Small Talk With Shukla Bose

CHANGE leaders do great things, and often that is all we know about them. Here we want to get a different glimpse of the personalities that constitute the development space. Every month we get one leader to answer our four quirky questions. This week we catch up with SHUKLA BOSE, the founder of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation. 

What began as a modest roof-top school in Rajendranagar in Bengaluru with 165 students from the slums, is now an organisation with four schools and one junior college offering quality education and support to thousands of children from four orphanages and over 71 slums in the city.

The word ‘Parikrma’ implies a full revolution or a complete, circular path. The Foundation not only ensures that its students are provided quality learning, three meals a day, healthcare and family support, but also assists in the transformation of an underprivileged child from the age of five to 25. Plus, to influence the standard and quality of teaching and scale its impact, Parikrma runs centres that offer training modules to the teaching community.

Small Change: Do you believe in the afterlife?

S.B: I do believe in karma and the effect our actions have in our life. I try to concentrate on finding meaning in this present life and I haven’t had time to think of the life after. I have a vague hope that we humans would behave a little more responsibly if we believed that everything does not end here. I also think there would be some solace if one could blame the misfortune of seemingly good persons to the misdeeds of his past life and absolve the actions of the present. But I know that life cannot be seen in that simplistic a manner and it is a big struggle to find some answers.

Small Change: Name one thing you are really bad at?

S.B: I am very bad with directions and road maps…both following it and giving directions! This deficiency has got me into much trouble many a time but I have given up trying to improve that faculty.

Small Change: You have been forced to eat only four things for the rest of your life. Which four items would you choose?

S.B: I would choose potatoes, fish, mushrooms and spinach! If I were marooned on an island I know I can survive for months or even years if I had access to these four food items. I would want a balanced combination of all four items however, and not too much of any one.

Small Change: Where would you like to go for your next holiday?

S.B: I would like to go to the Lachung valley in North Sikkim. I like to go to places that are quiet, serene and actually rough for tourists. I have been to Sikkim many times but have not been to this very remote valley in the north. It is great to get away from all the comforts and the poison of city life.

Find causes you care about and to give your time, money or skills here.

Aadeep