Sustainable Seva Business model

Ram is a restaurant owner who believes in the concept of Seva. “Seva” is a Sanskrit word meaning “selfless service” or work performed without any thought of reward or repayment. In ancient India seva was believed to help one's spiritual growth and at the same time contribute to the improvement of a community.

But Ram is also an MBA graduate and understands that to keep his Seva going on, he should make it sustainable. It is of no use going bankrupt doing Seva only for sometime, because everyone has finite amount of resources and he/she can only do so much Seva. Ofcourse, the rewards come from the community or society in the form of donation to keep some Seva's sustainable. But these Donations come from finite resources too, so this too isn't a sustainable way. And there are risks that it does not remain a Seva anymore, it becomes an act done to please donors or get more donors. And donor's feel King-like or proud by just giving away paper money and not doing any work. It sometimes just boosts ego of rich people.

So Ram came up with a concept of "Sustainable Seva". Its practice encourages other connected businesses (Other businesses that supply material to this business) to adopt the Sustainable seva concept and Slowly & gradually the whole world will return to Original Seva model.

So what is this Sustainable Seva Business model ?

Some disclaimers:
- Its a model & a revolution, a revolution against inequality, greed, and currency!
- A few 100 unselfish businesses can drive this change.
 
In this model, the business charges its customers only that much which it is being charged from this world to sustain. To put it in other words and in the context of Seva, it simply means that
"The business will not charge money for the work it does" BUT "It will charge for what it takes to survive in this harsh world, ONLY TO serve / do SEVA for a longer duration."

How does it work ?
A Honest Retail Price - HRP (Instead of MRP) is proposed. It is the final price of the product without taking into account the cost of efforts put into making it.
For Ex: Ram's restaurant pays for electricity, Shop tax, cooking gas, Food items, Salaries, etc.
When a customer orders any food, he gets with it a "Honest seva pricing card". The customer will first be astonished at the low cost of the food - HRP, in Rams restaurant and then the card lists down costs of various things that went into making the item and saying "This is charged only to keep us sustainable. You can ask other businesses supplying raw materials to be honest like us and our food will become even more cheaper"

Thereby, creating awareness that, just because the world is charging the restaurant, the restaurant needs to charge its customers. It is not charging for the effort it put into making the food so tasty and that's why the prices in Ram's restaurant are so low.

Noticing Ram's selfless work, one of his food suppliers offers to provide free grains to Ram's restaurant. Ram refuses, as he is a man of principles. He says "If you give it free my friend, how long can you sustain ? Or maybe to sustain, you'll have to charge others more, and that is not honesty my friend. So tell me the Honest Price of these grains that you wish to offer me - take into account all costs, such as of water, of pumping electricity charges, fertilizers, salaries of labourers, and the cost of your lifestyle. As you can see, if you wish to reduce this price, you must lead a simple unselfish lifestyle." Thus Ram inspires his connected businesses to try Honest Retail Pricing concept and spreads awareness about Sustainable seva model.

Imagine if this model spread so much that many businesses adopt a honest pricing model, then other businesses must lower their prices to stay in the competition. People will have to become less greedy.

A time will come when Ram's restaurant gets Electricity, cooking gas and food items at tending to 0 prices or Zero cost. Why ? Becuase all connected businesses are not being charged by the world to sustain. Therefore Ram, provides Food for free in his restaurant too.

Real Seva will be established in the world. Paper currency or mere numbers stored somewhere in virtual secure cyber world, will have no value in the world of Seva.

You give freely and get freely. Therefore you are truly free to choose whatever that is you wish to give - be it some source code by coding away, or Fresh vegetables by farming, or convert raw materials to finished products like clothing by setting up a factory, or provide cooked meals like Ram. You'll find your passion easier in such a world.

Some questions arise like - who will do the hard work - who will work as labourers in factories, power plants, etc.
So some are worried where we will get the slaves from ? On the face of it, its such a bad thought, a bad question that asks how can we force people to work for us.
Lets not waste time inventing new forms of slavery. Lets grow up and do whatever work we like to do in this world. You are free, just like everyone else.
Also, such questions assume people are not interested to work for free in these areas. True that it might be drudgery, but because the world needs it, doing it becomes a form of seva, a contribution for the improvement of community & oneself.

