the world and sad because I was born too late witness the glory which he was talking about.

 

In any case, if there has crept some adulteration in the founding principles which are putting a blot on IRMA, it calls upon every one involved with IRMA be it , the Board, Alumni,  Professors, Non teaching staff & obviously the Participants to set ourselves for regaining the glorious past of IRMA “The Harvard of Rural Management”

 

And as we fondly say at IRMA

 

        “If we wont ………………..........................................

                                                                                                               who will?”

 

PS: Answer to the question “Why do I love IRMA?” possibly subtly lies somewhere in these lines which I my naïve English knowledge is unable to specify in one word.

Was that Really Bad?

Was that really bad? He wasn’t sure.

 

He had dropped out of college. He didn’t have a dorm room, so he slept on the floor in the rooms of kind friends. He sold used Coca-Cola bottles for the five-cent deposit per

 

bottle to buy food. He walked seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. But he didn’t abandon his passion. He was determined to learn calligraphy at the same.institute (Reed’s College)  He learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful and artistically subtle in a way that science couldn’t capture, and he found it fascinating.

 

Some years later, he wrote:

 

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied (?) the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

 

He asked himself, “Was dropping out of college really that bad?” The answer was a firm no.

 

Life went on. In only ten years he established a great organization, characterized by an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, in the computing field. As the organization grew, he hired someone whom he thought was very talented to run the company with him. For the first couple of years, things went well. But then the two men’s visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually he had a falling out with his colleague. At the age of thirty, he was fired from his own organization because of collusion in the boardroom. The incident appeared devastating. But he didn’t stop. He discovered new ways of moving ahead.

 

Life went on, and again things turned around. Five years later, he said with joy:

 

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy Story,” and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together. I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it

 

He again asked himself, “Was that firing really bad?” The answer was a firm no.

 

By now, you might have guessed that this is not a fantasy or fable. What you have just read describes two real incidents from Steve Jobs’s life.

 

As it is with Steve Jobs, so it is with everyone on this earth. We at times label certain events as “bad” because they didn’t happen in the way that we wanted them to unfold. This could be failure in an exam, defeat in a game, loss in an election, setback in business, disappointment in love, death of a loved one, missing an important appointment, being turned down for a promotion. We cry and mourn over such “bad” incidents. We shout and scream in anger and rage.

 

But life goes on (unless we wish to end it). With the passage of time, we find that even incidents that seemed bad or tragic or upsetting have shaped our life in ways that we can only understand and appreciate much later when we look back. The learning, the experience, and the frustration of dealing with the “bad” moments in our life somewhere down the line become sources of inspiration, which help us to keep moving ahead with determination and fortitude.

 

“In the darkness of uncertainty, we see with a torchlight a limited view. But the Almighty sees in sunlight. Have faith and patience.”

 

Reflect on an apparently bad incident in your life, something that seemed most unfortunate, something that appeared to be a huge setback. For a moment, assume that it didn’t happen. Do you find that the pride and joy associated with some of your greatest achievements—or the happiness that you found at a later phase of your life—has been diminished? Do you find that you now have a different perspective when you look back at your past? All the events in our life, all the people we meet, all the problems that we face, and all the opportunities that come our way shape our future course of action. At times, one crucial event or one important individual can determine the entire course of our life. Let’s take a few pages from our notebook and “try to join the dots of life working backwards”.

 

The next time you feel like mourning over some unfortunate incident or brooding about a disappointment, stop and ask yourself, “Was that really bad?” You might be surprised at the answer to your own question. Then you will want to shout at Murphy who said, “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something”

 

P.S. Article doesn’t intend to portray good/bad, it’s simply an attempt towards creating positive thinking in life. Article is a part of book under composition “Was that really bad”. Pl. mail your suggestions/critic at sharda.gautam@gmail.com/ sharma.pkk@gmail.com , it may helps us in improving the content of the book !!.