Ashwin Upadhyaya’s Blog

The problems we see today are a result of the mistakes of the past. So, it seems natural to me that today’s solutions should be directed at the future. The disregard for environment, the cynicism about government, the skepticism about democracy all seem like the result of a vicious feedback cycle of negative thought.

This week at Vidyavardhaka school, I was trying to understand how 12 year old students perceived government. The majority of them think that government won’t do anything good! Without any experience, if these children can have cynicism about the government, then it actually reflects on us. Any system is only as good as the belief people have in that system. If we lose belief, we start propagating negative air among everyone including children and the whole system fails. I needed to  change this in at least a small way and gave the kids an exercise.

I discussed an issue which each one of them knew. The issue I took was the cutting of lalith mahal road trees in Mysore. The students read a newspaper article in the classroom. Then, I explained them how a democracy works and how we are responsible for its upkeep. I then explained the various departments, ministries in a government and finally asked the children to write letters to anyone they seemed fit to receive the letter. Here is the result of the exercise.

An interesting thing I noted is how many of them had addressed the letter to Manivannan! I never even mentioned his name to the children before the class. It shows how one person can inspire confidence in so many others.

The exercise does not end here. If possible, I want to get these children to meet  people from the government and understand how it works. Only when you have the belief that democracy with all its flaws can still work, you will do justice to it. And this belief needs to be instilled at a young age.

How do birds learn to fly? They do not just flap their wings half their life and say “I’ll make these wings strong enough before I fly”. That is never going to happen. Their only option is to take the plunge. Although most would fly awkwardly in the beginning, they would eventually learn the trick. And if you think that the rule wouldn’t work for you, then definitely read G.R.Gopinath’s Simply Fly.

From serving in the military to coconut farming, silkworms, Motorbike dealership, Udupi hotel, politics, stock broker, Agriculture consulting, helicopters, airplanes and now cargo business; His is a story of the beauty of life. There will be failures and there will be successes. What should be remembered is that failures and successes are just milestones in the amazing journey of life. The journey is what matters most.

One of the most important lessons here is “There is no such word called ‘impossible’”. I usually say to people, ‘if you want to prove why something wouldn’t work, you can invent all the reasons and accumulate all the data to support why it wouldn’t work. On the other hand, if you really want to do something, all that you need to do is to believe that it will work. Everything else will just fall in place, with effort though.’ This book just reaffirms my faith. A helicopter company can be started with no money although it took him 2-3 years to just get the licenses. 60 airplanes worth Rs.12,000 crores can be ordered with just 1 crore in the bank. And you can do farming without using pesticides or fertilizers and get a Rolex award for enterprise for that.

Those who aren’t entrepreneurs, enjoy the absolutely entertaining story and probably get inspired in the process. For those who have already taken the entrepreneurial path, this book could be a friend in your journey.

But I had some bitter experiences. I saw that I could not so easily count on the help of the community in getting it to do its own duty, as I could in claiming for it rights. At some places I met with insults, at others with polite indifference. It was too much for people to bestir themselves to keep their surroundings clean. To expect them to find money for the work was out of the question. These experiences taught me, better than ever before, that without infinite patience it was impossible to get the people to do any work. It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution. Why may not society regard as retrogression what the reformer holds dear as life itself ?

-Mahatma Gandhi

What more can I expect from the neighbors of this park? What more can I expect from the government mechanism when it was my madness that led me to plant trees in public places?

Here is what I should have expected.

Never before have I seen a park being developed with its trees being bulldozed. It took us 2 years to let a sapling grow from 4 feet to 8 feet. The saplings were deep rooted enough to survive on their own now. But what use are the roots when these trees cannot talk? And when those who can, didn’t talk too?

I do not want to talk about how the park could be planned so as to retain all the trees. Anybody with a slight sense of logic could work that out. I just want YOU to ask one question for yourself.

• Suppose you are witness to a couple of trees being cut, no matter for what reason, would you at least stop and question the action? To extend this question, would you stand up and question injustice in any form?

I want to believe the answer is a ‘Yes’. Because, I still want to believe that it is worth fighting for a cause. I still want to believe that democracy exists. I still want to believe that there is hope. I still want to believe that people can act and not just talk.

• Rajesh Hanbal used to work at a reputed software firm in Bangalore. He has quit his job and is dedicated towards preparations for the Indian Administrative Service.
• Ashwin Krishna also used to work at a software firm in Bangalore. He has quit to achieve his dreams. His aim is to create a world-class university.
• Vinay Parameswarappa, another ex-software engineer conducts walk tours in Mysore and gives you an experience of true places which are not in any map.
• Rakshit plans to quit his software job and get into music production.
• Prashanth is director at an internet solution company.
• Justin is an American who is passionate about Mysore and works hard to make civic problems known.
• Sourabh, again an ex-software engineer runs a book club and is into event management.
• Suraj and Anil and I run a company into renewable energy power plants (1).

I had written about Mysore Santhe in my last post. That is where I met many of the people I mentioned now. We had many more people like GV Krishnan (2), Krishnavattam, Bapu Sathyanarayana, ER Ramachandran and Javeed Nayeem who write for the print media and Anantaramaiah who runs a school in Mysore.

I guess you liked Phunsuk Wangdu on screen. Mysore Santhe is a place to meet such Wangdus. And probably get inspired enough to become a Wangdu yourself.

1. Added this line after comments from readers
2. It was G V Krishnan who initiated this idea of Mysore Santhe

Imagine a place where artists, entrepreneurs, engineers, journalists and people from various streams come together with just one agenda: To let ideas flow. That is the kind of place we want “Mysore Santhe” to be. And for it to be a success, you need to be there too. Just walk into Samvaada vana at Yuvaraja campus, Mysore on any Sunday anytime between 11AM and 1PM. The first one will be on 10th January, 2010.

The initial plan was to create something similar to speaker’s corner (in Hyde park, London) or may be something similar to Coffee house at college street or may be an Algonquin round table. However, there are no set rules as to how Mysore santhe should evolve. The place belongs to you, the visitors to this place and it may become anything that you want it to be.

Read more about Mysore Santhe at Ashwin Krishna’s blog.

In case you need to know more, feel free to contact me (9900199201) or Ashwin Krishna (9886165220).