TFI Pune 's Mid Year 2014 retreat at Ahmedabad

Thoughts by the various Dreamers/Innovators/Creators that we met:

1. On inspiration
1. "Inspiration has a shelf life of only one week"
   - Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, Riverside School)
2. On hard work and perseverance
1. Be consistent, day in and day out - kids are very receptive and would appreciate seeing you there in the class every morning no matter how the day ended the evening before.
2. "You can't live on the legacy of what you did yesterday"
   - Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)
3. On finding "your Why"
1. If you are doing what you love, there won't be any burn out because doing what you are doing is no longer optional - you have no choice.
   - Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)
2. Most of us know our "why" we just struggle to convert our thoughts to action - that is what requires courage.
   - Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)
4. On intentions
1. "Do right by your children, not what may be right by you"
   - Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, Riverside School) while talking about how confident she was about raising her students that will become good humans - good citizens and good husbands & wives.
5. On living in the now
1. Since you do not know when in the future TeachForIndia's vision "one day all children in the world will attain an excellent education" is going to come alive, just focus on your vision for today : "today my classroom will get an excellent educator"
   - Kiran Bir Sethi (Director, Riverside School)
2. "Our minds are full that's why we aren't mindful"
   - Jayesh Bhai
6. On religion
1. "All religions are ecologically taxing"
   - Dev Tayde (formerly of Indicorps)

---

Finally my own thoughts:

1. I was like let's do "seva"
   She was like "say wha????"
   
2. My advice/inspiration for people
   If you don't know what to do with your life on any morning when you get up, just look up the meaning of your solid Indian name and think of its deeper meaning..and then spend the day justifying having that name. Continue doing that for the rest of your life and you will be fine.
   
3. Thoughts about Narayanan Krishnan (Akshaya Trust):
   What I now appreciate about him is how comfortable he is in his own skin regardless of what strata of society he may be in - whether with the rich and privileged or with the destitute/old/mentally handicapped. Whenever he is, whatever moment he is in, he makes the lives of the people he is with better.
   
4. You will start doing things because of your nurturing/upbringing your "crisp strong Why statement (your purpose)" may come later during the course of your work and that will fuel you further for the rest of your life.
   
5. Its easy to overlook the small things! (We learnt this while cleaning up the Gandhi Ashram)
   
6. My kind of seva is to nurture - help people grow - help them learn new things - things they cannot do yet! focus on "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" and "let the butterfly struggle"
   
7. My purpose (Theory of Change)
   Our society is inflicted with lots of problems - pollution, poverty, population. I used to think that science and technology would help us eradicate those problems. But now I believe that science and technology by themselves are not enough. We need to build a country of conscientious, aware and educated citizens who can use science and technology to solve the problems that our society faces and will face as it evolves.
   
   I am passionate about nurturing individuals to find their own passions and strengths and lead them to do things that they never thought they could do. I would lead them to realize and accept that life is difficult but that there is immense pleasure and satisfaction in persevering and building things that one always dreams of.
   
   Finally, by leveraging my skills in manipulating technology, I would guide the individuals that I nurture to use science and technology ethically to enhance and improve their work and life.