Rice Bucket Challenge

As an Indian, before I make a point I am compelled to tell a story. Better be it from Mahabharata the greatest epic from my country. Okay, here it is… the story is about who is more generous among the two brothers, Arjuna and Karna. And the judge is none other than Lord Krishna.

Arjuna once asked Krishna while walking on the seashore close to sunset time, "Krishna, giving away things is pretty easy, why is Karna referred to as ‘Daana Karna’ (The charitable one)? Anyone can do that. I can do that too". Hearing this Krishna converted the sand dunes on the seashore to gold and asked Arjuna to distribute  all the gold dunes before sunset. Arjuna took a big pan and started distributing the gold to poor. As sun was setting he was exhausted, and he couldn't finish distributing all the gold, there was too much to give and too little time. He understood that there is no way he can finish giving away all that gold on the seashore by dusk and look helplessly at Krishna.  Now Krishna calls Karna and asks him to help him distribute the gold to the poor. Karna stands there and points to  gold dunes to each person waiting for alms and says "This one is yours, that one is yours..." and he distributes all the gold in no time.

Manju Latha Kalanidhi, founder of Rice Bucket Challenge

The moral of the story as my mother says is ‘Charity is easy, but not when you try to hog the limelight. Same goes with starting a revolution to trigger a positive change. You need not be the front runner all the time. A good leader always delegates’.

When I first heard about #IceBucketChallenge, for the first time in 2014, I smirked and thought it was an absolutely foolish idea to waste so much water, especially when you know that several people are dying of thirst. Some of my wise friends too shared the same notion and yet diplomatically donated money for the cause instead of wasting water. There were others who ended up saving a hundred bucks and wasting a bucket full of water. Then a few weeks later I heard about the #RiceBucketChallenge and quickly concluded that why would anyone want to pour a bucket full of rice grains on them. I was wrong.

That was the time I was recovering from the ridiculous outcome of Indian elections, where people of India were giving the winning politicians a milk bath and worshipping them as Gods months after the results. Yeah, that is true. We Indians do indulge in such crazy antics to show our love and dedication to real life idols, who are mostly politicians or film stars. We do this in full awareness of the fact that half of our nation’s children are malnourished. In India hero worship won't go away in days, it takes months sometimes years altogether and we work very hard to stay in such comatose state. I will reserve my thoughts on Indian hypocrisy for later.  For now let us stay with my twisted perception about Rice Bucket Challenge.  I smirked more without even bothering to read what it is all about and forgot about it.  I was terribly wrong.

A few months later I was attending a workshop for journalists organized by United States consulate and happened to meet Manju Latha Kalanidhi, who was my fellow participant and the innovator of the Rice Bucket Challenge. That’s when I started following her work on social media to see the massive change she triggered by adding one additional letter “R” to the much talked about Ice Bucket Challenge. I couldn’t help appreciating her wisdom. She calls it a Desi Challenge for Desi Needs. Asks everyone to cook or buy one bucket of Rice / Biryani and feed the needy and then tag #RiceBucketChallenge and challenge your friends.

Rice Bucket Challenge kicked off in Philippines

I followed the Rice Bucket Challenge campaign closely and critically to see how she shared details. The critic in me always questioned ‘what is in it for her?’ I saw a lot of people irrespective of their social standing taking up the challenge, donating rice to the needy and posting pictures on Facebook with the  hashtag Rice Bucket Challenge. Manju Latha is no where seen in those pictures. Total strangers from all across the world started donating rice to the needy. Manju as I fondly call her now,  created the joy of giving and sharing in people.  Rice Bucket Challenge reached South Asian countries and is still spreading to other continents as well.

As I recall the story of Karna who lived up to his title ‘The charitable one’, by showing off their prowess in donating gold dunes in a jiffy, I could draw similarities with the campaign Manju has created which now I appreciate whole heartedly and apologise for snubbing the idea when I heard about it first.  And am so glad that my perception about the campaign was wrong.  Manju is a true leader who did not care to be the frontrunner of the impressive campaign and yet leading it in her own way by creating more leaders every day. Thank you Manju for starting the Rice Bucket Challenge. You are my hero. 

Devil's Advocate

Do we need one? My answer would always be YES.

But why? Like we are not surrounded by enough sceptics. We have the entire world are already discouraging us and stopping us when we want to do something. Forget whether it is good or bad. If you are on social media, you will find a bunch of people telling you why your idea sucks, that someone they knew did it already and some might even go a step further and tell you and prophesize about your idea predicting all the possible negative outcomes of it, putting you off totally.  It is time to acknowledge the fact that everyone has got an opinion.

