by Anuradha Bakshi | Oct 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle wrote Steve Jobs.
I first heard this words from Steve Jobs a few years back at a time when I was going through a bad patch. These words were from the famous speech he gave at Stanford University in 2005. His words made me sit back and look at my life with different eyes. Project why was five years old and despite minor hiccups was doing great. That was also the year we got public recognition for our work. I pondered a long time on the thoughts proffered and realised that they in more ways than one chronicled my journey. For many years people had chided me on not settling, as I moved from one pasture to another. I had shunned a career in the government, dabbled with a radio job, taught in a university, worked an an interpretor, run my own conference business and yet never settled. It is only when I decided to do something for the elusive other that I sank roots. I finally settled and each year got better and better in spite of small impediments.
Jobs’s personal story recounted in the same speech was also an eye opener as it proved beyond doubt that nothing was impossible. And somehow the maxim that we followed was the quite similar. It did not matter if you were born poor or if you could not access the best education the sky could be the limit if you wanted it to be. That is what we believe in too.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary added Jobs.
In this one speech Steve Jobs has given us a great Art of Living. He leads by example. We all feel the loss of this endearing human being. May he rest in peace.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Oct 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
The children of our women centre celebrated Gandhi Jayanti in their own inimitable style. Boys and girls of all classes participated in the celebration. The children made posters and colourful models to show their vision of Gandhi. It was quite unique. Many kids thought that making things out of waste material was a way to actualise Gandhiji’s teachings. Others felt it was respect for a clean and healthy environment. Yet others came up with models of solar cookers and flour mills propelled by wind. Each class had completed their presentation with utmost care. I loved the class VII model of an ideal city where everything was eco-friendly.
But my all time favourite was the little babyfoot (table football game) made out of a shoe box by the tiny kids of class III. It was perfectly made with little nets at the goal post.The little game actually worked! The bright little girls who had come up with the ideas were very proud of their creation and needless to say got a prize. A student of class IX had prepared a speech and delivered it with great aplomb. I was very impressed by the creativity of the children and very proud of them.
It was then time for a discussion about Gandhiji’s teaching and I was really amazed by the maturity displayed by the children. They talked about kindness and compassion. About how the poor should be helped, about how violence should be avoided, about truth and integrity. As we talked the debate got widened and we touched upon subjects like education and the recent poverty figures of the planning commission. Every child however young was fully aware of the cost of things and the family budget, something we would not see in rich kids. They knew the price of everyday needs and how much their parents spent on rent and electricity. I was deeply moved as it showed once again how kids from poorer homes grow up faster than one would wish. These are the kids that have been let down by one and all, kids that deserve nothing but the best.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Oct 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
Though the Right to Education is in place there is still along way to go according to 15 activists who visited 60 schools. Provisions of the Right to education Act notwithstanding, dirty toilets, shortage of books and staff, broken benches, no playground and absenteeism are still the major issues in many Delhi government schools is the conclusion drawn by those who visited the schools in our capital city. In a school located in the constituency of our present education minister the computer lab lies shut as there are no teachers to teach the subject. Such is the state of education in a country where Education is now a Constitutional Right.
What makes me see red is the fact that it is once again children who are at the receiving end. Children who have enormous potential and scant resources. Children who can excel if give a tiny chance. I more than anyone else can say this with conviction as for the past 11 years I have been helping such kids. In a reclaimed garbage dump or under a hot tun roof we have been able to remedy to the lacunae of the government schools and teach hundreds of children who have done us proud. Our children have mastered computers and learnt dance and sing over and above learning their school lessons. Many of them now have good jobs and have broken the cycle of poverty in which they were born. Why have we succeeded: simply because we wanted to, notwithstanding anything.
Where there is a will there is a way goes the saying. By this adage one could infer that the Government has no real will to implement the Right to Education. How can we forget that children are not vote banks and are voiceless and that giving them education is also perhaps running the risk of giving them a voice. A look at published statistics tells its own story: In absolute numbers there are 1.5 million children who are dropouts or have never gone to school. There are in total 5,442 schools in Delhi.3 The enrolment figures amount to 1.7 million (17.5% of the population). The gross dropout rate is 69.06%. This does not leave much to be said about the levels of retention in schools across the capital city.In absolute numbers there are 1.5 million children who are dropouts or have never gone to school.Eighty percent of the class 5 pass outs from MCD schools do not know how to read and write their names. Only 14% of the students who enter a govt school in class 1 make it to class 10 and just 4% manage to pass class 10 says a report of the Centre for Civil Society
It is time we woke up and did something!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Oct 3, 2011 | Uncategorized
This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world. It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared wrote St Exupery. I am reminded of these words as I look a this picture. This is a picture of land where Planet Why is/was to be. There are moments when the picture comes alive and I can imagine planet why just I want it to be: a beautiful green guest house filled to capacity with happy clients and a wonderful children centre buzzing with activity. I can visualise the place to the last detail, see the smiles and hear the laughter. Then the image changes and the land remains as it is: barren and sad.
