An entirely different world view

Thought I’d share a story from Lao Tzu which I’d read a long while ago,  one that just stayed in the mind:

The emperor of China once asked Lao Tzu to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the country. The emperor said the law and order situation in the country was in bad shape and he needed someone wise to guide the system in the country.

Lao Tzu said he was not the right man for that, but the Emperor was insistent, and he was after all the Emperor.

Lao Tzu agreed to do it for one day, saying, the one day would make the emperor realize why it wouldn’t work. 

On the first day, he heard a case of theft. The thief had stolen a large amount of money from a very wealthy man. After hearing the case, Lao Tzu declared that the thief should go to jail for two years, and then he said the wealthy man should also go to jail for two years.’

The man from whom the amount was stolen was quite naturally shocked, and asked why he should be going to jail when he was actually the victim of the crime. And he shouted ‘this is gross injustice, the money is stolen from me and this man wants me to go to jail. What’s become of this country?’

Lao Tzu said, Ýes, it is gross injustice, you should actually be going to jail for longer as the crime you have committed is bigger. In hoarding so much money, you have deprived so many people of money, what you are guilty of is greed, of having way more than you need’

And Lao Tzu told the emperor, ‘you see, It’s not about law and order, it’s your entire system that is wrong’

End of story :)

This is not about communism, not about the system enabling equity at any level. In fact I'm far from communist...... I believe in the Self, in the spirit of the Individual. But I also love this story.

Life is about paradoxes you know. And if you have the patience and the will to look, they will unravel themselves to reveal an overarching picture of beauty and truth.

On Marriage

Admit it, that really caught your attention didn’t it? ;)

You wonder why? I think it’s because marriage is one arrangement that has mystified anyone and everyone, well, most anyone.

And that’s not surprising. A relationship between individuals can be one of the most beautiful experiences one can have………. yet marriage as we know it, can most times, drag even that through a rut. It comes so packed with expectations and conditions, that it can take the best of us down, alive and kicking. 

A little disclaimer at this point: this is not directed at an individual level, as we’re all, me included, part of that at an individual level. It’s against the presumed ownership and framework of conditions that the institution brings with it.

Life is about living and not existing; about being.....learning…..growing….evolving..…living. Towards that, our experiences need to empower us and not diminish us, right?  And freedom of choice at every point is pretty critical there. 

It’s a paradox. Relationships can really nurture, facilitate and empower. Yet, you bind one in, and all that wonderful energy gets redirected elsewhere.

Everyone knows all of this; yet the conditioning and societal expectation runs so deep that if anyone even dares say it, he is viewed as a problem, a quack, worse still a pervert. It’s almost like when Copernicus said the earth was not the center of the universe. Here you just about escape getting burnt at the stakes :) It’s like what people did to Osho, right? Pretty much ostracized him. So much so, one would be wary of even saying, that they thought Osho was brilliant….but know what? He really is.

To break free from that took so much out of me, that I now think I had to first break, before I could break free. And break I did. Not break as in go to pieces, we're all way too resilient for that, but breakthrough to a different level of awareness. Then the break free is almost like an automatic next step. It’s taken me all of these years from before and after to really resurface and acknowledge it.

And resurface to say:

When I’m coming back home from anywhere, its to a joy of freedom…….. freedom to live a normal day without a trace of conflict, sadness, guilt, anger or suppression.

Freedom to be....... to flow, to fall, to soar…..by choice

Creepy funny this was !

So, yesterday, I’m dusting my book shelf and browsing through some old R K Laxman books there, and I’m thinking it would be nice to put some of these on the blog, but then I wish it was his birthday or something, just so there’s some context. 

And this morning, I’m looking at the newspaper, and honest to god, you could have knocked me down with a twig, when I find this snippet in the paper.

It was actually his birthday yesterday !

So, here are a few of his cartoons, for old times sake and as a dedication

And there's a little story behind those books too. This was all of 20+ years back, an inane office conversation and I was telling this friend, and sadly too, that I thought I didn't have a sense of humor. And two days later I get this set of books delivered at home by parcel with a note, which said, now tell me that you don't have a sense of humor. And I guess it actually took me that to realize it was just a different sense of humor :)

Nobody better than R K Laxman on wit and irreverance in daily life, huh?

Let Your Life Speak

To continue on the same mode from the previous post; here's excerpts from an interesting article ; essentially another way to help sort out this business of, how do I know what I want to do. 

