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34 | life | TEHELKA The People’s Paper | SATURDAY, 11 AUGUST 2007 www.tehelka.com personalhistories ‘YOU CARRY A LAPTOP, YOU MUST BE WORKING FOR A REALLY COOL NGO’

ETA, AB settle ho jao. Aur choose the politicians who govern us and we can make a difference. pehle comfortable hona DHRUV LAKRA zaroori hai. Yeh sab baad Three months after the tsunami, I mein karna.” (Son, settle Lives in . Is 26 years old. Worked as an flew down to Tamil Nadu and Andhra down now. It is important investment banker before joining the Pradesh as part of my first relief assign- Bto first get comfortable in life. You can development sector. On his way to Oxford for an ment. I had already been branded an do this work later.) “Bahut accha MBA in social entrepreneurship idealist by then. The reaction I got was: kaam karte ho beta, garib logon ko you are flying, you carry a laptop, you khana dena acchi baat hai”. (Son, you must be working for a really cool NGO, are doing very good work. It is good not some small time outfit. Yes, just be- to feed the poor.) cause I work for an NGO doesn’t mean I I often hear such comments when- can’t fly, can’t have a laptop, can’t go to ever I meet my extended family. It’s a nice place to eat, can’t buy expensive the same with my friends; the only stuff. “Forget little luxuries if you are difference is that they don’t address going to help the needy and the poor” me as “beta”. I’ve found that it is al- — so goes the mindset but that is not ways interesting to see how people necessarily true. react when you tell them that you are Immediate relief-work for tsunami working for an NGO. More so when victims was already underway; equally they find out that you left a high-pay- pressing was the need for long-term ing job in a sought-after company for rehabilitation. I tried to involve friends this. “Why did you do it?” says the and family in Mumbai. The immediate look on their faces. response was: “Nothing reaches the The expression often changes from people… There’s lots of funding. one of sheer disappointment to People from all the over the world are thoughtfulness. I can easily follow the pouring money. What difference will trajectory of their speculations. He my Rs 2,000 make?” This from people must have done it because he could earning over a lakh a month. not take the pressures of the job. He I did realise that it is not for me to must want an easy life. Probably judge anyone. People have problems. comes from a rich family. More ques- They have their priorities and that is tions follow — who will marry you? fine. What is annoying is when, with- How will you pay the bills? After all out bothering to check, people under- everything is so expensive — from mine the efforts of those who choose mangoes to going to watch a film. to work in this space. People, it seems, don’t realise that many NGOs are professionally run, re- NELDERLYlady once told me, sult-oriented organisations. They “I gave so much money to UZMA MOHSIN have come a long way since they were Athis cause and don’t know charitable organisations that relied what happened to it.” I asked her if solely on the efforts of a volunteers. I recall giving directions to a yuppie once who she had bothered to check with the There isn’t enough space to list all organisation what they had done with the reactions my choice of career elic- was completely clueless about how to reach her money and the answer was a its, though the “beta” ones mentioned shameless ‘No’. Donors are equally re- above are without a doubt my . Home, college, places to party and sponsible for the bad name the social favourites. I like to call these com- hang out — these were the only places he knew sector attracts in , as they are ments, perspectives. seldom concerned about how their I had originally shifted to Mumbai money is being spent. What they are from Jammu to “get exposure” and to mat lagana. Lagaya to haath tod who would say, “Dhruv, his college interested in is the 80-G tax benefits. become independent. I have no doonga.” (Don’t touch me; if you do I has asked him to do this, can you “Do you have any plans for the fu- qualms in admitting that I was pretty will break your arms.) I stand there please get this over and done with.” ture,” someone asks me. She reminds successful and became well versed ashamed. You think you are being Nothing wrong I guess, but I feel that me that all my friends have MBAs, cars with the cooler things in life. macho to a kid a third your size, people need to realise that “this” kind and big flats. I want her to stop, so I Exposure implies things like learning naked, starving, wet from the early of work helps develop a certain per- tell her that I too am going to study for to travel without your family, making morning showers, his bones showing. spective — a certain sensitivity to- an MBA. “Thank God, some sense has friends, developing a sense of confi- Every day I hear commuters com- wards things that are not right and a prevailed over you,” comes the reply. dence and responsibility, learning to menting on “these people”, overlook- sense that each individual can do “But, who will pay for your education live by yourself and hanging out at the ing the simple fact that “these people” something about it. since you have been working so long right places. But during all this, I are hungry children first and beggars I recall giving directions to a yuppie for peanuts? Had you worked with a would feel that something was amiss. later, and are being stigmatised for ab- once who was completely clueless company there wouldn’t have been Why was going to Kamathipura or solutely no fault of theirs. about how to reach Kamathipura. any problem.” I tell her that I have a Dharavi in Mumbai not part of the It is common for college students to Home, college, places to party and full scholarship. “All the good work exposure? Now, that would have been work for an NGO. It is often compulso- hang out — these were the only that you have done has finally paid off. real exposure. It would force you to ry, but even otherwise, the benefits places he knew. We always knew you had it in you and see things that are usually completely are many — after all it is a huge plus if When he reached there, he “could- you have made us proud. We need missed, ignored and forgotten. People you want to study abroad, and always n’t imagine that a place like this exist- more people like you,” she says. tend to think that it is okay to let the makes an impression on your resume. ed in Mumbai.” If you don’t see the I have come to realise that there are road be dirty as long as their homes Usually the NGO experience ends right poverty and disparity endemic in always those who will encourage you are clean and free of garbage. there. With skyrocketing corporate India with your own eyes, these will and those who will discourage you. I As we walked from sta- salaries, it hardly strikes anyone to remain abstract issues for you and have stopped listening to the latter. As tion to college every morning, street consider making a career in the you’ll always find someone else to the lady leaves she says, “So now you kids would accost us asking for social sector. blame — the government, politicians, can go back to investment banking money. What was most annoying When I was working we used to get local leaders, others. Somewhere and make money.” I keep quiet. It’s all were the commuters’ retorts: “haath interns and I had had family members along the line we forget that we about perspective.  A SERIES ON TRUE EXPERIENCES