If I am true to my words then we have just three months to conjure a miracle, failing which planet why and all it stood for will be laid to rest. To quote St Exupery again: a rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral, I have contemplated my barren land it time and again with the image of my cathedral but till now nothing has happened. My prayers and pleas to gods and men have
remained unheard. Now I have under hundred days to offer my ultimate entreaty.
So let me take it from the top one last time. The challenge of every self respecting not for profit is sustainability: how to ensure that it generates its own resources and thus can carry on its work unheeded. Needless to say it is and has always been up most in my mind. Our sustainability story began way back with a series of naive attempts: candle making, chocolate makings, card and bags production. It goes without saying that these not only failed miserably but also burnt a hole in our lean pockets. We quickly realised that this was not the way to go. Then came the one rupee a day a project. This was something we truly believed in! Somehow it seems in sync with who we were: a grassroots project with a grassroots team and this approach seemed eminently doable. The idea was to contact a wide cross section people and ask them to give us one rupee a day! This would be something any one could do, or so we thought. To cut a long story short the whole idea fell flat: people did not warm up to it believing that one rupee could not make a difference and many of my won staff found thought it was infra dig to ask for such a tiny sum. The whole idea had to be shelved though I somehow still believe in it.
The quest for our elusive grail continued. We flirted with the idea of making clothes for children, of running a nursery for oil seeds, of Diwali hampers and so on. Needless to say they all boomeranged! Sustainability had never seemed so elusive. Time passed till the fateful day when someone mentioned the Ninos Hotel in Cusco. It was an ah ha moment; the grail seemed within reach. Our sustainability would be through hospitality. A guest house would be our way of raising funds. The idea looked so perfect. It was almost scary. There were many false starts and hiccups but we managed to purchase the land and begin planning in earnest: architectural plans, costings, 3D model and to crown it all a validation of the business plan by renowned consultants. We just had to raise the funds and we would be in clover! Alas things did not turn out as we would have hoped. The figures and numbers were huge. Our contacts into the world of the rich and endowed non existent. Our network inadequate. Many did try and help and at one time we even thought we had succeeded. But it was not to be. The end result is that we are today exactly where we were a year back.
The problem I think is that project why is where you see with your heart, something very few people still do. When you pitch a proposal like planet why which requires people to dig deep into your pockets you have to come up with cold statistics to convince them. We do not have such figures. What we have is intangible yet precious: dignity, care, compassion. Your return on investment is measured in smiles, success in examinations, better opportunities for those who have none and so on. These don’t cut any ice when you are on the market for big bucks.
31 December 2011 is the day we plan to lay planer why to rest if nothing happens. We have less than 100 days to make it happen. So help me God!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Oct 2, 2011 | Uncategorized
Gali No 3, Govindpuri is where our main centre is located. It is also the street that houses our flat share for volunteers. To the uninitiated it may look like cramped, dirty, messy, chaotic, congested place. And in many ways it is: tiny lanes that once housed single story units now have been remodelled to include multi storied flats for rent; lanes that once only say bicycles or at best scooter are now crammed with cars and motorbikes courtesy the arrival of credit cards; for want of fresh air in their houses which have no natural light people tend to bring out stools and chairs and sit on the street; hawkers ply the lanes peddling their war. You can buy almost every and anything you want: vegetables, fruit, clothes, kitchenware, cleaning implements, snacks and ice lollies: you name it they have it.
The place brims buzzes with activity. On our street ground floors have often been converted to tiny shops and businesses: you have small grocers, repair shops, photocopying facility, a shoe vendor, restaurants, juice vendors and even a flour mill. Old women are employed by the mill owner to clean the grain before milling. These ladies often sit on the street itself and each time we need to pass in our three wheeler they have to gather their grain to make way! The tiny lane sees many traffic jams that get nightmarish when any building activity is going on.
Twice a day we too add to the traffic in our own way: that is when our creche children are dropped by the school transport at the top of the street and need to walk to the centre and vice versa when it is time to go home. It is all part of the daily humdrum of life in our street. What is amazing is that no one complains: one just tries to find the best alternative possible so if a delivery van blocks the street for instance, you simply tun around and take another one. At times you come in the morning and see a tent erected in the middle of the street: it could be a wedding, a religious ceremony or a funeral. You simply park your vehicle on the main road and walk to your destination.
All the lanes give onto a main road which though large always seems congested. It is a main bus route and hence many buses ply on it. Add to it cars, auto rickshaws, cycles, motorbikes, and all other imaginable vehicles and you have a huge mess. But that is not all we still have to add all the hawkers, street vendors to make it a colourful vibrant chaos. The place is teeming with people whatever the time of the day. It is an aggression on all your senses though not an unpleasant one. Not to forget the local vegetable and fruit market and the weekly Wednesday market that commandeers the whole road making traffic a real nightmare.
For the past two years now it is also home to the project why volunteers. I must admit that when we took the decision of housing the volunteers in this street we were a little concerned about what their reaction would be. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that all of them loved the area with its sounds and smells. And above all, all of them felt safe unlike in other parts of the city deemed touristic.
Govindpuri is truly a slice of real India.
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle wrote Steve Jobs.