Its by Brad Harrington, Executive Director of the Boston College Center for Work & Family and a Research Professor in the Carroll School of Management.

                                            

He says, stop listening to the endless career and life advice that seems to be emanating from all directions; we all too often look to external parties to provide the keys to our own fulfillment and in so doing so we fail to hear the most important voice on our journey – our own.

So, how do I listen to myself? How do I recognize the callings life is sending to me? How can I know myself better?

To launch his students on their road to self-discovery he gives them a weighty assignment: “Write your own life story” in a minimum of 20 pages. Apparently most look at him in amazement when he assigns this paper, wondering if their life stories can fill 20 pages. But given two weeks most of them do write it, and he says about this assignment:

• First, taking the time to write your life story is a rich, powerful, enjoyable, sometimes painful, and always cathartic endeavor that yields tremendous benefits. Whether your life was filled with adversity or you grew up in a “Norman Rockwell painting,” nothing is more important in your journey toward self-discovery than taking a long look back.

• Second, nothing reveals more about the person you are today and are likely to be in the future, than reflecting on the roads you’ve taken (or not taken). By writing your story you will learn so much – who influenced you most, what were the key turning points, what drove your decisions, what were the peak moments, what regrets you still carry with you and why.

And this is not just for the kids embarking on their journey; apparently, in 2011 NY times columnist and author David Brooks asked his readers who were at least age 70 to write what Brooks called a “life report“ and together they did surface a number of common themes through this exercise :

• Resilience is often an under-appreciated skill. We invest so much time these days trying to protect our children from adversity. But hard knocks take many forms, and as the saying goes “into every life, some rain must fall.” Life isn’t about just learning to avoid the falls (that’s a life free from risk taking, which is surely wanting), but also having the mettle to get back up when we do. No character trait might be more important in life.

• We all have regrets, just don’t waste time dwelling on them. 

• Chance plays a huge role in all of our lives. I like to call it serendipity which in this instance I define not as “positive accidents”, but rather as “the faculty for finding positive outcomes in accidental occurrences” – a small but very significant difference. In reviewing our stories we come to fully realize that our lives are defined by not only our preparation and sense of purpose, but also by chance occurrences and our response to them.

I am reasonably sure that few of you will embark on this exercise of recounting your life story, but I urge you to consider doing so. Looking back will always strengthen your insight and understanding about how to move forward.  “Let your life speak” – let yours speak to you. I am confident that those who do, will hear things that will alter them forever.

What do I want to do?

So if the four day week really happened, and we found ourselves with three full days a week to do what we wanted, how many of us would know what we wanted to do?

Well.... sad part is, most of us would probably be in a fix.

In fact if you look around, you’ll find a lot of folks totally dissatisfied with their jobs, knowing this is not their calling, but not knowing what is.

Again, there’s this friend struggling with that junction in life when the kids need to figure out what they want to do, and there’s no easy way.

So, how do we do it? Is it really so difficult to know what we want? How do we know what we would be happier doing? 

I think you can find indicative answers through some basic questions you ask yourself:

1) List ten things that you like doing, maybe twenty if you can
2) Where are you really in your element?
3) When you’re doing what, are you most involved and happy?
4) What can you do for a long length of time and still come out of feeling joy and exhilaration?
5) Anticipation of what excites you?
6) What are some of the things you get complimented on?
7) In other words what are some of the things you’re naturally good at?
8) Who do you look to for inspiration, be it in friends and family or in the world outside?
9) What about them inspires you; what they do or what they are?
10) If you could go intern with anybody for six months, who would it be?

Remember, these are indicative…..nevertheless, a good starting point

Next step would be to realize that what really stops you is more the feeling that you can’t do it for x y z reasons. Are they real reasons? Written in stone? Unsurpassable? 

No. Surely not.

We all have immense potential to do amazing things and find our own happiness. We fall short because of the extensive conditioning, which for some reason encourages dependence and low self esteem…..the fear of being judged, of not being good enough. Let's try and move out of that space......

                                   

And this is not just for kids, it’s for all of us. After all, you are as old as you think you are is so true.

The other day I read this of an 82 year old travel journalist who is still travelling and writing, I sadly don’t remember the name. He’s like ‘the only thing about me that’s 82 years old are my knees’. Inspiring, right?

