IDCA

Dinesh and I were lucky to be invited to an IDCA meet this Saturday at Oak Brook near Chicago. IDCA stands for 'India Development Coalition of America'. It's a forum (or a coalition as they like to call) of different groups/organisations that are helping India's development directly or indirectly.

Dinesh Jain, our founder, was invited as one of the speakers this week. And goes without saying, he gave a sterling performance. (And may be I am biased, but judging by audience response, I could say his presentation was the best amongst the lot)

I particularly liked his notion of 'Self Interest'; something that really connected well with the gathering. Dinesh said - "For anything to work there has to be a self interest involved. It's how you define 'self' that matters. Self can include only me, or me and my family, or me and my family and my community, or me, my family, my community, my city, my country and so on'

The point was well made. That without self interest, you cannot be motivated enough to make a difference.

During the Q&A session, after Nagpur First presentation, there were a few in the audience who talked enthusiastically of their indirect association with Nagpur and had some positive things to say about our beloved city. One such Gentleman who was not really from Nagpur but had worked in NEERI for a few years said : "The People of Nagpur are honest and simple. And it's a great city to be in"

That really warmed the cockles of my heart. The anchor of the session Mr. Thatte also mentioned his association with Nagpur and said there are more well wishers for Nagpur than we can think.

Amongst the other presenters, I particularly like Dr. Rajaram's take on Solid Waste Management. During the course of presentation the speaker mentioned about one Mr.Srinivasan, who's done some amazing work in Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Srinivasan has used common sense solution for a major problem in India which is Waste Management. Currently Delhi Municipal Corporation is dealing with a huge problem with this and the High Court has already ordered Delhi not to use any more land for waste dump.

Mr. Srinivasan's common sense solutions can help them in true sense. And so can it help Nagpur. I spoke to one Mr. Bhaskar who was representing another organisation called 'AID' and asked him if we can get in touch with Srinivasan. His team has a sustainable economic model for Waste Management. In fact their model generates lot of employment apart from cleaning up the city. For example, for a community of 300 people, this model can generate an employment of 6 persons and can generate an income of 20,000 p.m in India. Do the math for a larger community like Nagpur.

I also got to know that, Mr. Srinivasan is a simple person who is helping his community. He does not have a fancy website or a degree in management or anything, nor does he charge consulting fees etc. He is simple Indian, living in a small town and helping his community. (These,IMHO, are real heroes of India and not the one's who color your TV screens with glamor, like in the new Mile Sur..ad)

Waste Management, I feel, can be a pre-cursor for Nag-Pure, or the purification of Nag river. By isolating Organic waste, we can generate clean energy that can be recycled into the local economy. Although this was always known, we now have a sustainable model to deal with this. And the model is only maturing.

I think Nagpur should take advantage of this and should aim to become India's First Clean Energy Compliant City.

Democratic Forum

One of the famous sub-plots of Mahabharat is when Krishna tells Duryodhan to cover himself up before meeting his mother who was to remove her blind-fold for a day.Krishna does this so that he can ensure his sides victory. Some may call this manipulation by the Lord himself to get his side's win. Other's will call it pragmatism, keeping the Big Picture in mind.

I believe pragmatism is really the road to Idealism. We have to work the system to make it work. Sounds oxymoron, but that's the way it is. In context of Nagpur First, there have been some well received suggestions last week, on pragmatism.

The hallmark of any democracy is an acquiescence to dissent, contest and even rebel. I hope we can keep this Nagpur First group as democratic a forum as it can be.Of course this means, we will have to deal with criticism and clashes of ideas. Sometimes these clashes can actually be fruitful.

Having said that, negative energy can sap the momentum. We are in a very nascent stage right now. All of us are volunteering for a cause bigger than ourselves. The cause being that of making Nagpur a Global City in next 11 years.

There has been phenomenal enthusiasm shown by Messrs Saqib Karori, Faiz Wahid, Ajit Kulkarni et al in past 2 weeks or so.. (More details to follow). Vivek Bhagwatkar has already shown how dedication and commitment can work wonders. More strength to him.

