What can I do?

These are days when I meet hundreds of MBA students who flock to the organization I work for --a manufacturing one, known all over the world for its high0-quality products, looking for projects to complete their curriculam requirements, as also acquire that little bit of "practical" knowledge.

The discussion inevitably turns towards the general social and business environment and, when they discuss the political situation, they become so dull and sort of become impatient, when I explain what can be done.

The often repeated question is "What can I do?". Well, the answer is: so much, and really so so much. Yes, by each one of us.

Let us take this website of ours. We share a number of thoughts, but each of the thoughts does drive us to some positive action. Each of us is quite capable of doing his or her something, and this often adds up to much more than we what we normally think we are capable of.

For instance, when I advised a student to take up a perception survey of two particular consumer durables of a well-known organization, and look for the product as a greatest learning opportunity to even advise the Management, to even make the existing products more value-adding and user friendly in terms of the results of the survey and one-to-one unstructured discussion with the respondents,she was able to see the larger purpose. Well, this is a commercial proposition, but at the end of the day, when consumers do get better products, the young MBA student would have done her bit. And a great free service to the particular organization.

More often than not, we do not understand what can be done, and what cannot be done, and then get frustrated or irritated. We can and should make a difference. What matters is the value-addition to whatever we are little we are doing, no matter big or small. We all need to be charged up, and look at our lives as the best of opportunities for making a difference.

For instance, India has become a really well-known centre for world-class IT talent. Quite apart from the fact that the IT class has contributed its might to the huge rise in quality of living in our cities, as also the very high cost of living, this very class has also contributed to the addition of a huge chunk of foreign reserves, made the stupendous growth of the service sector possible -- and with it contributing to the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs. The circulation of money, mostly white, has increased manifold, and it is this very same money that is now driving the Indian economy as well. So, while there is a small negative side in terms of the increase in cost of living, the huge positive side in terms of creation of new jobs is there for all to see.

The IT class is also responsible for the greater amount of optimism, and a sense of achivement that is now part of the pysche of the educated middle class.

So, if we do understand how much of difference we make to the society, we can find some answers. Society, any society, and more so, a very hetrogeneous one like ours, is the collective endeavour of hundreds of thousands of inviduals who all work towards making a big difference. What we can all do is to develop a little more of compassion, of empathy and sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of people, who are just not like us -- the economically backward people.

Even here, there is good news. There are several educated people who offer free tuition for municipality schools. There are others who offer free counseling on careers. There are many who aim to make a difference, not only through money. They happily volunteer to spend some time talking to old people, for instance. These are the role models. This, and many other such initiatives should be carefully documented and we should learn from them.

We can then easily understand our roles in this vast society called India. So, get cracking!

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