Success is not what the world thinks of you.  It’s about you. It's you doing what you like doing most, most of the time.

Google Founders talk about ending the 40 hour Work Week

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

You have to really give it to these guys !!

They did something as amazing as creating Google, one of those iconic products that like becomes a verb....... changes the world. And the best part, there’s still so much happening there, at a micro level and macro. 

At a micro level, I realize people are still learning all that Google can do. And at a macro level, Google is still bringing about change that can become another sociological shift.

First, an instance of the micro:

The other day in office, there’s this guy, Senthil, from Selco Mini Grids (I’ll tell you that story another day), who walks in and looks at a painting on the wall and he’s like, I wonder if it’s a Vinci or a Michael Angelo. I’m like, lets Google. He’s like, don’t overrate Google, this is a painting. I had the answer in less than a minute. For those of you who don’t know, it's an ap called Google Goggles, a picture recognition ap. You just need to click a picture and ask, and if it’s a known landmark or painting or celebrity, it’ll tell you. It was neither a Vinci nor an Angelo, but was a Sistine Madonna by an Italian artist called Raphael. . And in those five minutes of an inane conversation we had learnt something about art and also got to see some Vincis and Angelos too. That’s the level of knowledge availability that Google has enabled, right? 

Apparently, Peter Drucker observed in a 1992 essay for Harvard Business Review: 

“Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred, In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself – its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. Our age is such a period of transformation.”

For Drucker, the newest new world was marked, above all, by one dominant factor: “the shift to a knowledge society.”

For those interested, here’s the full article: What Peter Drucker knew about 2020

And I think Google has contributed to this in not a small way at all..... to the shift to a Knowledge Society through it’s mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful 

On the macro level:

What I really love about Google is that while being a technology and communication giant, it still keeps focus on the humane.

Here’s the latest:

A four day week! 

"If you really think about the things that you need to make yourself happy—housing, security, opportunities for your kids—anthropologists have been identifying these things. It's not that hard for us to provide those things," he said. "The amount of resources we need to do that, the amount of work that actually needs to go into that is pretty small. I'm guessing less than 1% at the moment. So the idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people's needs is just not true.

"You just reduce work time," Page said. "Most people, if I ask them, 'Would you like an extra week of vacation?' They raise their hands, 100% of the people. 'Two weeks vacation, or a four-day work week?' Everyone will raise their hand. Most people like working, but they'd also like to have more time with their family or to pursue their own interests. So that would be one way to deal with the problem, is if you had a coordinated way to just reduce the workweek. And then, if you add slightly less employment, you can adjust and people will still have jobs."

Huge potential sociological shifts there, huh?

While the world can wait for Google to show them the way, maybe we should at least think for ourselves, what say?

Nurture when Needed - A Corollary

To be able to ‘nurture when needed’ and ‘facilitate but not teach’, which are really the same thing, it’s about being able to let go and yet be there.

Okay, I’ve tried four different way of saying that and they’re all saying one part of it and not the whole. So here’s an instance in example, to get maybe one perspective clearer:

In fact it was an Aha moment too…..A couple of years back I was on a visit to Pune to see Dhruva at the hostel, and sometime during the trip, I’m asking Dhruva ‘Did I do this trip for you or for myself dhruva?’, and he’s like ‘ma, honest answer to a candid question…….. you did it for yourself’. And you know why this became an aha moment? Because if someone had asked me the same question, I would have said I did it for him, as I really had to plan around a lot of work at office to make that trip. 

What does this tell us?

That what drives our actions a lot of times is not coming from either the other person or even ourselves, but from a deep rooted space of conditioning and societal expectation……and that’s a lot of energy which in reality is counterproductive

My takeaway……. Yet again :)

Be aware…….. tune in to get the frequency right…….. into others and into yourself …..you'll find the space created so much more positive and solid

Nurture ........When Needed

That’s my rose bush in full bloom! and it made me specially happy to see it.

Why?

Because one month back it was sick. It had bugs and most leaves were visibly eaten away. I actually toyed with the idea of having it removed, but couldn’t get myself to do it. So decided to keep it and look after it. Gave it that little bit more attention, tended to it with love…….and look at it today.

A lesson there?

Yes, I know I’m the one who quoted the example of the bean seed not long ago; about how you can’t  m..a..k..e it grow…..and what you need to do is to make available what it needs and it will do the rest. It’s true. It's like the norm..the guiding principle.

