Meeting with the Elders/Think Think Think

(this is probably a boring post because its late at night after a long day and i'm tired, hahah)

A few days back this gentleman wearing an orange shirt in an orange car came to pick up Ramesh and me from the guest house. I wasn't quite sure where we were headed or who this gentleman was but by that point I had gotten used to just following along. In a few minutes Ramesh introduced the gentleman as a senior officer of Air India and a management professor at a local university. We were going to a meeting for senior members of the Hindu community (RSS, the parent foundation of the sewa international program) who were interested in contributing to social work.

I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning and was awake since 6am so I was pleased that there was hot chai and some food at the meeting. Of course I was expecting it to be in some sort of conference room in a western style establishment but of course I was wrong. We were at the upper floors of some educational building. I was clearly the youngest person there and I was pleased to see that the elders were all wearing traditional clothing. Most men around here wear typical western shirts and slacks. The meeting proceeded as sixty or so of the elders sat together to observe a few presentations. Naturally the meeting was held in Hindi so I didn't understand anything. I was shocked that there was only one woman. They mentioned that Christian conversion was on their list of concerns. I thought that was interesting.

It became apparent that Ramesh and I were there as technical support. I had brought my laptop as instructed and when we plugged it in and put it on the table next to the projector I imediately felt a strong current go through it. I couldn't touch my laptop or the table without getting shocked. Ramesh said not to worry... I was impressed by his resourcefulness as he tied up a projector screen using some random twine found in a closet.

The meeting was still pretty inspring because I picked up the theme of social work and started writing my own notes on what I was planning to do. I'm trying to figure out how I can apply the social entrepreneurship concept to the education field. I've decided that I want to work on education reform but I'm still figuring out how to do it.

During the lunch break (it was one of those all day conference type things) I chatted some more with the orange shirt professor. I discovered that he followed the teachings of the same guru as me, Paramahansa Yogananda. This was surprising news because I hardly run into people like that and of all places, India. I suppose it was meant to be. We had a deep conversation about leadership and societal trends in India. It was quite plesant to be sipping chai while the rain was pouring outside (monsoon season is beginning). The management professor resasurred my concern that everyone had leadership potential, its just a matter of cultivating it. His theory is that charisma is not something that comes from within a person, instead it is imposed by other people that hype up the reputation. I never heard that perspective before.

I've been reading this awesome book: How to Change the World. Its about different stories of social entrepreneurs. I'm really emotionally stirred chapter after chapter, story after story of people who struggled so hard to maintain basic human rights. The book seems to be centered on the Ashoka Foundation and the stories of the social entrepreneurs funded by it. Ashoka is really good at identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs but I would somehow like to reform our current education system to train and inspire socially/environmentally/globally conscious people who's motivation is to positively contribute to this world rather than hoard for themselves and their associates.

I realized that people confine their reality within the communities they associate themselves with. For example somoene from California isn't necessarily considerate of the needs of someone in Nebraska or Paraguay for that matter. I'm not saying we need to learn all about all the different places of the world. We should just be more aware of how things we do here affects things over there and vice versa. In this closely connected modern world, we're missing out if we don't expand our personal associations to more global communities. Ah, the difficulties of being a 21st century human.

This trip has been no vacation. My mind has been chruning away. Hopfully I will have more direction in a few weeks!