Oh, the social media? Yes, it full of these armchair activists who don’t do much but have an opinion about everything. The doers in this group of online activists account to a small percentage. And in that small percentage, someone doing worthwhile for a cause that offers some value to the society are minuscule. Now if you sift a bit more among such valuable doers someone with common sense and tolerance are even less. So, why care about what they say? I am not suggesting that you should pay attention to garbage and trolls.

My answer is still YES, we need them. For one reason, if you have an idea and want to test it, you will instantly know how seriously people are going to take it. When you overlook the idle banter on the social media (never engage in it, it is often time consuming), occasionally you might find some valid resistance. And if you can find a way to iron that out, my friend you do have a winner.
Reminds me of my first boss who said at the beginning of a major project we were planning to do ‘Convince the Devil’s advocate in our team and you can sell this to anyone”. We were developing an online travel reservation system then for middle east market. That was atleast a decade and a half ago. But that statement still holds value.

Ok for instance let us leave the social media out and talk about real world situation. It happens within families and friends too. But most of the resistances we face with families are about trivial things like when you wanted to get that punk haircut or get that cool tattoo. Rest of the time, you can count on them. You need that encouragement and support to go further (not about that tattoo), but for something that makes you feel really happy like starting your own business, or taking a job across the oceans or quitting a job and settling for a more fulfilling and less paying one.

Having said that, these people are the ones who really know you, inside out. They know what makes you happy and what makes you sad. Instead of constantly patronizing you, would you be okay if they give you their rational thought and force you to think otherwise? I am not talking about straight ‘No, you cannot do it. It is a bad idea’ kind of resistance, but something that engages a discussion about pros and cons and mostly cons. Now that challenges your mind to think in a different direction and even fine tune your thoughts about your idea, and improvise on it. Because family and friends more often than not, essentially care for you and are concerned about your overall well being. They won’t stop being your family, and switch loyalties based on how much bank balance you have or the credit rating your bank gives you. People who care for you, just care for your happiness. Just that.

So the resistance they exhibit when they talk you out of an idea, is totally valid, no matter how sensitive or hurt you are by their remarks.This resistance may not be sugar coated or dipped in honey. It may sound harsh and often very delivered straight to the point. Just because they don’t sweet talk to you, doesn't mean that you are wrong and they are right or vice versa.  If you take the emotion out of the equation, it will all make much better sense. The idea is to do what suits you best and what makes you happier at the end of the day.

But then, it won’t hurt, when you soak up the words and the actions of your family members, listen to them and apply your mind and think rationally, engage in discussion and then take a decision. Now when it comes to family and close friends, emotions do overtake sometimes. But when you look beyond the obvious, there could be a valid reason for those emotions. Be it anger, frustration, concern etc., or all of them together. It is up to you to decide how deep you want to see beneath those emotions.

Your own wisdom will guide you to see beyond the façade of these emotions and realize the value of the opinion your loved has to offer. It is ultimately your choice to whether to take them seriously, discuss the idea or issue in hand or just brush it off. It is your choice to convince the Devil’s advocate and reason with him or her. A discussion and brain storming session always works, even when you have a difference of opinion. But don’t let that difference of opinion affect the rationality in you to fail to recognize the possible virtues and vices of the outcome. Often this member of the family or friend do not patronize your idea. If your gut says “Oh, she is going to hate this”, it means you should tell her first.  And that is exactly the reason why you should listen to that person to test the validity of your idea.

Having said that, you may sometimes we encounter vague answers or opinions, which makes it difficult for you to engage in a discussion. Some may even think a bit more selfishly how your idea is going to affect them personally. It is important to recognize this aspect too and that is when you will be using your head. The best part is not to get sucked into someone else’s thought process and agreeing with them or opposing them totally because you conditioned yourself to do so. The idea is about retaining your sanity and ability to think what is best for you.

Always, appreciate that person when they compel you to think otherwise. This goes beyond Steve Jobs famous quote about misfits. But then the classic question is (which is very valid) ‘How can you tell that this person family or friend is just being opinionated and is so full of it?’. The answer to that, my friend is simple.

"The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do"

See how happy they are with their own lives. See what they do, how they do. These are the people who are enjoying their life to the fullest and you find them often smiling. They are the ones Steve Jobs was talking about, even if they don’t run a billion dollar business or lead the entire humanity to enlightenment. See how they do little things with love. You will know. And these are the very people who will love you, no matter what your credit rating is or what you do eventually whether you agree with them or not. Because they compel you to think beyond the obvious.  They drive you crazy by asking you to go against the odds. They try to push you out of your comfort zone. They have the courage to tell you the truth. They are bold enough to tell you when you mess up without worrying about the repercussions. If you have atleast one such person in your family or friends you are very fortunate. They are the ones you need to hang on to. 

