Finding resonance

Every object has a natural frequency. When vibrations of that frequency occur near the object, the object comes alive(starts vibrating). It is a concept in physics that is useful in daily life. For example, Jawans are asked to avoid marching on bridges. If the frequency of the march matches with the natural frequency of the bridge then the bridge will start vibrating and might collapse even.

Resonance is important in development work. Ideas that are natural and spontaneous tend to resonate rather that ideas that are artificial and implanted on people. That is not to say that plans never work or resonate, but the plan needs to have an element of spontaneity, simplicity and needs to be somewhat natural in order to work.

That's why i think its important for planners and development workers to be in tune with the community, to understand the way the people's lives goes on and what kind of development will be natural to them and find resonance.

When we find resonance, we need not keep pushing things.. we initiate something and in response something happens and we take the next step and something more happens and that way we get sucked into the work. That's when you are not really trying too hard but just being yourself in the situation which you understand is not entirely in your control but feel part of the situation where people are just being themselves.

NGOs and The need to excel

Every job has certain tags attached with it. Thus, a software engineer is obviously well educated, smart and intelligent and has a good life - friends, parties, work, foreign trips etc. A government officer - works as per rules, comes back home on time, hands are clean or not(You know what I mean) etc etc. However, when it comes to someone working in an NGO, you face all sorts of impressions - Adhe NGO chor aur baaki kaam chor (Roughly translated Half the NGOs thieves and the rest useless).

It is pointless to even try and defend NGOs. My argument is not that NGOs are as good or as bad as Software companies or Government Offices. WHat is crucial to note is that there is very little structure or rules that define an NGO, unlike a software company or Government office which have well defined structures and work as per certain rules. Registering an NGO does not tell you what to do, how to do or anything of that sort. It is entirely left to the people in the NGO to define their own rules and live by them.

The most important aspect in NGOs is freedom to be anything. Thus, there is a wide spectrum of NGOs from the extremely corrupt to the extremely honest , totally useless to the very effective and all shades and colors in between.

What is important for people working in NGOs to understand that unlike people in software companies or Government offices, they dont have the luxury of a good brand name. It is half due to people's tendency to generelise what cannot be generalised and and the reality that NGOs inherently offer very little structure and rules for you to afford to relax.

In this situation, people working in NGOs need to apply their skills fully to their work and aspire to do the best continuously. In my opinion, Only excellence will lead to satisfaction and fulfillment of what one set out to do by deciding to work in an NGO.