Vignettes of the देस (country)

It's midnight. After a very long week of work in Milwaukee and a 3 very productive days in Dhaka I'm finally in Delhi after a long flight. I get into a Maruti van taxi on a cool (cold?) Delhi night. Driver rings up his "brother"to join him for the journey. Chalo, theek hai. Why not.

Get on the DND flyover and try to give the guy directions to my aunt's place in Noida. "Sir Ji, vaise humaari Noida ki gaadi nahin hai. Aap seedhe raaste se hi le jaaiye"(My cab's not allowed to go to Noida, direct me through a straight route... so I don't get busted). "If you wanted to go ANYWHERE in Delhi, I'd be able to take you." And promptly starts to list out all the different hotels of Delhi and how he knows the route to each one of them.

The foggy cold of the night doesn't help my cool. I ask him, no admonish him, to stop talking 'bakwaas' (crap) at 12:30 at night.

I spend the rest of the ride thinking if I wasted an opportunity to listen, and teach. And that I've made myself just a little bit lonelier on this planet.

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Next morning at 9:15am. I'm in my aunt's little Maruti car, cozy in the back seat, laptop case in lap, being dropped off. I am stunned by the beautiful greenery of New Delhi, lush in the winter. Note to self: trees make a city much much more humane.

Arrive at the Ashok hotel for a meeting with my manager and attend part of a conference. Guard in full pageantry asks me to get my laptop scanned. I enter and try to act busy to not pay too much attention to the lobby. It's beautiful. The lighting. The space. The finesse of the wooden carvings. And that ancient sculpture. The marble water pond in the middle. The soft white marble floors. I could sleep on them, they look so soft. Like clouds.

I am surprisingly at home (it's a hotel), and yet lost in this unfamiliar opulence. We're not in Bagar anymore Dorothy.

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2:45pm. In another Maruti van taxi to commission a design consulting firm. Lost in my thoughts, thinking of the smell of the 'Achaari Arbi' on my fingers that I had for lunch at the Ashok.

This old man raps on the window and starts pleading for money. I take a startled glance, dismiss him as a bhikaari (beggar) and look away. And then look back - he's pressing a sheet of paper to the window. This is new. Pointing to a bundle wrapped in a shawl on his shoulder, "Babu, mera baccha beemar hai, ilaaj ke liye paaise chahiye, daakter ki parchi bhi hai". (My kid is sick, I need money for his treatment). I look closer at the piece of paper. Safdarjung Hospital. It's not quite an Rx slip, too big for that. I can't read the freaking doctor's handwriting, which reassures me (it must be legit, I chuckle on the inside). I can read the date. Dec 16, 2010. OK, this man's not faking. This other lady comes in and pleads, "De do bauji, kuch madad karo. Yeh bhikaari nahin hai, majboori mein maang raha hai. Apne bacche ke liye maang raha hai". (He's not a beggar sir, he's asking because he's desperate. He's asking for his child).

I'm now calculating. I take out of a wad of notes. 500 seems too much. 10 is inconsequential. I peel off a 50 rupee note and show it to him. The window's closed. I give it to the driver and the guy almost snatches it out of his hand and just takes off.

The driver remains expressionless. I tell myself he's silently judging.

I process. Maybe he's in cohoots with the doctor. But the date. Maybe someone stole a whole bunch of prescription pads and started doing this. But the child. Wait, was there a child? I just saw a bundle of something on his shoulder. Shit, did I get duped? No, I didn't. I gave out of the goodness of my heart. It frees me. Life will punish him. He cried wolf. Over his sick kid. Fuck, am I getting satisfaction by thinking that life will befell the plague on his kids?

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5:45 pm. I'm getting dropped off after commissioning the research. It's cool to see a group of young guys in India talking about ethnographic research and rural observations and design thinking. I feel good. And I know I added value.

Thoughts go back to the bhikaari:

Ashish, is there any 'karuna' (kindness) left in your heart? You gave him out of evidence, proof.

but but but sustainability and true need and teaching a man to fish...

GIVE.

but development and business school and ...

GIVE

but but he may duped me...

GIVE.

but but but...ah ok, we're at the Metro station. Over and Out.

I walk up to this beautiful Metro station. A few street kids are running around. one is writhing on the floor, crying. A kid stands over the cry baby with a stern look and kicks him again. The kid cries more.

You should done something

I am minding my business

You shoulda done something

I can't do anything there. Nothing I could give would solve that problem.

You always have love.

I keep walking towards the gleaming glass doors. Never skipped a beat.

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4:30am

My phone rings. That's weird - it's my sister's father in law.

Namaste Uncleji.

Kaun, Ashish?

Haan

Kab aaye?

Kal, nahin parson, nahin kal raat

Accha nanaji kahaan hai?

So rahe hain

Accha. Unko bataa dena ki amma ji ka dehaant ho gaya.

(I have my grandpa's phone. He had called to inform that his mother had just passed away)

Wake up mynanaji ( my maternal grandpa - well, my mom's mother's younger sister's husband, so still very close). Tell him the news. I thought there would be more expression on his face. I just woke up an old man from his sleep, what expression do I expect at 4:30am. Well, he's probably known a lot of people passed away by now.

