My Dear Student Friends,
Greetings!
This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder,
Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement. Welcome to “Letter
to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 9”. Hope you enjoyed reading my
previous letter. These letters are reaching
almost all districts across our country- North to South & East to West, for
one good cause, Inspire to Innovate. Your time is most valuable. I
truly respect your time. What is the benefit you will get reading these
letters? These letters are written in epistolary form and presenting most
wonderful people experiences, products and progress. Often these experiences
answer our questions. They sprout curiosity. These letters nurture our critical
thinking. They promise our wishes. Sometimes, these letters bring smile, sometimes
boil our blood, sometimes becomes torchbearer but for sure, raises our hope.
Hope you agree with me.
In the previous issue, we discussed
about City Pride School at Nigdi
Pradhikaran in Pimpri- Chinchwad (how
they are saving water innovatively), Rajendra Singh, water
man of India, Manoj Bhargava, who is working on technical innovations for
social cause, Dr. Peter Morgan,
who contributed towards water
technology and sanitation, Yuichi
Katsuura, who developed
Bicycle type water purifying system, Dr.Bindeshwar Pathak, an
Indian sociologist, founder of Sulabh International. They are amazing people. They created
wonderful and impact stories and created conceptual path for vision setting in
us. Can you imagine yourselves in their shoes? What if, you are able to create
your own similar impact story and create an opportunity to the whole world to read,
hear and learn from you! What kind of experience that could be? Please think
about it.
Before I start my story messages, I
would like to acknowledge couple of responses received from the esteemed i2iSM letter
series readers. Recently I received a wonderful mail response from a first year
student named Shivam Kumar of BITS Pilani (Pilani Campus). Shivam
says, he reads i2iSM letters and also pens
his own blog. I read his posts. Shivam seems very inspiring student! At this
young age, his thinking is matured. In one of the posts, he advices JEE aspirants
on time management, in another post, he appeal students and parents to follow
heart but not market trend. He advices not to become jack of all trades but
masters of none. He appeals not to entangle into rat race and lose your
original natural intelligence and talent. I really thank and wish Shivam for
inspiring students through his ink. His blog can be accessed at shivam319bitspilani.wordpress.com.
In another response, I received a call from Prof.Dr.P.Geervani,
former Vice Chancellor of Mahila University, Tirupati and trustee, Chinmaya
Mission, Hyderabad. We had constructive discussion. Madam gave me wonderful
suggestions and concur that these letters can be great tool for maximizing
learning process. Teachers can use these stories to begin class and make
teaching-learning process most productive. Thank you madam for your esteemed
vision and inviting me to conduct
physical workshop at your institutions.
World is wonderful place. What goes
out usually comes back! Wonderful quote right? Recently I found fantastic story
of Herbert Hoover and Ignacy Jan Paderewski at
www.tkstories.in. Hoover, when he was 18 years old, he was struggling to pay
fees at Stanford. He was poor and orphan. Hoover along with friends decided to
conduct musical concert, earn money and pay fees. They approached famous pianist
Paderewski to conduct concert and took loan of $2000 from him to organize the
same. Concert was successful but they were able to raise only $1600 through
tickets and short of $400 in loan amount itself. What about paying fees? Being
honest and genuine, They paid $1600 and cheque of $400 to Paderewski. A kind
hearted Paderewski tore the cheque, returned $1600 and asked them to give the
amount left after paying fees. Later Paderewski became Prime Minister of
Poland. During world war, Poland got devastated. Paderewski reached US Food and
Relief Administration for help. The head of the department was Herbert Hoover.
What a surprise! Hoover helped in such crisis and saved people from starving.
Infact later Herbert Hoover became President of America as well. Paderewski personally visited America to
thank Hoover. In that conversation, Hoover said, "Mr. Prime Minister, long
back you helped 2 young boys, I am one of them"! What a cycle? Every
action has some reaction. It is true example of this philosophy. The message is
clear. Any help you do, becomes return gift!
