Getting set for India Inc. 2047

``WHAT'S YOUR name,'' is the first thing he asks you on introduction. ``What does it mean,'' he continues. ``That is one of the best parts of being an Indian.

All our names mean something,'' says D. P. Prakash, ex-president and one of the Directors of Asha For Education projects.

Asha India alone has 100 projects all over the country. Prakash, now an NRI working for IBM, calls it a ``movement'' that started way back in the early nineties, no different from the struggle for freedom.

This ex-IITian hailed from a modest background, was a ``failing'' student in Vidya Mandir school that allowed him to flourish in what he was good at, explore different options. ``There was so much of warmth there,'' he recollects.

``The credit today goes to the school - the teachers and the mothers who have always been an invisible force. Studying there, you will know the way.

There are friends who teach you how to study. From a failing student, I jumped to 84 per cent in tenth standard and 94 per cent in standard twelve,'' he narrates.

``I got into the Electronics course at IIT where the top 200 students of hundred thousand students who apply get through to.

It is one of the finest schools, and I was dazed by the incredible rigour we are forced to go through. We even had a teacher who used some hard talk.''

``He used to say `What use is tax payers money coming to, you guys study here and then leave the country. I've seen it happening for 30 years'. The language he used was strong, but we couldn't say a word, because he was talking the truth''.

But Prakash and his friends were ``economically challenged'', they knew they need to go outside and make some money. So it was University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where Prakash realised he was like a ``child lost in a toy factory''.

``It was one of the top five in the world. They taught everything under the sun, fantastic teachers and most important they had a system that worked.

They had the alumni helping them out, they were good at raising funds. After my Masters, I realised it was an opportunity of a lifetime, the best place to be,'' he recollects.

``At UCLA, I could learn horseback, quantum physics, laser optics, I went to the film school. I did by Ph.D for fun. When you do a lot of things, you get the whole picture. You think what is the country coming to, what is the population, the problems of the country. You think more when you are farther''.Prakash describes it as his ``love affair with India''. He thought about the tax-payers money that educated him. He could not wait till he finished making his money.

So he and his other NRI friends started out working voluntarily under the banner of Asha - providing basic education for children.

``It was the result of the human bond I had with India. It is like the umbilical cord. Everybody thinks about his life's work. With Asha, I decided this will be a part of my life's work. Asha will be a part of the family that will build India for it believes in `Action first'. We first Do and then talk. We have a flat structure with total transparency in functioning. Every single activity is on record,'' he says.

www.ashanet.org has the top 25 Universities in the world participating. Anybody who wants to join the group can do so by subscribing to asha-wide@egroups.com.

Right now, Asha India is mapping its 100 projects, evaluating what is right and wrong. Asha has its goal set. Vision 2047 - No Indian child will be left out.

Prakash has now returned to the US, but he believes ``geography is irrelevant'' with the Internet.

Now, he is very excited about the Clean Besant Nagar beach project that Rejuvenate India Movement, Friends of Beach Exnora and Asha are co-ordinating. ``It's all about problem solving. Don't just stop with complaints. See what you can do about it,'' he says.

By Sudhish Kamath

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail