Often there are conversations about Delhi, debates about loving or hating the city or the age old comparison between Delhi and Mumbai. Where would one want to live? What can be done about Delhi’s pollution, overall dirtiness, beggars, cows in the street, etc? Where does one get a good glass of wine?

I sometimes tell people that Delhi is the best place I have ever lived overseas for amenities and activities. (I also believe it is a dynamic city in its own right.) Often I get a look or comment of disbelief. Yet when I begin to rattle off the other places I have lived (Jalalabad, Afghanistan; Akhaltsikhe, Georgia; Kokand, Uzbekistan; Ziway, Ethiopia, etc.) then they begin to nod their head.

What I find most interesting is the first gut reaction that people have to my statement. Delhi can’t possibly be the “best place”, as in their frame of reference it may be compared to NYC, London, or even their home town. Never the places I mention, which to be fair, most people haven’t heard of any way.

Perspective plays such a large role in how a person approaches living in and relating to people from another country. One hears various assessments of a country based on this perspective, opinions that range from being extremely open and accepting to downright ignorant and immature, in other cases.

This world view also seeps in to the work that we do. Are we still playing the age old game of Us vs. Them, Colonial vs. Native, or West vs. East? Observing another culture, whether in the workplace or outside, is one thing, but commenting in a non-constructive way begs the question…Isn’t it all just subjective? What is being said about this country and people can also be said about one’s own country and in the same tone and manner.

Is it possible to take one’s critical eye and turn it in on oneself and one’s own country or can it only be done when a person moves to another place and then all bets are off? At that point, everything can be reviewed, assessed and critiqued.

For those that have a narrow perspective, I hope that when they return to their countries they use new eyes and new perspectives to view their own homes in such a light and work towards the same improvements that they may wish upon their current hosts.

Perspective can make the world one way or the other, good or bad. For myself I strive to continue to widen mine, as through that I learn new ways of approaching life itself and that, to me, is priceless.

He was a former IT business owner who had decided to switch gears to the social sector through a Masters program. He commented how mindsets were so dissimilar between a development school versus a business school, yet both brought value to the table if a middle ground could be found.

We had just listened to a panel on agriculture development that, to be frank, was a bit outdated and didn’t actually cover the innovation that is happening in the field. In discussing this with him, we both stated that so much has already been learned in the traditional development sector on many of these same topics, yet it seems to be disregarded.

Somewhere along the way there is a renaming, a re-categorizing and a realigning as if the sector was dealing with brand new issues. With so many people, with diverse backgrounds and skills entering this sector, trying to solve challenges, it is important to remember what has been determined already in traditional development.

For example, those designing products for Small Holder Farmers, can review the lessons learned by development organizations in marketing & selling treadle pumps. I encourage all new entrants to access internet resources, such as Rural Finance Learning Center, Eldis or CGAP, sites that track development policy, practice and research.

To make this social enterprise sector work the lessons learned from both traditional development and business need to be combined.

Is social enterprise a re-branding of the development sector? What do you think?

I found this philosophy quite interesting because often the greatest social impact comes from a company that is not really thinking of social impact. Take for example the growth of the mobile phones in rural India. Saturated urban markets forced companies to go rural and rapidly a huge section of the population is now “connected”.

Does it really matter if your investment is a social enterprise offering an affordable and valuable product or service versus an enterprise that offers an affordable and valuable product or service?

Probably not.

However, there are some risks associated with unburdening a company of it’s social mission. On a day-to-day basis, the pressures of meeting revenue targets and achieving profitability (and therefore sustainability) can often force companies to pursue higher margin market opportunities that may eventually dilute the organization’s social mission.

Most of the industrial parks house small manufacturing units that employ anywhere from 15 to a 100 people. All sorts of plastic and mechanical components are manufactured here which eventually are sold in domestic and international markets.

There are three types of employees, adult men, adult women and teenagers. The men tend to do the work that requires more brawn, like lifting heavy parts or working near furnaces and the women and young teenagers are mostly involved in finishing operations like cleaning and packaging.

The machines used to manufacture these components are often semi-automatic, much like an automobile line. Workers are needed to load and unload product at frequent intervals. The employees are semi-skilled and for their efforts they receive approximately Rs.100 to Rs. 150 a day for men and Rs. 80 to Rs.100 for women. That’s approximately $2 to $3 per day. There are 2 shifts, each lasting 12 hours with two ten minute breaks for tea and 30 minutes for lunch. There are four off-days a month.  Some of the workers are migrants from the more impoverished states of India and often sleep in the same factories where they work.