He calls back. Gets the info. They've been friends for 40 yrs, it must be comforting for my sister's father-in-law (let's just call him Uncleji).

Action plan: Uncleji's mom is going to be cremated on the banks of the Gangaji (Ganges river, always with a suffixed ji for respect. Sometimes mayya for mother). Ashish, you have to go and represent your family. They see just a hint of hesitation. If you weren't here, no worries, but you're in Delhi. Yes, I say. I'll rearrange my meetings.

I call my manager in the US. I'll meet the other research firm in the evening. I'll make sure they know exactly what we want. Yes, of course, I'll be the hardass and let you know whether they're capable of delivering in Indonesia.

He's understanding about the situation. We end up talking business for a good half hour too.

It's 5:30am now. I'm wired. Can't sleep for 2.5 hrs and be functional - shouldn't have spent so much time gupshupping with mamiji (my aunt). Yes I should have. But you have people to meet tis evening. And drinks to drink tonight.

OK. I lie down again. Sleep comes easy

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6am - The home phone rings. I pick it up. It's nanaji (maternal grandpa - well, my mother's mom's younger sister's son's wife's father, so still pretty close). Namaste nanaji I say.

We'll all be carpooling to Gangaji for the cremation.

I remember back to Bagar. I know I was finally a part of the community when I was expected to attend the antim sanskaar (literally, last rites).

I'm wired now.

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6:30am - sitting down and chatting with my naniji (grandma - mother's mom's sister...ok ok, you get it by now). Nanaji and I start talking. We get onto the topic of dahej (dowry). Naniji's recounting how she decided the moment her son was born that she wouldn't take any for him. Nanaji's surprised - he's never heard this one before. I'm somehow not surprised - when would she ever get to share this with him? When would it ever have been appropriate.

6:45am - Yay conversation. Headed discussion on 'be the change you wish to bring in society'- my grandpa doesn't bring up the exact Gandhi quote. He thinks no dowry is silly - too extreme - just take a little bit according to customs. I say no, you have to be unreasonable to set an example. The people are average, I pontificate, to steer them you have to be completely extreme. I cite Gandhi's example - would anybody have listened to him if he went on half a roti diet instead of a complete hunger strike? Now I'm inspired. Would America have listened to the terrorists if all they did was decide to go to NYC and slap those bad Americans in the face? That was a silly example Ashish. I mean Nanaji, whether for good or bad, you have to be extreme. He's moved on to the next conversation in his mind. A little here and there. And he's gone in 5 minutes.

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7am - I am still inspired and feel the need to edify Pontificus Maximus. Naniji. Well, we've never talked. I don't know how it happens, but I find myself lecturing to her on how India's the sickest country. Poor people and rich people disease. I translate "15% of the world's population but 30-4o% of the world's burden of disease" in Hindi. She's still smiling. Did I see an eyebrow raised?

She asks me what I do. AH, wow, we've never really talked have we. I attempt to tell her, not so shpielish this time. And so your company's transferring you to Bangalore? Well, actually, yes, yes they are. When? April? The weather's nice there. It's great I say. The cafeterias in the GE building are open air, no fans. That's right, the weather's so great there, don't even need fans at home. Sniff Sniff. Pontificus Maximus has the scent. Naniji - you have to come down. I'll show you my office. Big campus. Beatiful trees. GE is this great big company, 4400 researchers in B'lore, jet engines to medical devices. She's still smiling. Did I see an eyebrow raised?

Pontificus is not satisfied. I start down the path of all the other problems in India. And how we can make money from it. I recount to her the vision of CK Prahalad (famous guy, everyone in India respected him I tell her). He told us once that everyone in India knows the issue, you got to present it as an opportunity. I feel flippant - see naniji, society has all these issues, i can't stop it, but i can serve them by making money by fixing the issues. I talk about low-cost dentures for the Gutkha chewers. I talk about a personalized matchmaking service for the communities-which-have-killed-their-girl-childs. I talk about the 1000cr Indian Railways budget for cleaning services and how this man privatized it and delivered quality and why as taxpayers we shouldn't care because the govt is our servant and we don't pay the government to hire more servants that don't do anything and so i don't care if the government (my servant naniji, our servant, i remind her) pays a private entrepreneur to hire other poor guys to clean the trains.

She's still smiling. Did I see an eyebrow raised?

Pontificus Maximus is satisfied.

I am inspired. I wrap myself up in a shawl. And I write.

Inflection Point

It is my last night in Dhaka. After two months of being here, I think I've stopped kicking and screaming (in my my mind), and accepted that this is a place I choose to work in. The traffic still sucks, but I know that now, and genuinely happy when I know the shortcuts. Being in a hotel all the time sucks, but its a choice I made, and its kinda nice (and not as creepy as it may seem) when the rickshaw guys offer to drop you off at your hotel. Yes its an expat lifestyle, but its paying off the student loans. Beyond the rationalization, I am doing some cool stuff. It was a call from my mother that helped provide the necessary perspective. "You know, you did good work in Bagar, but your work in Bangladesh will help so many more people". She believes in my work, she believes in me, the least I can do is try.

There continues to be this dichotomy between my personal and professional lives. The work I choose to do is meaningful, the lifestyle I accept to live is silly. And despite "knowing" what I need to change, somehow there is only so much energy I have to keep pushing and nudging the status quo.

