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August 18, 2008
on the bus
I am in a bus I have left the village everyone is beautiful I am wearing their hat and speaking their tongue the women are beautiful and multicolored I like how their jewelry matches their saris their children are so beautiful they dress them so nicely such intricate patchwork the mothers work so hard two women face each other across the aisle they are strangers one is older with a comfortably exposed belly the other younger with two small precious children their knees are interlocked and they sleep together in peace I am pressed against a kind stranger his toes are covered in mud I drift off comfortably we are not passengers we are active participants and I write with a phone a tangle of colors sway in unison with the whims of the road they couldn’t be more at peace I love them.
Posted by dmbenn at 02:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2008
kickin' it up a notch
I've already delivered the presentation (the 8-minute video, along with a short informative powerpoint) to a few guests at the center. Apart from the first group of influential Indian women and the "motivator" from New Zealand, a CEO from a tractor company came the other day. Very nice guy. He had some constructive criticism for the video, which is why, after I spent some time fine-tuning it--softer and more relevant music, slower pace of show, captions appearing for longer, categorizing each section (medical care, sanition, eduction, etc.)--I am so happy with the final product. But I still have to put the final up on youtube.com (which, come to think of it, I will do now since the internet is back after several days of absence).
As for outreach, it hasn't been a success thus far. As you might have figured, it's not so easy reaching the top of big corporations. I talked to the CEO's secretary of Bilcare, a multinational pharmecetical packaging company (an interesting idea for a company, probably the only one that specializes in this and only this), and she said to send him an e-mail--yet now it's been a couple days, and still no response. We are also trying to get some water filter donations for the schools. The CEO of Hindustan Unilever Ltd., a huge Indian company based in Delhi, is on the board of this organization. I sent him an e-mail, but still no response. The board, it seems, doesn't want to push their luck with him. So they'll have me call him soon enough. There has been a success, however: I sent an e-mail to Tata Consultancy Services, a huge company that has supported the society in the past, and they quickly agreed to provide a spoken English training course for 100 teachers.
But you didn't really think we were going to continue this lame e-mail strategy, did you? (And of course, this has not coninued for long...only the past week or two.) Although the society is inexperienced in marketing--as they have truly been very self-sufficient so far, paying for their day-to-day operations with their own earnings--the org is backed by some smart, creative people. Dr. Sathe made the following suggestion: put the presentation on a laptop, bring a generic letter on my behalf (signed by the society, with the logo and the whole works), and just go to the companies and say, "Here I am (like it or not!)"
When it's so difficult to get the job done, it makes me appreciate the mere opportunity to do so at all; this, combined with my growing passion for what the organization does, as well as my love for the villagers (which I think is reflected in the video), simply disintegrates any anxiety/self-consciousness I may have had about the delivery of the presentation itself, but rather entices me pursue the task full force, uninhibited (and if not enough, the free samples from the wine factories I will be visiting should finish the job), asking myself only one question in the process: "How can I get the message across to my "targets" in the most quick, effective manner, thereby ending the affair with an open wallet?" (I know what you're thinking now...)
It would have been nice to have some marketing training. But come to think of it, the more training you have, ironically, the worse you might do at times. Not many people like the manufactured Mr. Slick, especially when dealing with such sensitive issues as rural development and large sums of money; rather, I think it's the passion, the sincerity, the devotion, and the knowledge that naturally comes along with those things which makes for an effective salesperson. I might be half-way there in regard to the latter, for I've only been here two months--but I might get a couple points for foreigner's effort (I am getting some compliments on my Marathi skills, I cannot deny!). Pragmatist's final thought of the day: Let's see what happens, and let the results be the judge. (If you have read the blogs till now, you may have noticed that I have a multi-personality enhancement (AHEM!...not disorder)--though more so in writing than in speech and sleep-walking.)
Posted by dmbenn at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2008
visit to India
Lost in its beauty
Totally dissapear my other thinks.
Felt I am some part of its beuty.
I thank the God.
--Aryan (are-yawn), 16, friend from Icon cyber cafe
Posted by dmbenn at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2008
rhyme
[Reading the brilliant William Blake, I could not help but make some rhymes, which I place below:]
The old men, that walk
Through this desert at night
Shifting rocks, rising peasants
Unveil barren their plight?
In time may they pass
Just in time to foresee
The light just beyond
The last fallen tree?
Would the vultures above
Sea-way visions at bay
Lay them guilty by night
Just in time for today?
One day may they rest
In echoed uttering rhyme?
Ill-sighted horizons
Spliced tension of time
Beholden the aged
To spires of gold?
Rest faith in their journey
Their story be told
Posted by dmbenn at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)