Most of the units are covered with a layer of black grime, a combination of dust, oil and some unknown substance. Chemicals are strewn all over the place and the air in these factories feels heavy with fumes from machines.

This is not a scene from a Dickens novel, but is in fact the real status of a majority of small scale manufacturing sector in India.

I asked some of the workers how they manage to work for such long hours in these conditions. Their response is often a shy smile, a nod of the head with their fingers pointing towards their stomach. Yes, we all have to eat, an unfortunate necessity for existence.  Many of the migrant workers are happy to have a job where they can earn enough to support their families that are left in their home states.  They save assiduously and send home anywhere from Rs. 1000 ($20) to Rs. 1500 ($30) per month, critical funds that are needed to provide food and other essentials for their families.

The factory owners claim that they need to control costs in order to compete with cheap imports from China and that they cannot afford to clean up their factories or offer higher wages.

Sure, the workers could organize and demand better wages and conditions, but most of them are temporary workers and often do not have the wherewithal to launch a coordinated effort. Labor laws and workplace safety laws exist, but enforcement is a huge challenge mainly due to corruption and a shortage of labor inspectors in a country that has millions of such units.

Intellectuals are of the view that this is a part of industrial development and that every country goes through the sweatshop stage. They argue that businesses need to grow and gain profits that will enable them to pay more and maintain cleaner factories. Furthermore, a job today is much more valuable than none. I have been told that I must not apply my “first world” concepts at this point in time of India’s development.

What should we (i.e the development community) do about all this? Should we stick to our mandate of selling valuable products and services to the BoP and just ignore this? Can we try to influence governments? Can we insist that the products our social enterprises produce have to be manufactured in clean factories where labor laws are followed?

What are your thoughts?

My work at Villgro took me to villages around India and I re-lived this aha moment many times over until I had a much bigger Aha!

What in the world made me assume that the poor are dumb?

Obviously, what I had heard from the villagers was, in most of the cases, just common knowledge for them. In retrospect, I had these big aha’s because at some level I was prejudiced with the assumption that poor people did not know what their problems are,  if they did know about their problems, they were not articulate enough and even if they were articulate, they were not smart enough to solve the problem.

Sometimes our prejudices have a stronger influence on us than we think.  It is shocking to find out that many a times our prejudices dictate our thoughts and actions in spite of what we think we strongly believe in. From my own experience, I know that overcoming these prejudices have gone a long way in making me much more effective at the work I do.

In the fight to end poverty, I strongly believe that overcoming our prejudices about  the poor is as important, if not more, as the different poverty alleviation interventions themselves.

As my blogging has devolved mostly into short-storytelling, I had an Acumen-style a-ha that I should switch my main medium of reporting back on my fellowship year to Twitter.   When I learned that my mother was discussing my Twitter account with my ex-boyfriend at a family gathering in Potrero Hill San Francisco, I knew I had hit gold.  Concise, digestible, and an easy conversation piece for potentially awkward situations.   Its 140 character limit requires me to invoke the “zip it” rule, one of my favorite heuristics for survival as a Fellow.  Plus, Twitter fits the hectic nature of my day-to-day, testing low-cost ways to crack the nut of creating a new category and a new brand in the rural market in India, all the while struggling to find a reliable cab service and a decent glass of wine.  So, for those that are game to follow my fun and foibles in a new way, please check out HKinIndia

Also, I had a chance to chat with the fantastic 7th grade class the American Embassy School in Delhi, thanks to the kind invitation of teacher Elizabeth Namba (who I met at the kiddie pool at the American Embassy).   This has also become a great new partnership where D.light will help facilitate AES’ efforts  to sponsor a village in going solar.  More on that next time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuhX55H14pg&hl=en&fs=1]

The D.light culture is fast-paced and action oriented, so we structured our assessment process to be as experiential as possible. It was trial by fire. We wanted to assess candidates’ ability to think outside the box, apply creativity and structure to an unstructured business question, produce deliverables quickly, and present a concise and compelling point of view. Business Development candidates were asked in their second round interviews to prepare a presentation that could be used to pitch a new partner on a hypothetical solar loan pilot. Plus, they were asked to author a hypothetical, “guest” blog posting that would run on Sam’s SocialEdge blog 90 days later. Our final Graphic Design candidate was asked to spend two days in our Noida office and come up with a new in-store display unit that would build the D.light brand among peri-urban consumers and provide basic education about solar energy. She had to present to Sam and other senior managers at the end of her 36 hours. She’s now on board and we’re going to print in a week. We asked behavioral questions such as “if you had been working with an executive coach for the last three months, what would be the key issues you’re working on? What’s the toughest retreat you’ve ever had to make or hardest no you’ve ever had to give? Can you describe your ideal manager?”

