Talks lessons relevations #1
Two talks. One shramdhan. Walmart. Fixed the table. Stopped by the office to fix something on an urgent basis. That summarizes my weekend. Two talks? Ya I do talk a lot. But not sensible enough for people to mark their calendars and come for it. The first one was by Dr. Balaji, one of the founders of AID (www.aidindia.org). He is right now in India and working on different plans for the development of villages in Tamil Nadu.
I will not delve too much into what he spoke about or what he does. Rather, my perspective of what he spoke. One thing that still echoes within me is his statement about education. He said only the educated say education is useless and that will not help in finding a job. He gave a beautiful example. If you ask a man on the steets 'what will you do with 50 million dollars?', he will say buy lots of things. If you again ask what will he do with 500 million $, he will say a lot more of the same things. The reason? He is not in a position to differentiate between the two. Ask someone with 50 million $ what will he do if he has 500 millions dollars, he will explain what you cant do with 50 million but can do with 500 million. If you dint get the point, blame it on my choice of words. I felt it was very fundamental. And thinking about it, every exam seems difficult till its attempted. The moment it is completed, we are like ' ha why did I make such a big deal out of it?'. The significance of the effort and the outcome is lost on us. When someone askes for advice on it, we will be like, ha its easy, You will crack it with no effort. What am I driving at? Sitting here, with a master's degree and a nice job, its easy to discount education. When you are illiterate and see people who are educated leading a cushy job, you want your son and daughter to join the elite group by getting educated. It does not matter if education is the only criteria by which the son or daughter will can have a chance to join that elite group.
To him, it is a sure shot route.
While earlier I would have argued that getting education would not help much since with education alone he cannot go too far. Epecially considering the socio economic situation, it is very likely that before the child gets the minimum threshold of education to get a decent job, he or she will be pulled out and end up getting frustrated because he or she will not see fruit of his labour. He will be working side by side with an illiterate in a farm or a factory.
Now I see a different possibility. Why assume he will be frustrated. Why not assume he will be happy he made an attempt. Why not consider he will consider himself lucky to come home and be able to read the letter his relative sent him rather than go to someone who has to read it for him? May be he can help 10 kids be able to read and write and one of them may become a great person that the whole world looks upto.
Education may not be a panacea. It may not even be a vital part of the cure. But certainly a means to achieve what every individual longs for - happiness, a sense of achievement, a sense of being useful to others and above all being independent.
It also touched upon something I always strongly believed in. We have certain powers bestowed by which we try and help people back in India. That does not mean we care more for them than they do about themselves. Nor we know whats good for them. They know what would work and they do care about implementing it and making things better. Just that they dont have the adequate resources - financial and time. When it is a struggle everyday to arrange for next day's meal, we would neither worry about whether our streets are clean nor if the factory in the village will drain the resources of the local environment 10 years down the line nor if the river is being misused. All they would care for is if the factory can give them a job tomorrow so that they can fill their stomach. Its difficult to get a perspective of things when vision of tomorrow blocks all the view.
So to begin with, I believe in acknowledging their circumstances and the way they operate within that. In that sense, we have a lot to learn from them. To me, thats what the relation should be. Its not a question of we and them. Its a question of how a group of people with certain advantages benefit from people who are strong in something else. Each other can survive without the other. Its more about making each other's life better.
Since I dont believe in infinite patience in who ever reads this, I am going to reserve the rest of what I want to say to the subsequent pieces.
I will not delve too much into what he spoke about or what he does. Rather, my perspective of what he spoke. One thing that still echoes within me is his statement about education. He said only the educated say education is useless and that will not help in finding a job. He gave a beautiful example. If you ask a man on the steets 'what will you do with 50 million dollars?', he will say buy lots of things. If you again ask what will he do with 500 million $, he will say a lot more of the same things. The reason? He is not in a position to differentiate between the two. Ask someone with 50 million $ what will he do if he has 500 millions dollars, he will explain what you cant do with 50 million but can do with 500 million. If you dint get the point, blame it on my choice of words. I felt it was very fundamental. And thinking about it, every exam seems difficult till its attempted. The moment it is completed, we are like ' ha why did I make such a big deal out of it?'. The significance of the effort and the outcome is lost on us. When someone askes for advice on it, we will be like, ha its easy, You will crack it with no effort. What am I driving at? Sitting here, with a master's degree and a nice job, its easy to discount education. When you are illiterate and see people who are educated leading a cushy job, you want your son and daughter to join the elite group by getting educated. It does not matter if education is the only criteria by which the son or daughter will can have a chance to join that elite group.
To him, it is a sure shot route.
While earlier I would have argued that getting education would not help much since with education alone he cannot go too far. Epecially considering the socio economic situation, it is very likely that before the child gets the minimum threshold of education to get a decent job, he or she will be pulled out and end up getting frustrated because he or she will not see fruit of his labour. He will be working side by side with an illiterate in a farm or a factory.
Now I see a different possibility. Why assume he will be frustrated. Why not assume he will be happy he made an attempt. Why not consider he will consider himself lucky to come home and be able to read the letter his relative sent him rather than go to someone who has to read it for him? May be he can help 10 kids be able to read and write and one of them may become a great person that the whole world looks upto.
Education may not be a panacea. It may not even be a vital part of the cure. But certainly a means to achieve what every individual longs for - happiness, a sense of achievement, a sense of being useful to others and above all being independent.
It also touched upon something I always strongly believed in. We have certain powers bestowed by which we try and help people back in India. That does not mean we care more for them than they do about themselves. Nor we know whats good for them. They know what would work and they do care about implementing it and making things better. Just that they dont have the adequate resources - financial and time. When it is a struggle everyday to arrange for next day's meal, we would neither worry about whether our streets are clean nor if the factory in the village will drain the resources of the local environment 10 years down the line nor if the river is being misused. All they would care for is if the factory can give them a job tomorrow so that they can fill their stomach. Its difficult to get a perspective of things when vision of tomorrow blocks all the view.
So to begin with, I believe in acknowledging their circumstances and the way they operate within that. In that sense, we have a lot to learn from them. To me, thats what the relation should be. Its not a question of we and them. Its a question of how a group of people with certain advantages benefit from people who are strong in something else. Each other can survive without the other. Its more about making each other's life better.
Since I dont believe in infinite patience in who ever reads this, I am going to reserve the rest of what I want to say to the subsequent pieces.
posted by d'na | 4:37 PM
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