MY CHOSEN PATH

I always wanted a make a career in marketing. And so, I wanted to join one of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) – which I could not. The only reason I chose to join the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) over the other management institute in Ahmedabad was because of the thrill of living in a hostel. Inspite of the ‘rural’ prefix to the management diploma, I was confident of getting around to selling soaps & shampoos or tractors or computers ! Little did I realise then that joining IRMA would change the course of my life. It nearly didn’t. I ensured that I took up marketing projects during my study and I also got into a marketing job for selling oil, ghee and assorted waste extracts.

But it lasted only till I visited my friend and batchmate Shankar a couple of months later, to see the work he was doing with an NGO (non-governmental organisation). I remember it was with great disbelief and a bit of scepticism that I received the news of my best friend joining the gang of ‘jhola-wallas’ ! But what I thought would be a pleasure trip to Netrang (in South Gujarat where Shankar worked), turned out to be a turning point in my career and life. “Get into IRMA, become a rural manager, and see how much of respect you will get and how satisfying your work will be” was what Ramu (my friend during college days) told me while coaxing me to seriously consider applying for admission to IRMA. I remember my close friend, Sanju and I smirking at Ramu's 'wisdom'. Seeing Shankar in the field made Ramu’s words ring true. I don’t know about the 'respect' part, but he certainly was immensely happy, for he could see how he was able to change the life of village communities so early on in his life. My mind was made. Five months later, Anil Shah or Anilbhai as he was popularly known (the former Secretary – Rural Development, Government of Gujarat, who became the first Chief Executive of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - AKRSP, India) offered me a position in AKRSP.

I have never looked back since then. My work in the social development sector has taken me to different parts of the country, many remote locations. “I love this job since it pays you to see the country”, said Ajit (Chau), a friend and colleague of mine, in a lighter vein. He was very true though. Well, our job did pay us not just to see the country, but to understand the country, its people, its culture, its traditions. Each day brought in new challenges, each day brought with it new learnings. 24 years hence, it still is true ! New learnings, new challenges and always, the excitement of Change - that change can happen, that change is happening.....for the better !

It was in 1983 during my first field visit to a village in Kheda that I first ventured into the countryside (well, I had been to villages in Kerala before, but then, they are so different and relatively more urbane than those in other parts of the country). Later the same year, five of us from IRMA (Shankar, Ashutosh, Apoorva, Sudhir), spent 2 months in the rural areas of Raipur district, (in Madhya Pradesh state then, now in the state of Chattisgarh). Those 2 months were both fascinating and inspiring - and I remember vaguely we discussing plans of setting up our own NGO at some point in time !

The countryside still fascinates me, not in a development tourist sense, but in the way it has subtly but clearly shown me what the not-so-often recognised ‘resilience’ of Indian people is, in addition to of course being treated to the best of Indian hospitality and warmth. I have had the opportunity of experiencing the various adversities (though in a limited way) of the communities living in different parts of the country, adding to the various other disadvantages they have had to cope with – of being orphaned, destitute, landless, illiterate, outcasts, bonded, disabled, being women…..! But all through, what came out was their strong will to overcome these in their own ways, with little hope in store for them. In many cases though, they did manage to overcome these disadvantages with the support of local NGOs and even some sympathetic government functionaries. It has made me realise ever so often how they provide the backbone to the Indian economy. It has made me realise how much better endowed people like me are, and yet, we seem to be little prepared to face the relatively smaller challenges in our lives !

Later on, in my career, I also had the advantage of visiting many other countries in Asia and Africa. The contexts may be very different, but the underlying issues are often, and depressingly so, very common - the same form of socio-political institutional apathy, discrimination, victimisation, denial of basic entitlements, all of which contribute to growing inequalities in the countries and globally. But yet, community after community also comes up with amazing resilience, of undying spirit to overcome the various challenges - much of which is inspiring and motivating ! It is not only in villages.......my work has taken me to various urban settlements of very poor and disadvantaged people. Wanting to escape the hopelessness in their villages, many of them come to cities, attracted by its glitter and promise, but only to lead an even more miserable existence. And one can only be amazed by their resilience and spirit to continue to live on in squalour, leading inhuman lives - and perhaps a bit surprised at the apathy of millions of much better endowed people who mill around them all the time, but completely ignore them or deny their existence !

