Meet Mr & Mrs Nachiketa Sharma

Today I had the privilege of meeting two wonderful people: Mr.Nachiketa Sharma and his wife Ms. Saloni Sharma. Nachiketa is a friend of mine from REC, very pleasant to talk and always has a smile on his face. I was in Bay Area and I met him and his wife for dinner.  This was first time I was meeting his wife. Sure enough Nachi had his broad smile and friendly attitude that personifies him, so did his wife. She was kind enough to suggest good dishes at that restaurant we were. After we ordered the food, we started discussing about work, life, and other activities.
I mentioned about my car business, my current work and assisting the telugu association etc. Even though I did take a good amount of time explaining these, I would cut short those details and concentrate on him for now :)
Nachiketa has been active in the local alumni network attending their meetings, talking to seniors and usually plugged in. He has good contacts and knows who is doing what. While conversing, he mentioned that currently he is dedicating part of his time to an orphanage in J&K, and trying to establish a NPO in USA. He is currently sponsoring couple of school children for their education. What a noble cause! Education is the sure way to progress in India. India hasnt grown to a stage where college drop outs with no background can make millions like in USA. Basic education is still a luxury in India, and it is people like Nachiketa who is transforming it into a basic right. Kudos to you folks! Nachiketa and his wife do dedicate a part of their life analyzing and trying to come up with solution with which citizens of India can be empowered better. Inadvertently the conversation turned to politics. Keeping the details short, one of the reason for the current plight is the lack of turnover of educated people for elections. Nachiketa words "if the citizen doesnt exercise his / her right to vote, he/she deserves whatever he/she gets from govt. you need change, then start with you." What impresses me is that he is not just saying it, he realizes the difficulties, time commitment and lethargy of people to move their butts and go to voting station. He outlined a plan with which the working professional can vote without taking a lot of time off their lives.
The idea is to create a system with which you dont have to go to the polling booth. You can just logon to a portal and vote. Of course the idea is simple, and of course we can poke a lot of holes into. Sure enough I did say "there are a lot of problems with this. easy to hack, election commission will have tough time. we will not get approval etc etc." I liked Nachi and his wife's response : "no one said it is easy. but thats where educated people with will power need to take action. be a conduit and work with election commission. get the voters database up. establish identities, protect them. it is upto us, the educated crowd to make such changes happen." Folks! I am truly impressed. Glad to have know such people. My evening was enriched.
Nachiketa asked me how he can raise money for charity. I gave him some suggestions that I know some friends and I did:

1. Conduct a game night. Have a ticket or entry fee or something. Provide beverages etc, but put a donation box where you have beverages
2. Poker tournament: poker seems to be kicking in to Indian community as well. A poker tournament is a good way to let the donors enjoy, the winner gets to boast and the money goes to charity. If there are 10 people who turn up, with $20 entry fee, you raised $200 in an evening. Add food, drinks etc and you can raise $300 easily
3. Fund raising dinners: a friend of mine does these. Not sure how much he raises.
4. Run for charity
5. Of course you can always ask your friends to donate. But this doesnt seem to work very well. Some fun return for donation seems to work much better

If you have more ideas, please do comment. I will forward them to Nachiketa, Also if you are interested in charity and general improvements in India, contact him. I am sure he is all ears to listen to your ideas.

Share the conversation!

The simplest and one of the most difficult things to do in a conversation is to let other people speak. Very few of us understand the importance of listening. A lot of people feel that to get recognized they have to speak and contribute something, anything to the conversation. Very often than not people jump into a conversation to contribute by speaking, saying something, some words which really lengthens the conversation without adding anything to it. Yes, you need to express your opinion, sure, but let the other person finish first, let what he/she said sink in, before you speak. Best way to add to conversation, if you dont know about the subject being discussed, is to ask questions, rather than bluffing you know something and making a totally ridiculous statement. Ask questions as why they said what they said, why they feel so and why not other way. You can ask about the history of events, who the major players are etc. Dont bluff!
The biggest problem for a person who knows that the best way to contribute is by keeping healthy conversation is that when he sees a person cutting him in, he knows a person who cuts in has no understanding of what a good conversation is and he still has to deal with this person. Its like there is a piece of bread on the road, and the mad dog jumps on it to tear it apart. Good conversations are when you share it, enjoy ; not stealing it and tearing it apart.
How and when will people realize not to grab the conversation but to share it? I feel sorry for such folks!