Often we become complacent after
achieving something and receiving rewards. But it is fact that if we don't take
risks in that moment, rewards get reversed! We need to strive hard. It is
always tight rope walk. There is no reward for complacency. Recently I was
reading about P C Musthafa in www.rediff.com. Musthafa born
in poor family (Wayanad, Kerala) and struggled a lot during his early life. Had
to walk 4 kilometers during his high school days. Father works as coolie, mother
is an illiterate and having 4 siblings. Failed in Class 6 (no electricity at
home) and lost interest in studies. However, that point of time, his
mathematics teacher Mr. Mathew counseled, inspired and mentored.
He got first in Class 7 and records continued. As he is coming from village
background, he faced difficulty in English. With the help of friend, he managed
to learn. You know what? He got 63rd rank in state engineering
entrance. Joined NIT Calicut, campus placed Manhattan Associates, later worked
for Motorala, travelled to Ireland, later joined Citibank Dubai, cleared Loans,
sent 1 Lakh to his father (cascade of successful events). Father cleared all
debts and made arrangements for sisters marriage. Musthafa built
home for parents, returned India to live with parents. Quit well paying job,
wrote CAT and got into IIMB. He wants to do something on his own. His entrepreneurial
mind made him unrest to do something novel. Started small business (supplying dosa batter
to hotels- Name of the company- ID Fresh) along with his cousins. Started with
10 packets per day and in 9 months, reached 100 packets a day. After MBA,
joined as CEO, increased capacity to 3500Kg per day, and by 2015, reached
50,000 packets a day with 1100 employees in 10 years time frame and crossed 1
billion rupees (100 crores) revenue!! This live story is so inspiring to many
of us! Mr. Musthafa is not just teaching us entrepreneurship, but it is more
than that. He is teaching us the sense of responsibility as son. He is teaching
us how life has to be designed inspite of hardships, he is teaching us how
risks are rewarded when you are sincere in your approach, he is teaching us the
importance of inspiring teacher in our life, value of mentoring, respect
towards great teachers, he is teaching us how you can give back to your
country. I really thank rediff.com for publishing such an inspiring story.
Today in our society, we are forgetting our basic responsibilities as son or
daughter. Taking care of parents not just responsibility, but it is beyond.
Students are taking extreme steps in the event of failures. I am truly inspired
to write this story to remind of duties, managing life and converting problems
to rewards!
I would like to share another
inspiring story of a school going girl. Recently I received a forwarded mail of
UNICEF India, in the context of success of Swachh Campaign. UNICEF lauded the committed effort of school
going girl, Lavanya, from the village called Sira in Karnataka.
After attending an awareness campaign on Swachh Bharat Mission, made 48-hour hunger
protest at home, compelled his family to build toilet in her home and inspired
entire village to get one. What an amazing commitment of Lavanya. If India
blessed with 100s of such wonderful daughters, no force can stop our progress.
Thank you UNICEF for posting this inspiring message and wish Lavanya to
continue her positive spirit for different causes.
In this context, I would like to
share my own experience with a college going student. I was trying to inspire one
boy with various stories. After hearing all the stories, he told me I am too
young to start something what I wish. I will do something great after I settle
in life. I cannot blame this boy because, 20 years back I was also thinking
like this. This is traditional middle class growth mindset. After my college, I
joined Wipro Technologies, got into wonderful assignments, travelled few
countries, received decent remuneration. 10 years back itself, I was thinking quit
my job to start Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement, but I
was unable to take huge risk. My family consists of mother, wife and 2 kids.