After all of this, four superstars rose to the top as having the best fit in terms of skill, attitude and style for D.light India. These fellows design, strategize, envision, and execute. They speak French, Hindi, English, Spanish and Gujurati. They are artists and authors. They are social change evangelists and entrepreneurs. They are going to help D.light build a movement around solar energy. Welcome to D.light India—Anay Shah (Business Development – from Development Alternatives, Inc), Sana Rao (Graphic Design – from National Institute of Design), Mariette Fourmeaux du Sartel (Carbon – from Haas School of Business, Mauna Kea Technologies), and Jack Godfrey Wood (Product Design – award winning Industrial Designer, educated at Central St. Martin’s).

Of course the challenges are numerous for recruiting women to be a Drishtee Health Franchisees (DHF). They include anything from simply her husband said no or maybe it was her mother-in-law. Her family doesn’t want her to travel the 20km to the partner hospital for training or for her to be for a week. The license fee to be a franchisee is too high for the family or there is a lack of employment/savings. Gossipers in the village discourage her joining or the local quack spreads rumors.

In a rural culture, where women are often not formally employed, they are caretakers and homemakers within their own houses and extended families. They are often not allowed to leave the house or the village without permission and their role is to stay at home and take care of the well being of their children, husband and elders. Within in it all, there are women and families who do decide to become part of the Drishtee network. Some basic reasons are: economic need, community standing or a familiarity/desire to do the work.

It is these women that Drishtee looks to find and recruit into their micro-franchising health model.

Watch the video to see why!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkOopb4rJ-I]

Recently, we switched our modus operandi and started using shared spreadsheets on Google Docs. This has made a huge difference to our operational efficiency. There are no more swarms of daily emails, just a link that employees can bookmark and access whenever they need to.

Another cool, free feature is the Indic transliteration application. This is how it works : You type a Hindi word in English , for e.g, chai , hit the space bar, and watch as the text is converted to the Indian script, ???.

We recently drafted a document in English and then realized that we should switch to Marathi for clarity and effectiveness. One of our employees, typed up the survey in English and then had it transliterated to Marathi in less than an hour. We saved money and more importantly time and now have the option of transliterating to four other languages.

Finally, files in Google Docs can be converted to the PDF format for free. Save $$ on Acrobat License fees.

Start-ups often need cost effective, productive and easy-to-use solutions that can be implemented immediately to bring some order to their operations. Some of these web-based applications, might just do the trick until the time to invest in more sophisticated solutions arrives!

Have you seen any other cool applications?

When I review such awards, mounted on the wall, or listed out by name and year in pamphlets, I wonder about the social “insides” of the company and the transferable nature of such ideals into the inner workings of the business.

I often ask myself: Are they living social enterprise? Are employees treated fairly, with the same sense of social awareness and concern? Does the management & leadership style of the management team reflect such values?

In reality, I assume that many enterprises have not yet found this balance. Is it possible to take the social agenda that these enterprises are trying to meet on a daily basis with their target clients into the company? Can a business be labeled social enterprise if both sides of the coin are not met? Some might argue it is more about getting the work in the field done as fast and quickly as possible that’s  most important.

Does living social enterprise matter? Should it matter?

Here is a link to the article:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Bloggers-can-be-nailed-for-views/articleshow/4178823.cms

What do you think about this issue? Should the blogger be spared?

I think he should be spared – this is about expressing your views.

Before flying to India I was part of many conversations in which the common theme was that in order to really make a positive social impact in the lives of the poor we need to slow down… Extend time lines, think in terms of processes not tasks, take into account the infrastructural limitations of the countries when designing a business plan, etc. All of these conversations, plus the many hours in the classrooms at LSE discussing the failures of development efforts in the last few decades, helped me prepare to transition to a work environment that would require a large quantity of patience. Patience with the external circumstances that would shape the way I worked. What I did not foresee was that I would need even a larger quantity of patience with myself and the impact that my personal transition would have on the work I was ready to do.

