Life and Balance

Everybody is aware of the great divide that exists in India. India and Bharat. A lot has been said on this. Many lamentations.
This time I am getting to experience it first hand.
Do you belong to India or Bharat?

I am working in both. I am working in a start up which is taking on the idea and technology of an NGO and creating a business model to make it into a profitable venture and thus invite resources and grow. On one side of me is the people from the rural based NGO and on the other the enthusiastic people from modern India. Their language, attitudes, motivations, methods of working are so different.
One does it out of a desire to help people, improve their lives, evangelize the program, etc. In the process he gives away patentable technology in ways that don't help to grow. He will never have enough money to invest into R and D, to expand, publicize, etc. Often leaves a less than happy experience for the customer because of lack of professionalism.
On the other hand are the VCs and the architects of the growth of modern India. These people work in the IT age. Everything on the net, laptops in hand, PPTs, excel sheets.. They have the vision to think big and risk big too. They bring in the efficiency that gives cutting edge to any organisation. But where is the heart? The heart that beats and has a place in a person's life. The heart in you and the heart that recognizes the emotions of the person opposite. Professionalism can some time take the spirit out of an initiative.

For me, I am part of both the worlds. I have a heart that speaks the loudest and a brain that takes over the execution of tasks. I cannot live without either of them. I am a part of both the worlds. Living in one without the other is an incomplete life.

Taking on from this I talked to a couple of people in IT companies. They slog hard, close to burn out point. If they spend their weekends in the malls everytime, life becomes automatised in no time. No spirit left.
The change comes when, they do some other things like - nature activites - trekking, travel, photography, bird watching or social service activities like volunteering time with children, etc.
Unless one can balance one extreme, harmony is lost.
The bridge between the 2 worlds is in us.