The 5 Rupee Joy Formula

On my way out the building in the morning, I search my pockets for 5 rupee coins. If I have one, I go to the shop downstairs and buy 5 packets of Gems– an Indian version of M&Ms. There are 3 Gems per packet, giving me 14 chances to make someone smile (there would be 15 but invariably the first Gem ends up in my own mouth!).

On the first day, I gave one each to the two youngs sons of my dhobi (washerman), and to the boy who lives in the makeshift shack in front of my building. Their hands were really dirty so I put them straight into their mouths. I thought for a second about giving them an impromptu lesson in hand-washing, but they are too young to understand Hindi and I haven’t learned enough Kannada to explain properly. Next time I’ll pick up the basics, and use gesturing like Jayeshbhai.

Our receptionist is often a little frazzled by the whirl of traffic coming through the lobby and the troubleshooting in multiple areas simultaneously that she’s often responsible for. I walked up to her and said,

“I have a surprise for you!” Instantly she smiles.

“What is it?”

“Your favorite,” I say, as I give her a whole packet of Gems.

“Hey, how did you know!?” she says with genuine surprise.

I actually didn’t, but I said, “I know everything,” in Hindi, donning my pretend tone of a wise man. Next time I’ll be totally truthful with her, and tell her that I just like seeing her smile, instead of puffing myself up even if in jest.

One of my students figured out how to import computer-generated forms into the Java application on the one specific model of mobile phone he had scoured the city for a full day to find. It was a small but important piece of the project he’s working on, and he was struggling for hours to reach this little breakthrough. He lets out a joyous cheer for himself, with the exclamations of accomplishment, attracting the attention of the other students around him. I roll my chair over and give him a Gem, along with the student sitting next to him. It so easy to add fun and smiles where there is already a smile. Next time I’ll remember to work harder and add some joy where there was gloom before instead of instantly taking the easy path.

A colleague from the foundation comes down the stairs and sees me waiting in the lobby for a meeting with one of the officers.

“You’re just the guy I wanted to talk to!” he says, as he launches into trying recruit me into helping with an upcoming job fair for the Fellows.

Schedules were incompatible, so I apologize and redirect the conversation to more personal topics. This guy has noticeably come a long way from the first night I met him in town, and I call him out on it and compliment him. He’s grateful, somewhat surprised that a relatively distant observer like myself noticed. The conversation takes an even more pleasant detour. Suddenly, I get called away for my meeting. I get up to leave, take a couple of steps, and then turn back.

“Hey! I have something for you.”

I pinch out the last Gem in that packet, and say,

“You just hit a homerun!” before the candy hits his hand. Luckily it was a green gem.

“Do you remember those M&M commercials from the 80s?” I ask.

He gives me a wry smile. Next time I’ll not try to make something small and sweet into something grand and spectacular.

A local Fellow from last year has started a social enterprise in town, and I often spot her walking around from the different sites where her employees are posted, regardless of whether is 6am or 10pm at night.  It took me maybe five attempts of asking before her busy schedule finally enabled us to sit down for lunch with her partner.  On this particular evening, she’s leaving the foundation at the same time I am, and happens to have a meeting at my guest house. I take my chance to escort her back in the dark and the light monsoon rain, holding my umbrella over her head even though my backpack had a laptop in it.  We get more than 80% of the way back before she discovers that I’ve been keeping her dry instead of myself!  (Any my laptop still works!!)