We procrastinate when we have given up

My habit or guilt makes me plan things for tomorrow or near future. I think of things like jogging, gym, pranayam, etc.. which I cannot get myself to do the next day and I keep postponing to some perfect day in my imagination.

Realization no #1 : I think I have given up on few things.

I need to fight.. till I can. If I decide to give it up, I have to do that too in a proper way - come to terms with it and accept it with all heart, without regret.
Never give up is the mantra till then!

Realization no #2: A personal story. 

You should find your story to keep going. We usually forget this story and just keep reminding ourselves of things to do. Its way better to remind ourselves "why to do" everyday rather than "what to do". "Whats my story behind doing this stuff ?"Understand that.

Realization no #3 : Excitement.

Getting up for cricket was never too difficult. Nowadays it has become near impossible to get up early. Whats the missing factor ?
The excitement, the rewards & the fun. Group activity. Everyone is looking forward to bat, bowl and take great catches. Instant rewards.

Question if you have given up hopes on something.
Find your story to do it.
Add excitement.

Story behind data

I was browsing through this data here : http://www.crisistextline.org/trends

Crisis Trends is a platform of data to understand the crises American teens face so that people can work together to prevent future crises from happening.

Anyways, as I was browsing the their graphs which show "Crises by Time of the day" , by day of the week, etc.. I found I could predict which day a particular crises may peak.. For example Bullying crises peaked on Fridays, Eating disorder crises peaked on Sunday & Monday, etc..

For each of the data I could come up with some story to explain it.

Eating disorders : Weekends are free time, else teens are mostly busy with college/school. During weekends if you are depressed or you go out to enjoy, you will indulge in eating a lot. This triggers guilt the next few days in most teens who are concerned about it and therefore the messages about "Eating Disorder" issue peaked during Sunday & Monday (Effect of Sat & Sun eating)

Bullying: Teens too, like us, feel happy when the weekend is around. They tend to have a lot of energy and do naughty things on Friday. Therefore, chances that one of the student becomes a victim of bullying are high on a Friday and hence the messages peaked on Friday. And If my story is anywhere near truth, these messages should have peaked in the evening/night of Friday, let me check now. Yup, they peaked from 3PM - 8PM.



For Anxiety: Teens too, like us, dread weekdays sometimes. For us it maybe fear of boss, undone work,etc.. For teens it could be fear of that bully, fear of teachers, friend issues, etc..
So basically people feel anxious before Monday. And so I predicted Sunday. Right on it was. Sunday peaked in Anxiety crises. I haven't checked peaked time, but i'm sure it'll be Sunday night time. Checking now.. 7, 8 , 9 PM Peak but there are peaks around 11 AM and 2PM too. These might be weekday peaks.

Stress: It peaked on Tuesday. Understandable isn't it ? We go to office on Monday, work builds up. Tuesday is worse, we are stressed out. Wednesday we get used to it. Thursday and Friday we get though with thoughts of the Weekend.

Sexual abuse: Peaked on Tuesday, same day as Stress crises peak. My story was "stressed people are more likely to indulge in sexual abuse. Their frustration and stress affects their behaviour and hence the peak on Tuesday.

Family Issues: Peaked on Sunday. Obviously. In today's busy world we spend time with family on weekends only.

Big data is the effect, some digging reveals the cause - The story behind it.
There is always a lag in the Data, it comes after the story has played out.

Meaningless Net Neutrality Debate

Net Neutrality - treating all data as equal is necessary when we have paid for Internet data pack. Telecos should not, cannot and now with this debate - "will not" charge separately like- "Whatsapp pack" , "Youtube pack" etc.. I totally support Net Neutrality in this scenario.

But in having this debate we are harming something else.
Don't get carried away by all the online outrage that exists, beware of it, cause we are all easily affected by it. We just love "Online outrage" , online public shaming, etc.. google it and find out.
Reason out this time, think calmly.

