This memorial day weekend, I drove down more than 1000 miles to attend the Association for India's Development (AID Inc) conference in the "land of 10,000 lakes", Minneapolis. During my 2 years as a graduate student I haven't attended a single technical conference, and hence I felt a little strange that my first conference attendance would be at a gathering of volunteers working for a non-profit organisation. AID USA is composed out of approximately 40 different university chapters in USA with the main activity being - raising funds in USA and supporting grassroots level developmental projects in villages in India, encompassing areas like education, healthcare, alternative livelihood, womens empowerment etc.
Unlike most people (153 in all), who came to the conference seeking answers to their
questions, I went there to have fun and to meet my brother and sister-in-law. While many returned home satisfied with the answers, I came back with a bag full of questions to guide my train of thought. Some of the sessions at the conference helped a long way in getting a good understanding of the philosophy and vision of the organisation. It seemed like 152 of the smartest people in the country had converged together to solve the problems affecting the poorest of the poor in India - alleviating their distress by helping them seek the solution rather than enforcing it upon them. I generally dont hold strong opinions about anything nor am I very passionate about a lot of things. But as I saw people voicing their views on some very relavent issues and critically putting forth arguements, I felt ashamed of my ignorance and my inability to think, both humanistically and analytically and I ended up contributing my ears but not voice to the heated discussions.
Inspite of having the easiest semester of my life, I have cribbed for paucity of time a lot of times - and here I was in company of people working for World bank, IBM research, Intel etc who were raising kids and still finding enough time to contribute significantly to the organisation. Though I have been an active member of the organisation for about an year, and contributed as much as I could to my local chapter, I was humbled by their commitment in terms of time, money and intellect. It inspired me to make more efficient use of time, and channelise my every activity constructively to reap rich rewards.
I am passing through a phase of life where loud music and fast cars make more sense to me than any other thing in life. I feel my egoistic pursuit for self-propogation and yearning for tangible objects in life has been detrimental to my own development and maturity. A lot of friends that I have possessed of late seem to be 2-3 yrs elder to me and though I dont notice a stark difference between our behaviour, I think its high time I add age and wisdom to back my years. I thought a good start would be to abandon my PJesque style of life and start devouring books...both seem impossible to me, but then whats wrong in wishful thinking ?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
...and yes Totti, I proved ur predictions correct...but it was a very obvious choice for me to write on the conference.....so no points for guessing
I am clairvoyant.And as far as getting rid of ignorance, i think you have taken your first steps! hope one day i can find some path that will help me help others even if it is for own selfish good.
'abandon my PJesque style of life and start devouring books' wishful thinking as u said and i say dream on :) , and while u r at it add facing a maiden over from Totti to that list.
"maiden over from Totti"....might be possible if I go blind and lose the services of my right arm and left leg coupled with an attack of parkinsons diseases and epilepsy....otherwise it's just dream on Totti
mebbe if Totti challenged u in underwater cricket or something......mebbe :)
once i get my knee back..i am gonna r*p# pointy both in bowling and batting
Post a Comment