Platform 9 and 3/4

Some people say heaven is right here, amidst us. It's just that human sensory capabilities are not enough to recognize that. True or not, I do not know. And perhaps it does not affect me.

However there is another world which exists right amidst us. A world which was always there but you never noticed. The world around you, you thought you noticed but you never noticed. Through your money, and through your spare time, you even thought you were doing something great in this world. That kid you gave alms, that family you helped construct a house, that school you gave money, that child whose education you support. Well, that was just the tip of the tip of the advertisement of an iceberg. This world is huge.

The world of Platform 9 and 3 quarters (drawing the phrase from Harry Potter) does not believe in photo ops, big funds, publicity. This world does not care about new buildings, new cathedrals, new temples - unless they can give them security and shelter everyday. This world cares about one more person to clothe, one more person to feed at least a meal a day, and increasingly so. This world does not need a big and mindless, big bang technology intervention. This world needs incremental interventions, patient observations for new value adds, and sensitive introduction of improvements, taking care that the last of the least are also not ignored.

Mahatma Gandhi has very famously said, "Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless man whom you must have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of use to him? Will he be able to gain anything from it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?"

Now this does not in the least mean that there is no place of big dreams. In fact there is place for big and bigger dreams and visions. It is just that these dreams will have to be firmly rooted on the grassroot needs, existing patterns, and taking off from there. The dream has to be from the eyes of a weaver who sees the disjoint patterns and creates a beautiful canvas connecting them. The dream has to be of incremental impact, and may that increment be minor or major. The dream has to be of optimizations, of efficiencies, and evolving from the rich experience of the countless people who have dedicated their lives to grassroot work, respecting the opinions of people who have dirtied their hands.

A dream, a vision in that direction which evolves from the wonderful people who are already there and their wonderful experiences, a weaving that connects them to the wonderful world of technology, the philanthropic world and the other familiar worlds in the platforms around us, and a humility to patiently and systematically build up towards realizing that vision - such a dream can transform the world. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes hand holding. It takes respect. But it will work, through its own gestational period, into beautiful creations.

Platform 9 3/4 can then be the heaven they say is amidst us - a heaven our human senses can recognize and feel.