What is it we are harming or not thinking about ?
Ideas like Internet.org and Airtel Zero give part of internet access for free. So people who never had the experience of internet can get a taste of it now.


Internet.org and Airtel Zero give people free access to some of the services on the internet even though they haven't paid for any data pack.
Yes it is against Net neutrality but it is Free!
Hellooo.. do you not notice the term free ? Are you used to only the big colourful fonts of  "FREE!!" ?

If you are get something for free how can you argue for its neutrality ?

My point - Plain , simple and clear is ...
"If someone is giving something for free you cannot accuse them of any crime." (Unless its drugs/weapons)

1) Everyone who gives away freebies has an intention behind the act. Free samples in supermarket are given so that you buy their product. Free Ola cab rides are given so that you enjoy the ola experience and use it for all future cab needs. So why does it matter if Flipkart signs up on Airtel Zero to provide free access without buying an internet pack ?

2) Its your choice to accept/use those freebies or not, its not a compulsion.

How can anyone have a problem with something that is given for free. Argue for Net-neutrality when you have paid for internet, not when you are enjoying free services.

There are few people who paint a picture of what happens if ideas like Internet.org and Airtel Zero are allowed; my counter arguments are :

- If Flipkart charges more because its spending to be on Airtel Zero, people are clever enough to move to cheaper options where they get good deals.
- Its only for e-commerce that these plans make sense. Why would anyone else pay for your data usage if they don't get big returns from you.
- The only way to make people to survive on Airtel Zero plan "only" ( i.e without Data pack) would be to provide services like Fb, Youtube, twitter, google & Whatsapp for free. Which burns big holes in their pockets and they can never do it.

These plans will only encourage non-internet users to buy data packs to access full internet. Which is good. More and more people will be on Internet. Nothing much to it. But if you have paid for Internet services then these ISPs have no right to control your data traffic - Fight only for this.

Lets not indulge in outrages and shaming like this one - to Sachin Bansal and Airtel here : http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/forget-the-big-billion-fiasco-flipkarts-net-neutrality-stand-is-a-whole-new-level-of-social-media-fail-262987.html

True vegetarian

Are we all indirect cannibals ?

I was thinking of some bad practices in poultry. They feed hens with bone powder mixed in their food. Hmm ya disgusting, but if you think of it, we all go back to nature once we are dead. In to the soil, air and water.

Somehow or the other there is presence of our ancestors in everything around. If you agree with this alchemist theory, they you must also agree that they are present in plants & animals too. So do we not eat humans in some indirect form ?

So, is veg or non-veg all about natures presentation of food to us ? Veggies look less harmful, more colourful, etc .. Presentation matters, right ?

No. Presentation only matters when nature wants to feed you. But what if you are so hungry that you want to eat or have to eat ? Then Presentation matters not! Eat that raw flesh infront of you, for even that is the same nature as in plants. Dont mind the taste, the blood, etc eat to survive.

If perspectives change the point, which was "Presentation matters" , then those points are useless to discuss. There must be something core which doesn't change with perspectives.

So veg or non-veg is just a matter of presentation of food by nature. But its useless to discuss about presentation. How about food as energy. Plant based food has least form of presentation in it, as it has not been processed much by nature. Where as animals are highly complex processed foods coming from natures factory.

Why eat simple food n not complex food ? Isn't hard good for evolution ? Be specific, evolution of body or mind ?

For everyone to survive we need to eat food that are easily produced. A brilliant thought process. Read that again. Now I write it again so that you read it again - "For everyone to survive we need to eat food that are easily produced."
Clearly an evolution of mind. Or is it lazyness to hunt ? Or is it good planning cuz game isn't easy to get. Farming requires hard work, not lazymans work. So it is indeed intellect and good thought for society and animals too. True vegetarian.

Those who call themselves "vegetarians" today, eat vegetarian food because they are used to it or because its become a habit. They could turn non-vegetarians by being rebels - trying out non-veg dishes and continue to eat them if they like it.

"Maybe" section:

Early man was a not a vegetarian, everyone would accept that. Slowly man evolved intellectually , emotionally and some of them came up good reasons like - Food for all, non-violence, etc , so they adopted the vegetarian diet.

