[Applause]
we are a country of 1.3 billion plus
population which means that every moment
as Indians village stories were worth
1.3 billion times of repetition each one
of us sitting in the audience today each
one of us beyond the auditorium today is
living a story that we believe in as
Descartes said I am because I coach Ito
ago some essentially which means that we
continue to be because of what we think
we are that is the basis of our
existence that is the basis of how we
are and as a nation today when we are at
the cusp of this huge change
generational social almost brimming with
this young energy I think we are living
stories which are worth recalling which
are worth telling which are worth
sharing and which are worth reliving
time and again I am sure most of you
follow the trajectory of different
events that keep happening in this
country and I’m sure you would remember
that this year when the Padma Awards
Award winners walked up to rashtrapati
bhavan to receive their awards I think
every Indian swelled with pride because
we had a Lakshmi Kuti who works in the
hinterlands of rural Kerala who works by
preserving the traditional reserve of
memory who works to cure people from
snake bites from different kinds of
poisonous reptiles and this has been her
life her living that is the story that
she believed in
that is the story that she believes in
despite the fact that she might not be
as educated as most of us are with her
branded degrees we are reminded of
Suhasini mystery who despite all the
struggles of being a daily wage earner
who despite the fact that the society
would have shunned her for the kind of
work she did was instrumental in
initiating social change despite all
these events which we call as struggle
these are the real changemakers in our
society these are the women and the men
of our country who have been shaping
stories and believing in stories that
are negotiated by the same circumstances
that we are afflicted with it just that
their perspective on the stories they
choose to believe in has been a little
different from what we as a society
wanted them to believe in there is a
village in Bihar I come from Bihar this
village is in a in a district called
Cabiria and I’m taking the name of this
village because I have verifiable
stories from this village
the Musel community in this in this
village Laxmi Nia was deprived of
something as basic as straw leaves dry
leaves every day was a struggle for this
community this community is one of the
most deprived communities of our country
you may call them the lips if you want
you may call them Scheduled Castes if
you want these are the groups of people
who have been marginalized who have been
completely cut off from the mainstream
these are the people who struggled to
cook their food and these are the people
today who cook on LPG gas cylinders who
use smokeless rulers and we must
remember
that this is again a story that one
leader believed in this is a story that
was told retold faith reinstalled in the
people lot of stereotypes broken and
only then today let’s me Nia can claim
can showcase with pride the power of
that one story and that one story was
something which was initiated by nothing
more than a mere sight of a woman
cuffing because of the smoke emanating
from the traditional tool hers that we
used in our households I think the
stories that we want to change the world
with our stories that are that are
generated out of a sense of empathy that
we have for people we are surrounded
with the people we live with it was not
it was not very easy for Lakshmi Nia to
move out of that circle of of ignorance
that circle of lack of basic knowledge
that lack of understanding for what we
would reductively called modern living
they had to be told that it is safe to
use LPG gas stoves they were supposed to
be told that it is okay if if it rains
and your your cylinder would be safe
your gas stove would be safe and in this
entire process you can imagine the kind
of manpower that was deployed to put
sludge mania on this radar they were
group groups of consultants they were
groups of young entrepreneurs they were
group of young passionate individuals
who just went out into the village to
counsel these people and then take that
leap of faith why I am saying all this
is because as young Indians we represent
today 65% of the 1.3 billion population
that we are and the power of one idea
and the power of one story which can
move
can be responsible to generate these 1.3
billion stories of change therefore
every issue that we read upon every
issue that we feel strongly about is a
story which is worth communicating to
these 1.3 billion Minds I say this of
course because of the work I do I work
with communities in different capacities
but triumph I see the power of
communication in delivering these
stories and in making somebody work on
these stories is something that has to
be understood for a young bubbling
population that we are it is important
to own an idea that you have any idea
which is generated out of a genuine
goodwill out of the genuine genuine good
feeling you have when you think about an
idea and those those very basic hormones
that trigger those responses in you what
mr. Phillip one of the one of the Ted
talkers called the the angels cocktail
the hormones that induct
that thought process in us that idea is
a life-changing idea and imagine if 1.3
billion life-changing ideas were to
reverberate on the scene of this
motherland imagine how much change we
all could drink it is also important to
dwell on stories because these are the
stories which make us or break us I’m
sure most of us would have heard that
that oral story that has been
transferred from a mother from our
mothers grandmothers and so on and so
forth in a family of an alcoholic father
the two sons chose different paths one
son believed that since my father is an
alcoholic
I should also become an alcoholic or
that’s the only way of life that I have
seen
that I’ll continue to repeat this cycle
and ruined his life and the lives with
him and the other son chose to believe
that because my father was this way I
will not choose to be this way and chose
to disrupt from that cycle chose to make
a change in his life and the lives
around him that is the power of story
and that is why it is important that
when we we’ve our own narratives when we
weave our own stories we choose we must
