Madeleine Albright : How did she do it?

( Credit: TED )

"There is a place for mediocre men in this world but not for mediocre women" said Madeleine Albright, first woman US Secretary of State in a guest session at YIFP. She said that women are expected to be outstanding in the professional world. They have to prove that they can do it. Men don't have to. This is the real-life experience of a woman, who was born in Czechoslovakia, lived in England and Yugoslavia and finally became an American citizen. The word inspiring is too insipid for her journey, it is astonishing.


Her father was a Czech Jewish diplomat. Adolf Hitler's actions forced the family out of their homeland and they lived in England during World War II. After the Nazis lost, the family could return to Prague and then moved to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. They had to leave again due to the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia. Then, the family sought political asylum in United States. Ms. Albright was eleven at that time. Nobody could have foretold that the foreign girl who came to New York in 1948 will be US Secretary of State in 1997. Her appointment as the Secretary of State marks a moment in US history not just because she was a woman but that she outshone the tags of both 'foreigner' and 'woman'. It is not an easy thing to do in a country which has still not had a woman President even after more than 230 years of Independence. 


In the session, I asked her what were the choice and obstacles in her journey. She said that she gave preference to her three daughters over her PhD which has resulted in a ten year gap between her career age and her chronological age. She also said that it was often women who were more judgmental of her. Every woman makes a choice between personal and professional life. And women make others, who have made a different choice from their own, feel guilty. The middle name of every woman is guilt. She also reiterated her iconic statement "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women". 


Before becoming Secretary Albright, she served as the US representative to the United Nations for four years. When asked about her time at the UN, she said it is interesting to see how the international community functions. She also said that often decisions were not taken until the US participated in the discussion. In matters of intervening in other nations’ problems, US is in the position of “damned if we do, damned if we don’t”. “We are indispensable”. Because of human rights violation by leaders towards their populations, the US feels responsible to act in the interest of the people’s rights. 

(Credit: All Things Green)

Dr. Albright is known for her serious face and also her 'brooch diplomacy'. In one of her interviews, it was mentioned that the serious facade is considered gravitas for men, for women, it is just gloomy. As a woman in this world, she uses costume jewellery very effectively. The pin on her blazer reflects her mood and hence the mood of the meeting. If the slow pace of talks bothered her, the pin would have crabs or turtles. When things were going smoothly, it was balloons, butterflies and flowers. In one meeting with Yasser Arafat, her left lapel had a large wasp and he was visibly perturbed. Her collection of pins is now a museum exhibit. ( Source: Oneindia news )To our session, she wore a large multihued square slab which she said depicted the diversity and layers in India. 


During the session, one fellow who grew up in the US mentioned that she saw Secretary Albright on TV and wanted to be her. Another said that he first saw Secretary Albright on TV when she was imposing sanctions on India in 1998 after the nuclear test. Such is the varied life of a foreign policy specialist. Her story is yet another inspiration for Young India Fellows, one which is fodder for dreams that don't let you sleep.


For my previous posts about Kay Koplovitz's guest session or Young India Fellowship, click the link and scroll down http://lekhika-devu.blogspot.in/search/label/YIFP

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History and Confusion of World Cinema

The day was dedicated to world cinema by Prof. Rashmi Doraiswamy from Academy of Third World Studies at Jamia Milia Islamia and Kaushik Bhowmik, senior vice President at Osian. Kaushik talked about the evolution of cinema while Prof. Rashmi explained German Expressionism and Soviet cinema. 

How did moving images become the feature films of today?

Kay Koplovitz : Inspiration Personified

Leadership requires authenticity. This was said by Kay Koplovitz during a guest session at YIFP today morning. Kay inspired the students by talking about her life journey. Can you imagine life without any sports on TV? She's the visionary who started sports television as we know it today by negotiating the first cable contracts  for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the US Tennis Open and many others (from http://koplovitz.com/About.html ). She was the first woman in the world to head a cable network when she founded USA Networks in 1977. She is now a venture capitalist and motivational speaker on topics like leadership and entrepreneurship. To know more about this enchanting lady, check out the website of her media advisory and investment firm, Koplovitz & Co. http://koplovitz.com

When asked about how being a woman had affected her professional journey, she said that if you think of yourself as an equal with dignity, you are treated that way. She excelled in a sector which was completely male-dominated. When you see barriers and can't work around them, know when to move on so that your growth is not stifled. In her experience, women tend to not take credit for their achievements. E.g. A woman who was pitching a biomedical device to a roomful of VCs talked about her project, her team etc. but did not mention that she's a physician and an astronaut.

First Week at YIF: People

YIFP aims to groom a batch of 100 fellows each year. The batch of 2012-13 is an amalgamation of engineering with arts, finance and management. Not to forget that we have 3 lawyers too, out to which only one can defend us in court. Talking of defence, we have one guy with an Indian Air Force background too.

When I think of large groups of new people I've met, college comes to mind first. That was an enormous bunch with individual diversity but homogenity in academic choice. Next was Jagriti Yatra, which had 400 incredibly motivated development enthusiasts. The diversity there was amazing - people from all kinds of educational and professional backgrounds, rural and urban areas and also regional and international diversity. In contrast, YIFP has students from great educational institutions of India with hometowns ranging from Meghalaya to Kerala. Most, including me, are urban creatures though a few have strong ties to their rural backgrounds. The common thread here is that they are special. Whether a psychology graduate from Christ University or a mechanical engineer from an IIT, they stand apart from their peers in some way to "reach for the stars".

In the process of knowing who these people are, today was a milestone. We wrote a document called 'Initial Vision' for Dwight's Leadership class which was about our lives so far, what kind of leaders we want to be and strengths and weaknesses.

