Back to the school after decades — APU and me

January was a busy month. I was attending a three-week residential course at Azim Premji University (APU), it is one of the three cohorts of a year-long Post Graduate Diploma in Development Management Course I was attending.

It was intense but fun to be part of a classroom with 30 attendees, after three decades. And almost all of the co-students were significantly younger than me. And it was a lot of learning.

I was happy that I found the energy to get up early each day and attend six to eight hours of classes, followed by evenings for assignments. And that made me think, that if we keep our curiosity alive and mind young, no time is age to be a student.

The attendees were people from the Development Sector, mostly NGOs who are working with people on the margin on agriculture, health, child trafficking, domestic violence, and other such issues. It was fascinating for me to know about them, as we don’t encounter them in the day to day life. And not in the context of the underserved, who have very little support and very less institutional interventions to set things right.

All the attendees were very smart, articulate, passionate, affable, and well-groomed. All of them could have worked in the corporate sector and could have earned better in all probability. And could have stayed in a metro or large city, not places like Malda or Majuli or Jhansi. And fighting issues against all odds — often taking on muscular politicians or indifferent bureaucrats.

Interestingly, I did not hear any complaints in all three weeks. All discussions were about the state of the affairs, and what could be done to make it better. The attitude was problem-solving, not problem-finding — which we all know, of course.

So what are the takeaways?

There are many. But for me, the most important was the optimism that was shared, that the challenges are gargantuan, but we will work hard to solve them.

I felt very energized.