Special social...innovative...entrepreneurial week in India

that starts with a bus that does not stop for me, waiting in the middle of the night at Kayamkullam stop because the guy from the travel agency in Valekau, village in front of the ashram, where I booked my trip, has inverted the dates: 07-04 instead of 04-07... (don't book travels with Malabar travels!)

So, I end up having to stop a random bus in the middle of the street to travel north, in the direction of Bangalore, and negotiate a last minute fare with the bus driver (of course no receipt!).
A few hours of 'awake sleep' and round 3AM next bus...trying to find another bus in the direction of Ettimidai, my final destination south of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
And after 3 buses and 1 rickshaw I finally get to Ettimidai Amrita University, round 7AM.

The good surprise is that I meet with Swami Y and Akilesh right away at the kitchen of the ashram side.

Ettimidai University is simply huge: 800 acres, 4000 students, 2000 people living there. And very clean! bins everywhere!

 Magnificent gardens, facilities, amazing mountains around, peacocks, monkeys, wild elephants...very peaceful place.

Amazing Olympic swimming pool!

So we go and swim for a couple of hours. The presence of an Olympic swimmer, my roommate Matti-Akilesh, is a great attraction to kids who all want to see/ swim with him. Great feeling!

Not always easy to share a room with a playboy, but to be honest he is so humble and kind...at 27...saving girls from drowning in the ashram and remaining very quiet, very humble!

Just put your shirt back on brov, please!... or we will get all the girl coming around again, lining up to get CPR from you!!!

 Sunday is easter day: prayers in a small temple near the tropical gardens, loaded with mangos, papayas... with swamiji and Akilesh.

Another meditation time is our visit of Isha's ashram, not too far from Ettimidai. Amazing, magnificent place: humongous palaces, stones, statues, gold...everywhere.
Quite in contradiction with the poverty of the villages around... too much for me.
Why spend 3Mio dollars in a new temple? How many people around could this money save?
The coffee shop is a replication of a Starbucks...the minimum recommended donation is 10000Rs, 150euros....a lot of money here!     Quite disturbing for me.

Quite far from the projects of Amma, Ettimidai, for example here, recycling, composting, 0 Waste...

Monday through wednesday: Social entrepreneurship workshop held by a local NGO: Icreate...
Great job in teaching the teachers: case studies and practical business planning of social entrepreneurship projects coming from the field, from local people, and students in social work field.

 And interesting classes, workshops on social entrepreneurship projects, business planning ...


And then the pleasure to wander in fabulous tropical gardens...



The magic of peacocks hopping and playing around...

Wednesday: decision to go and attend the Sankalp summit in Mumbai and promote Amrita projects with investors, business people in India...

After 3 days in a wonderful, quite, peaceful place, the plane that lands in Mumbai leaves me with anxieties of the kilometers of buildings, slums all around big Mumbai! dirty, busy, noisy...
The the chock of Mad Mumbai. Nothing like a train in Mumbai!!!

 2 days of social entrepreneurship summit in one of the poshest hotel in town: Taj Land's End! Rolls Royce in front...
Weird now to go from grassroots level projects to upper class India! 10000Rs  entrance fee! 150 euros compared to the 35$ of the Insead social innovation conference I am attending in Jakarta next month!
95% of the people here are upper class and have probably never really been exposed to real poverty, to BoP sorrows.

Feels like this is a marketing symposium on ways to address a new market, not really to bring solutions. Little place for compassion and selfless service here. ROI more than SROI!

Quite a contrast with the other projects I am involved in, but as a matter of fact very interesting.
Fundings opportunities, technologies, models...
Bu in many ways a very inspiring brainstorm!

The nicest hotels, near the dirtiest places I have seen in my life!
How will I ever be able to have the slightest influence on such a chaos??

Only Amma's grace can do anything on cleaning India!

But after 5 days in Mumbai time to go back...
Not really a place where I could ever live: 2000 slums in Mumbai, 55% of the population living in slums, in real poverty...contrasting with the most expensive building in the world, owned by one indian magnat, 7 first floors for the family cars....


The $1 billion (£630 million), 27 storey tower block in Mumbai is the home of Mukesh Ambani — the richest man in India, fourth richest man in the world –, his wife and their 3 children.

Insane!

TII: This Is India, a country of contrasts... and .... kharma!

Surfing

Well, I have been a surfer all my life, wondering at times what it really meant for me, beyond the fame, the nice landscapes, the cute blond girls waiting and cheering on the beach...the fun, the ecstasy even ...of great waves, big ones...
Learning how to swim with a father grabing one leg, one arm and throwing me into the shore break...
Shaping wooden bogie boards before foam bogie boards even existed, in Tahiti...skim boarding with polynesian kids...
Learning the rythm of the sea, the pace of the universe, through these changing waters, currents, sunsets...impermanence...never twice the same wave...never possible to repeat the same move twice
You need to constantly adjust, adapt to moving scenarios, overcome the fears of the unknown...learning respect, balance, as well as daring, growing with courage...

But I guess today I start to put all this into perspective...my surfing of 'life waves', as they come along, never as I plan/expect ... accepting them as opportunities to grow, to learn...to position myself in my surroundings, every time closer to what I need... closer to Mother Earth, the Universe, God's plans, Amma's love...

All those things that make my life full, that give meaning to my being here...a true purpose...

So even when I cannot, I try to 'surf', to feel the energy of life. I ground myself, lower my center of gravity and imagine myself getting into the... tube...even when the energy is bad, hard, dirty...when life gets hard...

It is almost like going surfing when waves are poor, the conditions are hard, just training, trying to be ready for when the swell is going to be perfect and you need to be in shape...

So just trying to keep on practicing...
hoping that the repetition (sadhana) of the moves will have me ready to be more in tune with the wave inside energy, more in tune with my own energy...

and yet detach from it...

Trying my best and detach from the results, from expectations...my own, others'.

Just being there, sometimes floating on that piece of foam, out there on a grey rainy day, waiting for the big sets, feeling the silence, the loneliness of a big swell, not perfect, but powerful... just the swell of that day...

Accepting where I am without dreaming of being somewhere else...

Imperfectly... perfect... for me, for where I am...what I need... here and now