Since we are residing at different locations and we are a diverse group of Nagpuris, at times it becomes difficult to co-ordinate and move. But I feel good that we have got reasonable traction already. It's only a matter of time before things start taking bigger forms.

It may seem that things are moving slowly and nothing is really happening. But that is deceptive at best. We are moving one step at a time and lot is happening.

There would soon be a list published on all initiatives taken, either on yahoo group or this blog. We are always looking for volunteers to join any initiative of their liking with Tan (efforts), Man (constructive ideas, suggestions, process help etc.) and/or Dhan (of course the funds).

All folks who came forward with positive ideas,initiatives,donations should be commended for their virtues. Clearly shows, we are on a move and things will unravel positively from here on.

This is a horizontal platform, where vertical initiatives can grow and take shape. In other words, if any of Nagpur First members wants to join any initiative, your coming forward and aligning yourself with something, will be highly appreciated. In fact it will be encouraged.

There are two initiatives that have got traction in past week. One is led by our new member Ajit Kulkarni, from D.C who is targeting a 'walkathon' in Nagpur. Ajit is himself a marathon enthusiast, and has run some international marathons.
Ajit and Amit will be sending more details on this soon.

The other piece of news I need to share is that we have formalized a team for Nag Nadi Purification. The group is called Nag-Pure. We had our first meeting (the USA chapter of Nagpur First had this) and it went well. More invites would be sent to people who are keen on joining this movement and willing to bring positive ideas to the table.

Pretty exciting stuff there; So watch out for this space.

Why we love Nagpur

Over a weekend chat with Dineshji we started reminiscing about Nagpur (as two Nagpuris usually do) and were trying to put our finger on this one question - What's so special about Nagpur?

Why do we all love Nagpur so much, when, for all practical purposes, and on all conventional parameters like development etc, it does not have a sterling record (at least relative to other tier-II cities)

In other words - 'Nagpur mein aisa kya hai'? I am sure, most of us have questioned this at some point or the other.

My initial instinct is to look at the question itself. Look at what language this question I put in. Yep. Hindi. I think there in lies our first clue. Nagpur, a Maharashtrian city, technically, has an overwhelming presence of non-Marathi folks, who have smoothly assimilated into the Nagpur culture. For all practical purposes, HINDI is Nagpur's lingua franca. In fact I have been told that Nagpur is the second most cosmopolitan city in India!!!

These two things clearly indicate Nagpur's embracing culture. To 'allow' and 'nourish' and not alienate something which might be considered 'foreign' in other places. The word really is FREEDOM. Nagpur allows us to be 'free' for most part. Allows us to choose what we want to do or not do. It does not have a sense of overbearing imposition of a certain culture, rammed down your throat. It just makes 'it Easy'.

I am sure, you'd think, that the above paragraph is loaded. But the fact of the matter is, Nagpur has been that kind of a city. Easy going and Simple and there has never been a strong will amongst natives to IMPOSE their ideas and views and way of life on others.

I have to share something from my personal experience on this.

College days are great learning experience , both academically and non-academically. And of course you end up making friends with diverse group of folks, from different cultures and sub-cultures. And now that I think in hindsight, I see that we had such a diverse group of people in our friend circle. Some from South India, some from North, some even from Assam/Nagaland etc. Over the period of time, I realized that all my non-Nagpuri friends, had gravitated to Nagpur in some ways or the other. They had, believe it or not, become Nagpur fans. The Nagpur-ness had rubbed on them in some ways and they would find some excuse or the other to visit Nagpur (even after Graduation). And enjoy.

One of my close friends, who never had any relation to Nagpur whatsoever, before living there for fours years, till date calls Nagpur his favourite city. In many ways Nagpur had converted him and he went native big time, in just a couple of years.

I am sure there are numerous similar examples. Where a non-Nagpuri went completely bonkers over Nagpur and in many ways became a Nagpuri.

Again, it's hard to put your finger on that exact pulse. That exact answer. Why Nagpur is attractive, even with all it's apparent drawbacks? Why it inspires such intense loyalty, even for non-Nagpuris in a few cases?