But then, there are those occasional other times too,..... when it wants attention…….. when it needs attention……that little extra care and love. Aren’t we all like that? We mostly do really well on our own, but there are those times when things get to us, when we feel the drag, feel down………and that’s when that little bit of love, little bit of care can make all the difference. A little more awareness to know when, would help right?

Well, we continue to learn……….

CLEAN - The Clean Energy Alliance

There’s interesting stuff happening in the alternate energy space in the country. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of enterprises step in to address the energy gaps in India, be it Solar, Pico Hydel, Biogas etc. In fact there are more than 250 firms already working in this sector, yet it’s under-performing in India. This is essentially due to lack of a supportive long-term policy framework, delays in disbursement of subsidies; limited interest among financial institutions and such others. What’s really missing is a supportive eco-system that can enable this to scale and bridge the huge energy access gap that exists in the country.

But when there are people and organizations focused on a good cause, there’s always the effort to find a solution I guess. That’s reassuring, ain't it?

In December 2013, 10 organizations came together to establish one single alliance in an attempt to resolve this issue. These:

What came into existence is CLEAN - The Clean Energy Access Network.

The Alliance is technology and scale agnostic (eg. biomass, solar, pico hydro and ranging from pico solutions, through to larger decentralized energy solutions) and the focus is decentralized, clean energy access space that reaches out to the underserved communities across India. 

CLEAN will represent the sector to the government and other stakeholders and is envisaged as a go-to point for all entities in the sector. It is also envisioned to become a go-to point for members of the sector internationally.

At this point the secretariat is housed in my office and we’re still looking for a CEO. This is by no means an ad, but if somebody knows somebody who knows somebody, responses are really welcome :)

Don't Indulge.....Be Happy

HOW much money do you need to be happy? Think about it……………What’s your number?

This was from an article I’d read a long while ago, actually in the NY times ( so please bear with the dollar bench marks, which I’m actually happy with, as it enables each of us to think of our own number in our own currency)

People come in all types, right? You’ll find those who say, it’s all about money, and then you’ll find the others who say I don’t care about money, and then there’s a whole lot of us who fall somewhere in between.

Like everything else in life, it’s about finding our own balance. How many of us have really put a number to it? I’ve tried it, and trust me, it’s hugely enabling, and liberating.

Liberating because once you’ve gotten to that number, you’re automatically liberated from having to put your energies behind getting to that normally vague and elusive (because it’s not fixed) goal; you don’t need to focus on growing it anymore.

Enabling because a logical followthrough is that it allows you to focus energies and time on what matters to you more.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

Maslow’s triangle (1954), is a hierarchy of five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

The motivation at each level is each of those needs yet unmet. Also, the need to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food the more hungry they will become.

Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.

Think about it....... how many of those levels are money dependent? This can actually help you fix that number.

Excerpts from that article by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, as it's extensive research and data which could help think and clarify:

Additional income doesn’t buy us any additional happiness on a typical day once we reach that comfortable standard. The magic number that defines this “comfortable standard” varies across individuals and countries, but in the United States, it seems to fall somewhere around $75,000 pa. Using Gallup data collected from almost half a million Americans, researchers at Princeton found that higher household incomes were associated with better moods on a daily basis — but the beneficial effects of money tapered off entirely after the $75,000 mark.

Why, then, do so many of us bother to work so hard long after we have reached an income level sufficient to make most of us happy? One reason is that our ideas about the relationship between money and happiness are misguided. In research we conducted with a national sample of Americans, people thought that their life satisfaction would double if they made $55,000 instead of $25,000: more than twice as much money, twice as much happiness. But our data showed that people who earned $55,000 were just 9 percent more satisfied than those making $25,000. Nine percent beats zero percent, but it’s still kind of a letdown when you were expecting a 100 percent return.

Indulgence is often closely trailed by its sidekick, overindulgence. While the concept of overindulgence is probably all too familiar, the word “underindulgence” doesn’t exist. (Type it into Dictionary.com, and you’ll be asked, “Did you mean counter intelligence?”) But research shows that underindulgence — indulging a little less than you usually do — holds one key to getting more happiness for your money.

USING your money to promote underindulgence requires a shift in behavior, for sure. But another scientifically validated means of increasing the happiness you get from your money is even more radical: not using it on yourself at all. 