Find out why by watching my video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coWbyWB4IDY&hl=en&fs=1]

Full Story can be found at http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1220060

When I first read this article published yesterday on the DNA Bangalore newspaper I felt moved by Daniel’s story of resilience. Then my thoughts drifted to another character in the story, Dr. Belaku Chandu[1] from AyurVAID: Hospitals. The reason why I found myself thinking of Dr. Belaku is because the article reminded me of her reaction one of those days that Daniel heard the sound of the fire crackers.

I was sitting in the hospital’s kitchen having dinner with the staff and doctors when the noise of the firecrackers filtered the hospital building. Dr. Belaku immediately stopped eating her food, she rose from the table and went in to the hallway. She stopped for a few minutes as if waiting for something to happen and then disappeared into the first floor. Then I heard laughter.

When Dr. Belaku came back to the kitchen and I asked her what was that all about she told me Daniel’s story and how the noise of the firecrackers had affected her in the past few days. With a smile in her face she said, “The first day Daniel was very scared by the noise. She thought it was the noise of shotguns and her nerves started to jerk again. The second day she was just startled and dropped her food tray. Today, she recognized the noise and she just laughed!” She was paying attention to Daniel’s progress day and night.

Dr. Belaku’s story exemplifies the type of personal and organizational commitment that makes a social enterprise thrive. Everyday I spend at AyurVAID: Hospitals I am in awe of how devoted the caregivers and doctors are to the patients and to the organizational mission. Every single one of them believes in the healing powers of Ayurveda for treating chronic illnesses and is committed to AyurVAID: Hospitals’ mission of taking classical Kerala Ayurveda to as many people as possible in India and around the world by offering affordable, high quality services.

This article also highlighted for me the positive ripple effect of investing in a social enterprise. Acumen Fund’s investment in AyurVAID: Hospitals operation’s in India is helping reach people in Africa! Although Daniel may not belong to the low income class at the BOP that Acumen is trying to reach, there is no doubt that she was a person in need of physical and spiritual help, and that her courage in sharing her story of improvement through Ayurveda provided in the AyurVAID: way, will help this team of committed doctors and entrepreneurs communicate to all its promise to solving society’s health needs.

“They are not doctors. They are not nurses. They are illiterate women from India’s Untouchable castes. Yet as trained village health workers, they are delivering babies, curing disease, and saving lives—including their own.”

The article recounts the story of two village health workers, Sarubai Salve and Babai Sathe, who look after pregnant women, babies, old people, and other basic health needs of the community. Sarubai Salve has been working with the village of Jawalke for the past 24 years.

What is amazing about this story is not only the success of the community health model but also its major aim of providing dignity to women who are untouchables. These two women were once illiterate, lacked a self-identity, and were extremely poor. Through the program Jamkhed, founded by a husband and wife doctor team, Raj & Mabelle Arole, this is no longer true. In fact, they have also organized 8 women’s groups and started a revolving loan fund and business skill training.

Many groups have tried to do as Jamkhed but have not succeeded with the same results. The Aroles goal from the beginning is the key, I feel, to why Jamkhed has seen such transformations. In order to work with the poorest of the poor: “empathy, knowledge of how poor people live, and willingness to work were more important than skills and prestige.”

Today the villages where Salve and Sathe work have two prevalent illnesses: hypertension and diabetes. This is not the status quo for the majority of rural India. In fact, they are considered to be diseases of developed countries. Who would have thought that these untouchable women would be such change agents? If nothing else, this is another testimony to never draw within the lines and accept the norm as the end all be all.

Quotes and photo from Necessary Angels Article in National Geographic

Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic 2008

Starting a business is hard enough, but starting a business that has a social focus is even harder.  For Micro Drip, we are still very much working to refine our business model so that we can successfully sell to the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) here in Pakistan, those who live on less than $4/day.  For Micro Drip, one of the most difficult challenges is that we can have the greatest low cost, high quality drip irrigation system in the world, but ultimately success for a farmer depends on much more than our system: microfinancing, stable water source, good seed, fertilizer, storage, know-how, distribution to markets, etc.  As a result, we cannot simply sell our system off the shelf; we have to think about ways to directly and indirectly (through partnerships) address the problems that come before and after our product. 

