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From banker to shepherd | Babar Afzal | TEDxYouth@DoonSchool


I’ll start off with my narrative about
India
you know today when we talk about India
we talk about whenever we are talking
about individuals talking about the
China in the same breath in terms of you
know then even the next superpower and
if you look at the numbers numbers are
defining in there if you look at the
population we’re going to exceed China
by 2034 and if it is military strength
we’re the near the fourth largest army
that is economy India we’re almost third
in purchasing power parity term when we
continue to grow but is that all what
India stands for I believe there is a
lot more to that and a lot more I mean
there’s power of example they build
things that are allied to a lot of
things that India stands for in the past
20 years
while India was progressing you know I
come from Germany to Schmeer be in some
ways Kashmir has been a part of the
growth story from down at time it has
not been a part of the good story of
India when I was growing up that time in
90s terrorism was at its peak and a lot
of people like me who were growing up
the only hope for them was to you know
to to do good academically and finally
try to find a good job and leave that
place forever and I exactly did that any
anyone that time you me is that this guy
will leave them in Kashmir and never
ever come back and I almost had a place
that time that I will never come back
and I was slightly above average
academically and I managed to get a job
and it was later I realized that the
only thing that I had with me was that
while you as your Kashmiri you know you
were growing up solving problems every
day and later I realized the company
which gave me a job they were literally
looking for problem solvers and that was
almost in my blood because every young
guy that time was growing up solving
problems and there were problems of so
many different varieties that that came
natural to all of us I did well I I
people say that I was a hacker but I was
actually in love with technology and I I
did well as a as a techno
the expert I wanted to cross the line
always Anna
that is what defined my career also and
I got fortunate to work with a lot of
good people around the world and I had
left German Kashmir and next slide I was
a haka you know I was I was very good
with numbers I wanted to look at life
and everything in black and white you
know zeroes and one as one would be fine
and in my in my corporate career I I
realized that you know I had the ability
to you know quantify everything into
black and white
yes and knows and move on and I was
doing very well and because I was a
hacker I could negotiate a lot of
luxuries in my life and you know it was
so bad because if you engage somebody to
you know build the locks of your house
you would not treat that by guy bad and
that gave me the opportunity to always
negotiate luxury in my life and I was
doing very well and it became so bad
that at times you know you used to call
back home and ask what was cooked and if
what was good we did not like that you
took call immediately the next airline
which was flying to Las Vegas and we
took the slice me and my colleagues just
took the flight because the food cooked
at home was not good and we just wanted
you to take that flight for the for the
food that was served in the flight was
really tasty it was that bad but then in
2012 there was something something that
happened and in 2012 you know I did the
news I was crawling to one of my news
apps and I I read that there was a new
which said 25,000 purse Mina goods a
died of starvation and they’d start you
know there was excessive snow every year
there’s a there’s a region in Ladakh
called chunks on every year the snow is
about three or four centimetres in that
here it was 118 centimeters and the
goats had died of starvation I read the
news like anyone else but I felt
something and even then today people ask
me why are you doing whatever I do not
have a straight answer to why I am doing
what I am doing but maybe as a child I
played with the goods and it was that
moment I felt that I will leave
everything and
go that time yeah because I had spent
all my life outside of the English made
I did not know anyone and the you know I
was not the Chief Minister the private
prime ministerial he saw I do not have
power the only thing that was in my hand
was just to leave everything and go to
these guys I started living with them I
became a nomad it took me three months
to travel from mountains to mountain
that cross-draw Chiang Khong and we
reached and in three months of travel
with the nomads you know it was also a
spiritual journey for me and I realized
the best lessons that I received a word
from the nomads and these are the lesson
which straighten and they actually
addressed a lot of my rebellions in my
past life people have been talking about
you know not being arrogant and I want
to share the lesson which I which I got
from these nomads
and which I believe are the lessons for
the problems of a lot of things that are
happening in the 21st century
first lesson shared excess baggage you
know as a nomad as a shepherd the only
thing one that the Shepherd eyes is a
stuff in a blanket stuff is a little
support and maybe the blanket is
something of the universe if we have to
solve any problem in society you know if
you have to say we have to understand is
this society happy or a visit sad the
society is not talking to us the only
thing that we are doing today is
constantly generating data you know you
go to Google and you pick and pick up
the deep data from Google Trends you’ll
find that there is there is numbers and
these numbers are creating a pattern and