I am sure, if I was up for a PhD , I would have considered this for a thesis. :)

If some of you have any anecdotes , examples to share of people who you personally met, who became Nagpur fans, we would certainly like to read about them. If nothing else, it will at least give a sense of elation.


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Post Script : I remember a funny incident that happened some years back on a chowk of Nagpur. A guy riding motorcycle bumped into a bicycle guy on a chowk Signal ('Light' for the US walas). And the motorcycle guy immediately apologized - "Arey sorry Boss. Laga toh nahi". And the ever humble dude on the cycle, picking and gathering himself quickly from the downfall said.."Nahi.. per Thank you for your Sorry boss"..

And they both moved on. Memory of this incident still tickles me no ends.

Doesn't this tell us something about Nagpuris?

Noble Filth

A couple of news articles and posts caught my attention over the weekend. Without going into the politics of all this and to keep in line with our commitment of keeping Nagpur First and the blog politically agnostic, I would focus just on the content and context of this.

Basically, a furor was raised last week by some in the media and political class over Mr. Jairam Ramesh's off the cuff remark about filth in India. Ramesh said, 'If there was a noble prize for filth, India would get one'

There are multiple ways to look at his comment. One of them of course being, the minister, an IITian by qualification, is being a smarty pant. And that his comment is condescending to Indians. Other way to look at it is, he is just stating the fact. Of course a follow up argument can be made;, so even if he is right, what is he as a minister doing about it? (In fact someone suggested, the youth workers of his party should take up the lead in cleaning India)

But as I said, beyond the politics of all this and the media mumbo jumbo, what can we as citizens do to change a mindset? To bring in some sanity and civic sense?

It's easier said than done and from the email that came last week from one our members that had Mr. Vijay Phanshikar going full cylinders on Nagpuri attitude, you can tell it's a herculan task.

Having said that, can we take some baby steps in that direction though? Can we start small instead of changing everything overnight with one magic wand?

Not to blow my own here, but last visit to Nagpur I tried something, that if nothing else made me feel good. I took my wife out for a morning walk on the West High Court road in Dharampeth. It was around 6:30 am and so there was hardly any traffic or even people on the road. There was though this one guy who was preparing 'Kande Pohe' and 'Tarri' smack in the middle of the road's cross-section. There were around 10 people, mostly young folks, surrounding him, waiting for Pohe to be prepared and consumed.

After the ritual of eating was done, I saw that everyone of the eaters, started throwing their paper plate on the road itself. There was a middle-aged women who was taking a parcel order, and she seemed to be from an educated background, and she too threw her paper right next to the stall.

The idea, apparently was, to throw the waste around and someone will definitely pick it up. In this case, the pohewala himself.

What struck me most was not the act of throwing itself, but how "given" this was? Like it was a norm. A regulation, if you will. No one looked remotely affected by this, including the poor guy who was making pohe and was probably going to collect the waste once he was done.

I told those people, much to the shock of my wife, that they give those waste plates to me. I would collect them and throw it in a trash nearby. One of the young dudes in the group even commented .."arey yeh to munna bhai hai".. I am guessing he was alluding to the movie Lage raho... (a movie, incidently made by a Nagpuri, btw)

Although I did have to endure some under the belt hits, I thought I saw some effect. Half the people did throw their stuff in a plastic bag the pohewala had. Other half of course ignored and went their way.

The point of all this is, that day, I could not change Nagpur or even 10 people, but I did change, I thought a few minds. I am hoping even if ONE of them starts NOT doing this stuff, that's a small win.

The incident left me in a state of minor satisfaction, although my wife did say this.."Don't try to be a neo-Gandhi, will you...?" (Oopsie..)

I know I was not being a Gandhi and I was being a smarty pant, but what the heck; made me feel good momentarily.

So what do you folks think? Do we have some ideas that we can use to start a 'Clean Nagpur, Green Nagpur' campaign? How best we can pass this on? Any champions out there who can take this up?

If you think you have good ideas, please pass it on either via emails or commenting on the post.

-/ACD

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Orange

So we are going Orange!

The color Orange is relevant to Nagpuris of all hue I guess. We have already made the NagpurFirst.org site Orange. So, keeping in tune with everything, this blog is going Orange too.