Super Hero creations started several decades back and they still continue with their sequels, trilogies and re-creations. A strange thing to note is how their stories changed. From just being popcorn flicks where 2 super powers collide and those ‘Bam’ ‘Paw’ ‘Poof’ sounds to today’s more realistic heroes who have greater challenges, larger villains and deeper painful stories that relate to current society. All of this helps gain great box office numbers. However somewhere in the box office of your mind this leaves an impression of how bad/greedy the world is and how it will require a saviour to change things.

Without further ado let me jump back directly on to things I don’t like about Super Hero Flicks!

First and most important is – It’s just about the Super Heroes who save the world.

The one super human in a cape or a handful of Avengers, who decide the fate of humanity. That’s insane. Most revolutions and challenges have a happy ending because of one phrase “Team Work”. And when I mean team work it’s not just limited to the Batman-Robin type couplets, what I mean is every person who is under the pain participates to convert it into pleasure. No leaders possess great physical strengths, what they possess is acumen to drive masses and make them realize the power of one.

That brings me to point 2.

Most villains and super human problems are either created by crack pot characters OR someone from the outside world.

The issue here is the problems we face in today’s world are far bigger but doesn’t catch off the Super Hero limelight. What will you regret – Dying with a alien power, OR dying because of inter country ego issues caused by a moron leader who looks and works like a human being? Option one in all sanity might never occur, option two is what we fight with on a daily basis! Super Heroes have super problems they can move mountains but they can’t budge the psychology and egos of people who participate in mass massacres all in the name of peace and spirituality.

Third off the hook is, Super Heroes aren’t great leaders

They don’t know how to awaken masses and influence them. The power of one seems to overshadow the power of many! All we as citizens are supposed to do is clap when the super hero completes his job and signs off with that flying move up in the air!

Okay, so enough of it. What point am I actually trying to make here?

What’s the BIG PROBLEM?

It’s simple. While we have idolized Super Heroes, at the same time we have become lazy. With bigger problems we have now unconsciously accepted that our problems can be solved by Super Heroes only! Look at the political campaigns; they seem to rely on one candidate which will change the face of the nation. Is that really possible? Look at the way these leaders are promoted! Heroism has taken a mass adoption route.

So who should we really idolize and look up to?

Why rely on Super Heroes when we have our own Heroes! Tweet This

The biggest problem every country ever had was its struggle to Freedom, and in case if you have read enough about your national freedom you know few facts straight. Let me highlight that about India.

1. No single process was followed. Some created military forces to fight for freedom, some created non-violence movements and some pushed things in a political route.
2. No single person was in charge. It wasn’t a bureaucrat company with a CEO; it was a heterogeneous team where everyone tried to do their bit
3. No idea was un-due debated on TV channels and social media. Things were done, executed and evolved
4. The only reason we are free because the forefathers of each one of us retaliated for what was rightfully ours!

Some sacrifices were made at individual levels but what triumphed above all was team work. Or rather Country Work! Today we prefer debating on things then working; that’s sad.

Where is the Light at the end of the tunnel?

Things for god’s sake have improved drastically. We are all well connected. We are more learned. More mature and more understanding. At the same time the problems we face have dropped down significantly. Like free birds we can roam in our countries and do what we are passionate to do.

Problems ahead of us are simpler if not simple. Driving democracy and governance in our country, ensuring equality in society and raising voice for what is right! This requires less effort and fewer sacrifices. Question then is, Are we ready to do that? Do we want to do what our heart pushes us to? Or we want to sit down because our mind pulls us down giving ‘genuine’ reasons for not doing what should be done.

The choice is yours. Will you like to lend a hand and participate in something which can create impact way beyond your imagination? Will you like to do your bit and be called a Hero! Or just fantasize things in dreams of someday being a super hero?

The choice is yours. Be a Hero, That’s enough! Super Heroes are for fantasies.
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In a pile of so many Happy New Year messages I hope this one meets your eye. And in case if you are about to move on in a few seconds than let me immediately say a BIG THANK YOU to you. The complete Team at ProjectHeena strives to work hard to make a difference and add value to the world. We strongly believe that great things happen when you do good to others. Having said that it would have been difficult to achieve whatever we have without your support.