It must have been hard during their time to stick to their principles and eat only not-so-tasty vegetarian food when they actually crave for the tasty non-veg food out of their habit. Difficult times brings along evolution, and so maybe vegetarians evolved to be much resistant to cravings, enhanced will power and intellect. It was a logical and emotional decision to go vegetarian, It was not based on taste.

Our ancestors knew that, its difficult for a person to make drastic changes to his food habits that were ingrained in him since childhood. People tend to stick to their old food habits i.e Indians like Indian food, they seek it, they crave for it. Born in a vegetarian family, one can't easily try non-vegetarian food. They knew this, our ancestors! So a group of them decided to sacrifice their taste cravings to impact generations and generations to come.

Now, we being their evolved  future generation, understand that this was the scheme behind this "Vegetarian" thing. We respect the sacrifice of our ancestors and thank them. But we should also understand the real reason why we stopped eating non-vegetarian food.

With this in mind, you will not freak out if someone told you that by mistake there was a chicken piece in your dish because now, you are more logical - you did not order chicken , it came by mistake, which means you did not order for a hen's death sentence - Non-violence still intact -Checked!
You will not despise that food served to you or do any act ("Wack!" Or spitting food in mouth, etc) that makes the food go waste - Primary aim of vegetarianism was "Food for all" - Checked ? Hopefully.

Open Stash Org

www.openstash.org

Openstash = Open startups-ashram, an organization.

Stash being short for "startup ashram". But the word "Stash" also means stuff hidden or kept in a secret place just like our startup ideas. We are possessive about our startup ideas, fear that it might be stolen and so we hide it within revealing only to a select few. But this seed of an idea needs several other good conditions like a fertile soil , water & sunlight to grow and be useful. Thus seeds must spread wide and far till they succeed in finding favorable conditions.

"Open startup" is an idea borrowed from selfless service. Lets startup to serve people, for the betterment of society and for our own sake. To put our ideas out in the open for anyone to nurture them, we must let go of our ego, let go of the desire for fruits and the desire for  fame. Also these desires are one of the prime reasons for one's misery, let go and be free.

Startup Ashram - A place where innovative selfless service is valued more than rituals, bhajans or pooja's. An ashram - providing free food & shelter, for those aligned with its vision and implementing it.
Anyone should be able to work on anything they like.

How do we fund such an organization ? Through honest pricing philosophy of our services/products.
Startup ashram will churn out companies whose service/products will be priced according to the "honest pricing" based on true seva concept discussed in the earlier post.

The ashram will follow strict dinacharya. Most of the time ashramites will either study/research or work on a startup idea of their choice. Facilities for meditation, yoga and simple sports shall be available. A Vipassana center nearby would be ideal as this ashram can benefit by attracting people from the center.

Openstash will launch soon with posts containing my startup ideas. Some of which are crazy ideas, some social startup ideas and some just lame ideas. Putting my treasured thoughts out in the open I wish to encourage others like me to post their ideas too. The community's greed lies in watching the idea take shape in the real world and helping people but not in taking credit or enjoying its fruits.

Population effect on Employees

No, This article is not about how difficult it is to get a Job, because of huge population in our country.. well maybe i'll talk a little about it, but its not the central theme, only a by-product.

I met  people from Finland, Denmark, Germany,etc during my travels, I envied them because they had so much time to explore and do what they love (People whom I met seemed to love to travel, duh! ;) ..others did something else maybe.. ).

We can hardly get that amount of time and money to travel or do anything for that matter. Why is it that way ?

Number of Jobs vs Population.. is an Important factor in this.
Its crucial as it decides the individuals choice - Stay & work, even though its boring because I may not get another Job or Lets do this thing I love, if it fails I can always get some or the other job.

When jobs are in abundance, people stop worrying about them. Simple. So they worry about bigger things in life - purpose, knowledge, etc.. and hence their adventures - travelling ,etc.
I remember reading in Vivekananda's works that most philosophers came from affluent background i.e they had every luxury in life, take for example : Gautama Buddha - A prince, royal lineage. What did they do when they had everything - Looked within for real peace & happiness.

