Everything
has been price tagged these days to the extent that anything can be bought if
we are ready to pay the right price for it. Pavi Mehta, a story teller from the
family of ophthalmologists, author of “Infinite Vision” and a leader of non-profit
organization Service Space, talks about the concept of pricelessness of kind
gestures and joy of giving in this video. She talks about the fact that we can
have human guinea pig, we can kill an endangered species animal and what not
for suitable price. In all of this, what happens to the priceless? Things that
do not come with a label and which have value rather than price. Sensitivity
has become a rare thing. She talks about the relevance of the famous quote by
Oscar Wilde: “Nowadays People know the price of everything and value of
nothing”, in the present context. She points out that even if we look at the
profit numbers, as we love to relate everything with efficiency, effectiveness
and profit, we can see that 30 billion dollar is lost yearly in productivity
due to this individualism, disconnection and lack of collectivism There are a
few incidents described in the talk that demonstrate how technologically
advanced human race has become and at the same time how emotionally backward we
have become like the case where John who survived suicide attempt from the
bridge and confessed that if that day anybody would have smiled at him, he
would not have jumped the bridge including the lady who told her to take her
picture and left without noticing that he was going to commit suicide by
jumping off the bridge . Pavi says that may the beauty we love, be what we do.
And so what is it that we can actually do?
Our
sense of purpose doesn’t lie in our commodity, it lies in our communion. We
need to find the angel in every one of us and every now and then rediscover
something which is known to all of us, gives us immense pleasure but is lost in
the busy lifestyle. The concept of Giftivism – radically generous acts that
change the world. Contrary to the general economic theory which assumes that
people are essentially selfish, Pavi says that given a chance and context
people want to be selfless. She talks about how Service space was born in
Silicon Valley at the heights of dot com boom with this very notion. It built
websites for non-profit organizations and causes free of cost as a gift. It has
served a lot in monetary sense from then. It has been built on three
principles: Stay volunteer-run, don’t fundraise and focus on small acts. People
said that they won’t scale but they proved otherwise. It proved to be an
ecosystem for good having more than 500,000 members in different services like Good
news service, Karma tube, small acts of kindness etc. She explains how the
group discovered that generosity is generative through initiatives like
generosity kitchens or restaurants. The concept seemed unusual but in such
restaurants a customer was presented with zero dollar bill and a note that your
meal is free and a gift from the person who dined before you and you can
contribute if you want to gift the same to the next person. This is amazing
because this model sustains without being rational and defies all laws of
business and economics. This is testimony to the fact deep down our hearts we are
good and generous creatures.
Giftivism
relies on four key shifts as Pavi talks about them in this video. The first
shift is from Consumption to
contribution. We are hard wired to contribute. Generosity is not zero sum
game. We feel good by willful giving the same way we feel after consumption
which is by the way also backed by neuroscience. Pavi quotes incidents like
swap of business class to economy class seats in a flight with an elderly lady.
She also talks about finding this generous act within and searching for things
that we can give and share. It would straightaway give the much needed joy of
purpose in this so called purposeless modern world. A few initiatives in this
direction are elucidated in the video like smile cards etc. The second shift is
from Transaction to trust. Karma
kitchen is an excellent example of the same. When you trust in continuity of
the cycle of generosity, it pays dividends and blossoms into a bunch of flowers
of kind gestures that you would not have imagined while laying the seed. The
third shift is from Isolation to
community. It is the translation from me to we as explained by Pavi. When
we think of community and group the productivity increases and the sum of
individuals is always greater than the individuals themselves. This is the
power of synergy. Fourth shift is from Scarcity
to Abundance. This leads to the discovery of radically new possibilities.
Pavi talks about her grand uncle, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, who had a vision
of eradicating blindness from the country. He said that we are not going to
turn anybody who comes for treatment. With a noble start he built the todays
Aravind eye hospital that has a unique model where people who can afford to pay
also pay for the treatment of the deprived. The success of this model itself
makes business community and educationists from Harvard and other b-schools
scratch their head and take this up as case study.
Pavi
stresses on the fact that what we will do for love will always be far more
powerful than what we do for money. There is paradigm shift required from market
economy to a gift ecology. Pavi ends her talk with a question to the audience: What
is your giftivist resolution? She says for once change yourself and see that
you have the power to change the world. This talk is not only inspirational but
a reminder for us that small little things can transform the world in which we
live. It’s us who can bring this change. We need to start now, may be with a
small gesture, and may be even by thanking her for making us realize the same.
A big “Thank You” to Pavi Mehta.
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गुड्डू रंगीला
Knowledge Partner
Charcha Kendra