During conversation, I discover that she’s coming to the guest house to be interviewed by a foundation intern on the origins, challenges, and lessons of her fledgling social enterprise.  I launch into a persuasive case into conducting the interview in our common kitchen so I get the benefit of hearing the story as well.  She hasn’t had dinner yet, so I bribe her with the idea of cooking a little more for myself to share with her.  She tells me that the intern is very shy, and may not want to do an interview semi-publicly.  I convince her that its in both of their interests for her to make the request, at the peril of my relentless curiosity forcing them both to answer roughly the same questions twice.  Not sure if I’ve made my case by the time I get to the kitchen, she’s halfway up the second flight of stairs when I offer to bribe them both with one pack of Gems each for conducting the interview in the kitchen.  Five minutes later, they both come down the stairs smiling, and sit down at the table to start the interview.  I throw in my own questions every so often, and enjoy a pleasant dinner conversation over a home-cooked meal afterwards.  Dessert was of course, Gems!  Next time I will remember how much kindness is its own reward, and won’t try and distort that reality by ‘bribing’ people with something meant to be so pure.  Kindness is always a gift, and I will be mindful to not turn it into an exchange.

What I’ve discovered in my Rs. 5 experiment is that this tiny bit of kindness goes a long way in making my own day more joyful– regardless of whatever else may have gone ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Its like the salt in my dal that makes it go from bland to savory– or the sugar in coffee that takes things from bitter to sweet. I’m still not practicing kindness perfectly, and I am making some mistakes along the way, but that doesn’t matter as much as trying in the first place, and watching myself so I can improve.  And I’ve come to feel that though my tiny acts of kindness seem so small and insignificant, its very important that I do them.

Besides, who would have thought that the formula for joy only costs  5 rupee?

My Wedding

There was a time in my life when I thought I would never get married.  When most people make that choice, its usually because they are too afraid of commitment.  In my case, it was the opposite.  I wanted a partner in the cultivation of unconditional love, and after a few experiments in college and after, I concluded that most are not really interested in living that concept. And so I didn’t think it would be possible to find someone whose commitment ran as deeply as mine, and that marriage would be a costly distraction in the spiritual mission of making myself a more loving, happy, and serviceful person.

On May 2nd, 2009, I officially proved myself wrong and finally married my dearest, deepest friend, Asha Patel.

The planning of our marriage seemed like a protracted negotiation between the requirements of traditional culture stemming from our parents wishes, and our desire for something small, simple, and deeply meaningful. Turns out we took the middle path! 

I found myself repeatedly overwhelmed with the love and beauty that was coming at us leading up to our wedding, and even more moved by everyone whose love was pouring out on the day of the wedding itself. Yogesh uncle converted his home into my surrogate home for the precursor ceremonies and starting location for the groom’s procession. I was resistant to riding a horse, so Hemin gave me 300 horses through his sportscar!  John flew in as a surprise, and was such an incredible nose-defender (don’t ask) that the priest told me to let Asha’s mom pull my nose as a freebie to make her feel better    Dinesh & Paresh uncle took charge of so many small pieces, including a major one through muscling the heavy stage around in our massive backyard tent!  Another uncle forgot a suit on the west coast, and through the heroics of the anonymous usual suspects, Raj had it on a plane to the east coast within 90 minutes!

As gifts to our guests in attendance, our friend Emmanuel from the Global Oneness Project sent a big box of DVDs of inspiring films and our dear friend Ankur offered box of his book on his personal re-tracing of Gandhi’s Dandi Yatra.  We gave every guest a DVD of stories of people who have shaped our lives, and Nipun & the HelpOthers.org crew kicked in a ton of Smile Cards (and small gifts with big love) to facilitate all the forward ripples.  Many friends not in physical attendance offered spiritual attendance by meditating during our ceremony. At least a hundred even did random acts of kindness, and through Sukh & Raju’s coordination, the stories were captured to a website so the ripples could continue!

Seema and Seth went a step further in conspiracy with Christine Bulaoro and beautifully printed out all of these acts of kindness, and spent the morning hand-folding them into tent cards to share with everyone at the reception!

Out of their own goodness, and perhaps to offset some of the paper we used (!), Uma & Sriram had a 1000 trees planted in a village near Bangalore! Anjali and some Manav Sadhna heroes cleaned an entire street in the holy town of Rishikesh. Vandana from Pune sent her daughter Keya on her behalf as the smiling emissary, though we felt like so many of our friends from India were smiling through her.  Nature also seemed to conspire: there was solid rain every day before and after our wedding, but the morning of the actual ceremony only saw very light sprinkles which quickly subsided.  The sun even came out super brightly just as Asha got carried in!