I do not wish to romanticise or trivialise these issues. What I’d like to do is to dig into my memories of the past two decades and bring to the fore positive, eventful incidents that make me feel how fortunate I have been in doing what I am and bringing to the fore interesting anecdotes that made my work and times exciting, rewarding and memorable. Possibly, this will paint a picture which is bright and colourful, inspite of the several adversities that confront the people I met, but who have taken on these challenges as a way of their life and who, in their own way, have enriched lives of occasional visitors like me ! And therein lies hope and optimism - that these myriad challenges can be overcome with that spirit and courage, backed with a little external support, by millions of disadvantaged people around the world. There are no path breaking revelations, nor do I propose to break any new ground on development thinking. This is, simply put, my recollection of experiencing life the way I did as a social development professional – straight from the heart !

I have equally been very fortunate to meet and work with so many inspiring colleagues and friends, whose guidance and motivation was so immensely valuable. The charistmatic Anilbhai of AKRSP was my first development guru. Bro. James Kimpton, the British missionary, who chose to spend his life in Sri Lanka and India, showed me what commitment and dedication meant. Salil Shetty was and continues to be my source of inspiration, with his amazing enthusiasm for change and his vision of a more equal world. And ofcourse, Shankar Narayanan, who, in addition to being my best friend, is a strong moral supporter and peer, always motivating and encouraging me.

There are scores of colleagues with whom I worked in AKRSP, RTU, Actionaid, Plan International, DFID and now WaterAid, and many other organisations we partnered with, whose friendship and association I deeply value and who made (and continue to make) my work so enriching and motivating.

Shankar, Apoorva, Sudhir and Shashidharan have been my peers for over two-and-half decade now - and I have always valued their support and advice, and respected their insights. Ashutosh (Ashu), who was with me in IRMA moved into civil service, but has been keenly following our work. While in AKRSP, I enjoyed working with Joel Sumithra, (the late) Sonal Shah, Devjibhai, Pankaj Dave, Leela Nair, Koshy, Shiney Varghese, Manjul Bajaj, Ranjit Ambastha, Meera Kaul and Parmesh Shah - and ofcourse with my close friends Shankar, Shashi and Apoorva were there too.

Ajit Mani and Ravi Narayanan gave me my first 'break' in an international organisation when I joined ActionAid, deputed to work with RTU. I got married while I was just completing a year with RTU. Kallupatti (a village in Madurai district) became the first marital house for Sandhya and myself. I was there for little over 4 years. In RTU, Ilango, Manoba, Fatima, Susairaj, James, Ramesh, Paneerselvam, Poonkodi, Latha, Gnanambal, Arockiaraj and others made it a very enjoyable, enriching and a valuable learning experience. I gained immensely from guidance from RTU Board members and advisers like John Dalton, D.K. Oza, Vasimalai and Shivakumar. And since my ActionAid days, colleagues and seniors like Salil Shetty, Rammohan, Tom Thomas, Vinay Raj, Nagarajan, Sathyabalan, Sukhwinder Arora, Prabhakar Varma, Pravin Mahajan, Dhruv Mankad, Dr. Daniel, Ajit Chaudhari, Shankar Venkateswaran, Amitava Mukherjee, Thyagarajan, Binu Thomas, Sukhatirtha, Ashish Sen, Ravi Pratap Singh, Sandeep Chachra, Bijay Kumar, Biraj Patnaik, Rosemary Sebastian, Parmeshwari, Sandhya Sharma, Naaz Khair, Girish Bharadwaj, Nupur Kukrety, Vasumathi, Vinod Krishnan and many others made my ActionAid days very memorable - and that was a full 10 years of immense learning and development for me, during which I gained immense confidence and much deeper understanding of social development issues in India and around the world. A special mention of Meenu Vadhera, Geeta Unnikrishnan, Bhuvana and Gouthami who formed the strong 'gender brigade' and helped us understand and appreciate gender issues with immense sensitivity and impressive persuasion skills. 3 of my 10 years with ActionAid was spent in Bhopal. Notorious for the Bhopal Gas disaster, this lovely city became very special for us, since our twin sons were born in Bhopal in 1996. The support that we received from my colleagues Prahlad Vishwakarma, Kishor Patnaik, Dr. Vaseer, Sundar and others was great !