Surely worth thinking about, huh? 

It's not what you're saying..........It's what I'm hearing

I came across two clear instances today of where there is immense hurt caused, not out of intention to hurt but out of sheer lack of awareness……not even knowing that the result of your action was hurting the other

Situations of hurt happen all the time, unfortunately true, and they mostly come out of a space of self righteousness, anger, insensitivity on one side and lack, insecurity, ignorance on the other, right? And those are complex and tough. Deep problems……. needing deeper solutions. So let’s leave those out for now :)

But let’s look at the low hanging fruit.

The one where …..if we knew our action was causing hurt, we would be happy to not do it

Like for instance this person who said she hurt each time her mother told her that she needed to lose weight. We know the mother had only the daughters best interest in mind, the girl knows what her mom is saying is true, but she still hurts. Can that hurt be avoided? For sure

Another one…. Say when we playfully tease people on their taste in books or programs. You think you’re being funny, but I’ve seen a person break down and cry saying, why can’t you just accept that I like it? Little did one even know the comments had been hurting.  Could that have been avoided? Again, Yes, easily avoidable.

So how does that happen? And how can we avoid it happening?

It happens out of a disconnect in expectations. I expect it to be understood like this, but its understood otherwise.

Solution?

Communication. When you trust the other person cares, let the person know …..….and if it’s you…… and you’re told, listen.

The issue can be resolved by change happening on either side. And it will if there’s intent and clarity. 

I’m not saying take responsibility for the other persons reaction. No, I equally strongly vouch for being responsible for ‘my own actions and not for your reaction’. Having said which, I still think my communication is my responsibility. If my communication is being wrongly interpreted, especially to cause hurt, can I take responsibility to take that extra step to clarify intention.

Look around, become a little more aware, and you’ll see lots of those. Communication goes a long way in avoiding hurt….…….try it, it’s worth it.

Mind...... IN ......the Body

What the hell does that even mean, right?

We normally talk of the 'I' as being Body, Mind and Soul. For the purpose of this write up, let’s just stay with The Body and The Mind. The Body and the Mind are considered two distinct entities, and the association is typically understood as the mind being somewhere in the head, agreed? Like more in the brain kinds.

Confusing? Let me try again….like when we are emotionally upset or stressed out, we think we need to rationalize with it, like to sort out the mind, and we need to think to rationalize and deal with the emotion. Like use the head.

Even Google throws up stuff like this when you search images for 'mind'.

But I'm making a shift here, essentially connecting a few dots from different sources.

I’ve been hearing how the mind and even emotions are actually spread all over the body. Like they are or rather it is, a physical entity.

This trip first started at the Past Life Regression sessions I’d taken a couple of years back (This is essentially a guided trip down your subconscious memory, through this life and maybe beyond). After a few sessions my facilitator told me that I was stuck, he said there was some event or emotion that was causing a high level of stress and I needed to let that go. And I didn’t even know it existed, so how was I going to let it go?

And he said I should do three things for a couple of weeks 1) Yoga or aerobics everyday 2) Meditate if possible twice a day and 3) Get at least two full body massages.

What came as a surprise was the explanation he gave me. He said, I didn’t need to think about it to deal with it. The memory of that event, or rather the stress that it had caused was sitting as a physical entity in my joints he said. And as it was there for a while now, so it was kind of settled and stuck. It’s like a clogged pipeline that needed clearing he said. Since I’d decided I would completely surrender to the process, I did all that he said. Not that I understood too much.

Then came the Vipassana, when we were told that the mind existed in every cell of our body. And if we wanted to be aware, we needed to have every cell alive and active. The meditation technique is entirely based on this principle in Vipassana.

And recently I came across this article:

Medical Scientist Candice Pert showed the presence of a natural morphine or endorphin within the body, and she proposed that our emotions are information molecules that circulate throughout the body. The bunch of molecules that we term’ fear molecules’ cause the following : weakness in the knees, nausea in the stomach, tension in the chest, trembling of the hands, and perspiration of the forehead.

Molecules of emotion connect with receptors on each cell in our body. The connection also results in multiplying those receptors on its surface, making the body exquisitely sensitive to the next round of similar emotion.

Your body is eventually your unconscious mind. If you constantly live in fear, you soon develop a ‘fear body’. If you live in pain, we carry a ‘pain body’. If you live joyfully, you experience a ‘bliss body’.

