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| | The WE CARE FOR CHENNAI Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | Views: 1089 | | Nov 06, 2005 7:43 am | | WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # | 
SOEB FATEHI | | WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand -
get off those armchairs and stop theorising!
Stop posting about why you hate/love Chennai.
Go do something!
Am I asking for too much?Private Reply to SOEB FATEHI | | Nov 06, 2005 11:02 am | | re: WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # | 
Govind Srinivasan | | Soeb,
How true you sound to be, everytime when you exhort the rest in WCFC? But, alas, we are not getting even that 1 single person imbued with that real big dedication and the ability to rope in people for putting plans into practice. WCFC seems to be in a stage of perpetual planning. I am also responsible for this decadence.
When I launched this small network, I thought I would be able to get a few youngsters, who would translate plans into performance. But that seems to be quiet far away even now.
As of now, the average profile of WCFC members is that of an avid net surfer, more interested in sharing their experiences in one or other public-related issue. More WCFCians find the pleasure of reading, writing and surfing. This is not bad; nevertheless, this kind of profile of the members is not going to help WCFC realize any of its objectives. A few "yet to be be married" ones and a few "retired from active job/occupation life" may extend the lease of life for WCFC. I am yet to see this kind of profile in WCFC - not even one so far.
The main problem is that everyone would like to throw ideas, plans, projections, strategies, etc., etc. This is something that cannot escape in a net-oriented activity. The boon and the bane for WCFC is that it got born through the web. It should NOT remain in the web itself and should start walking around the physical roads of Chennai. This is NOT happening so far.
In short, it is the VIRTUAL WORLD that seems to be more interesting to the cross-profile of people in WCFC than the physical participation.
We can call some activity of WCFC as successful, only if we are able to assemble at least 20 people in less than 24 hours notice. All that we do, other than ensuring this kind of preparedness, can only be peripheral ones. I am having hope against hope to realize this. Don't know when this will happen. I don't want to hazard a guess right now, when it will, but I am not quitting the scene at yet.
Very unfortunately, my present professional commitments take me to different places on many week-ends and this is yet another reason, why my own contribution in WCFC is almost zero.
Hmmmmm..... Praying God to give me that strength and determination to do what I think I should.
Govind SrinivasanPrivate Reply to Govind Srinivasan | | Nov 07, 2005 4:51 am | | re: WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # |
Govind Srinivasan | | Hello Soeb and the rest in WCFC,
I missed to share a bit more of my understanding, in my earier posting. Here they are.
1. Most of the existing members of WCFC are really quiet capable of formulating plans, strategizing and ideating. These are NOT ordinary skills. Managing WCFC may not be possible without these skills. But the ones that are capable of wading thru knee deep water and slush and reaching the needy people are nowhere in the picture. It is people with these kind of mental makeup and physical tenacity, who are the need of the hour. I mentioned the need of youngsters from this context.
2. Youngsters, who are yet to get settled in their life (profession/occupation/job) are the ones capable of doing incredible tasks, rain or shine. It is these kind of people, who continue to keep a service-orientation in their later part of life too. I am NOT able to find a good number of them in WCFC. May be they are NOT the net-surfing lot like me, participating in community networks like Ryze.
3. WCFC is an experiment. If it succeeds, pretty fine. If not, there is always enough room in the society to make people associate themselves with objectives dear to their hearts. May be, we have to draw a balance between desire and wherewithal to realize it.
4. Presently, we don't have even one single group of 10 people, who are closely known to each other, in WCFC. It is the emergence of such a group that can really accomplish what is planned. There should a natural affinity and homogenity in group-working.
5. And here is something that I am sharing as a sharp observation, risking outright criticism from all quarters. There is a certain warmth and fellow-feeling that the netizens get through the net. It is a convenient medium for the middle and upper middle class people to ventilate their pent-up grievances, share joys and even broadcast grand plans. Many of them are really NOT serious about what happens after what they publish in the net.
6. There is a peculiar self-importance that the net promotes deviously. People want to be contacted by others, exceptions apart. So the organizer of an event gets exasperated in organizing any meet or action, as it becomes a case of soliciting, soliciting and soliciting the presence of one and all.
7. I certainly will be happy to find somebody, who has a better acceptability to people in this network, who can accept the responsibility to lead WCFC and I would like to serve him.
8. Yes, this is the msg that I would like to share with everybody in the WCFC, expecting any possible course correction.
Govind Srinivasan
98410 36526Private Reply to Govind Srinivasan | | Nov 07, 2005 11:47 am | | re: WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # | 
Kanchana Ravichandran | | Dear Soeb, Govind and other members,
Read all the exchanges. I have felt this too - we are unable to rise up to and act. I still don't understand why we all need to meet and plan - all this is being done here I mean online.
Soeb, am sure u will be happy to hear that I got around 40 volunteers to help in the distribution of relief material for the Flood affected victims. Its a dismal sight - similar to the Tsunami incident - where all kinds of people ready to go and get that Rs. 2000, a sari, dhoti, 10 kg rice and kerosene. Its really so painful when u see people who are passer bys come and fight to what they claim shamelessly as theirs.
We did the best we can, and I have approached many corporates to help me in this effort and we are doing our little bit sensitising the people not to be greedy and that those who have the tokens will be give the materials and helping those without the tokens in obtaining one. With people shouting and fighting and jumping the queque its a real ordeal and I feel that more and more of us out there can bring about some semblance of normalcy. At such times u can see the worst in human nature and also the best when people u have never ever seen or known come and do their little bit and fade away without waiting for even a thanks.
kanchana
Private Reply to Kanchana Ravichandran | | Nov 07, 2005 12:10 pm | | re: re: WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # |
Govind Srinivasan | | Kanchana does a wonderful job and the only problem is that she has her own separate track - but a very powerful one.