To briefly state here are the numbers from 2013

• 46 Registered Non-profits
• 1178 Awesome Volunteers
• 3370 Hours of Volunteering
• 54 Volunteering Tasks successfully closed
• 1500 Social Media Friends
• Crazy Number of discussions

I am a person who keeps expecting more, more and more. So before you will read these numbers, my expectations are already raised. But at the same time I know how ‘short of time’ we all are and when I see people volunteering for more than 3000+ hours that deserves a #Salute No doubt a bulk of this happened with the help and support from Bhumi whose volunteers were not just accredited but certified on the platform.

We are growing

We are packing some real punch for the new year. Operationally more and more NGOs are joining us, Thanks to our Community Manager Kanupriya. We are also launching ProjectHeena SOCH which will help us connect with the Student Community to drive things ahead.

On the tech front Jigar and Nikhil have been great pillars. We have made small tweaks on the website, the last time you checked out. You can login with Facebook and LinkedIn, map exact location so that volunteering notifications are more precise, a profile completion indicator, an Achievements tab to highlight your Karma and a private dashboard for social campaigns that we plan to do. Next we are planning to get some exciting features rolled too. We always wanted to start the Donations module but as you know, it will be something which redefines how people donate online. I keep this secret to next year!

We are also rolling premium corporate features and would love to know what you feel about Corporate Social Responsibility!

Stay with us!

I hope you are following us on Facebook and Twitter and at times do read the awesome articles on our blog that Kanu and I break our heads on. There are several stories that as a Social Entrepreneur I have to share but I guess we will keep this message crisp for today.

We took the leap of faith and started ProjectHeena because we thought there would be many who would join us to do good. We have made a small community and would love to scale it from here. Have great fun this new years eve and out of many resolutions that you have, do consider Giving Back a part of you too in the list.

Do Good
Be Awesome

From a recent Volunteering activity we did in Mumbai

Here’s to a great 2014!  Cheers!

However if you try to understand the base of my argument you will not just agree but probably be inspired to change things the way they function today. That’s the very intention while writing clearly, something that can be controversial

What are festivals for?

Festivals are celebrated to signify something very important for a religion (Birth of Christ, Return of Rama from exile, Birthday of a Prophet) etc. or to ensure unity (Ganesh Chaturthi etc.), and at times to signify a spiritual change (Samadhis, Dikshas/Shobha Yatras exercised by several religions including Jainism).

On a diplomatic note I am talking about several religions (no pun intended), as diverse as possible, so that you can see things on a higher level. The intention is not just to critic but to improve

Next the question- Why are festivals celebrated?

The intention behind every festival is good. It takes human understanding to the next level. In several occasion it also becomes a reason to spread happiness by meeting and greeting your extended families. Some even cleanse by exercising fasts to purify not just your mental state but also your physical being.

While I act like an atheist but I am spell bound by the way these festivals were made and how they unknowingly benefit us in several ways. And with several generations these good habits have been passed on to us in the name of the almighty!

The Loud Evolution begins

With all these facts well understood and especially the essence of it all, let us delve into the way festivals are being celebrated today.

Festivals – Amalgam of pollution and corruption

Pollute the Environment

Most festivals are loud. If Diwali (as celebrated in the darkness of New Moon night) is a festival of lights; let’s burn as much oil as possible. For sound, the crackers have to be loud enough to turn you deaf. While festivals should start a new period of more clarity, they generally spread dirt and filth. From the Ganesh idols in the west to the Durga idols in east, no stone is unturned to pollute the sea.

The air is polluted, so is the water, the sound is polluted and so is the very  essence.

Pollute the culture A BIG WAY!

A Ganesha who united the communities with  Chaturthis, today the same divides and colonizes the community with one Ganesh Pandal in every society. The deities today are highly political. From Ganesh Chaturthis & Janmashtami to Eids, every festival starts with blocking all roads to display your political prowess.

While political posters are legally not allowed in India, every political party has larger than life posters displayed during these festivals (Yes somewhere down the corner you do find a Ganesha or a Mosque illustrated too).

The Bhajans and chants that were started by our fore fathers have changed recently. During the last Ganesh and Durga Visarjan following were the chants I heard while coming back home with my sister and wife.

Dekho aa gayee hain ‘Chhoriyaan’, Ganpati bappa Morya

Zor se bolo Jai Mata ki, ‘Item’ Bole Jai Mata ki!

