Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Mystified, inspired, humbled...

These are really interesting times. Pappus, Fekus, Mopmen, cows, monkeys, and anybody and everybody, are being contended as Prime Ministerial candidate. People are busy explaining how they are the visionaries, how they'll take our nation ahead, and myriad of such hopes. In the midst of all this, I happened to meet a lady today. After talking to her, a thought simply touched my mind. Could this be the potential candidate?

No, this post is not about politics, it's not a critique/satire on our so called visionaries. It is about this one person. It is about whether she could actually achieve to do that on a small scale at least.

This lady hails from a village in Konkan - a region in coastal Maharashtra. She works for an NGO over there. This NGO happens to support quite a few local people - predominantly women - in earning that extra income which is like million dollars for them. This lady is here in Mumbai, along with few women beneficiaries of this NGO, participating in an exhibition giving an opportunity for these ladies to sell their products to the customers in Mumbai. For simplicity, let's refer to this lady henceforth as "Maavshi" (marathi word for Mausi, or Aunty).

So, I was talking to Maavshi. Why is she in this exhibition? Because she wants to learn. In the days when a 25 year old around me easily thinks that he/she knows everything and is ready to conquer the world, here was Maavshi with a burning desire to learn. She insisted on coming to this exhibition and after many efforts convinced the director of this NGO. She wanted to see, how a customer in Mumbai behaves, what their preferences are. She perhaps didn't know google, and she didn't need to. She was there to guide the women who were actually going to benefit from this exhibition.

Maavshi comes from a modest background. Modest is actually a euphemism over here. Anyway. Today, with pride gleaming in her eyes, she says that one of her sons is working in London on a high post, and the other one is completing his B. Com. in a reputed institute in Pune. She has brought herself up in the socio-economic sense. Now, she works to bring others there.

This lady says, "When I come forward, I stand to be an inspiration for a number of women. They feel - if she can do it, why can't I?" And she does this, not as a superior figure. Rather, as a friend. Laughing with them, participating with them in small functions, and guiding them keeping the bigger picture in mind. Today, she has started a micro-finance institute on her own, supporting a number of women, giving them loans for their small businesses running out of their homes, enabling them to eventually earn roughly 70% profit margins.

And you know what is the most important thing? She remains firmly grounded to her roots. Humbleness may be personified in her. The simple body language, the kind smile, the expressions that are calm and yet childlike at times. And those beautiful eyes - convincing you that none of this is fake, none of this is a marketing gimmick, none of this is bloody selfish.

And hence, I leave the exhibition and yet I am forced to think about her. To think about how much I have to learn from her. About how there can be a hero in a common man (I do not intend to steal from Nolan's Batman series' dialogue). About how she has changed lives around her. About how, this really is the need of the hour.

2 comments:

  1. Never stop learning, that's the message here. I agree that we can learn a lot by observation and critical thinking. Nice post.

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  2. good to read that you are amazed with such things that includes rural india...hope we can get something out of it!!

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