The head hunters at NASA Seattle were looking for candidates to head their quality assurance department when they came across Mr. India. His experience with Mogambo's missiles blew them away and they made him an offer he could not resist. So with Sridevi and the kids in tow, Mr. India moved to Seattle. He started shopping at Indian stores, reading mails on Indian lists and thinking about what he could do for India.
Though he was no stranger to India's problems: religious strife, female feticide, bureaucracy, et al; its contrast with his new frame of reference, hit him with unparalleled force. So one day, as he stood in his balcony, watching the sun set and the moon rise, he tore open his shirt(superman style), and declared, that he, Mr India, with his dads formulas, and superhero powers would bring about India's redemption.
But what should he do? AIDS is endemic, farmers are dying, 50 million kids are out of school, militant movements are thriving, criminals are ruling the country. Kicking Mogambo's 'but' - is not enough!. His head reeling and heart thumping he ran inside the house and asked Sridevi "What must a superhero do?". Sridevi, looked up from the DVD screen, and said "Instead ask yourself … what must a free man do?"
What indeed must a free man do ... ?
His quest for answers, took him to a talk organized by Asha Seattle. It was called 'Right to Information(RTI) - a Talk by Arvind Kajriwal - Magsaysay award winner for emergent leadership in 2006'. His eyes opened a little. For the first time, he understood the fundamental relationship between the flow of information and a just and equitable society. Encouraged, he attended an IAS officer's talk, and learned that all politicians are not evil. Many roads turn out badly simply because we don’t have the expertise to build them right. At Ms. Jayashree Janardhan's workshop, he learned that a tribal child does not learn from a book that depicts an average home with a TV and a Fridge, because the book does not relate to its culture.
In activist Suma Josson's film he saw an objective analysis of the Green revolution (I am still not convinced it is 100% true) that mainstream media just does not undertake. He saw that multinationals used local deities as brand ambassadors for their products. He saw that as mono-cropping destroys India's genetic diversity, some people are quietly filing patents to claim ownership of well adapted local varieties. He saw how one-season seeds destroy traditional models of sustainability which prescribe the reuse of seeds season after season. He saw that expensive fertilizers reduced soil-productivity in the long run and that a gene resistant to American Bollworm does not fight desi Kidas (other local worms).
Talk after talk, discussion after discussion, over and over again, he forced himself to confront that bitter truth: 'We the people' don’t understand our own problems…
But Mr. India realized that he could not apply America's solutions as is to India's problems. When his friend, the CEO of a company decided to spend Lakhs of rupees on doing up the walls of a poor school, he told the friend that nutritious food is more important than pretty walls. When another friend decided to construct new schools, he told the friend that a worthier challenge was to improve the quality of the existing 900,000 schools. And though Mr. India has not arrived, he has avoided doing more harm than good, which, unfortunately, is exactly what zealous superheroes end up doing - despite good intentions.
But that’s Mr. India. Let’s talk about me. I am no Mr. India ... I have work! Kids! Boss! Spouse! traffic ! ... you name it, I’ve got it. I don’t have the time to attend talks ... and anyway, I pay them Asha folks some cash every year, to remind myself that I remember.
True, but far away from Seattle, between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, is a potpourri of races, languages, religions and customs. A place where paradoxes of poverty, riches, renunciation, ambition, hope, dreams and despondency exist together. Some call this mass of land a country. I call it an Ideal … an ideal called India.
This great ideal does not need your charity. Hell No!! There are more billionaires in Mumbai than there are in New York. What it needs is your awakening. It needs you to recognize that freedoms are expensive that privileges are loan. It needs you to wake up ... and do something!
Saurabh
April, 2007
Note in 2025: I now see a few of these notes differently. I do not feel that institutions are to blame. It is always an individual that takes decisions that take an institution into darkness. Sometimes, it is easy to blame the individual directly - sometimes, people are malicious, but many times, a situation arises out of circumstance and even well meaning people end up taking harmful decisions.
At that time I also did not understand the law of Karma as I understand it now. What we sow is what we reap. Eventually, those who err will correct their errors. My primary responsibility is to do my part and do it well.
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