Running down a dream

Update - January 14, '08

As of today, my friends have contributed a total of Rs. 1,53,000 or $3825 USD! I have now revised my target to try and raise Rs. 200,000 or $5000 USD in total!

The list of contributors so far is as follows:

1. Aakash
   
2. Abhinav
3. Anirban
4. Babitha
   
5. Dhanur
6. Gonçalo & Andreia
7. Indranil
   
8. Kaushik
9. Kiran
10. Kritika
11. Mahesh
12. Naaz
13. Niharika
14. Ronald
15. Sameer
16. Sidhartha V
17. Surya

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I personally know 3 very special kids: Pavitra, Prem and Hamsa.

Pavitra aged 16 is the only bread winner in her family. She is confident, independent, expertly juggles her 12th standard classes and a job with an NGO as a program assistant. The money she earns allows her to send her younger sister to school and feed her Mom and Dad who is indisposed. Her dream is to build an organization that will go on to help more kids who were in her position.

Prem came from a small village in Karnataka. He could barely speak any English and had little idea about life's choices. Today he is 17 and is doing his diploma in instrumentation engineering. He feels empowered because he was able to build his self confidence through a program that helped him improve his communication skills, work place etiquette and computer skills. He wants a job soon to send money back to improve his village and he's sure of landing one next year.

Hamsa is a shy 18 year old boy...Hamsa dropped out from school and came away to a shelter home because of complications in his household. Before that, he spent time on the streets and couldn't understand what to do with his life. Today he is a first class goal keeper in a hockey program and is responsible and smart as an admin assistant with an NGO he works with.

All these children would probably not be where they are today had it not been for an organization that helps support them ...and gives them a chance. That's all these children really need. And that's what this mail is about.

I am soon going to be making what is now my annual pilgrimage to Bombay and this time I am running the half marathon ( 21 Kms). I hope to do this in a time under 2 hours and I've been working hard over the last 8 weeks to make this happen.

What is driving me to train for this event and put in 40 kms of running a week is not just the challenge of endurance however. Like marathons everywhere the Mumbai Marathon too is a huge charity fund raiser and I am also running to raise money for a couple of charities I have been closely associated with for the last few years. Charities that take care of kids like Pavitra, Hamsa and Prem and give them a chance to make something out of their lives. The practice of raising money through your run at a marathon is a world wide practice and every year, millions of dollars are raised by individuals whose runs are supported by friends, family and well wishers such as yourself.

My intent is to raise Rs. 1 Lakh or $2500 USD through my run at the Mumbai Marathon. This money will go towards two organizations I am associated with. Both these organizations are headed by inspiring people and my interaction with them over the last couple of years is what triggered my move to work full time on social causes. The organizations are Dream A Dream and Atma, Mumbai. You can read more about them at these links: http://www.dreamadream.org and http://www.atmamumbai.org

The important thing here is for us to know that all of us needn't devote our lives to social causes. There are many young, smart and dedicated people already doing this and if we can part with a small bit of our wealth and contribute this to the work these people are already doing, we will do our bit to ensure a more equitable, egalitarian society. The cynics may scoff but I truly believe if each and every one of us does our bit, thousands of young people who would otherwise not have any hope at all would receive a little ray of light from which they can build their lives.

I hope you will contribute toward my cause and my dream. You can do so easily by visiting this link and making an online donation:

http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/abhi

If you want to write out a cheque instead, email me and I will let you know how you can do this.

No amount is too small. You can contribute as little as Rs. 500 or as much as Rs. 25,000. Its up to you. If you want to contribute and don't have an Indian bank account or Indian credit card, again get in touch with me and we'll figure out a way. Just know that what ever the amount, you're helping change a young person's life forever. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

The Why

Quote from marathoner I have met who is in his early 40's, "I look at distance running as a metaphor for life - you set milestones, try your best to succeed, there are ups and downs, pain, fatigue and disappointment along the way"

Articulating clearly the unexplainable urge to wake up and hit the road. Gives meaning to it all.

