Part I – Changing ‘Change’

There are times and then there are the times, and then there is an existential crisis that leads to a quest for tangible meaning. No, that’s not my understanding of our capitalist structure, but rather the journey of certain words.

Coloured in blue and white, dancing on Springsteen’s stage and serenaded by the new American president, ‘Change’ lived the high life over the last 20-odd months.

It migrated across the seas, transcended barriers and morphed itself linguistically to evoke a new desire in Indians. Yet the high has seemingly been short-lived, as the gloss begins to wear out and a familiar hollowness is visible again.

The glorious ride apparently came with pre-historic excesses of empty-speak of ‘cultural and spiritual awakening’ and double-speak of the painful cycle of broken promises.

So now, Change stands at a precipice, imploring us for a new identity. And those reconstructing this tower of Babel shun the rhetorical grandeur and opt for rational and real meaning.

Getting to his quarters, located in a non-descript yet noisy locality, was far tougher than I had anticipated. Lost, I winced on the phone as he guided me beneath a large statue of BR Ambedkar, seemingly directing us toward a future.

And the future is what I hoped to peek into as we sat in a small cabin decorated with reams of papers and hi-tech laptops while in the backdrop books of different colours, shapes and sizes battled for space in large sky-high shelves.

As I elucidated my quest, he nodded and began to piece together pieces of the puzzle that were redefining Change. Surprising as it was, their strength lay in their simplicity.

A social audit that allowed Backward Class students to claim scholarships promised to them, a mix of education, awareness and health camps that assisted the Gangireddula community, adopting legal recourse to expose the danger posed by quacks and to ensure that privatized healthcare doesn’t make a buck at the cost of the poor.

These were steps that altered the way the world worked but were small moves that took shape from and gave meaning to the term innovation and accountability – the atoms that begin the process of Change.

As we skimmed past each of these successes, a pattern began to emerge in the puzzle. The life-blood of each of these was not an ‘outsider,’ but rather the emergence of a desire from within that was aided by appropriate direction.

Engaging the beneficiaries and ensuring that they identified their needs, understood their rights and were also part of the process of claiming them was the key.

The trick here is to reach out to begin that process and do that effectively and innovatively, as this explanation began to sink in, I was offered an example that ensured that these words were stripped of their ambiguity.

Aapnur Vaatema Vatekarah (Let’s talk in our language): A scheme of providing educational films for Lambada language to certain nomadic tribes in Andhra Pradesh aimed at eradicating the stigma related to HIV/AIDS – a project that has now been lauded by the World Bank and UNDP.