A Cauvery consenseus

While the Cauvery crisis raised a furore and sent shock-waves across the city in the form of riots, strikes and abrupt curfews; three young Bengalureans decided to rise above the rant and take matters into their hands, quite literally  — Meet Abhishek Iyengar, Santhosh Jay and Bhaskar Rajkumar, the trio behind Passions Alive, an initiative which aims to spread awareness through detailed yet lucid updates through its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PassionsAliveInc). With an app that detects dam water levels underway, they are part of the long-term solution to the problem.

“It  all started  when Santhosh posted a video titled, Solutions to Cauvery Crisis on Facebook. He came up with an innovative take on how the problems need to be tackled, when rest of the entire city was burning tyres for no reason.

Since we all are friends on the same platform, we  saw how the video got people discussing constructively. That’s when Bhaskar came on board too, he had his perspectives and ideas too! After rounds of active sharing, it struck us that a forum where we could talk to people provide/seek ideas and solve the crisis was feasible,” shares Abhishek Iyengar, an engineer turned full-time theatre artiste.
While the idea started early this month, it met with a stupendous response right from the start.

“We started out when the interim order on Cauvery was announced, may be the same day the riots also broke — in the midst of the uproar and madness! The video garnered about 10K views just in one day and then we followed up with our own page “Passions Alive” where we did a live session which got 15K views,” pipes Santhosh rather elatedly. 

Given the sensitiveness of the issue, we quizzed them about the responses they anticipated. “We understood it was a sensitive situation. But little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And as far as we were convinced, everything we posted was backed up by facts. So, there really wasn’t any room for worry.”

Despite a choc-a-bloc schedule, with regular nine to fives to juggle alongside their forthcoming project, they tell us how indulging their free time is a priority, as well. 

“I’m passionate about theatre. I am also involved in building a sustainable construction methodology which is affordable to masses,” says Santhosh, a civil engineer by profession. On the other hand, Bhaskar and Abhishek stress upon how social service and community-related programmes are what they truly enjoy.

“We like interacting with people and creating awareness, setting up health camps and educating people about whatever little we know. And we’re family men. So, spending quality time with family is what takes up most of our free time,” adds Abhishek.

With plans afoot to launch an app, Bhaskar reiterates how the idea is to bring about an awareness. “People still do not know about the amount of scarcity. The ground reality is different. So, Santhosh decided that we will go about with developing an app, which is like your regular weather app that gives you information on dam water levels across the entire state of Karnataka.To sum up what our plan is, I’d like to say that we are just a bunch of fun guys creating a community for problem solvers. We’re open to challenges, questions and anything that shifts focus from the problem to the solution.”