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What Value Have YOU Added?



When you’re knocking furiously on the 60th door of your life, it is but natural that you have a bag of mixed memories. Some years have been good. Some great. Some have been indifferent. And some have been avoidable.

And each year has been a new recipe for the tangy, hot, sweet and sour soup called life. And each year has served a wonderfully new dish with style. At the end of it, ‘experience’ is perhaps the only thing that’s growing faster than my girth. And I’m savouring every bit of it as it accumulates in my very being.

Many years ago, my then Boss and now friend, had introduced me to a professionally satisfying and motivating thought...in the shape of a poster that asked “What Value have YOU Added”...and I’ve tried to respond to this simple yet meaningful question with something tangible and substantial in everything that I do.

If you just take what’s given to you and pass it on to someone else you’re nothing but a ‘post man’. If each of us takes what is given and adds value before passing it on, we create an enhanced and enriched experience for the next in line.

Every year now, for a few years I have been examining the year gone by and asking myself what value I had added and to what. Sometimes the answer would be in the form of a relationship that I had helped strengthen. Sometimes it would be in a product or a brand that I had helped evolve. Some other times I’d look back with pride at the extra dimensions I’d given a role in a play. Or at work.

This year the thing I look back at with a warm and glowing feel in my heart, is the recent Chennai Floods and what a whole bunch of Hyderabadi youngsters managed to do for the victims of that disaster.

Hey look, disasters are nothing new. And I’ve been on the periphery of many a calamity and the process of recovery thereafter. But I must admit that this time, whatever happened, happened for the first time and happened better. There was Value Addition every step of the way.

Walk with me...

One person, doesn’t matter who, thinks that he should do something for the Chennai Victims.

Another person picks that thought and uses his or her network to spread it. A Community is formed.

One member takes the responsibility of connecting with Chennai and figuring out what it is that is required. The message goes around. A list is formed.

One person then identifies himself as the collection spot. Things start coming in. In private cars. Hastily hired tempos. Taxis et al.

Then the search begins for the transporter. At this stage I am called (i am a local ‘old’ man in this community of youngsters after all). And asked if I can suggest someone reliable for trucking services.

I reach out to a friend. Actually, an acquaintance. And pitch the case to her. Amazingly she agrees instantly to help. Transport is no longer a problem to be tackled.

I thank God for the good nature of people that He encourages. And thank him for having made reaching out to people so easy.

In the meanwhile the communication between the victims and the Command Centre becomes sharper. Lists are fine tuned. Navigation is exemplary.

The relief reaches the intended victims. Tracked by GPS. Cheered by a whole band of brothers and sisters who are just heart and soul.

Some of them even drive down to Chennai.

It’s an experience that can be encapsulated into a few pages of conversation transcripts on Facebook, on Whatsapp and perhaps SMSes. I really don’t know how many people were eventually involved. I only know that I’m proud of each and every one of them.

And I especially thank my friend, the trucking lady. She helped selflessly. And instantly. Hats off.

And yes, she allows me, in all humility, to say that Yes. I did add value to the cycle of assistance. I am privileged. And Blessed.

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