But tonight I am compelled to write for other reasons. Tonight I think about tomorrow. Not just because its the last day, but its also when I will have to choose where my life will take me next (no, where I take my life next). Do I hold my promise to India and return, or stick it out in the US for a while? Do I stay with the potential of a corporation, or get back to the raw energy of grassroots work? Do I trade dollars for rupees? Do I trade in old friends for new ones? Do I leave the old family for a new one? Do I commit, or do I float?Do I choose lifestyle, or change?

Travellers call it a fork in the road. Engineers call it an inflection point. Regardless of the name, the choices I make in the next few hours will decide my trajectory for the next few years.

It's just as scary as it sounds.

En Vino Veritas

The title of this position, suitably catchy, is inspired by the fact that I just guzzled down 1 litre (that's a quart for the Americanos) of Sangria in about half an hour. And that's a good thing.

But appropriate quantities of that magical poison (aka alcohol) does help fire my synapses. And firing synapses lead to restless thoughts, that demand and command an outlet. Public broadcast seems to be the preferred medium. So here we are (no relation, just an awesome song).

The drinking today was inspired by tiredness, and a long night ahead of me. And realizing that even though I made the brave move of dropping a class (and taking a full load in my ultimate seven weeks of school, instead of an overfull load), I still crave for some free time. And while I sit here filling out documents and creating relationships and thinking of presenting matter and how I've grown and evolved, the aforementioned liquid courage reminds me of one simple truth, a realization (yes ubw, a realization, not an understanding):

The only lasting happiness comes from things I produce, not from things I consume

And so in this pursuit of happyness (quite unheroically I might add, I am not quite as pretentious as my ego would present me otherwise) I continue to think about giving birth to social venture funds, and creating social enterprises for Detroit, and thinking of how to negotiate salaries and jobs, and turning around enterprises, and creating medical devices, and lastly, but most importantly, sustaining relationships, both benign and malignant.

It feels good to list it out. A visual reminder that I'm (mostly) fighting the fights still worth fighting.

Ushering in change, from a place of love

Article by current Indicorps fellow, Vivake Prasad, currently at the Grassroots Development Laboratory (GDL) in Bagar, Rajasthan

http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2010/jan/28/career-indicorps-ellow-vevake-prasad-shares-his-experience.htm

Indicorps Fellow Vevake Prasad shares his experience of working in India [ Images ] on the Indicorps public service fellowship.

These days, it seems, more than a few of us are worked up over 'change'.

As the national debate continues to swing back and forth on every possible angle regarding change, we are relearning a lesson we probably already knew -- change is slow, and at best, difficult. Over the last few years, I too, have become infatuated with the idea of change. In search of change, I found my way to rural Rajasthan [ Images ], India, this past August for a year-long fellowship in service and development. I came with hopes of making an impact on rural unemployment, and in the process, making some inner changes as well. I've worked on both fronts at a furious pace with passion and dedication. The results, though, are yet to come in, and are likely to remain elusive during the duration of my fellowship.

If results manifest themselves, it'll probably be long after I've left. It's an incredibly exciting proposition on one hand, and an incredibly frustrating one on the other. For those of us in pursuit of change, it seems like we're doomed to a lifetime of frustration, unless we can find a way to deal with it.

So how do we sweat it out? How do we cope with the pace of change? It turns out that we don't have to. There is an alternative to coping with the pace of change, a surefire way to foster almost instantaneous change. It's not too good to be true, but it will require you to put away any skepticism and embrace it with an open mind.

In August of this year, before embarking for our project sites, me and the 26 other Indicorps Fellows met an incredible man named Jayeshbhai, the leader of a Gandhian NGO called Manav Sadhna in Ahmedabad [ Images ], India. During his talk, Jayeshbhai challenged us to follow the principle of always coming from a place of genuine love when interacting with others. It's easy to be skeptical or dismissive of cheesy maxims like this, but Jayeshbhai's absolute practice of the ideal makes you realise its power.

When he speaks to you, you become absolutely paralysed by the pure, unadulterated love in the air. You can't stop grinning from ear to ear. Inspired by Jayeshbhai, I decided to try and implement the principle in my daily life. Over time, however, I found myself failing miserably, with less-than-loving thoughts often getting the better of me. I became skeptical, thinking that "coming from a place of love" was a nice way to treat people, but impractical as a strategy in bringing about meaningful change.

A few weeks ago, I was in Ahmedabad again. While there, I participated in an activity in which we were to go out into the city and convince sellers at roadside stalls to quit using plastic bags. I didn't think that the men manning those stalls -- who are at times treated rudely, robbed, work hard but barely make enough money to scrape by -- would react warmly to a random outsider asking them to change how they run their business. It seemed like the perfect chance to test the idea and to redeem myself -- to give a really genuine try at having my head, heart, and hand (as Jayeshbhai says) aligned in the spirit of love, and to see what happens.

As I walked out onto Ashram Road, I tried to imagine the lives of the men I was about to approach. I tried to come from a place of understanding, remembering that if they responded guardedly, skeptically or negatively, there would be perfectly good reasons behind it. And so I went for it. I approached each man one by one, with humility, as if he was my older brother. I walked to each stall with a friendly smile, greeting the men respectfully, introducing myself and asking for their name. I insisted on standing if they asked me to sit, and I sat on the street below them if they were sitting. Most were stunned. One asked me, "Are you some kind of Gandhi?" I laughed at the ridiculousness of the question, and asked him if he knew the problems associated with plastic bags, explaining why I was there.

