My Guru Gets Magsaysay

Last month one of my mentors got rewarded by the society. The great soul, I idolize for inspiring and bringing me into the world of social engineering, worked for long before being noticed by the society for consideration.
However, it’s another fact that he never wanted any attention for being good.

Deep Joshi, the founder of Professional Assistance for Development Action or PRADAN was considered for Ramon Magsaysay award for his pioneering work in rural development on August 3.

Joshi two decades ago founded PRADAN with the hope that technically qualified people will turn livelihood interventionist. Six years ago, when I first interacted with Joshi in the Kesla, a central Indian settlement surrounded by dense jungles of Satpura, a had a complete metamorphosis.

In a Gond tribal village nearby we discovered how people educated in Indian Institutes of Technologies and Managements have created livelihood opportunities from mushroom cultivation. The interesting thing the mushroom is flaked and sold as the popular Knorr-soup brand by fast-moving consumer goods major, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

Joshi said, “This product and livelihood integration fits in and around this part of the country ..as a professional you can work different livelihood concept as per the location.”

Joshi was always shy of admitting that he did anything, instead he promoted the local team as the owners of the success. It worked well promoting innovation at more that 30 locations in India, where PRADAN worked.

In my early 20s and raring to do something for the country, I remembered each of his word, until I created a livelihood concept in South-Jharkhand. It was about introducing hybrid corn in about 30 villages.

This concept prevented a imminent large scale migration from the region to brick kilns in Uttar Pradesh, and added on an average an income of about 5,000 rupees or nearly $100. I still find this the most satisfying work in my life.
And I thank Deep and the villagers who believed in me for all of it.

Joshi, an alumnus of MIT and Harvard, saw the first to realize the potential in professionals working a village. However it’s true that every large organization has problem, PRADAN too has.
At the height of decentralization few people started becoming egotist, they chose to exploit the very people whom they were to help. But such minor instances will not take the idea of success as ‘PRADAN’ that Deep Joshi conceptualized.

Cheers Deep. Do inspire more people.

The 'Dalal Street' as I know

I have mostly been parsimonious in my lifestyle and detached from the act of multiplying money in a spectacular manner.

This has to do with the Hindu Brahminical household surroundings, followed by a social and left-affiliated education system I was exposed to in India.

For the initial twenty years in my life I knew stock market is all about speculation and opacity, where no one ever gains. A stock-broker or dealer was a kind of taboo word in the educational and family discussions.

And interestingly in eastern India, where I come from, never did I meet anyone who had dabbled in stocks or the unreal money as they call it.

The ‘Mehta’ and ‘Parekh’ scams that rocked Indian capital markets in the nineties vindicated the belief of me and folks, teachers around me. “This is such dirty scandalous world all about black money and you see they sell papers and write on computers to make money,” said a teacher once in my senior school years.

“It’s only for the dalals, the middlemen, who make money even when the country is at war. They are thick skinned and thin blooded people only money runs in their blood,” told a senior who was an aspiring left student leader.

At 1700 kms from Mumbai I saw in Bollywood films only smugglers in Amitabh Bacchan films play in ‘satta’ or stocks and race course. One movie ‘Satta Bazaar’, showed how a family is ravaged only because the son becomes a stock broker.

My uncle, a senior official with a nationalised bank once told me “See I’m simple man but even I can make out from the name of the street where this Bombay Stock Exchange is. It’s called Dalal Street.”

‘Dalal’ in eastern India carries a certain negative connotation. It refers literally to a miser, some one who makes money from unethical means. I as a school boy had little idea, but thanks to daily reading of newspapers I was not sure or convinced what all people were saying.

I thought if ‘dalal’ is so much of a bad word, why a journalist called Sucheta Dalal was instrumental in unearthing the stock scam. There must be something more to it.

And I was true there was more to it. Much more. ‘Dalal’ is a surname like a Mishra or Chopra and they are successful individuals in all professions and as entrepreneurs. Stock market is no dark land; it’s one of the indicators of the country’s economy.

And India’s Bombay Stock Exchange is the oldest bourse in Asia and Dalals, or the brokers have kept it alive facilitating flow of high value investments in the country. It has a flip side too which the scams have brought out, but it’s like any other necessary evil the country has like its tax system, postal department, banking system etc.

They are great tools for the growth of India, but have to be well regulated. Four years ago I also became a party to the share trading world, thanks to my job as a market writer with a leading economic Web site.

Off late direct market participation is off limits for me due to some professional obligations, nevertheless we are always linked to the market through our mutual funds portfolio.

And guess what. I liquidated a portion of my funds portfolio, invested a year ago, with an average 30 percent return and used the profits (read the unreal money) for some social cause, which I’m proud off.

This is where markets are good. The gains can fund some one’s education, medical bills, or even food. But only if we use it for good and not buy inflated luxuries.