Whether I should do this or that. So I did all kinds of searches on Google.

But I never really got down to doing the act and using my common sense. So today, on a Sunday afternoon, I just whipped up an email, said what needed to be said, kept it concise, didn’t use any textbook techniques, no copywriting advice, simply and boldly asked for help and invited their cooperation. I didn’t wait to collect a whole list of agencies to whom I would send one email and hit a shot in the dark. I will do it one by one.

This is a copy of an email that I had sent to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

 

Hello,

My name is Prateek Modi and I am currently associated with a charitable hospital based in Hapur, UP, India. It is a not for profit organisation registered as a trust. I work as a volunteer there and have been trying to connect with other agencies who are also working to improve public healthcare.

Our hospital has been providing quality healthcare since 1943 and even today, the OPD fee is only Rs. 30. Even this fee is waived off for those who cannot afford it.

The name of the hospital is Smt. Biran Devi Modi Hospital and you can also visit our new website – http://www.birandevimodihospital.org

I was researching online about various agencies, foundations and organisations and quite obviously, came across yours. It’s a world-famous organisation and your work in the field of HIV and AIDS is amazing. I was wondering if there’s a possibility of us working together wherein you can train people in our hospital in dispensing care to those who are affected with this or any other illness that you work in?

We are situated in a small town so access to training and talent is difficult which is why I have to send such cold mails to as many people as I can. I hope you will pardon this intrusion on my behalf and take it positively.

Even if you cannot run a training program, maybe we can do an event together in our hospital? It will really help us in getting a message across to the people and administration of our city and the state about the urgency in tackling healthcare more proactively. Your organisation has pledged to help our state in improving healthcare facilities so you will understand where I am coming from. Doing an event will help us accomplishing several things -

1. Get more donations that we critically need to upgrade our medical facilities and hire more doctors.

2. Raise awareness about such important issues. Collaboration with an internationally recognised organisation can help us attract more talent.

I really don’t know if someone at your end is going to be reading this email, or whether it will end up in the trash/junk folder. But I sincerely hope that even someone does read it, then we can work collaborate on a project.

Best Regards,

Prateek Modi.

+919627XXXXXXX

According to my initial plans, here’s a list of goals that I had outlined in my previous post.

Goals for April 2013

1. Publish 10 blog posts (different types – related to the hospital, healthcare industry, non-profit sector, development issues in UP, non profits in UP, etc) and share on social media.
2. Research and come up with a list of blogs for guest blogging.
3. Increase Facebook fan following to 100 fans.
4. Visit the hospital and gather information about services listed on medical services page.
5. Meet all doctors privately and ask for feedback, ideas, content.
6. Create more profiles of people who need support from people like you. Connect donors with receivers.
7. Work on a long term plan perhaps.

Status of goals

1. Published three blog posts. Gave up after that realizing that other goals were more important before I began working on the blog.
2. Guest blogging also took a backseat due to limited time and prioritizing other goals.
3. Facebook fan page has 57 fans as of writing this. Paused social media activities.
4. Major progress on this goal. Updated the website with all the medical services that the hospital currently provides. Click this to read.
5. Met the doctors. They are not super thrilled about the idea yet because they are not aware about the power of technology. Decided I will work myself on the content, beg borrow and steal ideas from other hospital websites, and then take feedback of the doctors. Have listed detailed information on 12 medical services.
6. Did not create more profiles due to lack of participation from current hospital management. Pause on this.
7. Ideas for long term planning are generated but not executed due to limited manpower (I am working on this alone for now).

Apart from these, another interesting development happened. I managed to meet a person  who is associated with Rotary International, one of the largest non-profits in the world. This person worked closely with the hospital administration to secure donations for the dialysis wing. He assured me that securing more funds and resources to develop other medical facilities was not difficult and only needed time and patience.

Not bad. Considering my earlier ideas (Pottyfied), I have not yet given up on the hospital website and am continuously working on the website, meeting new people and coming up with ideas to develop the site.