I asked the men if they would accept my pyaar bhari tofa (love filled gift) of a few bags I had made out of newspaper, and hand them out to customers instead of plastic bags. I told them it would mean the world to me, and I meant it. Every single person I spoke to pledged to no longer hand out plastic bags unless a customer demanded one, and agreed to use the newspaper. A few of the men even invited me to their homes for dinner.

More than anything that day, I feel as though I made friends. Two hours later, a colleague of mine was walking down the same street, and overheard some of the men I had spoken to calmly explaining to customers why they wouldn't hand out plastic bags anymore.

This was change.

If you're fed up with the pace of change -- here's your chance to challenge it. It's not easy, but all you have to do is wholeheartedly come from a place of love in your interactions with others. You might be skeptical today, but if you try it tomorrow, you might just become a change-maker forever.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Vevake recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a double major in Policy & Management and Political Science. He is now fulfilling long-held dreams to spend time in India doing service and development related work and becoming a cricketer.

Vevake Prasad

What are you willing to do to fail?

A key life lesson that I learned during my two years in Indicorps was that of how to fail in life. More precisely, on how to fail, and how to get right back up.

This learning was cemented during our final workshop in Indicorps, where we serendipitously had a session based on JK Rowling's Harvard Commencement address entitled 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination'. If I hadn't realized it earlier (its really hard to think about the joys of failure while you are actually failing), this address definitely drilled it home.

Today, I came across an article on Ashoka's Tech blog entitled 'When is failure just an answer to a different question?' It takes a different take on failure - about how we're NOT really wired to "recognize good things in unexpected results", based on research on failures in scientific research.

It also lays out key lessons on How To Learn From Failure:

1. Check your assumptions. Ask yourself why this result feels like a failure. What theory does it contradict? Maybe the hypothesis failed, not the experiment.
2. Seek out the ignorant. Talk to people who are unfamiliar with your experiment. Explaining your work in simple terms may help you see it in a new light.
3. Encourage diversity. If everyone working on a problem speaks the same language, then everyone has the same set of assumptions.
4. Beware of failure-blindness. It’s normal to filter out information that contradicts our preconceptions. The only way to avoid that bias is to be aware of it."

One thing I would add to the start of the list: (0.)Recognize, accept and cope with failure. Failing is an emotional stressful time, and you need to step out of self-doubt and stay positive. I know that during my two years (and multiple failures), I wouldn't have kept going without the support of Preeti and Radhika. So yah, find people to help support you through the failure. You WILL get by with a little help from your friends. And then hopefully you'll learn a lot.

There is one obvious question that presents itself, and which Roopal, the executive director of Indicorps, put very well during that session at our closing workshop. If failure is so great, then are we actively trying to put ourselves in situations where we're more likely to fail? It's a tough question, and a tougher thing to do. Good management practices teach us to plan ahead and choose the path of most probable success. To identify risks and how we will mitigate them. To keep our goals SMART (R for realistic).

Life has taught me to learn from failure, and that its a good thing. However, I don't know if I have ever proactively tried to fail - we thought every one of those 20 odd ventures we started would succeed.

Your thoughts?

Not Home, Alone

There’s just so much to write.

To provide the context – in the most densely populated city in the world in the most densely populated country in the world, today I feel very alone.

And I am very conscious of the fact that this is by my choice. I chose to come out here and work part time. Trying to support training of paraprofessionals to deliver healthcare in remote areas where it simply wasn’t available before.

Sure, professionally it’s very satisfying. Its been actually a fantastic year in that regards. Forget about year, its been a fantastic week professionally. More on this later (I sense a Practice Gratitude post coming up).

What’s lacking, and what I realized at the soul shaking indicorps reunion, was that while Indicorps has permanently and profusely (much to the dismay of my parents probably) completely changed the professional track, I have not let the process, the spirit of seva, the zest of the Indicorps community, seep into my personal life.

Because if anything those two years in India have done is make me tough. And taught me to not look at life as a series of ups and downs, but rather a series of points of inflection. I’d like to think that this is one such point, because it begets choice. I get to choose where I go from here. Up or down or the same trajectory. And if next year is anything like this year, it still won’t be a bad thing J

This is the start of the ruminations. More to come

LGT Venture Philanthrophy - iCATS fellowship

iCats Program

LGT Venture Philanthropy is proud to announce the launch of the iCats Program: The iCats Program is an answer to the need for professional know-how and resources in many philanthropic organizations and social enterprises. LGT Venture Philanthropy created a web-based platform to match experienced professionals with specific positions in selected philanthropic organizations.

The fellow positions for 2010 are now online on www.icatsprogram.com ! Application deadline is 26^th October 2009.

A fellow works 11 months on-site with a portfolio organization from February to December 2010 and receives regular mentoring from the LGT Venture Philanthropy team. In addition, a 4-day induction workshop brings all fellows together in the Swiss mountains. Go to www.icatsprogram.com to find out more and to apply.