A second difficulty that we face is the seasonality of our product.  There are two growing seasons in Pakistan each year with most farmers growing cotton during the summer season and wheat during the fall season.  Unfortunately, drip irrigation cannot be used with wheat given the density of the plants/acre.  Vegetables can be grown during both seasons and offer much higher prices, but the lack of storage and access to markets forces many farmers into cotton and wheat, which are more stable with much less risk of going bad. 

A third difficulty that we are tackling is how to motivate local sales reps in the communities that we serve.  CEMEX, a Mexican cement company, has successfully mobilized a large network of local promoters in its program Patrimonio Hoy, which helps clients who make between $5-$15/day to save money for do-it-yourself home improvements.  While there are some successful models out there, many social businesses are struggling with this issue, as it is often difficult for local sales people to make sufficient income selling a single product.  Where sales channels to the BOP already exist, it is much easier for existing sales people to add additional products to their offerings.  Unfortunately, we are not aware of any other sales channels that reach our target market that would be willing to add our systems to their existing portfolio.

In spite of the challenges, we are committed to bringing irrigation solutions to the poor farmers of Pakistan.  Drip irrigation increases crop yields by 30-100% all the while decreasing water usage by 50-70%.  This translates into more money for poor farmers and ultimately has the potential to free farmers who are imprisoned in debt and a subsistence life. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcYVsB2XQ7c&hl=en&fs=1]

The 6 Rules are:

1. Be prepared to give at least 10 years of extremely hard work & commitment.
2. Having the right business partners with good experience on board counts!
3. Never let someone else tell you what you can & cannot do.
4. Meet someone new & learn something new every single day.
5. Things happen for a reason. Do the job with intensity & enthusiasm in success or failure.
6. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is what is crucial!

Please view the video for context/detail. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ywc2mHw8w]

(Times of India, December 3, 2008)

How the lure for respectability made this impoverished laborer believe in the Jehadi cause.

• > The 21 year old captured fidayeen was born at Faridkot Village (population 3000), Dilapur tehsil, of Okara district Punjab province, 50 km east of Multan. Family belongs to Qasai caste. Father, Mohd Amir Iman, runs dahi-puri snack cart, mother, Noori Tai, looks after ramshackle home
• > Ajmal is one of 5 kids. Eldest brother, Afzal 25, works as laborer in Lahore lives near Yadgar Minar. Sister, Rukaiyya Husain, 22 is married in village. Then comes Ajmal. Sister, Suraiyya, 14, and brother Munir, 11, still at home.
• > Ajmal’s poor father can’t keep him in government primary school. In 2000, 13 year old Ajmal, just past class 4, is sent to Afzal in Lahore. The brother, then 17, hardly has means to look after his young brother.
• > Ajmal shuttles between Lahore and Faridkot. In 2005, fights with father and leaves home. Not welcome in Afzal’s house either. Stays at shrine of holy man Syed Ali Hajveri. Like elder brother, works as a laborer.
• > Finds the work degrading. Gets attracted to petty crime. With friend Muzaffar Lal Khan, launches new career in armed robberies. On Dec 21, 2007, Bakr-Eid day, they go to Rawalpindi to buy weapons.
• > It’s here that they run into activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa – Lashkar-e-Taiba’s political wing – handling out pamphlets about their group. After a brief chat, duo sign up – not because of conviction but for training they might get. That, they feel, would further career in crime.
• > Reach LeT’s base camp, Markaz Taiba. It’s here that Ajmal starts getting influenced by films on India’s “atrocities” in Kashmir, by impassioned speeches by preachers, including LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Starts believing it might be worth sacrificing his worthless life for glory of Islam. Camp gives him sense of belongings that he never had. When he comes home during a 2-month break, finds he is suddenly treated with respect by family and community.
• > After this break, Ajmal chosen for LeT’s basic combat course, Daura Aam. Does well and chosen with small group of 32 for advanced training, Daura Khaas, at camp near Manshera. Does well here too.
• > Selected for high-skill marine commando and navigation training, imparted to the team of 10 fidayeen chosen to attack Mumbai. At 4:45 am, on Nov 23, Ajmal with the unit, sail off from a forlorn creek near Karachi, each equipped with AK-47s, 200 rounds of ammo and grenades.
• > LeT military commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi promises Rs. 1.5 lakh (USD 3000) reward.