choose to believe in those to weave
those which will impact lives positively
around us I know this was a clichéd
story but most of the time we need to
remind ourselves of the cliches as well
because sometimes are the risk of
repeating ourselves we miss out on the
finer details of life on the finer
nuances of life imagine if that leader
would have chose would have chosen to
dismiss the idea of a woman in a rural
hinterland of India cooking on a smoking
tool huh imagine he would have thought
it’s such a cliched topic it is such a
cliche because almost every rural
household in India cooks on a smoky
jewel huh imagine if that leader would
have dismissed this as a cliche we would
not have had the revolution that we see
today I will give you another example
again from Bihar in their hunger
district a man called Anandi cha very
ordinary man like you and I chose to
move out of the family notions and norms
of not building a toilet inside an her
in inside a household and this time I’m
choosing an example from not at the lip
community but from a community which is
generally regarded as a community that
has emerged out of the head of Brahma
the Brahmin community this community not
always but mostly has codified and
has made certain practices very rigid
among one of those practices has been
the idea of not having toilets in the
home because toilets are impure and the
entire atmosphere of the household
becomes impure if you have a toilet in
the home
ananza that change agent changed that
entire perspective not only builds the
toilets in his home but instead inspired
others to do so this is a story again
which reminds us which should remind us
of this power of one voice this one
voice which could rise among one of us
this is not a story of infinite struggle
this is a story of belief this is not a
story where somebody like savasana
mystery had to toil day in and day out
have a power of conviction and initiate
a change this is a story of a simple
belief this is a story of a belief in
that simple idea that we must not clutch
on two systems beliefs value systems
which impinge the development or which
impinge the progress of a society of a
community of a family for some rigid
idea that we lay claim to ladies and
gentlemen I would like to leave with
this thought and I would like you also
to be to have this thought in your head
imagine if all of us believed in that
one brilliant idea imagine if one
believed in that power of that one seed
that we have in all of us to change the
world for the better
I am sure we all believe in stories I’m
sure we all be we want to do something
may be related to our personal lives
related to our social lives or related
to a larger cause we believe in but
imagine if we were to tell those stories
it is important for stories to be told
because it’s not just about the tellers
all the time it’s about the power of
that idea that power of that word either
written or spoken let us all be
storytellers as
young Indians let us all rise up to the
occasion have our ideas translate into
action or at least tell the story of how
you would want them to translate into
action with this I leave you with this thought thank you
we are a country of 1.3 billion plus
population which means that every moment
as Indians village stories were worth
1.3 billion times of repetition each one
of us sitting in the audience today each
one of us beyond the auditorium today is
living a story that we believe in as
Descartes said I am because I coach Ito
ago some essentially which means that we
continue to be because of what we think
we are that is the basis of our
existence that is the basis of how we
are and as a nation today when we are at
the cusp of this huge change
generational social almost brimming with
this young energy I think we are living
stories which are worth recalling which
are worth telling which are worth
sharing and which are worth reliving
time and again I am sure most of you
follow the trajectory of different
events that keep happening in this
country and I’m sure you would remember
that this year when the Padma Awards
Award winners walked up to rashtrapati
bhavan to receive their awards I think
every Indian swelled with pride because
we had a Lakshmi Kuti who works in the
hinterlands of rural Kerala who works by
preserving the traditional reserve of
memory who works to cure people from
snake bites from different kinds of
poisonous reptiles and this has been her
life her living that is the story that
she believed in
that is the story that she believes in
despite the fact that she might not be
as educated as most of us are with her
branded degrees we are reminded of
Suhasini mystery who despite all the
struggles of being a daily wage earner
who despite the fact that the society
would have shunned her for the kind of
work she did was instrumental in
initiating social change despite all
these events which we call as struggle
these are the real changemakers in our
society these are the women and the men
of our country who have been shaping
stories and believing in stories that
are negotiated by the same circumstances
that we are afflicted with it just that
their perspective on the stories they
choose to believe in has been a little
different from what we as a society
wanted them to believe in there is a
village in Bihar I come from Bihar this
village is in a in a district called
Cabiria and I’m taking the name of this
village because I have verifiable
stories from this village
the Musel community in this in this
village Laxmi Nia was deprived of
something as basic as straw leaves dry
leaves every day was a struggle for this
community this community is one of the
most deprived communities of our country
you may call them the lips if you want
you may call them Scheduled Castes if
you want these are the groups of people
who have been marginalized who have been
completely cut off from the mainstream
these are the people who struggled to
cook their food and these are the people
today who cook on LPG gas cylinders who
use smokeless rulers and we must
remember
that this is again a story that one
leader believed in this is a story that
was told retold faith reinstalled in the
people lot of stereotypes broken and
only then today let’s me Nia can claim
can showcase with pride the power of
that one story and that one story was
something which was initiated by nothing
more than a mere sight of a woman