More here:

• iCats program factsheet
• iCats program Article

On giving in India

This article sparked something in me enough to write: India's Rich, Open Your Wallets

It goes into how Bill Gates received the Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has poured a $1bn into India. Clearly, not ALL of this money has been put to the best use (see How Bill Gates Blew $258 million in India's HIV Corridor). There are clearly many many things that I could comment on based on my own experience in rural India. I know there are friends of mine who work in global HIV/AIDS from the public health angle, and they too have quite a bit of criticism.

However, my point today is simply the scale of the spending, and the main point that the first article tries to drive home: India's rich need to open their wallets more

While Bill Gates IS super rich and he DOES have a lot of disposable income, there are many billionaires and multi-millionaires in the new 'shining' India. Adjusting for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which roughly stands around 4 times the official exchange rate, these people have significant levels of income at their disposal.

Which begets the question - why don't India's wealthy give back more?

The article does an excellent job of presenting many different reasons and opinions on why this is the case. Personally, I have to agree with Tarun Das that there aren't enough outlets for giving. It makes sense that the rich, many of them corporate titans who have made their fortunes by driving hard bargains and results-at-all-costs, would want the same value-for-money and concrete results in their philanthropy. PR at a large scale is not enough simply because it's not NEEDED. Unlike the US, where a corporation's social commitment and community outreach genuinely factor into how well communities accept and support them, and if top talent chooses to work with them, this is really not the case in India. A new middle class is being minted in India, and the only bottomline for talented youth is the financial one at this point. There is no judgement here - it simply is. It makes sense. There is limited choice. The generation before us, my parent's generation, still teaches us the 'conservative', risk-averse way, and reminds us of our 'responsibilities' to the family.

Another favorite line in India is echoed in this article: "Charity begins at home". The typical argument from parents is that yes, it's a good thing to serve and give back, but why don't you serve and give back your immediate family? It's a strong argument, and perhaps relevant to families rising in the socio-economic totem pole. However, for MANY of the families I have encountered, the rest of the nuclear & extended family is doing a good enough job by themselves. Secondly, this is EXACTLY the mindset that we as Indians need to move beyond. It is a question of identity, and how generous you are in your definition of it. Is it enough to be just a particular family from a particular town? Or a particular sub-caste from a particular region? Or a particular caste from a particular state? Or 'high society' vs. 'low society'? Clearly, if you draw this argument out, the only universal truth is to consider yourself as a being of the larger universal, with responsibility towards all, living or human or not. However, the journey from the intellectual answer to spiritual realization is vast, and for most will span multiple lifetimes. Perhaps due to my upbringing, and definitely due to the Indicorps, I choose to look at my identity as that of an Indian, and choose to revel in the idiosyncrasies of all the sub-identities within that. What's not OK to me, and this is gut not intellect speaking, is to limit charity to home. That's the cop-out answer.

For the wealthy to start their charity at an individual/local level, however, makes sense to me. My experience has taught me that we will only climb over brick walls for things that matter to us, that which we personally identify with, where we have 'skin-in-the-game'. And if I choose to be forgiving and be OK with the fact that everyone is at a different point the spectrum of identity, then that's where they should start. For example, the Piramal Foundation, who funded the Grassroots Development Laboratory (GDL), chose to begin its activities in their ancestral home of Bagar, Rajasthan. It's a great place to start, because there is goodwill in the community, people trust your intentions, and you have room to learn from your mistakes. But many a foundations tend to limit themselves to only their ancestral homes, or where they have factories. Foundations that can afford to have massive scale need to step beyond their places of start. I applaud the Piramal Foundation in learning from their experience in Bagar and working towards spreading their work beyond, and I will be keenly following their expansion over the next few years.

There is one 'gap' in my argument here. Beyond the debate of whether charity is good or bad, I see the 'operational' roles of foundations as one of two. First, they can either try to tackle one particular problem or issue e.g. clean water or AIDS or education etc. In this case, once they figure out the solution, they should expand geographically to the greatest extent possible and spread that benefit (yes, greed is good). The other option is that they 'adopt' a particular region. In this case, they should take a holistic view of development in this region, and try to solve EVERY problem that arises. Again, all of this is a theoretical extrapolation, and I completely understand the complexities and ground realities of scaling organizations, particularly those that are mission-based. Looking at it from a business perspective, we can transpose these two options as (1) Producers of goods / services (2) Distributors of goods/services. Piramal Foundation has taken the role of the first, and are thus pushing market-bases / sustainable solutions to particular issues, great example being the expansion of Sarvajal into different territories. I had a chance to visit a foundation in Hyderabad this past April, and I recommended the latter option to them - their 'identity' and 'mission' was much more to help the people where their factories were located, as well as a couple of adopted districts of Andhra Pradesh. But I did push them to think beyond 'good enough' - Yes, 10 free pyaaus (free water stations during India's blistering summer) are great, but why not a 100 or a 1000 to cover all of your area? And also to think holistically about the needs of that area, beyond the projects that were sparked largely by the inspiration of the foundation's team and chairwoman.

All things aside, I strongly believe that India needs its rich to identify with the poor, and open not just their wallets, but also their influence and tenacity to help those in need. Some of the complacency comes from the hangover of the bygone socialist era - 'it's the government's job'. And as much as I applaud Bill Gates generosity, some of it comes from the money being poured in by international aid organizations.