Two observations so far:

1. A website can help an organization to get excellent web presence. However, the website is only a part of the whole. There are still many pieces missing in the overall puzzle which will take time to fill out. I will have to reach out to other influencers – online/offline for the hospital to benefit.
2. Creating a powerful website for an organization takes more than just one person. Participation from the administration is critical. The major challenge I face is that the administration of this hospital, is mostly not tech savvy. They are not really that active online.

Goals for May

To be decided.

• Mahatma Gandhi would call a meeting of his aides to discuss the Dandi March.

“Nehru, what do you think should we do?”

“Wait, did you see this troll of Lord Irwin. This guy is killing it. Let me just like this post. Sorry, what were you saying?”

Instead of fighting for a free India, people might have been busy commenting, tweeting, liking, posting. I doubt if it would make any real difference. Would it?

Or if during the World War, Hitler commanded one of his Generals to plan an attack on Russia. What if that dude was busy posting a picture of the SS on Instagram?

I doubt great things could’ve happened. Social media seems to be such a distraction right?

Yet, I am on it. Sharing my useless blog posts with you guys. What an irony!

I have money, time and energy. Excess of it.

I have opportunities and I have bright ideas. A plenty.

I have knowledge, education and good support.

I know that if I set my mind on anything, I can do it.

I believe that to be content, one must follow one’s heart with courage and ignore the naysayers.

I have all the possible basic needs taken care of. God bless my loving family and friends.

Yet, I am not achieving what I’m supposed to be achieving.

I am not being able to create real value in society. I come up with ideas but I fail to execute them. I seem to have frozen. I seem to have become too distracted by mundane details in life.

Like what to wear, what to eat, where to go, whom to meet, what to say and when to sleep.

I have got so caught up in all these pesky little details that I have forgotten how to look at the big picture and how to get things done.

Maybe this is what they say living life is.

Maybe this is what they call struggle. When you know what the destination is, you know where you currently stand, and you know what lies ahead. All that you need to do is walk. Make your path. Fight for it. Take it by all means, good or bad.

What should motivate me? Sometimes, it’s money. Sometimes it’s the feeling that you’re doing something good for others. That you’re serving. Sometimes, it’s the feeling that your family and friends will be proud of you. Sometimes, you feel you will accumulate good Karma and be happier.

However, I know all these motivations are secondary. They are fleeting and temporary. They are opinions that change with time.

Do I need to ground myself in something more eternal. Something that stays with me, no matter what season. Maybe this chase and search for the eternal will ground me firmly and make me move instead of keeping me frozen in paralysis.

On one channel was Narendra Modi, talking about important issues such as the state of the economy, making better use the youth by developing their skills and other progressive initiatives. Things you want to hear from a leader (it’s another matter if they aren’t really doing what they’re talking about)

On another channel was Digvijay Singh who had been asked about his take on Mr. Modi and he said:

“I want to know his Marital status. Why doesn’t he talk about his marital status? I’m telling you he is a horse with blinkers who has been brought by RSS.”

We have all studied for exams. I was preparing for one a few months back (or at least that’s what I tell nosy relatives who can’t mind their own business). My goals were to increase the speed of my brain at processing numbers and understand complicated paragraphs in English quickly – that’s what they make you study when you want to crack GMAT or CAT and learn about business.

But I kept questioning whether this speed was good? Whether we humans were designed for living at high speeds? Or whether a slow pace is what we were suited for? I for one always try to take the slow lane – I make less mistakes, there is less stress, less things to worry about. Less, in my exp, is generally better. More equals clutter. Less equals simplicity. As a result, I have donated the extra clothes from my cupboard, freed up tons of space and done some good karma.

But no. Thanks to the British and the Americans, the whole world is living in consumerism. Consume, consume, consume. That’s what the average Joe does in his/her spare time. Eat food, consume information, peek into what others are doing. Sure, there are some creative nuts here and there who create new things or change things but they are scarce.