that pattern is creating a geometry and
that geometric creates a picture and
many times the picture that is created
is something contradicting to what we
see normally and so example if there if
people in Dehradun go to google and
search for paracetamol in the month of
November now you will see that people
are searching parts more in December
there are two ways to look at it one is
the entrepreneurial side where you will
look at November being the best month
and say alright I will start selling
paracetamol in
the other side is the social side we’ll
try to dig what is it related to and
where the problem is coming from maybe
it is some excessive traffic jam
somewhere in November that is causing
the headache and that is where people
are searching my asthma there are
various links in correlations that you
can try to and their two sides one is
the entrepreneur sigh and the others D
is the social side and when you you know
the gene is the last century Albert
Einstein when he was asked about his
opinion about God and the universe and
he refuted the presence of any godly God
anywhere but he said it is not about God
it is about that godliness and we have
to understand a lot of things and we
have to shed excess baggage I was
carrying a lot of excess baggage in my
corporate life in my previous life and
what I learned from these nomads was
that one has to be light if you want to
bring in light anywhere you have to be
light yourself that is the first lesson
I have been with the goats have been
counting the birds day and night dawn to
dusk I think for for the shepherd every
good is important today we do sport
analysis in the MBA programs I think
this is where it comes from
well Frodo Pareto was a Italian
economist in 1996 he observed that you
know there’s a relation between the
behavior that we are trying to quantify
the behavior a lot of things and he said
20 80 percent of land in Italy was owned
by twenty first twenty percent of the
population he went back to his kitchen
garden he found that 80 percent of the
peace comes from for any person is p-per
than 80 percent of any person of the
business comes from twenty four twenty
percent of the clients so this relation
between a lot of things which cannot be
quantified he try to put that that why
are we behaving in a certain way I think
it comes from some rules and there are
some universal laws I believe that you
know there is a concept called extreme
reversion you know what happens at the
end of what long spells of peace I was
talking about this concept some time
back with somebody I said the
probability of falling in love with
somebody you hate is always high the
only condition is that you have to hate
in extreme and dad will take you to her
you know that will change a lot of
things and this is what happened in
Kashmir also you know we had terrorism
for 20 years and
suddenly last five years we have been
having bumper tourist season you know
it’s to go to Kashmir is far more
expensive than going to Hong Kong second
lesson count your sheep and this is what
a shepherd knows to count your blessings
third lesson seek greener pastures
divergence is a reality you know the
disagreement we we are designed in such
a manner that we have to disagree I
disagreed with a lot of my colleagues in
my previous corporate career and I
disagree with a lot of things that are
happening as a social activist as a push
mean activist I disagree with a lot of
things and policies and all of that but
divergence is a reality and it is a
common theme that binds a lot of things
you know starts to stop subatomic status
society the stock markets everything is
linked through that divergence that
disagreement and knew which quantum
findings in advanced physics are also
pointing in a very interesting space
that what the output of an experiment is
controlled by the State of Mind of the
experimenter it is not by the content
but the State of Mind of the
experimenter controls the output so when
you seek so I I have realized that as
individuals we have the liberty to seek
greener pastures and when you seek you
travel and when you travel you know
there are two types of journey one is
the internal journey that takes you into
your soul the other is that takes you
through this world all both and it is
that journey that defines your life and
it is these nomads and Shepherds who’ve
actually shown me a different world and
I’ve gone to places which I never saw in
my state as I was growing up it’s only
in the five six five six years I visited
my places which I didn’t know even
existed face the wolves you know we have
an ostrich
ostrich approach that the problem that
is created by my grandfather why should
i solve that problem let me look at my
own problems or there is another
approach that let me look at trying to
solve problems and my grandfather’s
generation created and let my children
solve the problems that I will create
and leave behind in this world so there
are two ways how this whole thing can be
found so facing the world
is facing your demons so when a shepherd
went you know I was traveling as a
shepherd with these you know with these
guys you know shepherd knows that you
know stopping the the flock is not the
best way and and if the wolves are
attacking
they’re attacking you at an altitude and
they attack you only to prepare you and
for the shepherd to stop the flock is
not the most idle thing because it’s the
it is the cycle of life
so in wisdom traditions yangyang you
know opposites for defining so this is
me with one of my friends and we’re
defining each other I was trying to
learn a lot of things from them and that
is what I have learned so we have to
appreciate the opposites the positive
and negative in science ones and zeroes
in and in computer science and yin and