The list goes on & on… Carpools to the events were spontaneously coordinated, extra guests effortlessly accommodated, crowd-sourced marriage advice books lovingly compiled, and so many seeds (literally & figuratively) were offered and planted to bring in the day. And it was all so fitting, because when you decide to make your marriage about the cultivation of unconditional love, you implicitly understand that its a lifelong (perhaps longer!) project in changing yourself to increasingly bring more goodness in the world.  What better gift could there be than the offering of so many people’s goodness on that day?

Even before the marriage, but most definitely after, we are so deeply aware of the necessity of a harmonious community of friends and well-wishers to aid us on our lifelong partnership together. As a reminder to these co-creators of our journey as well as ourselves, each table had the vows that spontaneously coalesced late one night after reading and reflecting on sets of similar vows by people we deeply respect and trust. Our vows read as follows:

We live in a materially finite world, and have potentially unlimited material wants.  Every physical thing we consume is something that is denied another fellow human.  Do you vow to grow in simplicity, reducing your wants so that others may satisfy their needs?

Pleasure can be an intoxicating labyrinth, numbing our awareness and derailing our sense of sacred purpose in this world with its flickering satisfactions.  Pleasure can also be beautiful, and can sweeten life in big and small ways.  Do you vow to enjoy the pleasures life offers you without chasing them, while growing into more subtle, expansive and enduring joy?

Money, power and fame can become their own ends, robbing us of our sense of interconnectedness, indebtedness and obligation to serve a higher purpose.  Do you vow recognize your stewardship of whatever money/power/fame comes into your life, and to only accumulate it as a trustee for the greater good or a higher calling?

Love is a force that binds us together and makes our worlds go round.  But the attraction of love can also pull us increasingly closer into each others’ orbits, denying us its expression in other forms in every other department of life.  Do you vow to grow your love, and increasingly free it from all its conditions so that you may eventually express love unconditionally for all?

Our words have the power to inspire and to propel each other forward.  With our speech, we can build trust, elevate dialogue and create a foundation of harmony in our home.  Do you vow to grow in noble speech that uplifts & inspires, builds trust, and aligns your words with your thoughts and actions?

There is a knowing beyond the mind that is not rooted in facts or histories.  Do you vow to grow in cohesion and integrity so that your intuitions are the stuff of inspiration rather than the product of whim and fancy?  Do you vow to support one another’s intuitions, even when your own facts and perception may not agree?

There is an order and a nature to the inscrutable complexity of cause and effect converging and rippling at every moment.  Do you vow to surrender to the mysterious ways of the universe, trusting the inevitability of change, even in difficult times?  Do you vow to cultivate gratefulness for the precious moments you will share together, even at the end of your lives when it may come time to part?

As we grow into deeper fulfillment of our sacred vows, we ride on the shoulders of so many incredible friends, teachers, mentors, and guides who have made it possible for us to come this far. In turn, we offer ourselves to back to them, as well as all our yet-unknown friends that we’ll meet together on the journey. The spirit was perhaps best encapsulated by Yaniv’s gift to us in the form of a daily prayer for the continued deepening of our individual and collective unfoldment.

Oh, and those interested can check out our pictures here.

80 Rupees of Kindness in Bangalore

“I’m the eldest among us, so I you have to let me pay for these tickets!  Besides, just one ticket in the States cost more than all three tonight!!”

My cousin’s wallet hand was faster than mine, pulling out Rs. 520 for three opening night seats to ‘Angels and Demons’ before I could make good on my intention.

“Naaah!  Come on– don’t worry about it,” came the answer.

“Ok, but then we have to use this 500 rupees to do something good,” I say as I pull out a crisp note.