I have a radical thought for India. Why don't we work towards stopping all international aid? And instead find a way, a call-to-action for our own rich? Perhaps one man in India won't part with $1bn, but 10 Indians together can. Will India's rich rise to the occasion if the national identity and self-reliance was called into question? Would ads reminding us of India's 'beggar bowl' image from back in the early 60s do the trick?

A brief history of c-sections

Read:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part4.html

 Legend of Caesar's birth 

Very interesting read on how c-sections came to become prevalent around the world. It is interesting to note that the c-section rate in the US is a above 31%. The WHO mandates that the optimal levels of c-sections in any country should be between 5-15%. This makes logical sense. It is a known fact that 85% of all deliveries are completely normal. That is someone has to just stand there and catch the baby (preferably with clean hands).

I would never discount the pain that women have to go through childbirth (apparently ranked as the most painful human experience, followed at number 2 by testicular torsion). However, undergoing a surgery that has no health benefits for mother or child, and instead a longer recovery period, more chances of infection, and all around increase in cost just doesn’t seem like that good of an idea.

True testament to why public health is such a socio-religio-politico-technologico-economic(o?) probem with no easy solutions.

BoP reading guide

A friend of mine asked me about a reading guide for BoP / using business to serve the poor.

Nextbillion has a great entry on this: http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/bop-101-a-review-of-must-read-literature-for-those-interested-i2

Why maternal mortality is not easy to solve

My manager at GE healthcare and I went to Canje (pronounced Kanj), the "headquarters" of Zanmi Lasante (Partners In Health in Haiti).  It was truly exciting to get an opportunity to visit the place where Dr. Paul Farmer started his inspirational work.

On our way there, we encountered a group of 12 men who were carrying a women on a stretcher. Turned out it was a woman in labor, who also had eclempsia (caused due to hypertension, and one of the leading causes of maternal mortality globally). The lady was from a village on a mountain. She had gone into labor around midnight. Around 6am, somebody recognized the symptoms of eclempsia setting in, probably because they had seen it before: Haitians have a VERY high fertility rate - 1o to 12 pregnancies is the norm. They started gathering the family members and the neighbors, who all mounted the lady on a homemade stretcher (an iron bed with two big logs ran under, and a sheet to cover the lady). They had been walking for 3 hours, and had another hour to go when we ran into them.

The number of challenges that come up in that story are immense: detecting hypertension (cause of eclempsia) and other conditions early, educating the traditional birth attendants, providing a means for communication in case of an emergency, providing an ambulance/means of transportation, and facilities for operating and blood transfusion, etc. Many many things to think about, and that incident has definitely sparked a slew of conversation here.

The story has a happy ending. We turned around, offered the car to the lady and her family, who drove her to the Canje facility. When we got to Canje (after hiking a bit), we learned that the doctors had performed a successful c-section. The mother was being closed up when we last heardc, and was stable. We actually saw the baby being given oxygen. In the words of the pediatrician, the baby "was not crying as vigorously as we like".

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Group carrying the stretcher - note the roads

Close up of the group carrying the stretcher - they had to come down moutains like the ones you see in the background

Mother in labor on the stretcher

Lifting the mother out of the stretcher

Loading the mother into the car

The "stretcher"

The baby being administered oxygen

Closeup of the baby boy

Of hummingbirds and mangoes

Pics from the very niceguest house area where we are being hosted for our trip. It is surreal that something this nice exists in rural Haiti.

The building in which we live

The lush greenery

Spring is fruit season

The dining room / patio area

Did I mention the mangoes that we pick off the tree and have for breakfast / night "supper" (there's no dinner in Haiti)

Beautiful hummingbird right outside the dining room

TO DO: Regain childlike wonder

So. A fantastic thing happened the other day.

I was chatting with an Indicorps alum who I haven't spoken to in a couple of years (it's a shame, I know). And as we get talking, she starts talking about how she's doing her PhD on how Australian lizards speciate. And how she keeps the spirit of service alive by teaching math to prisoners. And how she's learning the Banjo, just because.

The banjo. That's right, the banjo! And it totally rocked my proverbial socks off. It hit me right there and then like a burst of inspiration. THAT's what I need to do - I need to keep that childlike wonder alive. I wanna do things SIMPLY because I'm curious about them.

Like her, I can be (and am) serious about what I want to accomplish in this world. But I don't need to be serious all along the journey! I want to take little side tours, just because. I still want to look at the world with the eyes of a child, full of curiosity and wonder. 

Gibran captures this balance between duty and passion beautifully: 

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason." 

 

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion." 

 - The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

First day of ultrasound training!

Yup - we got trained on GE's very cool LogiqI line of portable ultrasound machines today. Here's some videos from our first day of training! Note - these are taken by the two "students", as well as the teacher. a longitudanal spinal one is hard to get.

5/13/09 Update: To clarify, this is NOT my baby (thank you for the confused congratulatory notes, however). These are photos from volunteers who came to the ultrasound training.