Well, there are many people, who do a silent job and rise up to the occasion, when the need of the hours strikes.
The idea of WCFC is to drag people out from the net and make them rub shoulders with each other, lose the comfort of the net, and find friends while caring for the society. We will have to continue spotting out people in the net and make them meet each other in public (service) activities. This is the idea with which I started WCFC.
Govind SrinivasanPrivate Reply to Govind Srinivasan | | Nov 07, 2005 4:33 pm | | WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # |
SOEB FATEHI | | Govind has tried hard to summarise the phenomenon of net activism followed by a sense of fulfilment without a result being achieved. Unfortunately he still does not scrape hard enough to see below the veneer. His good intentions and aspirations are unquestionable. His methods need serious reorientation. Govind you must take the bull by the horns man!
On the other hand Kanchana has been bolder and named one of the major offenders. She has identified excessive discussions as one of the weaknesses. Very good Kanchana. you have definitely demonstrated that there is a world beyond a 17 inch tube in which we actually live! Kanchana ko many salaams!
I have said many times on this board and elsewhere off RYZE too that there has to be a point at which the monster of psuedo democracy must be stopped in its tracks. The fizz goes before you pour because you can't make up your mind which glass to fill first!
1. Instead acknowledge one leader or a small - repeat small - set of people who will do the thinking. In the company where you work don't you have committees? In the house don't you have a 'father figure' to chair decisions? At some point of time you must dump the never ending stream of suggestions Govind. Remember that you have a mandate to lead and you must not follow them whom you should lead. If every joker thinks he is born to rule then let him step forward and do so instead of fillibustering or suggesting from behind.
2. Choose as starters very easy and inexpensive drives. Choose subjects which do not require high intelligence, learning, legal support. Choose subjects which do not end up confronting the government bureaucracy and the police.
3. Choose as starters subjects which are universal in their appeal. They should not be subject to ethnic preference or tastes. They should not be such as to divide on political or ideological lines. They should not project any one religious faith or its followers as either beneficiaries or samaritans.
With all this in mind I had told WCFC to lay off CAS and such subjects.
With all this in mind I had suggested starting with universally appealing activities like Tree Plantation.
Even now stop fooling yourself that the Taj Mahal was built starting from the top downwards! And that the first stone to be laid for the Kutub Minar was the one on the top!
FINALLY - you cannot substitute elbow grease with a mouse click and expect gutters to get cleaned out!
suggestion: get off the lame horse and walk holding hands with Kanchana - you will get somewhere someday!
Private Reply to SOEB FATEHI | | Nov 08, 2005 9:31 am | | re: WCFC go help prevent stampedes - lend a hand | # |
Govind Srinivasan | | Soeb,
With due respect to your scholarship and vision, I think that I have my views clear and that there is nothing wrong in waiting for a small and powerful group to emerge. I have already admitted that Kanchana is doing a wonderful job. There are quiet a few people, who are typical activists and they hate to join long-winding debates as to what to do and how to go about doing it, without even stepping out of the home or the net.
Kanchana is a young person, full of life and zeal. Kanchana, myself and another friend of mine had visited the Tsunami-affected areas of Cuddalore quiet some time back. There was no time for us to give the clarion call and repeat it N number of times to everyone here in this network. Well, I posted a couple of msgs about the visit itself, a little in advance.
We decided that we would rather make it happen than debating about the "planning to visit" itself. The visit itself was organized by PK Paul, another service-minded Ryze Networker. Well, we couldn't achieve something phenomenal in this visit, but it really was an eye-opener.
NOW, LET ME TELL THIS ONCE AGAIN. MOST EDUCATED PEOPLE (INCLUDING REASONABLY-SETTLED PROFESSIONALS) WOULD LIKE TO READ ABOUT DISASTERS, ACCIDENTS, NATURE'S FURY, GOVERNMENTAL APATHY, LACK OF FELLOW-FEELING IN THE SOCIETY, ETC. THEY ARE MORE INTERESTED IN BEING AWARE OF THE ISSUES AND HAVE LESSER INTEREST IN CONTRIBUTING THEIR MITE TO MITIGATE THE PROBLEMS. EVEN IF THEY DO, IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY MENTIONABLE CONTINUITY. OF COURSE, THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. THE DIFFERENCE THESE DAYS IS THAT PEOPLE WANT TO TALK ABOUT ALL THAT IS HAPPENING AROUND IN CHATS, BLOGS, MYRIAD COMMUNITY NETWORKS, ETC., ETC. FUN SELLS REALLY VERY WELL IN THE INTERNET. FUN-MEETS DON'T REQUIRE A BIG LOT OF ADVERTISEMENT AND HARDWORK. DOING COMMUNITY-WORK IS A DIFFERENT ISSUE.
THE NUMBER OF "I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU IN THE MEET, SORRY I MISSED THE MEET, SORRY I COULDN'T COME, CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MEET" ARE FAR MORE THAN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE I HAVE MET IN THIS NETWORK SO FAR.
May be, there is something lacking in my approach. I am game for somebody else taking up this work and carrying the torch ahead. I would like to stand behind him solidly and do everything possible to make things happen.
I am managing this web-presence for WCFC. This is my present contribution. I tried a little to give a physical shape to it. I haven't succeeded in it.
I have no big plans for WCFC as of now and I have neither curbed the enthusiasm of anybody. I hope to swing back to action, when I think I can give a good lot of attention to make WCFC roar. There are N number of things which I think I can do and there are N number of other things which I won't be able to; at least, as of now. Yes, I will reach some of the known people in this network and try to do my best. I earnestly request you to continue contributing your mite to keep the spirit alive.
Govind Srinivasan
98410 36526Private Reply to Govind Srinivasan | | |
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