These chants are shouted in several lanes in Mumbai and for those who don’t understand Hindi let me highlight that these are a milder way of eve teasing! Here goes the social policing out of the window. All of this is happening while the same devotees criticize gang rapes happening around. Are these real devotees? No paid political slaves to be precise.

Pollute Exclusively!

While I talked about colonization that Ganesha brings there is more to it. Festivals are no more a reason to get together. You have your exclusive  Ganesha Pandals, Preferred and paid Dandiya grounds, preferred political tie ups to sponsor your Christmas and Eid. Everything is very exclusive.

Another example is the procession that happens when a member from the Jain family decides to leave the mortal world and go spiritual. It is an important day. You decide to renounce the materialistic world and join a life of asceticism and self-exploration.

If you have seen a Jain monk you know they don’t even wear footwear and have a Rajoharan (a broom of woollen threads) when travelling so that they accidentally don’t kill unnoticeable insects on the road.

While the life of such a monk is one of solitude, the start isn’t anything close. Hundreds of pennies are tossed from a Silver and Gold Chariot to announce to the world about this event. I have myself witnessed several peasants ending up in physical brutal fights for a few pennies dropped on the road while the monk leaves for sanity and solitude!

Where are we headed?

I believe I have highlighted several instances where the mere meaning of festivals has been tweaked. It is not just annoying but unbearable.

The problem with Indian mind set is we are very touchy! Anything against the religion or any act which relates to religion has to be taken with utmost care. Let us be blunt

• Are festivals BAD? Absolutely NO
• Should Festivals be banned? No I am not an extremist, but the way we are going ahead it needs serious cleansing!

While we are talking a lot about changing the world, it is our moral responsibility to start the change at home; and a spiritual responsibility to start with ourselves/our minds. Why not re-think the HOW to manage a festival and evolve them to this day. With great technology, better intelligence and a matured responsible behaviour; I know for sure we can make these Festivals extra special and take the race ahead as visualized by our fore-fathers.

This festive season let us try not to demean the essence and do discuss this with your dear ones. That’s a request…

Welcome to the Festival of Change!

Img credit: Hindu & Vijay Dhankate

1. When we are mentally most open/flexible (that is when we are kids) we spend more than a decade in schools
2. We learn meeting and collaborating with strangers the first time at school
3. We learn to be in and surviving an uncomfortable position (away from loved ones) and still perform and achieve things the first time in schools

And once we are out of these so called factories which are expected to create the best out of us, we are supposed to earn, make a living, create families and change world!

Schools than need to be taken more seriously compared to the current scenario.

Here is a list of 6 things I was taught in school which was later understood were pure lie!

Getting good grades will land you good jobs

Complete crap! Most of my friends who earn more than me either are less educated or have lower grades. Please note – some are not just with less grades, they are the ones who didn’t even complete their degrees. They didn’t learn the algorithms and the thesis, they learnt how to impress others, be an opportunist and make hay while the sun shines. Take any country, any stream of professionals and compare their grades with the top billionaires and you will be up for a surprise.

Getting good jobs will make you happy

Yes what you do can make you happy. But by good job, parents and teachers always meant high paying jobs. Which school will proudly showcase weird looking painters who make no sense as their alumni?  Or will they showcase the Ivy League suit clad honchos? Money is means to happiness but not happiness in itself. More precisely if mismanaged money can really screw you, your habits and your life style. Money makes you lazy too. You feel a better PC or costlier mobile will make you more productive, a car will make you reach office on time (where as the reality is you are not an early riser). If only schools taught us to find the intersection between what we like and what can be monetized, we would have been a lot happier.

Always obey the rules

You know who follows the rules whole heartedly? The average man. Leaders break rules, they believe in challenging the most things we consider as common sense to follow. Following rules bind you in to not thinking out of box, not messing around. Which means not facing fear once things mess up and which means never thinking innovatively when you are in deep sh*t. Leader break rules, bend rules and the best ones  make rules completely futile.

Backbenchers are bad

Yes they were to some extent. But aren’t schools and teachers largely responsible for that? By the way one of the most innovative thinking that I saw was in backbenchers. Yes they used to argue a lot with teachers but that same technique helped me in cross questioning things I usually just obeyed. Backbenchers challenged status quo, were trend setters and took risks. Yes they were punished, but once thrown out of the class they used to leave the room like a man! A lion roaring and moving out of the jungle! Not a mama’s boy rubbing nose in the first row.