When Jobs are scarce & Population is high. Welcome to Musical chair competition.
What do you do when you get chair while playing the game ? You sit, never leave it, else the other guy will steal it and win !
People catch hold of the Job (chair) just because, someone else might take it.. And nooo they cannot allow it to happen, They want to play the game !!! the so important game..
They don't want to leave the Job to do what they want in life or to try and understand what they want in life. Life later is just working your way up where there is less competition i.e to the "More Jobs & less population competing for it" space that exists for highly qualified ppl and accumulating wealth.

Very few people get the jobs that is really they are looking for, others are there just by chance, its not what they were looking for at all. Tell me how much probability is there that you get your favourite chair in the game you r playing with many people, less chairs! It would be a miracle to get that chair.
So basically except very rare lucky ones, everyone has to sit in a chair which is not their original choice, but just to survive in the game they do it..

But the whole point is Leave the game, look for something meaningful.
But theres a problem with doing what you want or to look for meaning..
When I was on a leave, most couldn't understand why I was doing it, including me most of the time :P ..
So, it requires lot of self-understanding to do what one wants else you'll be mocked by society and compelled to play the game. If you have to strength to handle it then Leave the Game ! I did, temporarily ;) only that much strength I had


 The End--------My Musical chair game story below - you may skip this -------- The End :P

Let me add my sad scenario here, please... Ok - I am the guy in the game with a special consideration, I have been given a chair to sit in the beginning and they tell me while others have to leave after each round, I don't have to do it.. WHaaat ? Yes, others run, but I can sit n enjoy.. COOoooOOOL!!
No, not cool! Whats the fun in it ? I can choose to run like others or I can get out of this STUPID game, do something Useful with my Life...
What am I talking about :  Im in a Govt job, They will not kick me out, so I don't need to run, but does that mean I will quit just to have fun in the running game ? Noooooo ...

Choosing to run would mean  - Go for MS in USA and take private job and play Musical chair game..
Doing something useful is the answer!

I found a clever way to do it, the Indian way, I put my kerchief on the chair saying I'll come back and meanwhile tried my hand at different things I could and still trying... :)
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Confuse them first !

We remember the "AHA" moments ! We cannot forget them.

The process the whole situation goes through to create an AHA moment is the Teaching process designed by nature. This process should be incorporated into our Teaching model.

Whats the process ?
Glad you asked, lets break it up.

1) First (because of your curiosity) , you are confused. You see something, don't understand it at first - nature doesn't put in the effort to simplify and explain it to you, it just does what it wants and you are confused.

2) If you are still curious and willing to put in some more energy, you notice finer details, some patterns start grabbing your attention. But, you still haven't figured it all out yet. Here's the interesting part:  Most people give up here cuz probably its not worth the effort and that's not the interesting part, This is, read on.
If, at this point, someone who has figured it out, comes and explains you what he learnt, you'll get it!
It won't be a big "EUREKA!" moment but a small AHA moment and a significant one!

Thus you learnt. You were taught.

The teaching method must adopt this same natural process.
a) Don't put effort to simplify anything and display something (that is to be taught) in the way you do it.
Say you are teaching kids on how to solve a Mathematical Equation, first solve a few in your natural style, freely, without an effort to simplify it. Just ask them to do the steps you did, without explaining the WHY of steps. Just teach them ROTE learning !

WHAaaAAaaAAAT ???!!!??

Now, applying the method, students solve equations and get answers MIRACULOUSLY. 

This excites some, confuses some students, frustrates some and some will simply not care as long as they are getting the right answers.

Build curiosity. Ask them to understand on their own why the technique you taught them SIMPLY WORKS ! 

b) Now the time is ripe to reveal the secret logical workings behind the method.
AHA!! Learning process complete :)
Some will have an AHAAA! moment, some will be waiting to say "See I told you!" to their friends, some will go wrong about guessing the logic & will come to you with doubts and as with any method some will just NOT CARE ! But guess what, these not caring students atleast learnt a rote method to get answers , they can now, at least solve the problem !!

So.. Keep Calm and Teach By Rote ;)