A leader inspires a generation

Last Saturday I attended an entrepreneur’s meet called “The Start up Buzz” at the Katriya hotel in Hyderabad. The closing ceremony was attended by Dr Jaya Prakash Narayan (JP), MLA and president of Lok Satta party.

A little back into the past, in 2006, I had heard about speeches made by him every Sunday evening in kukatpally and I had thought of attending the speeches. But due to my laziness, I never attended any of the speeches. Then I learned that he is a retired IAS officer with vast experience and knowledge. People were debating whether he should join congress or TDP.

Some time nearing elections, I heard from a collegue about Lok Satta party and I thought of visiting their web site. I downloaded their election manifesto titled “A silent Revolution”. Since it was a long document I thought of skimming through the election manifesto. The first thought that occurred to me was that these guys were talking about Utopia. But the headings kept me interested and I dug into details. I was amazed at things written in it, that some of them kept my jaws wide open. It almost had everything that is required to run a government. It was like one of the most idealistic answers to the essay question that we wrote in school “If I were the Prime Minister”. What is more, it almost gave a kind of financial details to run such a government, that too, to the finest details such as teacher’s salaries. No common man could prepare such a manifesto. It requires the touch of a genius to develop something of this sort and I knew that was JP.

For comparison sake, I downloaded the manifesto of CPI (M), a party known to house intellectuals. I found that most of the document was criticizing Dr Manmohan Singh and much of it was thrash. After all, that is the best they could do justice to the C money. Anyway forget that.

That evening, I browsed through YouTube to find some of JP’s speeches. In every speech I listened to, I learned something new. They were educational, inspirational, motivational and what not. I wondered how much he might have studied to acquire such knowledge. Every speech was not just an exhibition of his knowledge, but was a motivation to the listeners. Very rarely did I hear about Lok Satta. And most importantly, what ever he spoke made sense to me. After about four hours of streaming, at around 2 am in the morning, I became a fan of JP and Lok Satta.

I somehow couldn’t get a voter ID card this time, so I didn’t vote for Lok Satta this time. But on Election Day, my dad asked me to whom would I want to vote for. I said Lok satta. He said Lok… what? Now, he doesn’t belong to Hyderabad anymore and is quite unware of the happenings here. I said “Lok Satta founded by Jaya Prakash Narayan”. Then he asked me who he was. I said “he is a retired IAS officer and…” He interrupted me saying he knew him and was just checking. 20 years back he sat in a full day session with JP and he believes that ever since then he hasn’t met an intellectual like JP. To my surprise, my dad remembers everything that JP told in that session. I wondered if I could ever remember any such session even after 20 years.

Not anymore, as on last Saturday, I listened to JP talking to a bunch of entrepreneurs who had come to exhibit their start ups. He didn’t carry a paper neither do I believe he was prepared. He started in Telugu, spoke about two lines and switched to English, spoke with the same fluency. A good speech must be fluent, must have appropriate words, must be well organized and most importantly must make sense, his speech had all. Many of them attending were from other states, so they might have thought him as any other MLA. So there was a bit of noise in the hall. After about 10 minutes there was pin drop silence, everybody listening to him as if he was telling some thing like “Become a millionaire in one day”. His advice to the new entrepreneurs was more than how to start a company or to run it; it was more than about the qualities required for entrepreneurs or the role of entrepreneurs in the society; it was more than about wealth creation or job creation, yet it had all of them. It was a vision that he proposed well presented in four points.

I didn’t know how time went by, 30 minutes. That speech really was inspiring, inspiring us to do something big. He brought in different perspectives about India being a global superpower to preparing for an environmental change. And the speech was concluded with a huge round of applause that went on for a little more than what was normal. While JP was distributing prizes, I recollected my dad’s words “Everybody that day THOUGHT”.

Nikhil, who was sitting beside me wanted to touch his feet. Then we agreed upon shake hand. At first I was reluctant worrying about security and all. But then as I saw the crowd taking photographs and autographs, I changed my mind. I jumped on to my feet, pushed aside the crowd and waited for my turn. I noticed that every pair of eyes had a genuine respect for him. This sort of a following was not because of any stardom, nor was it because his father or grand father was great. It was his intellect and the way he educated crowds that the crowd respects him for. I thought “he is a real leader of our times”.

Then I met him, held his hand and said "Sir, You have always inspired me and many like me”. He politely responded “Thank you”.