A trip to Varanasi

A long time ago when we did not have modern transportation or railways in India, people used to travel from place to place by foot. A group of pilgrims from a small village in south started off to Varanasi by foot. They stopped enroute to cook and eat their meals, rest for a while in Serais and continue their journey.

During their journey they were travelling through a forest, when the weather did not permit them to go any further. It was raining heavily and they all agreed, that they have to stop and look for some kind of shelter to spend the night before continuing their journey in the morning. It was dark in the forest and all they could find was an old abandoned and rather dilapidated temple, with the aid of lightning in the pouring rain. They all took shelter in the temple premises.

After resting for a while, the weather grew worse with more lightning and everyone sensed that there could be thunderbolt that could strike the temple killing them all in one go. Everyone was very scared and started praying but could not think of any solution or an alternative to escape from the impending disaster, apart from spending the night and risking their lives by staying in the temple. One moment it appeared that the thunder would strike, and the next second it stopped building the tension in the pilgrims’ minds. Nature was playing hide and seek scaring the wits of the pilgrims.

One of the pilgrims was a prominent astrologer, who sensed the confusion and thought he could make himself feel important, so he seized the occasion. As they all were his fellow villagers he quickly took advantage of the fact that he chose the auspicious time and date of the journey and calculated the obstacles enroute, went on to make an announcement.

The astrologer proclaimed his knowledge and said that the thunderbolt would strike on only one person whose lifespan is coming to an end. He added that this ill-fated pilgrim, whoever it was should not risk the lives of the rest of the pilgrims. So, instead of putting everyone’s life in danger, the astrologer announced his brilliant plan of sending each person out of the temple and stand in the pouring rain so the thunder can strike him and take his life. This way the rest of the group would be safe inside the temple and can continue the journey next day.

The idea was accepted by everyone, as they firmly believed  in the astrologer and went ahead to implement it. Each one of them, while leaving the temple, bore a tearful goodbye to their loved ones and stood at a distance from the temple, in the pouring rain for a few minutes to let the thunder strike them and returned back after the signal given by the astrologer, joyfully to reunite with their family and thanked God for sparing his life. Everyone finished their turn except the young man who was travelling alone. He was a bit hesitant as he too believed in the astrologer and feared his impending death which was almost certain now.

The weather was getting worse as moments passed by. As he was hesitating to go to meet his fate, the rest of the group grew impatient and forcefully threw him out of the temple into the pouring rain, eager to save their own lives. The astrologer too was feeling smug for coming up with such brilliant idea. The young man was standing all alone in the rain shivering and praying for his life.

Then something strange happened. The thunderbolt struck ferociously with devastating noise and struck the very temple, where all the pilgrims were taking refuge. All were dead the very moment with the impact except the young man who stood at a distance in the rain waiting for his death. That was too surprising for the young man who had a hard time digesting the fact that only his life was spared and rest of the pilgrims including the astrologer were taken by the thunderbolt. 

Mom told me this story and said, ‘sometimes, life does single you out and you might feel that, you are the odd one in the crowd. But you should not try to blend in for the sake of impressing people. Rather stand alone, and face the consequences, no matter how dire they are, as long as you are confident that you are doing the right thing and following Dharma.’ 

Thanks to Mom that story is coming true today with Aam Aadmi Party election results. Very happy to share this with my fellow AAPians. 

Leadership

It is utterly disgraceful to see our Prime Minister hogging on the time and celebrations of ISRO sidelining the ISRO chief Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, who patiently waited on the side looking on. I really appreciate our PM being there at ISRO on the historical day to share the joy and pride of every India. And as for ISRO, it is a great compliment to share their success with the most important man of the nation.  His presence at ISRO cut all the wagging tongues across the world, who thought, space missions are not India’s priority owing to the nation’s poverty levels.  

Coming back to our Prime Minister’s speech at ISRO, I still think a true leader should let go of the accolades and focus on sharing and not on hogging. A lot of my friends beg to differ with me when it comes to our beloved Prime Minister. I thought I owe them an explanation, so I am sharing something that is linked with ISRO’s history. I am sure my learned friends know this, but I assure them that this will be a refreshing perspective.

I am a big fan of former Indian President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who shared his own experience of encountering a true leader, in one of his interviews. He narrated an incident of his days in ISRO during the launch of SLV-3 where he was the Project Director of the mission. During the 2^nd phase of the launch, there was a problem and with the team of experts’ advice, he bypassed the computer and launched the second phase, which turned out to be a disastrous decision and the mission failed. As a project director he was about to meet the media persons to share the news of the failure.  That was the time, he recalled, how Prof. Satish Dhawan, Chairman of ISRO then, took the responsibility of sharing the disastrous news with the world media and owning the fault, as a leader of ISRO.