First Week at YIF: Schooling

First week at YIF was a hectic, breathless immersion into the routine of YIFP. Classes from 9 to 7, introductions to everyone around and settling in with new roommates.

News: Class only from 10-12 tomorrow. Result: A couple of girls dancing in the class and a few disbelieving faces. Though ultimately, they managed to have another class from 12 to 1. And for half the batch, i.e. Section B of Sociology, video lecture from 5 to 7 too. Did that give you a good picture of our lives?

Christmas Poem for Joshua

There’s a wreath of holly on my door

A big bright star and balloons galore;

There’s tinsel and glow-balls all around,

Streamers & flickering lights abound.

A decorated fir tree in the hall

Surrounded by gifts for one and all;

A crib on the teapoy tells the story

Of shepherds and wise-men meeting Joseph & Mary.

There’s a happy feeling in the air

And I smile as I close my eyes in prayer

I join my friends and family as they sing,

‘Happy Birthday dear Jesus, our Saviour, our King’.

Written by Saby John

Informative auto ride

Like a quintessential backpacker, I tend to talk to whoever seems responsive to learn more about the place I am in. Today's chat was with an autowallah in Ahmedabad. He's a 58 year old native resident of Ahmedabad. His Muslim identity could be seen in his beard and skull cap. I amn't being judgemental, just thankful that communal harmony prevails in Gujarat and people are free to follow their customs.
 Many autowallahs don't own their vehicles, they rent them on daily basis. So if they are not well, no costs and no income that day. I discovered that in Ahmedabad the daily rent for an auto is 150 while in Mumbai, it is 300 as Mumbai fares are higher. Mumbai certainly has higher costs of living.

This model is also followed by some cab companies where the cab driver can rent a car for the day. It appears quite a unique business model which works well in this particular service industry. Previously, I'd heard of this for cycle rickshaw pullers in Jabalpur. Though being a less vocal and mostly illiterate community, economic relations are hugely biased in favour of lenders in their case.

This was a short ramble on today's journey. I had this conversation while coming back from SEWA. The post about SEWA will go up under NGO section.

Shikshalaya and How Agrini Works?

Shikshalaya is the second project of Agrini. I had written about the aanganwadi project earlier. The video accurately captures how Shikshalaya started and its current functioning. Gourav is planning to implement the aaganwadi programme in Darasi Kala too, the village where Shikshalaya is operating. However, all extension plans and new programmes are dependent upon availability of manpower.

Agrini has only Gourav as a full time staff. All others are volunteers. He supports himself through Youth Collective Fellowship. Some of the volunteers are students while others are working professionals. An enthusiastic volunteer is a village health worker who likes his job even though he is qualified for much more with a Ph.D. in Social Work.

The materials required for Agrini's projects have been collected in the villages itself. The space is usually given by the gram panchayat. The way this collection happens is interesting. For example, there is no provision by the Govt. to install electricity in aanganwadi buildings. How they came up with such an atrocious plan while approving aanganwadi buildings is beyond me, but fact remains. Now how will the computer, needed for multimedia content, work? The power line was taken from a buffalo-shed (bhains ka tabela) next door and Agrini pays for this electricity. In Shikshalaya's resource centre, the books came from a discontinued community library. The 3 computers were contributed in a piecemeal fashion where somebody gave a CPU, another a monitor and so on. 

Agrini started in 2009 and is a good example of what the youth of this country are creating. Gourav Jaiswal is originally from Seoni. While the organisation is small, it is heartening to see that somebody returned to their town to help improve it. In terms of organisation structure, it matches Bakul Foundation of Bhubaneswar, which defines itself as a movement for volunteerism. Bakul's story will be up next on this blog. 

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Learning, not just education

On one wall, there is a crow putting stones in a water-pot. On another, there's a monkey sitting on a crocodile. Where have we reached? A play-school. A Govt. play-school in rural area is called aanganwadi. We are visiting an aanganwadi at Beenjawara village in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.

Dust and spice

Today I reached the southernmost tip of my journey - Chennai. In the bus from Hyderabad, I could literally feel moving closer to the equator because of the heat. As my third metropolitan city, Chennai stands out as being not cosmopolitan. It could be the areas I've seen are old Chennai because the dressing style of people is quite untouched by western fashion. And plus the crowd is primarily Tamilian, with no mix of races and cultures. It is a dusty city which seems to have clung to its ways.
As being a capital city, it does have its share of chain restaurants and retail outlets. On the ride from CMBT to T Nagar, I saw KFC, Big Bazaar, More, Reliance Fresh etc. Also found a BFC: Bigboy Fried Chicken. It feels good to see that Indian brands have grown as chains. Earlier chains were confined to McD and Dominos.
Since we are talking about food, lets talk about the rava dosai I ate in the evening which came with a daal like saambhar, coconut and green chutneys. The green chutney was tangy as if it had raw mango. It is the first speciality of Tamil Nadu for me. The red garlic chutney of Mysore was also a good experience. After eating versions of Mysore Masala Dosa in BITS and outside Samhita office, the authentic version near Mysore Bus Stand was revealing. In Bangalore and Hyderabad, the south Indian food came from UpSouth and Chutneys respectively. The highlight remains the AP food at a friend's house, home-cooked by her mother.
And lastly, speaking about food, lets talk about chaat. Sadly I missed it in Karnataka. In Hyderabad, the chaat isn't good at all. I ate panipuri in 4 different parts of the city and all of them had soft puris. Of course I am talking about their lack of crispiness before being dipped. Looks like the cooks who make them don't do it well. The chaat ka pani wasn't great either : poor show right from Bikanerwala to the street vendors. Hoping to try Chennai's versions tomorrow.