I use an iPhone which costs about 35k. It falls on the floor every once in a while and when it does, my dad gets a stroke. So I’m considering switching to a cheap Nokia phone which I can fling all over the place without batting an eyelid. Sure, I might not be able to play games or use the millions of apps. I might not be able to check Facebook every minute. I probably won’t be connected to people all over the globe. But I would definitely spend more time with my family during dinners, movies, generally, instead of staying glued on the phone. You know, connect with people near me.

Technology is good. But technology is dangerous. It has shadowed all aspects of our lives. I am beginning to feel lost and dumbed without my smartphone. Is that a good thing? Isn’t it like that story we read as kids in which a king had put his life in a parrot so that he wouldn’t die or something like that? Aren’t we steadily putting our brains inside our phones? Thanks to Apple maps, I have stopped relying on GPS when I’m driving around and rely more on common sense. My sense of direction has improved.

Maybe I’ve become bored of all these hi-tech toys and that’s why I don’t like them. Who knows? My parents are always fascinated when I use Soundhound to find the name of a song playing on the radio or when I pinpoint exact directions to a place when we are on a holiday. But the sense of surprise and wonder has gone.

These are very important thoughts. I ought to write a book or something. But stupid laziness keeps me from doing anything worthwhile. I guess each fruit has its own sweet taste.

Better to enjoy what you have than miss what you don’t.

I had started this website on 23rd March, 2013. I intend to chronicle the development, growth and benefits (if any) that this website provides to the hospital, the poor and people who need medical attention.

The idea

The idea is to create and market a new website for a charitable, non-profit hospital that has been maintained by our family in Hapur since 1943. It has provided extremely cheap healthcare services to all those who need it. I thought it would be a good idea to create a website for the hospital and create awareness about it online. At this point, I am really not sure where it will lead to eventually.

The challenges

1. Dealing with skepticism, the naysayers, the cynical folks is always a huge challenge.
2. Many have expectations with the website. If I tell them not to expect, they might not cooperate.
3. Hospital staff and doctors are shit busy with their regular routines. Why would they let a random weird wander around, clicking photos of farmers and their little kids or their already troubled patients? That too for a website? Who will use a website in Hapur?
4. The website is currently only in English. For the rural folks to derive any benefit from it, I need to convert it into Hindi, the local language. Converting it to readable, meaningful Hindi is a huge challenge at this moment. Instead of using Google Translate, which often spews out really bad Hindi, I would prefer getting human translations done.
5. Then the challenge of doing it in a small, rural town where getting volunteers is hard to come by. There are other minor problems which I will discuss later.
6. My own self-motivation often dwindles so keeping myself motivated to see this through till the end is difficult, especially if you are not accountable to anyone. People often ask what I am doing with my life and I already know what they are thinking. In an ideal world, I would say to hell with what you’re thinking mate, I know I’m right. But it’s difficult to be idealistic. I’m trying though.

Work done so far

Work seems to be progressing at a nice, slow and steady rate. Been continually working on the hospital website as I had initially planned, instead of leaving it midway (let’s hope the work continues).

I have done the following things in a span of about 18 days:

From 23rd-30th March:

He was one the list of Time’s 100 most influential people.

You can read more about the Barefoot college here.
And about Bunker Roy here.

And please watch the TED talk.

It will definitely inspire you.

There are days when I want to go out exploring but the mammoth size of this city confuses me. Where do I go? There are so many places to visit.

Then there are days when I just want to sit inside my brother’s modest apartment on Carter Road, whiling away time or looking for a job online. It’s too darn hot to go out. But there are  so many thoughts that keep coming into my head, some telling me to go and explore, and some telling me to relax.

Time just flies by in this city. You don’t get to know when day turns to night or when you had eaten the last meal or called up a loved one.

The property rates are hideously high where we are staying – a cup of tea is 50 bucks in nearly all the sit and dine places that I have seen. If I want to eat a bread and butter sandwich, they charge another 100. This is something which comes for like 10 odd bucks where I come from.

Who said development was always good?

I can’t say whether I am loving the city or hating it, but the place definitely makes you think. You don’t want to sit around and do nothing, unlike Hapur. You want to move around and do something. Even though I want to stay back and spend a few more months here, I am finding it difficult to convince myself and move out of my comfort zone.