Gulal is a dry color used in Holi – the Indian festival of color. It is usually Red, Yellow, Purple, Green, Orange and of many other colors. The story goes like this … Mika was a passionate friend of India and discovered Asha while seeking volunteer opportunities. Soon after the new volunteer orientation, she found herself lending a hand to the perpetually swamped chapter coordinators, project stewards and other teams. She attended workshops, sold Chai (tea) and as the story continues … found her feet.
One day she pondered, "So we call ourselves ‘Asha for Education’ … but don’t we do much more than education? We supported the Bhopal gas victim’s campaign, organized talks to educate ourselves and to raise public awareness. We supported the ‘Right to Information’ and discussed the ‘Right to Education’ bill. We also support fellowships, learning networks and god knows what else."
One day she pondered, "So we call ourselves ‘Asha for Education’ … but don’t we do much more than education? We supported the Bhopal gas victim’s campaign, organized talks to educate ourselves and to raise public awareness. We supported the ‘Right to Information’ and discussed the ‘Right to Education’ bill. We also support fellowships, learning networks and god knows what else."
All good work … but where is the common ground? Can so many small initiatives really get us somewhere big? Wouldn’t we have greater impact if listed out our three most important priorities and focused our collective efforts on them? Why are we here? Why are we doing what we are doing? What is the direction of our endeavors?
The next day was Holi, the Indian festival of color. Mika was out in an open field and had filled her fists with Gulal. On an impulse, she looked towards the clear blue sky, and hurled the Gulal towards it. The grains of color took the shape of a red apparition or a cloud … and in it she saw - Asha’s structure. This was not a pyramidal structure like that of a conventional organization.
Mika realized that the paradigms that apply to conventional organizations - such as central themes, core competencies and strategy did not necessarily apply to this … ‘what-do-you-call-this-type-of-organization’. In this cloud of red dust, each grain was its own master and took its own decisions. It defined its own path and responded independently to the forces that acted upon it.
“If I push my hands into the air“, she thought “to which grain will I give direction?” Which grain can prepare the strategy? Why will the others follow? How much time would it take to build consensus? We took 6 months to take a stand on ‘Right to Education’ bill. How long would 66 chapters take to take the stand? What about change and flexibility? What if we developed a strategy – in x months … and then realized that we got it wrong? Would we do then? What about exceptions? What if our core strategy did not include a fight against indentured prostitution – but we go the opportunities to do so? Would we turn them down?
Mika was thoughtful– on one hand she saw the value of a direction and on the other she saw what she had to compromise to pursue it. “There has to be a middle path between the two” she thought. She then read Asha’s mission “To catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children.” But realized that the freedom to interpret the statement is hers alone; that the path to the pursuit of this mission is hers to choose;
Mika has not figured it all out. She realizes that the commitment to a direction is important but, she wants to focus on crafting her own mission and direction, for Asha’s direction is no more than the direction of its volunteers taken together.
Saurabh
June, 2007
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