In Plan, it was a pleasure working with Roger Braden, Minty Pande, Deepali Khanna, Ranganathan, Suresh Raghavan, Manuel, Chandra Kannapiran, George Fernandez, Vibhuti Pandey, Sastry, Avni Malhotra, Sandhya Nair, Jayanta Bora, Seshagiri, Arti Sinha, Boopalan, Sivasubrmaniam, Ramesh, Sabita, Akhil Jugran and many others. And as part of the Bangalore team in Plan, colleagues like George and Anita Kumar helped me understand what being 'child-centred' actually meant, with Lalitha Iyer being my unquestionable guru in that area ! How can I forget her training on 'Child-Pro' ?

DFID was an entirely different experience in an intellectual sense. Dr. Dennis Pain, Rosalind Eyben, Vijay Pillai, Sudipto Mukherjee, Moutushi Sengupta, Shouvik Datta, Mahesh Mishra, Sarojini Thakur, Geeta Unnikrishnan, Vikram Menon, Ashim Chawla, Sonali Chib, Sheeja Nair, Judith Kent, Kevin Crockford, Lakshmi Menon, Amarjeet Sinha, Ranjana Kumar, Sidharthan, Raghavendra Rao, Shan Mitra, Debashish Sircar, Ken Desouoza, Dinesh Nair, Sean Doolan, Peter Smith, Ian Curtis, Sandeepa Sahay, Sangeeta Mehta, Aditi Rajyalaxmi, Debbie Menezes, Felix Anton, Loga Gnanasambandan, Mihir Joshi and others made it a very enriching experience, helping me understand the macro level policy issues and the more political dimensions of social development - and of course, what it meant to work in a bilateral organisation. Colleagues like Rajesh Krishnan, Sudha Menon, Jayashree Das, Srilatha Iyer, Debbie Roscoe were a great support and it was fun working with them.

Happily, that process of continuous learning and enrichment continues with WaterAid. I joined when Ravi Narayanan was the global head and it was great getting in touch again. Soon after, Barbara Frost took over as the Chief Executive in late 2005 -it has been a very inspiring and delightful experience working with her, and senior colleagues like Paula Laird, Rachel Westcott, Andrew Cook, Patricia Dandonoli, Margaret Batty and Peter Dwan. Colleagues in my department at WaterAid (International Operations) have been a strong pillar of support and motivation for me - Idrissa Doucoure, John Kandulu, Tom Palakudiyil, Lydia Zigomo, Mariame Dem, Jerry Adams, Robert Kampala, Erik Harvey, Rosie Wheen, David Shaw, Samantha French, Therese Mahon, Louisa Gosling, Papa Diouf and Jane Scobie among them -and so also, colleagues like Mark Lomas, Henry Northover, John Lockett, Tom Slaymaker and Ann Cropper from other departments. In our country and regional programmes, current and former colleagues like Helen Pankhurst, Khairul Islam, Rokeya Ahmed, Pamela Rodrigues, Ishaprasad Bhagwat, Indira Khurana, Oliver Jones, , Jonathan Burton, Nash, Fatoumata Haidara, Sarina Prabasi, Viv Abbott, Lucky Lowe, Lovy, Yerefolo Malle, Yunia, Nelson Gomonda, Dominic de Waal, Chandra Ganapathy, Joe Lambongang, Teferi Abebe, Rosaria Mabica, Paul Obura, Bethleman Mengistu  and many, many more colleagues have been a great support from whom I have learnt a lot and gained clearer insights on a range of African and Asian development issues. I'd especially mention former colleagues Simon Trace, Stephen Turner, Belinda Calaguas and Alan Etherington from whose encouragement and advice I deeply valued especially when I was new to WaterAid, and James Wicken, whose youthful dynamism and sharp intellect has deeply impressed me. Other associates like Joe Gomme, Maggie Pankhurst, Peter Ackland, Ken Caplan, Barbara Evans, Michael Anderson, Penny Lawrence, David Thomson, John Plaistow provided very insightful advice and guidance.

