World Peace

An age old cliché: Question asked to Miss Universe Pageant finalists “What would you like to achieve if you were crowned Miss Universe?” Reply by all aspirants “World Peace!”

Nearly everyone I know believes in a cause. Some of them even contribute in some way. There are the rare few who are driven by these causes.

At the age of 18 I joined one of the largest youth communities in the world today, called AIESEC. Ironically, this association was born out of a desire for world peace. But that’s a broad point of view. What it aimed to achieve is peace through understanding, interaction, exchange, education, empowerment and much more. I could tell you more but then that would be a blog on its own. Frankly a visit to www.aiesec.org will tell you more than I ever can.

It was because of this that I became aware that everyone I knew had, at some level or the other, the desire to give back to the world. As a matter of curiosity I started asking people around me this one question:

“If you had all the money and time in the world and you decided to support a cause. What would your top three causes be and in what order?”

I got a variety of replies to this, but the majority went with old age and / or children. A few mentioned cancer research, HIV / AIDS, mentally / physically retarded children and so on and so forth.

This got me thinking about what kind of person I am. Thankfully very few asked me my choices. Because if they heard them, they would have thought I had my priorities mixed up.

My choices and in this order:
1. The environment
2. Animals / Wildlife
3. Education (child and adult)

Does this make me a callous human, who doesn’t care about health, elder people, under nourished children? Not in my eyes…

I have a million justifications to my choices; I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on them. Suffice to say that without the environment there will be no health. Without the ecological balances of nature and its creatures, there isn’t going to be a world to grow old in, or bring new children into. And for those who are already on the planet, education is the single most important step to creating better lives.

The only thing I would add to it if I had the option for a fourth cause is empowerment. All it takes is to make people believe in themselves and give them a few basic tools, and they will never have to rely on anyone else. “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.”

Today I am proud to know that at some level or the other I am contributing to all these causes. Sadly, it’s not enough, but I know I can make it more meaningful.

I work with father in a business that sells reusable bags the world over to help lessen the plastic menace. We are also trying to set up something that can become a community effort to make use discarded plastic so it doesn’t land up in land fills. (www.badlani.com/bags)

As of last week, on the request of a dear friend, I have rejoined the effort of helping his organization “Animal Help Foundation” achieve what it set out to do 4 years ago. (www.ahfindia.org) Being an active alumnus of AIESEC, assisting them achieve a 50+ year old dream, completes my cycle.

If anyone tells me that there is just so much one person can do, then I would request them to watch a movie called ‘Schindler’s List’. He was and remains my inspiration. I want to make a difference that means I can.

To world peace, Salute!