Friday, January 20, 2006

The Inner Voice: Can you hear it?

"Mani Ratnam's Yuva is turning real, with five IITians deciding to join mainstream politics", reports TOI.

The party - Paritrana - was launched in Jodhpur today. Paritrana means 'complete relief from various causes of distress and that is what we want to do for our people'.

Brave. Foolish. Idealistic. All of that - and more.

Tanmay Rajpurohit, who's done his MTech from Georgia Tech after a BTech (Aerospace) from IIT B is the party President. Other office bearers include Ajit Shukla, Smit Bisen, Chandrashekhar and Bharat Sundaram - all IIT B and IITK graduates.

Says Shukla,"My inner voice told me I should invest in my efforts in country instead of making my pocket heavier... People think we are crazy so much so that our families have also failed to understand our motto, but we won't give up."

Deadly thing, this inner voice. That's why most folks pretend they can't hear it. Or choose to drown it out. Because listening to it may mean acting in ways which are strange and unacceptable in society.

Of course the families of these young men would be upset. IIT kya is liye bheja tha? But as Mahatma Gandhi once said: "There are moments in your life when you must act, even though you cannot carry your best friends with you. The 'still small voice' within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty".

Which, ultimately, is what these young men have done.

Two days ago another young man was facing a similar conflict. He too responded to his inner voice and decided to chuck what some would call a 'dream job'. To pursue his dream of being a full time writer.

This is what IIM A grad Sidin Vadukut had to say about his decision on his blog:

Dear All,
Finally after weeks of contemplation and thought and watching Friends reruns I have decided to finally do it. A few days from now I will cease to be a consultant. Instead I will be a writer.

As we speak an email is hurtling its way across the nation to my HR and MD indicating my imminent departure from AT Kearney. From next Friday I will be a free bird and will immediately embark on a book, freelancing, columning and anything else I can force people to hire my writing skills for.

The reasons are numerous. But in the end I decided I needed to do what I was happiest doing...


For the amazingly talented guy who penned the now-classic Travails of Single South Indian Men writing is that source of happiness.

And yet it will not be easy. Because writing pays far far less than consulting. Because at times the pressure to churn out publishable material makes an exhilarating activity a task like any other.

Because staying motivated and free of self doubt is always a challenge. One that I am sure both Sidin and the 5 young men at Paritrana will meet head on.

Have you tuned in to your inner voice lately? If you have everything and still feel empty inside, it might be time to slow down. Stop. And listen.

13 comments:

  1. Nice Rashmi. :)

    I have an inner voice too.
    It tells me to do so many things other than what Im doing right now.

    I tell it that its not like I dont like what Im doing right now. I might not 'love' it but I 'like' it for sure.

    It tells me that I shud stop compromising and gather up my guts and take the plunge into a more fulfilling albeit maybe less lucrative line filled with risks which I can easily face if I wanted to.

    I then ask my voice about what would happen to my parents who have struggled so hard all their lives only to make sure they send me to the best of schools/colleges/universities. Who have made and still make countless sacrifices to ensure that I live a comfortable life and the least thing I can for them is to make sure they live a comfortable life in their old age and not be struggling just because their son is too.

    Please dont get me wrong.
    I do respect and applaud the people who have the courage to pursue their dreams and make it big.
    Its just that I dont want to take such a risk...a risk that involves my family.

    Just wanted to share my views.

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  2. Very encouraging and heart warming. We need more such Yuva. Maybe some day I too will be able to join in with these guys. Till then it is "support from outside". :)

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  3. Very encouraging.. indeed..
    But the website sucks for a group of IITans.. or is it my browser ?

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  4. I can't believe you wrote about how dangerous listening to 'inner voices' can be, and didn't even throw in a passing reference to Dubya!

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  5. I hope they fix the bugs on their website.

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  6. cool !
    People hear to inner voices and act - thats good.

    Wishing everybody who responded to his/her inner voice all luck.

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  7. Interesting story. I kind of agree with whoareu's point that the IIT degree does not necessarily make them any different from the scores of politicians we already have. Politics is as dirty as any other industry, and the returns are often even better, as well as the fact that the retirement age is nothing short of death.

    @exiitian - By dissing their religious identity, you are betraying a strong amount of intolerance yourself. Whether their ideologies is derived through religious or secular means, is irrelevant. It would be wrong however, if they used a political position to promote their religion itself.

    @sudhindra - Politics is like any other profession. You need some experience to be good at it, so obviously in the beginning you will suck. However, I dont see why anyone should not involve themselves in politics because they dont have experience? Only by being part of the political profession are they going to gain the experience needed to run for elections.

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  8. being a batchmate of ajit and others i can say that they definitely won't have any other agenda than serving their country. most of us dont have courage/guts to live upto our dreams but if few ppl have them, we should not criticize them endlessly. And how else can they have experience other than to enter the field itself. being an iitian doesn't gaurantee anything but since they are leaving the option of going into high paying jobs(remeber 1 is from georgia tech) it can be assumed that they are sincere and honest in their purpose. Come on their website is still in development stage and you cannt relate bugs in website to their potential performance/enthu.

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  9. Hi @Whoareu (http://www.blogger.com/profile/17632658)

    So you have met one of the people inside Paritrana and know for their hidden agendas/fundamentalism?

    But I was just wondering you are you anyway. Your blog
    (http://www.blogger.com/profile/17632658) was created this month and my guess is *after* reading this post. And of course it doesn't have any posts.
    your username is whoareu11.
    and your posted name is the all-revealing Ex-IITian.

    So really, hidden agendas is not a accusation we should be hearing from you of all people right?

    I am not endorsing Paritrana or the people within. No clue about them and 'franky my dear,...' but atleast the guys in paritrana *have* a website. Atleast we know their names. and hence theoretically atleast we have a chance of creating a value judgement on them someday.
    Can't say the same about you though, can we?

    cheers.

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  10. manik, iits have never been heard for placements, rather iitians have been known to do many diff things in life including research and entrprenureship. neways lets not go to this debate.
    They have nothing to be traitor of ppl. they can neways earn that much money/fame/power from ne other profession. so to say that they r in politics for some selfish personal reasons in entirely unfounded.
    most of the young politicians today are from political family only, so they have sort of internalized corruption in politics, but these ppl from iit are there to challenge every assumption/tradition in politics
    lets wish that they do succeed.

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  12. Hi,
    I really appreciate the initiative taken by these guys and I m sure many youngsters want to do something good for our country and everybody knows that the main problem lies in this Political system. If we can't take such initiative, atleast we should give them the support in achieving their goal.

    I wish them all the success.

    Best wishes...
    Parvathi.

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  13. It's a really good news. We need such guys in our politics.I remember six months ago star news correspondant interviwed one guy who was MLA, who was not even passed his SSC exams.We need atleast graduates in politics,if they are IITs it's really encouraging and heart warming.but there is long way to go in politics.I wish them good luck.

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