(end of excerpt from paper)

Everyone talks about the atrocious crimes the terrorists (as they call them) have committed. And I don’t mean to say they haven’t. However, no one is talking about why these people are doing this. The social fabric is not even questioned when you can see from the story of Ajmal (and I call him by his name because he is just has human as you and me) that it is strewn with lack of dignity of labor, lack of education (tied to lack of money), lack of basic family planning. Five children in today’s day and age is a recipe for disaster even in developed worlds given the escalating commodity prices and education costs. Think about the strain on a laborer father. Finally USD 3000 reward to the family is all you need to hire Ajmal and young adolescents like him.

My comments may seem caustic or even combative. But what are we doing about this? Quite frankly I’m tired of listening to theories on how a strategic alliances between countries can end the “war of terror” – to which India has also been inducted!

You can only cure something if you know the root cause.

So “what is the root cause?”

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, please send me comments if you’d like.

My friends and I were trying to find a shelter that was close by. As we walked along, we met Charles who had a table setup on the street that read “United Homeless Organization”. We felt that it would be best if we asked Charles where the shelter was. Now, why would Charles try to help us? What could we ask him such that he would give us the address of the shelter? So my friends posed as “homeless” people stirred up a conversation with Charles asking him for help. When he came to know we were homeless there was an instant sense of connection he felt with us. Even though he did not know the exact location he started to think how he could help us. Just as he was thinking of options, his friend Anthony walks by. He shouts out, “Anthony, can you please help these folks? Can you give them directions to the shelter?” Anthony says “Sure, why don’t I just walk with you to the shelter, I am going there anyways?” That’s how I met Anthony!

Anthony was a tall, skinny, curly haired man. His cheek bones protruding out almost like those you’d find amongst native Indians. He was wearing a denim jacket and trousers with sneakers that looked fairly new. I started walking with Anthony and I introduced myself and he did the same. What follows is an excerpt of my conversation with Anthony.

He said “My real name is “Yusuf Ali” and I am from Puerto Rico (same as Charles, whom we had met earlier).”

He also indicated that he had some heritage from Saudi Arabia. This background was certainly intriguing. We continued our conversation.

I asked “What about your family? Where are they? Do you have any kids?”

He said “I have eight children – six boys and two girls. They all lived with my wife in Brooklyn and my parents also lived nearby.”

I asked “Anthony where do you work? Or what do you do for a living?”

He said “I conduct seminars on HIV/AIDS throughout New York city, about three or four seminars per day”. He kept talking and I kept listening.

He said “I used have a nice Audi A6 which I sold and bought a house for my parents as I wanted them to live nicely. What’s in a car, I can always earn money again to buy it, but my parents should be living well?” As Anthony was talking, I was just thinking to myself. Does he really want anything different than I do? A good life – where kids, wife and parents are all taken care of, isn’t it?

I continued the conversation; I said “Would you like this Biscotti, it goes well with the coffee? How long ago did you come to America?”

He took the biscotti, put it in his jacket pocket and continued talking “I grew up in this country. In fact, I was in the army, in the “special forces” unit. I was very good at rope climbing. They (the army) had trained me and sent me to Iraq when the war began. But I tell you, I don’t like Bush, he is really a trouble maker.”

All this while we were walking along and my friends were following us. We perilously crossed the road without any regards to the traffic on it as if we were in our own world. Just as we crossed the road, Anthony excused himself and entered a pharmacy store. I waited outside the pharmacy patiently. He was in the store for nearly fifteen minutes. He came out ignored me and started walking away. I walked up to him and tapped him on his shoulder with a hope to continue our conversation. We walked a few steps quietly. Just as we reached a crossing Anthony took a turn and went off. I didn’t know what had happened between him entering the store and returning but it certainly seemed like he was in no mood to talk to me any more.

I continued walking alone thinking about Anthony, who was he? What did he want in life? What did I want in life? I don’t have these answers, but I can say this all my life I have lived on the hope of doing better than what I am doing or where I have been in life and that has kept me going. Was Anthony telling me the things he’d like in life? Was he living in the hope that he’d have a eight children, comfortable life for his parents? I can only hope to answer his questions. I can only hope that Anthony gets what he desires in life.

As Aristotle rightly put it “Hope is the dream of a waking man.”