Is BBM the new MSN? Are we missing anything?

As we gear into the ever advancing world of 'social media' and constantly developing technology, a question that comes to mind, is BBM the new MSN?

If you remember a decade back, you would come home and then log onto MSN or Yahoo Messenger to chat with a few friends in the evening and have a good laugh at something you shared with them from your day or something they told you from theirs or maybe went to chatroom (which I always found fishy) and now you've got BBM, Whatsapp and groups or multi-person chats on them. Today, as soon as something happens, there's either a message or broadcast out there which is good in more ways than one, but are we constantly bombarded with news now? Does that change our perception or more importantly reaction to news we hear? Being constantly in touch or reachable in today's day and age is seen purely as an advantage, but as a person, have we changed more than we thought? Do we reflect as much on our days and learn as much from experiences? May be we do, may be we don't..

As I write this post, there's a constant battle going on in my head, one view being, 'your grandfather didn't have as much to do and as many people to stay connected with as you. You are way more social and connected' (not that they were antisocial or didn't have many friends but on a serious note, may be because of how they lived life back then)  and the other being ' are you really connected to as many people and do you really care about every news you hear?' Something to ponder upon. I believe it depends from person to person and news to news. One thing's for sure, we've moved fast, very fast.

Bringing Change..

About 2 years back from now a friend of mine, Nancy Beso mentioned to me about an inaugural summit for Young leaders on similar lines as the Davos World Economic Forum was being held in London. I wondered what this platform could actually do while it was connecting people from different parts of the world - other than a networking opportunity, what more could happen?

Little did I know what this was but because I was hearing good things from the people who attended the inaugural summit in London and said I should definitely be a part of this, I applied to be a delegate at the 2nd Summit which was in Zurich in September 2011.

Slowly I started reading on things a bit and found some pretty interesting and inspiring work that a lot of delegates and Ambassadors were doing in their own countries. I felt like connecting with them at that point and the rest is actually history...

Time to be at the One Young World Summit in Zurich came and the long conversations with fellow delegates kept flowing. I really met some of the most wonderful people there that I've met till date. And now I can say, some great friends for life too! :)

There were some inspiring and touching moments like Archbishop Desmond Tutu pointing at us and saying, 'you, you, you - you will make change, I know it. God is seeing each one of you, go out there and make a difference'; a fellow delegate from Uganda - I can't ever forget his name, Innocent, sharing his own struggle and many others. It will be difficult to express those certain moments that trickled a thought in me to say, leave everything and just work on the cause that you really believe in. Time and over again people kept surprising me with the amount of good these people were doing in this world..


Late last year in Oslo, Norway where I went with a team of young and motivated individuals for Global Dignity Day, each and every person there I believe cared about Dignity in people's lives, it was such an amazing spirit in the school to celebrate Global Dignity Day. The founders of this great initiative - Crowne Prince Norway, John Hope Bryant and Pekka Himanen were hearing dignity stories of many young students. To hear them all, was an absolute pleasure - The innocence, genuineness and sheer simplicity was something to take back. :)
Not to forget, we were later called for a Royal Dinner with the founders as well as the Crowne Princes of Norway who were all so humble and down to earth to welcome a group of youngsters from Norway and around the world to share a meal and an evening of happiness. Thank you One Young World for introducing us to such great people.


A question that always sits in my head now: Are we all doing our little bit at least? Are we going to be able to answer God one day and say 'Yes, I was a responsible individual and did good while I lived!' With this thought, I started dedicating more time to projects that brought happiness and smiles to people. Be it via Project Chirag, a revolutionary project that transforms the lives of rural India by providing them light with Solar electricity or be it a small concept project with a big delivery like Ahaan, A ray of hope. It is actually a ray of hope for all of us, we need to make our little contributions and let's accept it, we all have those few minutes to spare for doing good.

Here's a call to all of you out there who may read this, may be you can't give your life to change the world, may be you can't give years, but you can definitely gives a few minutes, it will help, just spread happiness in your own small way and be responsible with your actions, the world around you will definitely start becoming a better place to live in!

Signing off!

Paras
A hopeful change maker