Human Beings Can Move Mountains
Thought leadership for reflection! In late 2002 while preparing to launch The Joy Of Giving movement, I was researching the Musahars (a mice-eating, ostracised and marginalised community that lives in abject poverty) and are called untouchables within untouchables (Yes! Besides the so-called Brahmins, Dalits and other castes, we also have a hierarchy of higher, highest untouchable, mid-level untouchable, lower lowest untouchable.) Seems we have reduced humanity to the lowest levels of indignity.
While walking through the villages in Bihar, I had this elderly gentleman, pulling my kurta and pointing to some mountains in the horizon. He pulled me to his charpoy (a traditional woven bed) and showed me a hammer and chisel. I could not understand a word and struggled for some time to understand his mumblings. We then found another villager who knew Hindi. He explained to us that this is Dashrath Manjhi, who cut the mountain with his bare hands, hammer and chisel by working 10 hours every day, every week for 22 years. He did not want anyone else to die like his wife, whose life he could not save, since he could not cross the mountain on time.
Yes, friends I am privileged to have met this so-called untouchable, the legendary Dashrath Manji. I held the hammer and chisel with which he achieved the impossible. Meeting Manjhi was a life-changing, mind-altering experience. Manjhi inspired me to research heroic potential. Thus, began my journey of telling stories of real heroes through Karmaveer awards and Karma Kurry books.
Ideas for Action: In 2015, I was delivering a speech for a large gathering in Bangalore. I start all speeches with ‘Namaste’, which means God resides in every human being and all human beings need to be treated with respect to unleash their unlimited potential. After explaining the spirit of ‘Namaste’, I asked the audience, if this learning came from India, pray where did castes and untouchability come from? I was speaking on human-potential and told them that every human (Brahmin, Dalits, CMD, CEO, young executives, interns, peons, janitors) had unlimited potential. I started the story of Dashrath Manjhi. One young corporate manager (IIT/IIM educated) stood up and started shouting at me. ‘How can you compare Dalits with Brahmins? How can you say they have the same potential as us?’ I told him that I inherently believe that we all have unlimited potential.
Manjhi and other real heroes like him, have unleashed their potential and do so much more for society than most of us, educated elitists. I told him if he has an issue with my egalitarian thoughts, he was free to get a refund and leave. He walked out in a huff. Alas, all the education has not helped people rid themselves of their fixed, feudal mindsets. We need to discard our biases and work on our own potential and the potential of others by developing a growth-mindset.
Businesses need to coach their executives to live diversity and inclusion and not just celebrate a Diversity and Inclusion Day. Doing so will improve productivity at the workplace.