All of these molecules, including the bliss molecules are available within the body. We just need to know how to access them. Romance releases love molecules. A body massage, fondling a pet, meditation, all produce well being molecules. Strenuous physical exercise results in the release of both endogenous morphine and bliss molecules. Seeking novelty, setting goals and achieving them, charges you up with reward molecules and confidence molecules.

Do you see the line between the physical and the psychic blur? 

It’s a subtle shift, a very subtle shift in perception, but if you start to become aware of this, and reach to where you imbibe it, it could mean a whole new approach to life……… and possibly a life nearer to bliss. 

Visit to Selco - Dharwad

Selco, true to its philosophy, consciously occupies really down to earth premises as its offices; reason being…….the customers need to feel at home. This is the third branch I’ve visited and I’m amazed at how they’ve made that extra effort at each of these offices. Here’s the office in Dharwad.

Selco office is one portion of this house

During this trip, I got to visit a village, actually a hamlet of around 300 people, off the highway from Dharwad to Goa.

It’s beautiful and picturesque. It’s also hard and brutal.

The pictures caught the beauty; the hard and brutal is what’s behind the scene. 

The entry to the pretty hamlet

The solar light in the kitchen of Chandana

See the solar panel on top of the hut

This brought back fond memories of times spent with grandmothers..... long gone by

Another house with the solar panel on top

Such a charming and colourful house....the old man was too :)
Don't miss the airtel dish !

Spot the solar panel?

Prasanna Hegde, Selco Regional Manager for North Karnataka and Lokeshu,
Customer Service Exec for Dharwad, who accompanied me on this visit...
Thanks to both !

The village is just 20 kms from Dharwad, which is district headquarters, yet, it’s only last year that the village got connected to the grid, and even now they get but a few hours of electricity a day. Their only real source of light are still the Selco Solar Systems. Inside their huts it is so dark, that the eye takes a long while to adjust and I was there in the middle of the afternoon. It’s hard to imagine how dark that place must be at night, with no electricity as far as the eye can see. How they co-exist with snakes and scorpions and other animals is hard to understand. When I asked one of the villagers  how he felt after he got light in his house, he says......... we could now see what we were eating, otherwise we wouldnt  know what insects were in our food. And children being able to study, women being able to cook, men being able to sharpen their farm implements (instead of wasting daylight hours on such chores) are some of the other things he mentioned. One aspect that really stood out is how each and every house which had a solar system installed,(all of them are two light systems) had one of those lights in the kitchen. I was glad to see the subtle recognition of the importance of the kitchen, and more the recognition of the woman's need.

To give you an idea of how the system works and how it's sustainable: In this village, Selco installed 100 solar systems of two lights each, over a period of four months. This was done in 2010. The cost of each system was Rs.10,500, which was way out of reach of any of these farmers. So Selco tied up with a local Grameena Bank for the loans, stood security for all the loans by creating a fixed deposit with the bank. Yet, the 15%  down-payment  of Rs.1600 was also not possible for these farmers. So Selco organized the downpayment through REEEP, Renewable Energy & Efficiency Efficiency Partnership, which is an International NGO which works on energy efficiency programs in developing countries. The loans are being paid back per schedule.

And that's the story of how 100 homes went from darkness to light in this little hamlet of Chandragiri.  

Millennials and Impact Investing

There’s a wonderful story here, and two brand new concepts

When I read an article with this tagline, I felt a deep, warm and happy feeling within, and I realized it’s because I was feeling wonderfully ratified at one level, plus, a cause I feel strongly for was the positive recipient. The cause itself, most of you know about from reading about my Selco stories, but what’s with the ratification?

Firstly, what are these two new concepts?

Millennials: A term for people born between 1980 and 2000

Impact Investing: A term coined in 2007 ‘denoting the idea that private capital can be deployed to alleviate pressing social needs like access to electricity, clean water, affordable housing, preventive healthcare........ while returning a financial profit’

Now, what is the connect?

While impact investing, more familiarly called social entrepreneurship, is being seen as the largest way to bring about social change, it is still slow to catch on, as the world has gotten used to considering any effort towards social change as an act of philanthropy. And philanthropy is considered mostly the domain of the rich with a willingness to donate, which is hugely limiting. This is set to change.

