What a wonderful love story– a person born and brought up in the lap of Himalayas falls in love with the “Heart of Karnataka”. The charm of Davangere, an oasis in the center of Karnataka (India), is more than the natural beauty; she has people with big loving hearts with kind humble souls. A place which was never on my travel map, now feels like second home with an extended family. Oct 1, 2011 weekend was my fourth visit to Davangere and every visit left me with more profound memories than the previous trip. This time, I had great opportunity to interact with the students and the faculty of Bapuji (BIET) family of institutes. Rotaract Club invited me as their “Brand Ambassador” to support their efforts of inspiring young professionals to perform at their peak potential. It is a great honor for me to be part of such a noble cause. The purpose was to share ideas on “Bridging the gap between Industry and Academia”. We discussed career planning as well as I shared my view on “Unleashing Success Potential”. The discussions were a good blend of technology, business and spirituality. I was impressed with the proactive student participation. The quality of interactions and the questions students asked further strengthened my belief that we have enormous very high quality talent in the smaller cities of India. It has become a personal passion now to share what I know and what I learn with the students of second tier cities and / or second tier colleges; where talent is not a limiting factor but right awareness at the right time is. Growing up in a small town of Himachal, I very well know the agony of feeling shackled because of lack of information and avenues in spite of having success potential and big dreams. My wish is to mentor youngsters who have dreams and who are willing to put sincere efforts to transform their dreams to reality. My life’s purpose will come true if I can inspire and mentor youngsters to unleash their success potential (USP) so they put their best efforts towards achieving what they believe they are capable of.
We also initiated a new thought “Operation Brain Gain” or OBG. Students accepted my challenge of working on “creating jobs instead of looking for jobs” by promoting a culture of entrepreneurship in Davangere. The end goal would be to stop the brain drain that is happening as students after professional degrees rush to find jobs in metros. Why not create options in Davangere itself. Our dream will come true when the brain drain from this educational city to metros will reverse and folks will come back to find jobs in Davangere. The enthusiasm that I have experienced in Davangere, I have no doubt that this dream will become reality in the next few years.
And in the end, let me share an experience that shows how ‘one person’ can make significant contribute to any cause. I was invited to the ‘Dandiya Raas’ organized by the Rotract Club in the night where a large crowd was having a great time. Suddenly, the DJ stopped the music to make an announcement about someone finding a phone. I also heard that announcement and just as a reaction to the announcement patted my jeans pockets. It didn’t take me much time to realize that I have also lost my phone. When I reached out to the DJ to check; I found my phone in his hand. Other than the price of the phone, it had priceless contact information stored on it. It was very easy for anyone to just feel lucky about finding an expensive phone. But this one gentleman’s righteous gesture has left me with a very pleasant memory of Davangere being a city of “Honest Loving and Caring people”. What a wonder one person’s honest gesture can do!
p.s.: I will do injustice if did not mention names of a few friends because of whom this love story became a possibility. My dear friend Arunkumar RT, who is a personification of human super willpower, and the person who introduced me to Davangere; Rtr Roshan Devaramani and Rtr Anil Raiker, who were two unknown names for me just two months ago; and now they are like my younger brothers. I admire their sincere and selfless efforts to help the community – seeing them is experiencing inspirational leadership in action. And all my friends of Davangere Rotary, Rotaract and InnerWheel family – Your love and affection is the reason that I feel I have an extended family now and may be some past relation with Davangere :)
A small video clip of BIET talk now airing on arunbTV
1 comment:
Wow Arun! It always makes us feel to be appreciated by the unknown people who make us feel so proud and keeps our batteries charged to reach out to more people. All the best in Ur good work as always Ram will be Ur helping hand.
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