yang in wisdom traditions these are what
are defining all of us this is me
learning with them and these these are
not simple thing this might look very
simple pictures but these are the
picture which FK me I work with these
communities in the high Himalayas where
I am working to consolidate a lot of
things that these communities are doing
and trying to understood the pains that
they are under I’m trying to fight
battles of sake pashmina and that is
coming into India and and then there are
many layers to the problem the entire
Kofi’s system has a lot of problems
another lesson is leave the pasture if
the party cannot go on forever I think
this is what I did with my corporate
career also that you know when you’re
when you when you grow up and you’re
doing well in your life a lot of things
happen and one of them is that you
become biased to your own ideas you
become arrogant and I think that is
where the real downfall begins and I
think that is what the lesson we get
from the Shepherds is that you have to
understand that you have to leave the
pasture for some time for the pasture to
grow back there was something called
tragedy of Commons then you know the
paper written by Elinor Ostrom
where she said that if everyone looks at
you know grazing the cows in a common
pasture soon everyone will start
amassing a lot of goats and cows and
feed their own
but what will happen in the common
pasture is that it will it will vanish
and it will force everyone to migrate so
what we have to understand is that we
have to look at the Commons also and
there come the lot of pressure that the
Commons are facing the air that we eat
and that we take in the water they are
the things which are facing the crises
of the world today and pashminas one
subject where everyone is trying to
selfish me and make money out of it and
what has happened is that ninety five
for question five percent of pashmina
being sold in the English made or in
India is fake Herbert Simon father of
artificial intelligence he said that if
there is you know no mountain too high
this is what you know we have everyone
is climbing a mountain in their own
lives with different altitudes but
Herbert Simon says that every complex
problem has smaller smaller can be
broken down into smaller components
which are further have their own you
know structuring and there they are
placed in hierarchy if you try to decode
a small component of a complex problem
you’ll be able to solve a big problem
and this is what we learn from these
Shepherds no mountain too high as I was
a techie and I could not I could not
stay away from you know doing something
technical so what I did in the past six
years I’ve discovered a new form of art
and I’m using art to sensitize a lot of
people about the pashmina ecosystem of
India so I have been doing portraitures
of celebrities from around the world I
use a new form of art where I I take the
hair of the pashmina goat and vegetable
dyes I do portraiture and these are
these have become the centerpiece for me
to invite a lot of people to talk about
this Mena and the problems that the
ecosystem is facing these are some
others who have done some portraitures
of which have been very popular globally
this is one of my paintings I just
briefly explain one of the ring you see
a butterfly but you also see here the
other ring is the world map what I’m
trying to say here is that we all are
connected there’s a butterfly effect you
know you don’t have to be an army to
bring in big
change around the world a butterfly
flapped it’s a known fact butterfly
flutters of wing in one of us the world
and it causes a cyclone in the other so
we are all connected so even if you are
alone you can really bring in a big
change in the region the literary was a
mistake and she said the way is
difficult and very intricate truth never
comes to anyone from reading words so in
my six years I have gone to the pain
I’ve had very nice experiences of being
attacked from surf snow leopards and
bears living with them and I think that
has opened me to a new chapter and now I
live with them and trying to change life
a lot of people who are in this
ecosystem and I believe a big spiritual
revolution on the world can happen if
animals can be happy as humans and
children and that is because the center
of the project that I do it’s called
push mean a good project and I’ve I’m
working on making the passion winner
goats happy and these are the goats and
I believe that the lessons that these
Shepherds have given me have helped me
understand the world in a bit in a
better way and also aligned me
spiritually I did not know that you know
coming from Silicon Valley and being in
the mountains for six years how will
that open me and yeah and what I have
learnt is that there is a universe which
is always conspiring people talk about
the universe and I have now I believe
that the things which I did not believe
sometime back I believe in them and
things which were bigger for me in my
past life I divide my life into two are
small now and the smaller things then
are big for me now and I dedicate my
life to my heroes who actually helped me
understand my own self in a better way
and what I’m trying to do is look at
ways to figure out to solve problems of
a community which is 1 million strong
there are issues of climate change in
Himalayas and there are people who are
struggling to you know to
make the ends meet and because Himalayas
is a terrain where slight change in
climate you can really see a huge impact
so I live with them and the community is
about 1 million strong
so I dedicate my work and my life to
these guys beavers plasma and the goats
who are the center of the Purina
ecosystem of India
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