We immediately start trying to figure it out while slowly walking away from the theater.  I spot an ice cream vendor selling 10 rupees soft serves not far from us.

“Hey, what about ice cream!  We could give 50 strangers a cool surprise with this bill.  Just random people walking by.”

“NO!  Why?!  We should give to someone in need,” protested one of my cousins, with something of a scowl on his face.

Just then, an elderly woman beggar walks up with her hand outstetched.

“See, its not about that.  Begging in India is a big game.  You don’t know who’s in need, who’s a scammer, who is taking the money from the person you give it to.  I could give money to this old lady here, or that poor street kid over there, but it wouldn’t solve the problem.  My resources, or anything the three of us pull together, can only go so far in making a difference.  But just think of what could happen if everyone cared.”

I paused, as they were soaking it in.

“All these guys walking around trying to impress the ladies– don’t you think they’re suffering too?  They try to be all macho and flashy, but they’re blind to the material poverty that they see every day of their lives.  They’re stone-hearted– and they’re the center of their own universe, which happens to only have one person in it.  Don’t you think that’s a miserable existence?”

They’re nodding.

“Imagine if we snapped them out of it just for one second. What if we we’re kind to them for no other reason than to just be kind. It might open their eyes for the first time. They might just care for someone else, maybe that kid, or this old woman, just for one second. And those collective moments of care might just make a huge difference– much more than we could ever do alone.”

They’re agreeing now, probably more because of my oratory than my rhetoric.  One cousin is all excited.  The other is agreeable but reluctant.

“Ok, so I get what you mean.  That makes sense.”

“Alright!  So you’re in?!”

“Yeah, sure.”

We make our way over to the ice cream vendor, and I decide to put the Rs. 500 back and pull out smaller notes.  I give Rs. 250 to the enthusiastic cousin, Rs. 100 to the lukewarm cousin, and keep Rs. 150 fo myself.

“Ok, we’ll break it up into smaller batches so all of us can be handing out ice cream simultaneously.”

“I’m gonna start with 50 rupees,” says one cousin.

“I’ll just watch how you do it for now,” says the other cousin.

I order 5 vanillas and start handing them out one-by-one immediately.  I get about 4-5 rejections for every acceptance, but at least 4 smiles for every cone.  One guy would only take the ice cream after I told him that I just got married!  Another guy with crazy spiky hair was leaning against a wall, texting on his phone pretending he was too cool to talk to his girlfriend standing right in front of him.  As I approached, I thought that certainly this guy wouldn’t take the ice cream or smile.  He did, and so did his girlfriend, though neither accepted the cone.  The theater attendant got one of my cones, and so did the street kid loitering around the posh shoppers.  A fat man surprisingly rejected the cone and wished me happy birthday when I told him I just got married

In less than 10 minutes, we burned through 100 rupees.  Turns out my enthusiastic cousin ate two cones himself, spending only Rs. 30 on strangers. The lukewarm cousin never got up the nerve to try himself.

A random older uncle off the street walks up smiling.  “Why were you giving out these ice creams only,” he asks. 

We explain, but he seems to already understand.  And he was so happy to see us doing this, especially my enthusiastic cousin (who also happens to sport many tattoos and piercings– someone that the older generation oftens stereotypes as punk-ish).

We also decided that the ice cream was melting too fast, and that we needed to figure out another way to be kind.  As we’re walking away, my lukewarm cousin opens up some more.

“I can’t do this.  I’m too afraid.”

“Never be afraid to be kind.  Even most of the people who rejected me smiled.  They don’t know me and probably never will [so its not personal], but they will remember the presence of kindness in a place they didn’t expect. Whether they took ice cream or not, that feeling will make a difference. We just may never know how. ”

We talk about it more, and decide to visit a local orphanage, play with some of the kids, find out their needs, and spend Rs. 420 as a small offering of assistance.  And then we watch a great film.

