..an evening meeting with Indias future leaders..

okay so last posting for tonight, as it is already 22 here, so i wanted to share with you a short little post, a post that is about Susanne and i sitting down in a meeting with a youth commitee, with youngsters between 19 to 23, after another short introduction of who we are an why we are here, we ask each of them to introduce themselves, they are all either at university or just done with university - some already having their first job, after the introduction they become full of anticipation - what are these two people going to say or ask, Susanne and i, have developed great "interviewing skills" and we have now have a natural flow of asking questions, following up on each others questions, we start to ask them about what they believe are the issues in India now a days, what they would like to change, how they plan on changing their communities, we talk about the roles within the communities, the lack of respect that many men have towards women, and how these must change and will change with them being the new generation of Chennai.. After having our initial round of questions, i feel the need for me to challenge them a bit - so i ask them about what they will do now and in the near future, they having very good answers, they want to join politics to make different regulation changes, they want to become police officers to get rid of corruption, they want to work as social workers to engage the different groups into more developing their communities even more, they want to start NGOs to have higher local impact on people, all in all these young ones have ideas, they have passion, they have a drive, they realize that they are the future of India...

So we are about to finish up a very interesting and dynamic meeting - i cant help but asking them for their commitment, their commitment to do the impossible, to promised me that whatever they do - never to give up, never to back down, always fight for what they believe in, to respect each other, to support each other, and work for and with each other... - they look at me, smile, and promise me - that  they will make this promise to me.. i commit to them if they ever need my thoughts or ideas on anything, that they can contact me, and this seems to be something very BIG for them, they seem very excited about this offer, we give them our e-mails and they are almost fighting over who can copy them first ... - i think we have made a good two-way commitment, i ask them for one other thing, and that is to understand the cause and consequence and focus on resolving the problem with addressing the real cause of why the people do what they do ... they agree with me, i tell them from my own experience, that i have heard it cant be done a million times, and how that motivates me to prove to people that it can be done.. finally we ask them to not look at problems but support with solutions.. These future leaders of India seem to get it, they seem to understand how much responsibility is placed on their young shoulders, and they accept this responsibility.. and one young boy says something that makes me smile, "one day the youth of India will get the chance to shine, and that chance is now.." and with that we finish our meeting ... my friends yes, one day the youth of India will have the chance to shine - that day might come before you know it ...

...."either we find a way, or we will make a way - but one thing that is for sure, there is always a way..."