Subsequently in the next year ISRO's mission was successful and when everyone was expecting the Chairman of ISRO to share the news to the media, Prof. Dhawan asked Dr. Kalam to address the media and share the good news. Dr. Kalam recites this incident in his interview, on how a leader should treat success and failure. Prof. Dhawan owned the responsibility of failure and let his team share the success in the said mission. A sign of a true leader without doubt.

(The link to the video by Dr. Kalam is given here  http://youtu.be/laGZaS4sdeU?t=8m45s)

I believe, I do not have to go into details and content of the 23 minutes extended speech of our beloved Prime Minister, who left little room for ISRO scientists to share their success with the world.  It is not my intention to criticize an elected national leader on everything he does or not. I do admit he did get a few things right, but his silence on the Godhra riots, repeatedly defending his position, claiming innocence citing the clearance given by the Special Investigative Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India and his stoic silence when he encountered the questions from some segments of media about the moral responsibility, all sums up to the absence of the real leader within him. And now the lengthy speech at ISRO, I see this as a disturbing sign in a leader who is responsible for taking decisions on behalf of the entire nation. Not a comforting thought.

ISRO churned out some great leaders like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Prof Dhawan, Dr. Kalam, who stood taller than politicians in terms of leadership. Least we could do is acknowledge their scientific brilliance in a respectful manner, rather than beating our chests by claiming their hardwork and perseverance as our own. I recall my father, who served as a scientist in Department of Space at NRSA, saying that ‘we launch satellites on shoe-string budgets’. I did not understand the weight of the statement as a kid, but now I could see the pain he felt as a scientist when the rest of the world thought that space research was not India’s domain.

ISRO’s scientific community busted all the myths and doubts that plagued our minds about attaining success through minimum resources. I salute each and every person at ISRO who made us look up and swell in pride for being Indian.  As to our Prime Minister and all his ardent fans, all I have to say, please do not make ‘Leadership in Politics’ an oxymoron.  

Creating Strong Leadership for India

Why can't all the honest leaders contest as independents and win the election without affiliating with any political parties? If they do then no one had to worry about high/low command nonsense and pick the most deserving leader who did some real 'praja seva'/service. Pool in all such winning leaders and assign portfolios based on their vision for a better state. What is wrong with that? Why can't we do that? 

Here are my thoughts:

1. Party Vs Individual:  Let the work speak for the person. I am sure we have people who worked for the society without being affiliated to any political party or a group. Medha Patkar is known for her work. Not for her affiliation to any particular group. Now she is contesting as AAP ticket, but if I was living in the same constituency I would vote for her irrespective of her affiliation. Same goes with P. Palagummi Sainath, Vandana Shiva, Dr. Rao Chelikani and the like. I prefer to stay an optimist hoping that it might work now as people are more open to it. Parties are okay in certain case, but individual work and commitment should not be sidelined in the name of political party.
2. Commonality: I understand that national leaders need a commonality for policy making and implementation. Having said that, we all are different in our own way with our own strengths and weaknesses. I shared this post on my FB wall last week and had 10+ people responding to this post. Some are skeptical, some are optimistic, some are non-committal etc. But the *common thing” with all my friends who responded this post (I am glad that they did) is we all want to have a strong leadership in India armed with vision, honesty and integrity. I am happy to note that. Now, on the same lines, when I am asking for honest people to contest as independents and we elect them based on their merits and service that they already did for the community (even in their own little pockets) have that commonality you are talking about. They want to do something good for the society. They are already fixing things. Armed with a position in the government they do a better job than the selfish and corrupt politicians.
3. Unity in diversity: If the common ideal is to serve the nation, I am sure these individual leaders will develop a better camaraderie among the others who are elected on the same basis. I am sure leadership among them will not be driven by selfish motives. I have faith that initially there might be differences, but eventually all those will smoothen out as they have a common goal and pick a leader among themselves. I do not still think they all should belong to a common party. They should be driven by a common goal of serving the nation. Yes, in policy making they might differ in several ways at times encounter delays and discussions. But I am sure you will agree with me that a difference of opinion among rational thinking intellectuals towards building a better nation is far better than a bunch of elected representatives who are bound by party ideologies and agree upon a point in the name of leadership and selfish goals. I think the former is less evil. The latter - we are all witnessing it right now. 
4. The Need & Necessity: I also notice that the political clan we see today (not just in India) is totally disconnected with ground realities of the nation. I am exposed to such ground realities while working with MV Foundation. As I read the children's case studies and try to reason out why they were put to work at such young age and now when they are in school what these kids aspire to be when they grow into adults, I noticed some basic things. I might sound dramatic but I am sure you will agree with me - (It is not them or us - but this is common to all human beings) - Food, water, shelter, clothing, education and work. These I am sure all of us will agree are the most important things for survival - atleast the first 3 of them, irrespective of class and inequalities. Now the problem arises when  the leaders ignore these basic necessities of survival and focus on hollow developmental aspects where the main problems of food, water and shelter still exists. Once you have them ironed out, ensure that the nation is free of these problems, and parallelly develop on education which eventually leads to work we are already building a better nation. 
5. Leadership:  Leadership is not just about bringing everyone to agreement on the issue to benefit a few in the society or empowering a certain class of people. It is about empowering everyone to live with self-respect earning their daily bread. A true leader does not want followers all the time. Trust me that can be quite claustrophobic. Leadership according to me is bringing people to an agreement or close to agreeing to a common goal that will benefit the country on the whole, without any bias towards any segment of the society.

