What's your ikigai, your reason for being? According to the Japanese, everybody has one - provided you can find it! Their process is lengthy and complex, involving an in-depth exploration of the self. 26-year-old Raashid Navlakhi, founder at I for Indya, believes finding meaning can be as simple as turning on a switch in your brain, if you have the right space in which to do it. That's what he set out to create three years ago, giving up, in the process, the kind of life most desi twenty-somethings dream of having.
Navlakhi was living in London, had just received a promotion and been told that he was up for the next in two years, a process that would take most other people three. That night, he asked himself what it meant to him. "It was wonderful, but where was it taking me? In two years, I would have been wearing a smarter suit, a better tie and had more people working under me. And I realised it just wasn't what I wanted."
When he returned to Bengaluru for his birthday, he told his family that he would return to London and serve his notice. When he arrived to meet this reporter at a coffee shop on Church Street in early December, nearly three years had passed since he swapped his smart suit and flashy tie for a more meaningful life. Navlakhi's social enterprise, I for Indya attempts to empower people to take charge of their lives, follow their dreams, take risks, make some mistakes and still find it in themselves to go out and make a few more. "In India, I use the word 'career' instead of 'life', because we tend to intertwine those things," he explained. "I want people to have fulfilling careers and the only way to do that is to empower them with a mindset that enables it," he said.
Armed with nothing but inspiration at that point, Navlakhi set out interviewing everybody who was willing to give him some time. "I would call and ask them if they were happy doing what they did and to name the three things they cared about most."
The I for Indya programme has a twofold agenda, one that caters to students and the other that deals with working professionals. "I came up with a Heart, Head and Hand concept, then realised it was in line with the five principles of Design Thinking developed by Stanford, so I worked that into the programme as well." He ran a pilot project with a group of students from his alma mater, taking them to the Dignity Foundation where they interacted with the senior citizens. "We learned that loneliness is their biggest problem," he said. The students returned to give them a crash course on how to download and use apps like Skype and Practo. "The format worked. ALl I wanted to do was teach these kids that they can be creative and make a real impact."
What's the bottom line, though? To come up with a formula that equips people with the mindsets and skills they need to make their lives more meaningful, no matter what they do, he explained. "Telling people to come to terms with uncertainty doesn't work in real life - this is the sort of thing you watch on Youtube or post on Facebook to get more likes. How many people are willing to take a risk in the real world? I want to create a safe-space, really, one that lets them develop those thought processes without feeling overwhelmed or wary."
It's not enough to have a good idea, Navlakhi believes - there are plenty of those to go around! "It's easy to start something, but seeing it through is another matter entirely. You have a great idea and three years later, you're sitting around saying someone stole it from you." In fact, 'borrowing' is a concept he uses - "There's an innovative technique to picking what works for you and then making it your own. It's taking the risk that counts."