On the way out, my enthusiastic cousin bumps into a friend who passed by, and then excuses himself to go talk to her for a bit.  He comes back in a few minutes with a big smile on his face.

“You’ll never guess what just happened to them.  Some stranger walked up and said ‘Hey, would you like some free tickets to the movie’ and then handed them 3 tickets!”

“Wow!  Maybe it was one of those people we gave ice cream to!” I blurt out.

My lukewarm cousin cracks a smile.

“Have you ever been to a place, like an old church or temple, where you can just feel that something is different?  Its like the deep thoughts and feelings of people have charged the environment with a certain kind of energy, and it puts others into that same space.  Maybe we just unleashed a splash of kindness right here, that is still rippling out!”

They both like my wavy, quasi-mystical explanation.

Two nights later, my lukewarm cousin pulls me aside.

“Don’t tell my parents, but whenever Ranjan fai talks about you, I’ve always thought ‘Why can’t I do what Rahul does?’ Couple nights ago at the movies, I saw why– because I have that fear.”

“I used to be too shy, too afraid to be nice too.  But you just do it, and then you find out that there’s nothing to be afraid of, and that it makes you feel good.”

“Yeah- just doing something selflessly…”

“I wouldn’t even call it selfless.  In the beginning, you might do it only because it makes you feel good.  That’s selfish– but that’s ok.  What kindness does is expands your sense of self, so that maybe one day that sense of self will be so big that it might be more accurate to call it selflessness rather than selfishness.”

We talk a little more, and he tells me he would like to figure out how to use his IT skills to do good things for society.  I tell him that Dinesh is just the man he needs to meet, and he decides on the spot to take tomorrow off work!

All I kept thinking was that 80 rupees of kindness sure goes a long way in Bangalore.  Can’t wait til we spend the other Rs 420!

The Power of a Gift

Gifts that are given from a space of gratitude have the power to unleash tremendous goodness into the world.  This is the story of one small gift that demonstrates the awesome capacity for that goodness to ripple onwards.

When I got asked to make a short-film for Blazin’ Hope 2, I agreed only after others had committed to do a lot of the preliminary work so that I could finish the piece in 8 hours or less.  Somewhere on day 2 when I realized that the original vision / story wasn’t working, I was frustrated because it was going to take a lot longer to finish that I had planned.

After the frustration, or perhaps because of it, I started digging more deeply into a blog that had more information about this organization.  Every story I read touched me– I was so moved that I melted into the project, losing track of time and myself.  It took many hours over two more days to finish the video on Itipini, but those last two days were filled with such gratitude to be in a position to do something small to aid the noble spirit of the work.

On the night of the concert, I started getting text messages from other Be The Cause volunteers.  The audience was “frozen, mesmerized” and “deeply still” during the video while being “visibly moved”.  I forbid friends to send me SMSes because they cost me 2o cents in and out, so I knew that these notes were sincere or people would not have wasted my dimes on them.  Though I was already deeply rewarded during those last two days, the audience reaction and the SMSes were the first wave of many more rewards to head in my direction.

Turns out that the curator of a film festival was in the audience, and she was deeply moved by the video.  She asked me if she could enter it into the My Hero Film Festival.  I agreed and sent her several more films, all of which were received with the same excitement.  I forgot about the whole affair until a few months later when I was invited to attend the festival, and then sent home with all the top prizes and cash!

Again I realized that I had already been amply rewarded, so I immediately donated the cash to another beautiful effort called the Art Miles Mural project.  My interaction with them forged a deep friendship with their effort, and opened the door to an audience with the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Ambassador Chowdhury (to whom I also gave a gift & smile card!).  It also lead to super-fun talk and interactive session with a group of kids from an afternoon program, and a film screening and short talk at a children’s talent show put on by Arts4Unity

The feedback from that first festival was to enter more festivals, and when I decided to do that, I was flooded by generosity from many friends who pitched in to fund entry fees into many other festivals.  These films have been seen, and won more awards at the International Family Film Festival, San Luis Obispo Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival, and Nashville Film Festival so far.  I only attended the San Luis Obispo festival, and was again flooded with gifts and generosity throughout that experience.  I have to write a proper blog post about the experience, but once again, I knew I had already been amply rewarded, and so I paid forward gifts during that festival– many of which have opened up other doors.