So choosing someone with these common ideologies and bring them together as a team will benefit our nation or any nation as they are driven by common ideology. They are already serving the nation, given them the authority, they will do a good job as elected representatives. I am quoting an example - Medha Patkar is an ideal example. I have inherent faith in her that she will not leave any stone unturned if natural resources in India are exploited. She needs to be given the right portfolio if elected and she will figure out a way to set things right in her area of expertise. And rest of the rational thinking leaders will understand, support and even respect her decision as it in the nation’s interest. Yes there will be difference of opinions and some delays, but don’t you think it is better to have a heated argument for a good cause than bulldozing opinionated arguments for selfish reasons?

Having said that, I am not against honest intellectual visionaries contesting elections by joining a political party. You might very well question my intention of talking about Medha Patkar who is contesting Loksabha elections on AAP ticket. Let me explain, as I said their work and commitment towards serving the nation and its people speak louder.  If these kind of leaders take charge of the country, I believe they are driven by a cause - something that is not self-centred (Thank God) So, Medha Patkar joining AAP or contesting as independent or through any other party doesn't make a difference as long as we voters know that she is the right choice and she knows what she needs to do with the responsibility bestowed on to her if she wins the election. That can never go wrong even if she belongs to a particular party. I am counting on that. That is HOPE.

Political parties can exist- but the ideologies of these parties revolved around selfish motives as we are seeing now. So essentially the voters should look at the candidates bio and the work they did in the past for the community and cast their precious vote. I admire the way AAP selects the candidates - So far I haven't seen any political party in India selecting the candidates based on the work they did outside the party's purview. I earlier was having doubts about Aam Aadmi Party Andhra Pradesh too, but my doubts were cleared after I saw the AP committee members. Each person in the committee has spent over 10-15 yrs in social work delivering results. Now that gives me immense faith and hope that these guys who already did what they had to do as leaders and now a part of a political party will definitely deliver. I am not against political party. Also, such honest intellectual visionaries won't join a shady political party which is tainted with scams. That's a relief. Leadership emerges... Don't you think so?

Suggested Exercise:

1. List out all candidates who are contesting polls in your constituency
2. Assess their qualifications in terms of social work, earlier responsibilities they have shouldered, positions held to gauge their leadership qualities, personal assets, professional qualifications, etc, - all merits and de-merits should be listed. I am counting that intellectual and socially responsible individuals to do this  without any personal bias.
3. Pick the top 5 most deserving candidates using your own judgement. Share this info in your blogs, local media and educate voters on the candidates’ background. You won’t be promoting these candidates or asking people to vote, but rather sharing results of your own assessment with outside world so they can choose the leader.
4. Adding credibility to your analysis: Invite these candidates for a debate to test them publicly in a community forum. – Facilitate them to interact with public through Google hangouts or  through main stream media or both to ensure that you picked the right guys. Remember you may be wrong at times, so, it will be a good exercise to know if we are on the right track.
5. My perception - The most deserving candidates will have  focus on the 70%* of their voters who live below the poverty line. How these candidates can help in uplifting the poor and provide the basic necessities like clean water, food, shelter, education, work etc. 

*Yes, 70% of Indian population is below poverty line – you can flush the Planning Commission report – I have numbers to prove this.

I understand this is process-oriented activity, so, probably you need to choose a team who is rational and willing to work without any personal benefits which I believe most of the patriots are willing to spend time & resources on this.  And please do share the outcome of your exercise with others so we all can improve. I am hoping this might work.