cuffing because of the smoke emanating
from the traditional tool hers that we
used in our households I think the
stories that we want to change the world
with our stories that are that are
generated out of a sense of empathy that
we have for people we are surrounded
with the people we live with it was not
it was not very easy for Lakshmi Nia to
move out of that circle of of ignorance
that circle of lack of basic knowledge
that lack of understanding for what we
would reductively called modern living
they had to be told that it is safe to
use LPG gas stoves they were supposed to
be told that it is okay if if it rains
and your your cylinder would be safe
your gas stove would be safe and in this
entire process you can imagine the kind
of manpower that was deployed to put
sludge mania on this radar they were
group groups of consultants they were
groups of young entrepreneurs they were
group of young passionate individuals
who just went out into the village to
counsel these people and then take that
leap of faith why I am saying all this
is because as young Indians we represent
today 65% of the 1.3 billion population
that we are and the power of one idea
and the power of one story which can
move
can be responsible to generate these 1.3
billion stories of change therefore
every issue that we read upon every
issue that we feel strongly about is a
story which is worth communicating to
these 1.3 billion Minds I say this of
course because of the work I do I work
with communities in different capacities
but triumph I see the power of
communication in delivering these
stories and in making somebody work on
these stories is something that has to
be understood for a young bubbling
population that we are it is important
to own an idea that you have any idea
which is generated out of a genuine
goodwill out of the genuine genuine good
feeling you have when you think about an
idea and those those very basic hormones
that trigger those responses in you what
mr. Phillip one of the one of the Ted
talkers called the the angels cocktail
the hormones that induct
that thought process in us that idea is
a life-changing idea and imagine if 1.3
billion life-changing ideas were to
reverberate on the scene of this
motherland imagine how much change we
all could drink it is also important to
dwell on stories because these are the
stories which make us or break us I’m
sure most of us would have heard that
that oral story that has been
transferred from a mother from our
mothers grandmothers and so on and so
forth in a family of an alcoholic father
the two sons chose different paths one
son believed that since my father is an
alcoholic
I should also become an alcoholic or
that’s the only way of life that I have
seen
that I’ll continue to repeat this cycle
and ruined his life and the lives with
him and the other son chose to believe
that because my father was this way I
will not choose to be this way and chose
to disrupt from that cycle chose to make
a change in his life and the lives
around him that is the power of story
and that is why it is important that
when we we’ve our own narratives when we
weave our own stories we choose we must
choose to believe in those to weave
those which will impact lives positively
around us I know this was a clichéd
story but most of the time we need to
remind ourselves of the cliches as well
because sometimes are the risk of
repeating ourselves we miss out on the
finer details of life on the finer
nuances of life imagine if that leader
would have chose would have chosen to
dismiss the idea of a woman in a rural
hinterland of India cooking on a smoking
tool huh imagine he would have thought
it’s such a cliched topic it is such a
cliche because almost every rural
household in India cooks on a smoky
jewel huh imagine if that leader would
have dismissed this as a cliche we would
not have had the revolution that we see
today I will give you another example
again from Bihar in their hunger
district a man called Anandi cha very
ordinary man like you and I chose to
move out of the family notions and norms
of not building a toilet inside an her
in inside a household and this time I’m
choosing an example from not at the lip
community but from a community which is
generally regarded as a community that
has emerged out of the head of Brahma
the Brahmin community this community not
always but mostly has codified and
has made certain practices very rigid
among one of those practices has been
the idea of not having toilets in the
home because toilets are impure and the
entire atmosphere of the household
becomes impure if you have a toilet in
the home
ananza that change agent changed that
entire perspective not only builds the
toilets in his home but instead inspired
others to do so this is a story again
which reminds us which should remind us
of this power of one voice this one
voice which could rise among one of us
this is not a story of infinite struggle
this is a story of belief this is not a
story where somebody like savasana
mystery had to toil day in and day out
have a power of conviction and initiate
a change this is a story of a simple
belief this is a story of a belief in
that simple idea that we must not clutch
on two systems beliefs value systems
which impinge the development or which
impinge the progress of a society of a
community of a family for some rigid
idea that we lay claim to ladies and
gentlemen I would like to leave with
this thought and I would like you also
to be to have this thought in your head
imagine if all of us believed in that
one brilliant idea imagine if one
believed in that power of that one seed
that we have in all of us to change the
world for the better
I am sure we all believe in stories I’m
sure we all be we want to do something
may be related to our personal lives
related to our social lives or related
to a larger cause we believe in but
imagine if we were to tell those stories
it is important for stories to be told
because it’s not just about the tellers
all the time it’s about the power of
that idea that power of that word either
written or spoken let us all be
storytellers as
young Indians let us all rise up to the
occasion have our ideas translate into
action or at least tell the story of how
you would want them to translate into
action with this I leave you with this thought thank you
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