As beautiful as those film festivals were, I saw their limitations, which lead me to dream up the InSIDe Film Festival.  After only a short presentation at USC’s Cinematic Arts,  they loved the concept and gifted something like $20,000 in venues to make the event happen.  Incredible!  Of course, the InSIDe itself will be a gift-economy film festival, so that others can experience this magic

Before all those festivals, Swap of Karmacy saw the video and wanted to hire me to make a video for one of their songs.  It was pre-election and they wanted to make it for Obama.  Of course, I had already been deeply rewarded for whatever little I had done, so it would not have been proper to be ‘hired’.  I naturally offered to make the video in the gift-economy, and was deeply gratified to be able to do something to help Obama get elected.  The piece made quite a little splash in the South Asian community, and I started getting emails from a few friends around the world who I had lost touch with over the years.  Amazing that despite years and separation our subtle connection never disappeared and was re-ignited through a gift given somewhere else!

Perhaps because of the film festival wins and the Karmacy video, MTV Iggy got interested in my work.  I’ll be introducing the world to my homie MC Yogi through a short piece that may get up to 110M views worldwide across several markets and platforms!  The relationship means it may be possible to introduce more inspiring stories to a broader worldwide audience.  What a way to spread the good!

Couple of weeks ago, I get an email from some folks on the east coast who are arranging a speaking tour for Jenny McConnachie.  They ask if they can use my short video on Itipini during her tour.  Of course they can!  In fact, I am humbled and honored that they would even want to use the video.  They’re a tad surprised by my enthusiasm, and lack of legalese-ish hurdles in getting permission, perhaps not understanding the spirit in which I operate.  I explain the story and purpose of Blazin’ Hope, and add:

As a filmmaker, I only work for inspiring people, organizations, and causes as a way of amplifying the good in the world.  The goal is to bring that goodness to as many people as possible     though I leave the marketing and outreach to the universe.

Turns out that it is the first time Jenny is speaking since her husband Chris McConnachie passed away in 2007.  Though this film helped raise money for her work, she had never seen it until her first presentation a few days ago.  Here’s the note I just got from the east coast:

Rahul –  Jenny and I have been in NY, NJ and MA with presentations and sharing what is happening at Itipini.  She saw your presentation for the first time and was in awe…she really, really liked it and is talking about taking and sharing it more….I wish you could have seen her watching the first time….awesome!   thank you again….Carla

It gives me goosebumps to put the woman who inspired me in awe!

The gifts keep on growing in every direction, revealing an abundance that I never quite experienced until I started living in the gift-economy.  Blazin’ Hope III is just around the corner– a chance to overflow again with gratitude and hope!

And to think, none of this would have been possible if I charged my “market rate” to make the video…

The Economist on Alternate Currencies

This week’s edition The Economist has a short box-text on alternate currencies. From the article:

Gerhard Rösl, professor of economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, who wrote on alternative currencies in 2006 for the Bundesbank, says the overall stimulus from such schemes in times of deflation may be short-lived—because, though the velocity of money increases, its supply tends to shrink.

Gerhard Rösl happens to be one of the leading voices against alternate currencies and characterizes them as “Social romanticism on the part of people who don’t think in a structured way”.

Social romantics or not, the article is a reminder that there are entrenched interests opposed to the spread of alternate currencies, and that they will face a struggle for their survival and symbiotic existence from those who benefit from the current system.

I’ve been tagged!