31 weeks - baby "sucking"

31 weeks - foetus wagging tongue

20 weeks - face:

20 weeks - mouth open:

20 weeks - head and spine

20 weeks - hand 

20 weeks - fist

20 weeks - feet

20 weeks - yawning baby

20 weeks - baby moving

20 weeks - beating heart (wait for it)

Tackling maternal mortality

Cross-posted on http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/WDIGlobalImpact/archives/2009/ashish/index.html

As you may know, my WDI internship this summer is with GE Healthcare. I will be supporting GE healthcare's maternal and child health initiative for rural areas. Our goal is to serve the world’s rural poor by providing them access to low cost technologies that improve diagnostic accuracy & public health outcomes. Specifically, I will be working on the maternal and child health initiative, initially focusing on using diagnostic technologies (ultrasound and more) to reduce the maternal mortality rate (MMR). Maternal mortality is the one health outcome that has the most inequality in the world, with 99% of maternal mortality occurring in the developing world. Furthermore, reduction of maternal mortality (Millenium Development Goal 5) has been the most difficult Millenium Development Goal globally to tackle, with only around a 1% improvement on average worldwide.

With ultrasound technology becoming portable and less expensive, there is a definite opportunity to provide Obstetric screening to the last mile i.e. in rural villages of developing countries. To achieve this, GE is currently partnering with MCH groups around the world who have successfully "task shifted" to midwives, nurses & community health workers in order to improve access to maternal healthcare in rural areas. Our partners include Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti, ISCISA in Mozambique (who started the award-winning midwife-surgeon program), and our flagship partnership is with Grameen Kalyan in Bangladesh.

Personally, it is truly an exciting opportunity to be able to conduct trials with these world-class partners around the world, and to work at a scale that only a corporate like GE can enable. Our approach is that of a social enterprise: we are exploring this opportunity both as directly affecting global health outcomes, as well as becoming a viable business for GE. There are many challenges to overcome: designing a viable technology platform, successfully task-shifting to midwives, nurses etc, completing the "value chain" by providing treatment options after diagnosis etc. I am confident that with a sincere effort from GE and their partners, this problem can be surmounted towards a very worthwhile social outcome.

Fearing death

Is the fear of death a good thing?

 

At a dinner today, a colleague of mine at the MAP was talking about how scared she was of flying, and how that fear has developed over time because of some bad experiences with flying. A random thought went through my mind: is it because she's afraid of dying?

 

And then I thought: if I died today, I'd be completely OK with it. I've had a good life. I've had interesting experiences. I've seen some of the world. I've met many different people with very different thoughts.

 

Is that a good thing though? It just doesn't sound normal to be sitting here in my twenties thinking about how I'm OK with dying. Is it because I have nothing to lose? That's true to certain extent - my friend, she is engaged, has dreams and ambitions. I on the other hand have lived a happy-go-lucky life. Net net, I've definitely taken more from the world than I have given back, and if you do a NPV analysis considering the time value of money, or any sort of input for that matter, I am very very much in the red.

 

Is it because I have no ambition? The words of a former boss went through my mind, who said he's impatient because he doesn't want to die without making a big difference in this world, and that's what gives him his ferocious drive.

 

Or is it because I know now that life is a process, and how you've lived it is all that matters.

 

Hmm, perhaps its time to crack open that copy of Bhagavad Gita I purchased last week and see if any ideas pop into my head.

B-school and the spirit of service

An inflection point in my "b-school" career was in September of last year. About two or three weeks into the MBA program, I was ready to quit. I didn't know if I was learning anything major, and the itch to do something meaningful, primarily a habit from the mode I had been in during my Indicorps fellowship.

By serendipity, the Indicorps re-union weekend happened to right around then. And on a hike through a national park outside D.C., I shared my thoughts with Sonal Shah, founder of Indicorps, who had come to the re-union too.

Two things she said stuck to my mind: One, that I need to stay in b-school, because the world of business needs people who ARE motivated to do something for others. The other thing she mentioned was that because of my experience, I also now had a responsibility to be the voice of the people back in Bagar, who do not have the opportunity to represent themselves otherwise.

This is the responsibility that I now convey to people: that having seen this reality of the world, our responsibility is not necessarily to devote our lives in the service of others. But it IS our responsibilty to speak up and represent the people who don't have voices in conversations where they are misunderstood, to make sure that they have a voice in conversations where they are completely ignored.

I had a conversation with Prof. Jim Walsh tonight about this subject. He said that he uses the following simple diagram when he's trying to help his kids in trying to figure out what to do with their lives:

It makes so much sense. from a practical perspective, I am where I want to be.  I like it, I am good at it (at least i'm not bad at it), I am doing it to "make the world better". I just got to figure out the money / taking care of my responsibilities.

However, there is still some inner turmoil in me. It started off the week after I came back from my recent trip to Bagar. I went there because of nostalgia. And I came back so proud of where GDL was, and of the things that I had started. That's when it hit me: am I in social service for the right reasons? The entire time I was in Bagar, I never once asked the question, "are we helping people". Am I in interested in social enterprise because of a newer, more relevant definition of "greatness"? Am I just chasing my ego by trying to make a difference in this world?

Where is the 'spirit of service'? Where is that feeling that says that I identify with the people who are less 'fortunate' than I am, and that it fundamentally matters to my liberation what happens to them? Where is the spirit of giving that says no matter the results, no matter the accolades, no matter the success, I simply have to give, to try, to serve, because it matters, because it is the right thing to do?