A number of WaterAid trustees, current and past, have been a source of encouragement and inspiration for their passion and commitment for human development, working tirelessly and voluntarily.....Vic Cocker, Karen Morgan, John Isherwood, Nigel Reader, Myra Green, Jeremy Pelczer, Greg Hodkinson, Tony Kelly, Pamela Taylor, Ashoke Chatterjee, Sandy Cairncross and many others. As a member of the board of Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), I have been impressed by the dynamism and enthusiasm of Will Day, Sam Parker, Richard Aylard, Dave Tickner, Bill Peacock and Raja Jarrah. I am also on the board of Reaching the Unreached in the UK - Martin and Margaret Henry, Mike Jellicoe, David and Jo Cassidy are some of the very inspiring individuals who have worked very hard to raise resources in their voluntary capacity for RTU India, with a missionary zeal !

There are many, many colleagues from our partner organisations who inspired me immensely, especially John Samuel of National Centre for Advocacy Studies (and now Regional Director of ActionAid - Asia), Seema and Sadiq Agwan of Prayas and S.K. Singh of Sambhav, Gopalbhai of Akhil Bharatiya Samaj Sevi Sansthan, Shumita Ghosh and Ganga of Urmul, Madhavan of Urmul (and now Chirag), Yogesh Kumar of Samarthan, Ilina Sen of Rupantar, (the late) Viji Srinivasan of Aditi, T. Pradeep of Samuha, Aloysius Fernandes of Myrada, Munira Sen of Madhyam, Prabhakaran of Malarchi from India, Netsanet of Zemasef - Ethiopia, Umesh Pandey of Newah - Nepal, Arif Hassan and (the late) Parveen Rahman of Orangi Pilot Project - Pakistan Patrick Aboyo of Coniwas - Ghana, Santos of Estamos - Mozambique and several others.

Long time friends like Bina Rani, Lakshmi Rani,Vivek Warrier, Sanjeev Gupta, Mathew Cherian, Ranu and Teji Bhogal, Renuka and Indu Prakash Singh, Sangeeta Singh, Makarand Sahasrabuddhe, Rekha and Rajkumar are among scores of friends with whom I did not work directly, but have been a source of huge encouragement over the past 2 decades. Many of my friends have inspired me with their writing skills - Daman Singh and Manjul Bajaj are now recognised authors, Gouthami and Ashim Chawla had enviable journalistic traits and Ajit Chaudhari with his regular monthly 2-pagers which also now appears on his blog, have hugely inspired me to write (so what if it is not upto the Salman Rushdie or Arundhati Roy standards ???).

Much of what I managed to experience, largely through my travels, would not have happened but for the support of my wife, Sandhya, who was tasked with the responsibility of taking care of our twin sons while I was away on her own, with little external support. And one of the motivating factors for me to write this came from my sons Anurag (Raga) and Anirudh (Ridhu) who always wanted to know about what happened during my travels - and while the stories there were more keen were on flights and hotels, I hope they will find these anecdotes interesting as well. My sister Rajany and her husband Akhil have always been keen to know more about my work, and so also some of my cousins - Roshan (Tinku), Rajesh (Denny), Regit (Minnu), Seema, Subhir, Sheeja, Sudhir (Sabu) and Suraj (Kuttimon), my brother-in-law Santhosh and his wife Sheeja. And more recently, Rajany's daughter and my niece Radhika. I hope they are able to recollect some of my earlier stories through these narrations. Last, but not the least, a word of acknowledgement for all the efforts my mother and father put in to raise me and educate me, that made it possible for me to go through these vivid experiences, and their continued blessings !

I hope I will continue to have the energy and enthusiasm to write about some of my experiences, which I initially started writing in 2002...........! And while writing these down, it is like reliving those experiences, times with some valuable colleagues and friends, and very importantly, the lessons that one learns all the time, lessons from ordinary people making an extra-ordinary difference to bring change, and make this world a much better place to live in !