AID-India Conference 99, Chennai
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Personal Development
Shrinaath Chidambaram
 [Ravi distributes forms to sign up for video library and also for people to sign up for personal development support groups.]
BEFORE I START, I WILL make a confession.  Despite my resolve to come by bus this morning I came by auto, just didn’t get up in time.  Personal development is a misnomer because there is no development separate from personal development.  The only way a society can develop is by developing ourselves.  It is the traditional mode of well to do people to say well there are a lot of poor people and we should develop them.  But instead if we develop ourselves then the problems of the poor will be emancipated and they will automatically develop in the sense that we think is development.
I tried a few things myself in the USA – I never used the dishwasher in my apartment whole of last year, and I never drank a coke or pepsi.  Just two things I wanted to try.
My motivation for giving up Coke and Pepsi was that when I visited India I met a laborer who usually I knew drank locally made soda at the end of the days work.  Last year  when he didn’t drink anything he said they are not available because of Coke and Pepsi.  I didn’t want to contribute to this.
These are simple things to do.  I say this because if a person like me can do these, then people like you who are much more resolved than me can initiate them also.
Last week when we were travelling in the train from Bangalore Ravi and I were talking about things we could do for our own personal development.  We think  we are powerless do things like stopping corruption or stopping cars from rolling off the production line.  This is a sad indicator—to think we are powerless in a democratic society.  We should be powerful in a democracy.
I’d like people to confess by being perfectly honest – things that people have done but felt guilty about – a confession session.
Sharat :  I am using a two wheeler.  But I’d rather use a cycle.  Am not using it because air has gone but I should use it.
Vijay:  Feel guilty about using the flush since hearing Medha Patkar’s talk.  Our use of resources affects people everywhere, so I am trying to economize on number of flushes.  People at home laugh at me.
Prasanna:  I had to bribe someone for phone connection.  I did it because my mother is a heart patient.
Krishna:  I had to bribe TC for train travel once from Patna.
Another:  That is at least a big distance.  I had to bribe from Bangalore to Chennai to get a seat every week.
Mashood:  A police man is so obsessed with me that he catches me every time.  I forget my vehicle papers.  I have to bribe him in Adyar.
Prakash:  We were travelling by train with Sandeep when TC demanded money.  Sandeep said, this is a bribe.  We don’t pay bribes, on principle.  TC backed down, ashamed.
Saurabh:  Our electricity meter is not working.  So we have not been turning off lights as we should.
Sunder:  My activities take me away from my children.  My wife also is busy.  I don’t feel bad about using washing machines.  These reduce drudgery.
Another:  I wanted to go to two temples but I have gone only to one.
Ravi:  There is no system in trains and stations to put plastic and other waste.  I don’t do anything though I am in this moving train with 72 people for 24 hrs! This is a good opportunity to do something about garbage.  I myself haven’t carried a garbage can in the train to put there.  I feel bad.
Vidhi:  Development not only outside but also within.  How are you towards yourself and close people.  You can’t be one person outside doing all this stuff, being compassionate, and another inside.
Alka:  I feel I am defeating my own purpose when I feel angry at people doing wrongly while I work for a cause like child labour or women’s issues.  We have to have non-violence also within ourselves which I know is difficult.
Shridhar: love is better than compassion.
After lunch: Part II is about positive measures people have taken to reduce their consumption
Ravi:  We have had confessions and people are asking about plan for action.  That is this part of the personal development session.
Aravinda:  Our idea was to ask people to tell us about things they have done to address some of these things.  In interests of time we will write some issues --  bribe/corruption, trash, labour, transportation, energy.  Maybe people can tell us about positive steps they have taken to change their life styles in response to their concerns in these issues.
Another:  started using fluorescent lamps – energy saving.
Ravi:  I switch off the lights whenever anyone leaves a room.
Alka:  But Ravi don’t switch off tubelights unless it is off for more than 5 minutes.
Sharat:  Large ACs in a 20 computer room…waste if only 2 students are there.  I am reducing on the Acs.
Meera:  Actually AC is not required for computers, at least in Bangalore.
Alka:  We heat up water much more than we need.  We need to switch on heater for only 5 minutes.  Measure your energy consumption based on amount of cold water you need to add – more cold water more you heated and thus wasted.
Ravi:  Regarding energy maybe we can use solar cookers.  It is very easy to cook rice –maybe only 20 minutes more.  They cost less than Rs 1000 for 4 people.  In jeevanshalas/hostels we can use industrial size.
Balaji:  BITS-Pilani also has solar heaters in hostels.  In winter they take bath at 2 PM by which time they have hot water.
Ravi:  In madras a group also can heat oil for frying.