One

The mind is awash in a maelstrom of thought...so much so that I could be almost pensive. There is Christmas cheer all around; parties, food, drink, merryment and joy. But an almost unfelt, yet gnawing feeling of imbalance seems to wind its way around me. The constant question which I've grappled with for some years now: the philosophers of old must be throwing a paternal and ironic laugh my way; indeed the Gods themselves may show a twitch of a knowing smile as they go about their business: here's another penny in the pool they may say, out to seek the answer or the truth to something we ourselves don't yet know, cannot yet fathom.

The Gita goes some way in talking about it...that the Universe in itself has a soul and we are all part of it: if you're an 80's child in India you will doubtless recall the "eternal wheel" which would show itself on TV before every episode of the TV series of the Mahabharatha. The wheel meant to signify the constant turning of time or the Universe. And hence all that happens is in some way or the other ordained? Or it just is...there are no reasons and better yet; naive and imperfect beings such as myself better not go out in search of them either!

Whatever be the case (and I am not yet giving up the quest of finding answers), for some reason again that I don't fully comprehend, some of us are driven to chip away at the imbalances around us, to try and tilt the scales to resemble something approaching semblance and equity. It was this desire to inject more of a balance in the scales around me that continues to haunt me from time to time over the last few years. Along that path, we find different ways to do it and one early lesson I heard but rejected was to never underestimate the power of One. I wear a little white band on my left wrist with that word inscribed on it. Many people ask me what it means and I tell them, for me it only stands for hope. And the fact that every One of us have in us, the ability to chip away at those scales. I fully didn't believe I could myself do anything significant but I am slowly beginning to believe that is not entirely true. Life, truly, is what we make of it and as the Gods and philosophers of old knew, and some of the exemplary individuals of the 20th Century knew too, determination and persistence even by one person applied in a dogged fashion can often result in spectacular results. I learnt today that that is indeed the case...that there never is reason to doubt this is the case. And that whatever be the answers, I won't stop seeking and I definitely won't stop chipping away. Not just yet.

This is probably my most incoherent and incomprehensible of posts but then again, at times incoherence is the currency we use to buy that golden feeling that is catharsis.

Filling the gap...and how

There weren't too many subjects I used to ace in school. Of course, I attribute that, not unfairly to a lack of mentoring and an inability of the system to understand that if I couldn't learn the way they taught, they had to teach the way I learnt. At any rate, I had a natural aptitude for English and always did quite well there, but also managed high grades in the social sciences which included history. Of course I realise now that that was primarily because my retentive abilities were / are high. But nonetheless, I was always pleased with my high grades in history.

If I was to look back now, my "history" classes left me with a deluge of historical dates of events which even now I am not entirely sure bore any historical significance, a long list of Mughal emperors, British viceroys and lords and the many scores of battles they fought against each other. I learnt of Indian independence, the central figures in that quest, the important dates such as 15th August being Independence Day and 26th January Republic Day and other more obscure dates and related events.

Nowhere however did I learn about how India had evolved into what it was in 1995. It seemed like the subsequent 50 years didn't count as history. The battle of Plassey (while extremely significant in the larger context) or the policies of Cornwallis were more important for impressionable 15 year olds to learn rather than to know the inexplicable manner in which India was partitioned, the bloodshed that followed as a consequence of the blunders the British committed, about the nonsensical creation that was East Pakistan, about the in fighting in the Congress, the birth of the Muslim League and of Jinnah's lust for power.

I tell anyone who listens that in contrast to education in some of the private schools today, I feel moderately let down with what I experienced, and in contrast with undergraduate education in the West, I feel positively cheated. However, we can but look to put right what Fate and Circumstance conspired to put us through. I have read through about 40 pages of Ramachandra Guha's book "India after Gandhi - the history of the world's largest democracy" and already I have learnt more about post 1947 India and its creation than I did in 5 years of school studying "history". This book should be prescribed reading not only for all school students but indeed, I would encourage every Indian and foreigner interested in India to read this book. It also happens to be on the Economist's list of the best reads of 2007.

Mr. Guha's style is measured yet riveting and students and lovers of history and India surely must doff their hats to the gent. For one as yet unschooled in many seminal works of history, every page so far has been a pleasure that I seek to absorb to the fullest. This is definitely a book that will occupy pride of place in my humble collection.