Excerpt from the article by Vilas Dhar and Julia Fetherston

Impact investment continues to suffer from limited transaction flow and anemic dollar commitments. Most relevant to stunted growth, is cultural resistance — the inertial apathy of traditional financial players who are wary of novel, risky investment structures and skeptical about trading some amount of profitability for social return. 

Enter the Millennials who conceive of financial return differently, and more expansively, than their elders. 

For Millennials, pressing social problems are not just the preserve of philanthropists or governments. Millennials consistently cite social impact as one of the most important roles of business. Of all the generations alive today, millennials are the most willing to trade financial return for greater social impact, according to a study from Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group.

Where I personally feel ratified, is in my faith in this generation. While the world is busy being critical of them (the millennials) for their excesses, liberties, consumptions, focus on self, bold (im)morals……at a much deeper level this shows that they have their basic thinking in a ‘righter’ place. 

You see, we all have a limited amount of energy and time, and to optimize output…… actualize potential....... we need to be at peace and fulfilled internally. But we live with so much conditioning, lack, restrictions by default, that most of our energy is spent in resisting, fighting, suppressing, working around, fulfilling what we can of those. 

The Millennials, I think are essentially those who have been allowed a freer flow to be themselves, and that is what enables them to transcend limits and think beyond themselves. When the world points a finger and says ……selfish generation…..I think they’ve actually cracked the secret of first being nice to themselves, and that’s what enables them to think beyond themselves. Selfish? Really??

If they can think social impact and then, also be willing to trade financial return for social impact, it in itself speaks loudest. Kindness and Compassion are to me among the highest on the scale of evolution. And that’s where the nice feeling :)

Palaks Diaries from Kalahandi

A month into Selco, I’d written about Palak, a girl who chose to live in the villages of Orissa to do her research for Tribal Labs of Selco Foundation. Now, two months into Selco, I continue her story:

Courtesy Google, as I couldn't download the pic she sent and this fits description of people she gave

Kalahandi……….. a name that brings to mind famine, starvation, arid, poverty and death. Apparently all this is recognized and there are a lot of schemes and funds for improvement, yet the place remains poor, a black land……. kale paani ki sazaa as it’s locally called.

Having gotten familiar with Odia, she learnt that it wasn’t ‘kala-handi’ ( black pot) as generally believed but ‘kolo–hondi’…… pot of arts, and she began to see the art, culture, and beauty of the place, and how the place struggles to come out of the kala-handi syndrome. A true case of beauty in the eyes of the beholder……. as she has also been witness to some horrific and extreme experiences.

I’ve in fact started worrying for Palak as you can see from her reaction to what she’s being exposed to.

Here’s one incident where she’s in conversation with a local woman and the impact. Read it in Palak’s own words:

”The woman told me ‘Immediate after delivery, I had to cut my umbical cord, I turned to find a blade and I struggled for few seconds as the kerosene light was not enough…….. a dog came…. smelled the flesh of the baby, grabbed it and took it away.’

When the mother narrated the incident to me, I simply stared at her face, as there was not a single expression of grief on her face.  What scared me was not the child being taken away by the dog, but how normal it was for her to live with death.  Her cold face, I will never forget. It hurt me like nothing has ever before. The one hour that I walked from this village, Pokresh to Korang, where our vehicle was parked, I felt nothing……………. Nothing at all. The next feeling I remember is of hating to be called human in any sense and being part of an independent country.  The only memory that exists today is the cold face of the mother, I cannot describe her features neither I think I can recognize her, but the expressionless face of a mother narrating the story of her own child who is no more, is what I carry today and forever.

This is just one incident, I’m sure there are thousands of them. With time, I have learned one thing, when I interact with a mother, the correct question to ask her is ‘How many ‘alive’ children you have?’ instead of ‘How many children you have?’ More than this I have nothing to say about the backwardness of this place. 

Palak, thanks for sharing your experiences. And once again, Kudos and God Bless !

The Elegant Universe - Einstein's Dream

For those who found the ‘Short History of Nearly Everything’ or for that matter the post on ‘Astronomy….’ interesting, here’s a brilliant video which visually explains fundamental physical concepts of the Universe. It starts with Newton and the apple…..yes, The Theory of Gravitation through Electro Dynamics, Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics in the search for that one Unified theory which can explain the Universe, and in the end you almost hear them asking if the concept is Science or Philosophy. It’s also interesting to get that peek into how Einstein approached his work, the passion, the faith, and more I think, the courage to be and believe against all odds.

