The Idea billboards around the national highway had similar smiling people, somehow feeling empowered. Maybe, this what you experience when you are able to communicate properly. A lot of sobbing would follow in the coming days because a 13-year-old boy wanted a mobile phone and had less than 3 friends who lived nearby. I would not get one until 6 years later when I went outside home to study Engineering.
Apparently, parents had known all the smart tricks I could use to my benefit. I could not get the device, but the idea stayed in my head. I wanted to be like those people. Maybe, I would be on one of those posters someday.
The next step was somewhat similar to a SWOT analysis I’ve been reading these days at MDI. I could work on any task for hours at a stretch followed by a diary entry of what I did today. That was definitely my strength. Brevity and communication were my Achilles heel. Sadly, that was a major weakness. The merciless outside world with the ridicule was a threat. My English teacher, Kaushal mam, was an opportunity. She forced us to write and remember a character sketch from the English textbook which we were supposed to present in the class. So, all I had to do was keep my strengths intact, overcome my weaknesses, ignore the threats and grab the opportunities before it was too late. I started spending much time in front of the mirror and read for hours at a stretch reprimanding myself every time I stammered. That exercise continued for another 3 months. At that time, I did not know where this idea would take me.
A couple of years later in the heart of India, Madhya Pradesh, I was performing street plays. Acting, singing and appealing to the audience of the issues that mattered. We managed to get 200+ eye donation registrations in a single day. We managed to evoke a sense of responsibility to the idea of clean India.
In retrospect, it would not have happened if it not for that hope for the things that are and that could be. Making big in business is not always targeting to the most number of people, maybe it’s about making the life of a small town boy a bit better.
An Idea that changed my life.
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