Meera:  more of us can start local neighbourhood groups, we can contact EXNORA, we can start vermiculture, clean roads etc.  It is very inexpensive and very much possible.
Ravi:  separation of garbage is also important, we should have two containers in our individual houses, one for organic and one for non organic like plastic.
Aravinda:  By the way we started this only a week ago.  Let us talk about what we have done and then focus on what we can do.
Sanjay:  Switching lights etc is good but has to be done as a part of life.  We have to reduce dependence on things.  If we walk it might take only 10 minutes more in IIT.
Ranjeet: Ravi mentioned people throwing trash out of the window from trains.  Alka and I on our train journeys every time we carry a big plastic bags, we go to the other people on the trains and ask people to throw it in this.  People are very embarrassed and quite willing to cooperate and then at the next station we put it in the dustbin.  It is something that raises sensitivity.
Alka:  What somebody can eat is not trash.  Organic trash can be eaten by cows.  Ranjit feeds the cows every day.
Parameswara Rao:  About the trash, what the young people are saying, is very well taken.  Is that really the solution or can we do something more.  Railways are very responsive of all the systems in the country.  Lets write to the general manager.  They will probably follow it and keep trash cans in compartments for plastics.
Call for show of hands to write a petition to railways.  Many people raise hands.  One person says he is from railways and that there is a dustbin in every compartment.  People disagree with this.
Shruti:  A group convinced railway authorities to put posters by campaigning once every month on every train.
Aravinda:  I want to know if people are interested in carrying a steel cup wherever you travel so as not to use plastic cups.  Also we can suggest to railways to sell steel cups with their emblems.  Maybe people who get tea in these cups get a discount.
Sanjay and Shubhamurthy:  In North India they use mud cups.
 Shrinaath:  use of handkerchief rather than tissues.
Kiran: We don’t use shower but use bucket.  We managed to reduce water in flush by half to one-fourth.
Ravi:  The idea of petitioning the government is standing up for our rights.  Once in a bus there was a seat vacant in the women’s section, I tried to find a woman to sit in the seat, meanwhile a man sat down and when I objected another man said, I will now sit in the handicapped seat, you can’t stop me.  Then women took up the issue in the bus.  Basically stand up for rights when we see standards being violated.
Sanjay:  It is very difficult for people like me to sit in the train with a smoker.  I used to think that it is a question of individual rights but now I do try asking people to go to the door and smoke because it bothers me very much.  There is a moral issue whether to tell or to suffer.
Ramani: in this case I think we should be clear that that smoking is harmful and smoking is banned in many places.  The smoker must accommodate the wishes of the non smoker.
Ravi:  Now how about something on labour.
Aravinda:  I wash clothes most of the time – don’t put in washing machine.  My 4 year old nephew also does it finds it fun.  Labour issues are not so laborious as we may think.
Shrinaath:  We should also buy locally, from a cooperative shop, etc.  which has lesser chance of violating labour rights.
Suresh:  we should buy village products like I started buying from KVIC rather than super markets.  Soap may fall apart but we should do it.
Sanjay: The products are not so bad.
Suresh:  Let us buy them.
Sanjay:   We fight for 25 paise from chanawala but not while buying chocolates.  The former provide livelihood for small people.  So we have to think.
Aravinda: We have about 10 minutes.  Lets use it to develop some kind of a common program.  That will give us morale, we can act collectively, it will create an identity for us.  KVIC came out of Gandhian movement.  I have seen Sarvodayis in conferences like these.  They come with their spinning wheels and can spin a lot while people talk in two days.  It’s like a trademark.   Maybe we AID volunteers can agree on 1-3 common things that all of us AID-volunteers and sympathizers will practice.  Maybe one good suggestion is separation of garbage.
[tape cut]
Ravi:  Let’s form decentralized groups of 5.  Report to each other within group about progress and set back.  Basically support groups that help encourage one another.
Saurabh:  we can use cycles.  We can support each other in not bringing our vehicles to the campus.
Dr. Rajagopalan:  I am surprised that food has not been discussed at all.  We should supply a market for organically grown food, hand-pounded rice.
Sunder:  there is a group called ARISE which is an organic farmer’s network.  They are looking for people who will purchase organically grown food.  All over India coordination is from Pondicherry, but it is national.
Susruthi:  Last year in Pune we organized something called Eco Fest.  Sellers and buyers of organic products came together, there was a handloom stall, there was someone who had handmade paper, who said, you bring me your old newspaper and I will give you handmade paper.  Another person told how to repair solar heaters.  Even in place like Ralegaon Siddhi the solar light is not working for years.  Unless we have networks that tell us how we can use and maintain these things, the effort wont sustain.  Maybe people in these groups that we are mentioning/making can meet twice a year in markets like this.