I quote from the related book 'The Elegant Universe' by Brian Greene

Einstein showed the world that space and time behave in astoundingly unfamiliar ways. Now, cutting-edge research has integrated his discoveries into a quantum universe with numerous hidden dimensions coiled into the fabric of the cosmos—dimensions whose lavishly entwined geometry may well bold the key to some of the most profound questions ever posed. Although some of these concepts are subtle, we will see that they can be grasped through down-to-earth analogies. And when these ideas are understood, they provide a startling and revolutionary perspective on the universe. 

Guess who else is looking Inward !

Excerpts from an article by Carl Zimmer:

Michael A Fischbach, a chemist at the University of California has found a bacteria within the body which is similar to an antibiotic that a drug company is testing. He is quoted as having said ‘microorganisms are the best chemists on the planet’.

For evidence, Dr Fischbach points to the many life saving drugs that micro organisms produce. In 1928 for example, Alexander Fleming discovered that mould wafting into his lab produced a bacteria killing chemical called penicillin.

Later generations of scientists found drug making organisms in more exotic locales. In 1951, a missionary in Borneo named William Bouw shipped a box of jungle dirt from there to Europe and Dr.Kornfield discovered a species of bacteria in it that made a potent antibiotic.

Scientists today are still searching jungles, oceans and other corners of the world for micro organisms that make medicines. But in a new study, Dr Fischbach and his colleagues suggest that we should be looking inward.

Analysing the bacteria that live in our body, the scientists identified genes for making over 3000 previously unknown molecules that may prove to be useful drugs.

‘Nobody had thought to look that close to home’ said Dr.Fischbach.

We all know, (not to question the scientific level of medicine as what Dr.Fischbach is talking, which is to create antibiotics based on microorganisms from within for the larger good), that this is part of our body’s natural immunity system, right?

Any invasion of the body by the bad bacteria from the outside or sometimes from the inside, can be fought from within, and this is done well by a naturally healthy body. It’s again about keeping that balance, the energy balance within the body. Ancient systems of Ayurveda focus on restoring or maintaining this balance.

It’s really in our hands. Isn’t that an empowering feeling? Can we become aware of what we can do to get into that space of empowerment? Not just of the mind……… but through the mind, also of the body.

Astronomy with A Visual Perspective

Astronomy has always been a pet and revered subject, the night sky always fascinated….. If Vipassana was a fascinating journey inward, astronomy was, actually is, an equally fascinating journey outward……. pun intended :)

Just look at some of these concepts; it’s total science, yet, don’t they just bring out that sense of real awe and mystery ?

Spacial distances: The distances in space are so vast that light takes a long time to travel from each of those stars. And we’re talking 3,00,000 kilometers per second. Yet, its counted in light years, right? What does it imply?

When we look up at the sky what we see is actually not the present….it’s the past. For instance, say Sirius, the brightest star in our sky ( It’s one star that’s visible even through the haze and smog of a city night sky ). It takes light seven years to reach us from Sirius. So when we see Sirius today, we’re actually seeing Sirius as it was seven years back. Our nearest star, Proxima Centauri is 4.3 light years away, and that’s our nearest. Earth is 28,000 light years away from the center of milky way, our own galaxy. Stars from other galaxies are millions of light years away. So next time you look up at the sky, remember you aren’t just looking far into space, you’re actually looking into different time spans as well.

Black holes: Black holes are strangely the most dense of matter and nothing like the hole that they’re called. Like everything has a birth and death, so also stars are born and die, it just happens over millions and millions of years. When a star dies, it collapses on itself and all that matter gets into a small space of very high density. The density is so high and creates such a strong gravitational field, that not even light can escape it. It exists as a very powerful object in space, but it’s very small and completely invisible.

Here’s a five minute journey which will give you a visual perspective of size and distance in space, and trust me, through all our exposure through text books and encyclopedia, you’ll still be amazed. Thanks to my dad for having shared these slides, I enjoyed them !

Sirius is the brightest star visible in our night sky

Pollux is one of the Gemini twins :)

Arcturus is a bright star close to the popular Great Bear

Aldebran is in the constellation Taurus, it's also a clearly visible star in our night sky

Betelguese is part of the constellation of Orion ( which is  my tattoo if that helps)

Breathe again.......:)