Documentary...!

Committing your life to a 'cause' takes courage, determination and grit no doubt, but it starts with compassion, empathy and sensitivity - for others! Keeping moving on the chosen path of 'liberation' in spite of all the adversities and obstacles faced in the path requires a being of mettle. It gives you immense pleasure and satisfaction to see such efforts getting recognized with 'Noble Prize' as, it doesn't get any better. However the story continues as it refuses to rest on the laurels of any Prize - even a Nobel!

The Journey of Kailash Satyarthi towards liberating every child from drudgery and slavery gets filmed and this creative effort of documenting the predicament, the principle and the process in a documentary has come out so well that even this documentary bagged Grand Jury Prize, US Documentary, Sundance 2018!

'Price of Free' is such a quintessential case-study for all those who look forward to commit to a 'cause', undertake a social initiative or enterprise and aspire to have some purpose of life bigger than their self and be of use to a larger good!

Way to go...

Sustainability...!

Sustainability is not a Quick-fix, its a Culture. And Culture needs to be cultivated, developed and imbibed with a top-down approach. Why Top-Down Approach...? Because it is the TOP where Policy Decisions are made. Art and Science of Politics is about taking a stand for the People with inclusive, far-reaching and proactive policies that would affect not just the present but all the future generations to come. It is not the dirty game or a power-play it is a responsibility higher to any other individual responsibility reinforced with Ethics, Empathy, Environmental and Economical Balance.

Bhutan, a tiny but 'rich' nation with a tallest standing when it comes to sustainability, got rid of GDP long ago and embraced GNH - Gross National Happiness - an unprecedented measure that the World should lookup to for all its proactive, practical and political purposes.

There's sure a lot to learn from this tiny settlement that never boasted on 'Democracy' neither craved for a 'Developed' status but continued to take the path that it believed in wholeheartedly - by taking along each and every citizen of it.

'World Leaders' should get a hint, I guess...!

Way to go...

Dhan-Laxmi and CSR!

"Dāna is the price which is paid by the way of social duty. And Dakṣiṇā is the price paid for services received. Everything has a value. Every service has a value. And whatever has a value, is wealth! And righteousness and pleasure both depend on wealth itself. That is why financial transactions should be performed righteously."

"Taking someone else's wealth without paying for it amounts to seizing someone's wealth. And seizing someone's wealth amounts to destroying one's own wealth. Emperor, food and your people are your true wealth and food is related to the people."

"Concern for the society. To me, the country is important and not a person. I am devoted to betterment of Society; I think of just that! That is why I am concerned about taxes. That is why I am concerned about dāna. Taxes are that very wealth on which a government depends. And dāna is the wealth on which society depends."

"Society is an ocean. If the ocean's waters do not go back into the ocean, then wealth can become harmful."

"Who should I honour? The Acharya who lives with bare minimum needs, or those respectable merchants who would not pay taxes?"

***

This is Chanakya explaining importance of 'Dhana' and Social Responsibility to Chandragupta - the Emperor about 2500 years ago. Isn't it true even today, in fact truer, when we do not have Emperors anymore but have our elected 'Representatives' (if not 'servants'!) who are supposed to 'Serve' the 'Society' as a whole and not Rule (or overrule?) it by setting wrong precedents; particularly in the arena that is yet to find maturity and is already exposed to risk of 'liberal interpretation'?

Anyway, Happy Diwali and have a prosperous Laxmi-poojan; just try to make it Righteous too, as far as possible!

Way to go...

***

PS[ST] - By the way, if the note 'Contribution towards this project did not qualify as CSR activity as per schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 as it was not a heritage asset.' in CAG's report about CSR funds contributed to the world's tallest monument finds some relevance to the Gyan above by Chanakya, it is unintended and a pure coincidence.