Family did not have any history of quitting comfortable jobs and venture into
unknown territory. However, in 2008, my fever sore high. Something I have to do
in life. That point of time, I read a quote from unknown source, which
connected to my heart. I want to share with you, which has lot of meaning. Once
there was boy asking a wise man, which is the best day to pray Lord? Wise man
tells, the day before you die! Boy asks, how do I know that day? Wise man
replies, hence Start from Today. Tomorrow is not ours. In 2 years time,
I gathered courage to quit job as my wife gave me emotional and financial support,
returned back to my home town, Vizianagaram, AP. Couple of years I was going
school to school, college to college, alerting the importance of inspire to
innovate in the institutions. Few of the appreciated, few of them implemented,
few of them are not yet ready. GVP College of Engineering (A), Vizag recognized
the importance of this movement and funding me till date. What I am trying to
say, when you hit the bottom with force, you are bound to raise high (Newton's
third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction). Calculated risks are always healthy in our life. Fluke risks
are dangerous. We should able to differentiate calculated risk and accidental
risk and take risk accordingly. In such situations, good inspiring stories help
us in differentiation and decisions. I wish you give deep thinking and take calculated
risk in your life accordingly.
This scorching 2016 summer is
touching 45o to 50o temperature in many parts of the
country. Ground water levels are depleting to core. Water is becoming scarce
product. Working for this cause is always noble and visionary. In this
connection, I would like to share an article posted in thebetterindia.com. 25-year-old
Shashank Singh Kachwaha, who studied mechanical engineering, working
with Hero Cycles, quit his well paying job and started working on building a
pond in Chota Naraina village located in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan.
Shashank found that four ponds in the village were not being utilized (either
broken or no water). He identified catchment area for pond so that rain water
can be captured. No machines, no heavy equipment used but it is done completely
with the help of people power. It is completed owned by community. He could
able to convince villagers, gained their trust, won their hearts and built the
pond. After this project completion, Shashank, hailing from Bihar, wanted to go
back to his home state and participate in rural development programs. Best
wishes Shashank in your future endeavors and Thank you
betterindia.com for posting positive stories and inspiring people.
Recently thelogicalindian.com posted
an article on most needy product which world is looking for - A product which converts
saltwater to drinking water using Sunlight. In our childhood, we heard this
ryme by ancient mariner (Samuel Taylor
Coleridge): Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water,
water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. India is having long coastline
of 7,517 km. Inspite of this, there is acute shortage of freshwater
including in costal areas. Gabrielle Diamanti’s solar powered
saline water purifier is one good solution to solve this crisis. It is
personal desalination device requires no fuel, no electricity and no maintenance.
This can be devised with readily available material like ceramic. It purifies
about five liters of water per day and costs less than $50. Thank you Gabrielle
Diamanti’s for your social innovation and logicalindian for publishing. World
is looking for people like Gabrielle who solves basic problems in constrained
environment and maximizes utility. Sometime back McKinesey published an
article- More from less! Infact SRISTI (Society for Research and
Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) announced an
award called MLM ( More from less for Many). My Dear Student friends, if you
have any such ideas, please submit your proposal. If you want to know more
about it, visit gyti.techpedia.in/aboutus.
My Dear Friends, Hope you found useful reading these inspirational stories! Hope you got inspired to do good for
better society! Inspire, Inspire and Inspire!!! Friends, I appreciate your valuable time. I will again see you in my
next letter. Thank you for giving me this great opportunity to write to you and
help me to learn, unlearn and relearn in this process. I personally thank all
websites, authors who are publishing / writing such an inspiring stories for
common good and contributing for better world. Thank you Authors and Websites.
With Best Wishes
Dr. Ravi Saripalle
About Author: Dr.
Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement. He is also Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of
Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to spread inspiration through real time case
studies in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters
(epistolary form) and sending them to thousands schools, colleges, universities
across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops to inspire students for
select institutions. Providing customized mentoring to specific inspired
students. Dr. Ravi is having 18 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training,
Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current role, Dr. Ravi worked with Wipro
Technologies for more than a decade. Dr Ravi can be reached at saripalle.ravi@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or facebook.com/saripalle.ravi
Links to previous letters
1.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 8 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
2.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 7 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
3.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 6 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
4.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 5 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_01_01_archive.html
5.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 4 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
6.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 3 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
7.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 2 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
8.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 1 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India)
Disclaimer:
The goal of this i2iSM letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth
through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In
this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS
articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing
such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried
to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions,
grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the
readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t
involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution.
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