Your Teacher is your Guru

Yes this will raise your eye brows but please give me a moment to justify. When I completed my computer course (at a private institute) the first job I was offered was teaching fellow students. We know that teachers should be the ones committed enough and passionate on a topic. OR are they the ones who are normal (at times dumb) individuals who couldn’t get a decent job. Yeah a few smart teachers do it on part time basis, passion basis etc.; but I would leave them aside as of now. A Guru changes your life. Some of the most influential teachers of my life were my teachers but most of my teachers sucked big time. I am ready to do anything for the selected few but the rest huh they were just making a living out of it. Your Guru is one of the key ingredient of your future, chose one wisely.

Bonus! – Good things happen to good people

This is a partial truth, hence more dangerous than a lie. Behave nicely, talk softly, be honest, do this and do that and things will go well. These teachings are not wrong. Yes we need to be honest. But we even need to understand that though you follow all the advice, things will still f*ck up. And you would be required to again get up and perform. Life as a stage is not as accommodating as a mediocre school. Life is harsh. What it takes to win is not the tricks of how to do things, what it takes is the perseverance to keep unlearning and relearning when things screw. Even bad things happen to good people but for them its just a staircase to keep trying hard and change from Good to Great.

Don’t know whether you agree to this or not. Or whether you think the post was inflammatory just think about this – Did schools make you a happier person? Satisfied? Are more educated people rich? Or are the bloody dropouts who are enjoying their lives? Will not attending schools have a huge impact if all we are there is to suck as much as possible and end up a pithy day job?

I do agree at the same time that –
If right upbringing is clubbed with schooling,
If more than teaching about the external world; we are taught to understand and manage ourselves; we could have been a much better person today

Life itself is a school and whatever be the case expect much better from your life…

However we didn’t bother you with another mail or SMS notifying you about how awesome the New Year is. And we did right by doing that.

We are so connected

There are so many ways you can reach me. You can hit ProjectHeena team on Facebook, Tweet directly to us, send an SMS, meet at any Startup event, WhatsApp any of us on our phone etc etc. While this seems to be a world of hyper connections, we often realize it’s a hyper-disturbed world too.

Rewind life a few years back and you realize that you had to actually meet someone to greet someone. At least till last decade call them personally and waste/utilize your 2 minutes giving them your greetings. Today things are all automated. Hit a message on WhatsApp and it will send to all your contacts or write it on your wall or twitter stream hoping that it will reach to the ones who care. Will it reach all? Absolutely not! But you are relieved from the burden of wishing all of your contacts.

There are more contacts but less engagement

We are now utilizing the same 2 minutes but reaching more people to greet. At the face value it’s a huge ROI but in reality those 2 minutes are utter waste. Anything more than 2 lines in SMS for new year simply gets cleaned off without reading. These messages as we all know are not even personalized.

I received 90 New Year messages and unfortunately attempted checking a few. For most of them

• The latest message was Happy New year
• The previous one was – Merry Christmas
• further back – Happy Diwali
• and back – Happy Dashera …..

The list goes on. The person wishing me these greeting only contacts me on an occasions like these. We never talk, never interact, and never collaborate. All we are doing is spamming. Is this of any use?

More connected = More disturbed

On the flip side we are hyper productive to being disturbed. Every single beep on the phone means we run and reach out to check who has messaged us. As if some dear one has had an accident and your act of checking the message will save their life.

Emails can be left unread but not sms? Till the time you don’t check them you just feel so much disconnected. There are hardly any important messages that you receive but you won’t realize this till the time you face a situation where you have forgot your mobile back home.

Is this what we really want to achieve

We as social animals understood connection. The power of collaboration and the awesomeness of working in a team. However the technology that made it all simple; is making it so simple that it can easily be a dumb decision.

If you want to collaborate.
Do so by engaging the person.
Don’t message, Call.
Don’t Call, Meet.
Don’t just meet, Care.

That’s how relationships were made. Technology can’t change the DNA of our being.

This year think about connecting to more people not in quantity but in quality. Connect and impact deeply. You don’t need the whole world to make yourself a huge success; just a few crazy ones are enough to become early adopters. Meet them, greet them and nurture them.

And by the way …. Happy new year …. to all…