My professor mentioned that I am simply human, and that ego is simply a part of everyone. I agree. It is. But there is a difference between primary motive & secondary motive. Because when it comes a time to make a tradeoff, to make a decision, my instincts will follow the primary motivation. And in times like these, I want my primary motive to be service, not greatness.

While the diagram says that I'm in the right place, am I doing it for the right reasons? It's a nagging question in the back of my mind, and something that I need to make sure I don't ignore, and keep examining, in the true spirit of self-reflection that was exemplified at Initiatives of Change.

 As for staying in b-school, my former boss at GDL/Indicorps put it in the right perspective. If I am not occupying my time "receiving" at b-school, then it is my responsibilty to occupy the rest of my time to "give".

There is much that I can share. Much that all of us can share with each other.

Classic example - this MAP project. I came to Michigan because of a fantastic program in social enterprise, and not much for MAP, which Michigan touts as a key differentiator. My experience at MAP has certainly made me a believer. While I may have what some may consider an "ideal" background to be working for a social enterprise in India, I am currently working with an investment banker, a consultant to the federal government, a product manager for a major consumer electronics manufacturing company, and manager of a call center. And I know that while I may be the subject-matter expert of the group, I would not have been able to deliver the quality of advice to our client on my own. There is a huge difference when you work with 4 other people that you respect, and that bring in very different perspectives to the same goal. Add to that the fantastic support of the professors who serve as our MAP project advisors, and I can really see why MAP is a fantastic program to add in any MBA curriculum.

Much to think about.

I would like to build things

"...know that your people will judge you on what you can build,
not what you destroy"
- US President Barack Obama, Inauguration Speech

By all accounts, Obama delivered a sterling speech today. While many expected him to strike a balance between 'celebration' & 'difficult task ahead', he focused a lot on the enormity of the responsibility in our hands, and the legacy to uphold.

The quote above was the one that resonated with me. In many accounts, it reminded of a change in my viewpoint over the last two years. Indicorps has a wonderful philosophy of working for things, not against things. It is something that we all lived by in the one or two years in the fellowship. It is a crucial distinction to remember when we immerse ourselves in the community, and choose to dedicate ourselves towards a singular issue from a myriad of complex problems that face the community. It is just functionally necessary for a grassroots fellowship.

My last two years at some point lifted me beyond the stage of a grassroots development worker. We built an organization. We became an institution. We stood for something. And we built programs for the long-run, focusing on areas of livelihood & healthcare, areas where we identified the most need & where we could deliver the most value.

We encountered many roadblocks along the way, and we overcame many of them. It made me realize one thing though: on a long-term basis, you will have to work against something. It is almost by definition of being a community worker. By trying to assist the disadvantaged, you are disrupting the source of power & relative status of the advantaged. The status quo rigidly follows Newton's first law of inertia, and will actively work in the interest of self-preservation.

I realized that societal change comes both from offering a carrot and wielding a stick. The people will remember what you changed, and the future will remember what you built, but behind the scenes, you will have to be prepared to destroy that which holds the people back.

I will always choose to work towards something, building things, leaving something behind. But my time in India has taught me to recognize and respect those who choose to work against today's problems.

Skill Fit vs. Culture Fit: Tallent challenges for social ventures

In this article on nextbillion.net, Univ of Michigan's own Moses Lee presents a common dilemma for social enterprises facing a talent crunch: For a job opening, you have to choose between two candidates. One that fits the job profile, but not the culture, and the other that gets the culture and has the will/passion for change, but does not have the right skillset. Who do you pick?

My response:

During the last two years, I helped found the Grassroots Development Laboratory (www.gdl.org.in) in Rajasthan, India. We finally gained momentum and started growing at the year and a half mark, and the talent shortage was our single biggest impediment to growth.

A few things that I've come to realize:

• NGOs/Social Ventures start because of the passion of a few individuals. It is important to stoke this early on. At this point, it is KEY to find someone who 'gets' the culture
• There IS a transition point where you have to grow out of your comfort zone, and become 'professional'. It is where the ideas and passion are no longer enough for the founders, the community you serve, or the donors who serve you, and they demand hard results. You will need people to execute the right things, the right way, and thus the skillset becomes important.

I think it is possible to misjudge this transition point too early. Organizational culture, and not financial viability, may be critical to surviving beyond the nascent stage, and stories of many NGOs would support this notion at least anecdotally. Understanding what stage you're in, and sticking to your priorities, is very difficult for any startup organization, especially when there is a talent shortage.

From early missteps (and subsequent right steps) we figured out what worked for us: the founders need to have a clear understanding of which stage they are in, what their priority is, what they want their organization's values to be, and orient prospective/new employees VERY clearly about these values. In a startup environment this seems so redundant, because everybody "knows" the values anyways, but the exercises can sometime stir up a hornet's nest. It is fruitful to be able to commit to something in writing, as well as define the limits/relative importance of these values by defining the extent to which we will demonstrate/practice/cultivate the values. For example: Does simple living come at the expense of efficient delivery? In what way? To what extent?

Of course, throughout this continuously transformative phase, the tough question may sometime not be what, but who: who are the founders, and thus, who defines the values of this organization.

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