Over the holidays, a little surprise popped into my Paypal account.  Check it out:

Its one thing to get tagged; its entirely different to get tagged by Smile Cards!

Stay tuned for more short films posted here, courtesy of Anonymous Kindness!

Only in California

Is there anywhere else in the world where snow-capped mountains are the backdrop for palm trees?

My breath was taken away when I looked up in a spot very close to where I snapped this picture a couple of days ago.

Making Cops Smile :-)

“Why you in such a hurry?  You were going 40 in a 25 zone. Gimme your license, registration, & proof of insurance.”

It was so late on Wednesday night that it was already Thursday. Riding with me was my fiancee, a gift-economy naturopath, a Mexican Gandhian & peaceful warrior, and an Amma devotee & brilliant graphic artist.  The cop seemed a little hardened, but there was a special energy in the air after two hours of listening to Krishnammal Jagannathan in Santa Clara, and I couldn’t think of four other people I would rather be getting a ticket with for going too fast

As the cop was making his way back to the car, we started thinking. If he was going to give me his best, how could I give him mine? We had some food in the car, but figured that we might get arrested for offering it to him. Pancho pulls out his smile deck just as I’m thinking of the smile cards in my glove box.

“Ok, sign here.”

“Wait a second. Do you know what these are? You gotta check them out!”

“First you gotta sign here,” says the cop.

“First you have to check these out,” I insist, as I explain the concept and the four suits. “Go ahead and take a card!”

“Awright, but sign here first.”

“No, you have to take a card first,” I say, noticing that he’s already smiling! I catch myself wishing for a brief instant that he pulls a card that something like “Don’t give Rahul a ticket!” but was pretty clear that this wasn’t what it was all about. He was just doing his job, enforcing the law. I had to make sure I was doing my job, reminding myself of a deeper law. If we both walked away without any negativity, the world would be a better place. And if the cop followed the suggestion on the card, or paid it forward, the world would be WAY better off. Who’s ever gotten tagged by a cop?!

“What does it say?” I demand.

“Get lifelong bulbs for you house and another’s house,” he says, as he tucks it into his cap with a smile.

“And, you gotta check this one out!” I say as I hand him a regular smile card and tell him more about it.

“Cool. Sign here,” he says, still smiling!

I click the pen but it doesn’t pop out. For another quick second, I catch myself thinking, “Yessss! No ticket for me!” but then he takes it from me and clicks it open as I put myself back in mental check.

“Thanks officer. Have a great night!”  We roll away almost missing the turn that is less than a half block away, pulling a crazy maneuver that might have earned me another ticket less than thirty seconds later. I bet the cop was probably too busy re-reading the cards to notice

As the weeks ran by without a ticket arriving in the mail, I figured that there might be some chance that the ticket got magically lost in the system, but it just arrived yesterday.

Cops get paid extra, time & a half I believe, for showing up in court if someone they issued a ticket to contests the charges. The state is facing budget cuts and in the midst of its worst financial crisis, encouraging employees to take 2 unpaid days off a month. At the same time, I’m >400 miles away from the courthouse, and $188 is a lot of money to pay for driving a little fast on an empty road after midnight (and traffic school will add another $30-50 on top of it all).

So that raises the question of what the best response is– and I want your opinion!

a.) drive 400+ miles to contest the ticket, then say in open court that I’m guilty but just wanted to give the cop a gift of extra cash over the holidays to make him smile more; pay the fine; go to traffic school

b.) Berkeley is a nice place in grand scheme of places; pay the fine to support the city but save your time & the pollution of the trip; go to traffic school and spend your gas money on donuts & smile cards for your fellow speeders

c.) pay the fine, go to traffic school, and save you money for a rainy day

d.) pay the lower fine, and skip traffic school altogether– the point on my record costs less than the higher ticket + traffic school; do something nice with the spare change

Incidentally, three days later, my fiancee is speeding down the 5 freeway going >80 mph while I’m asleep in the front seat. A cop pulls her over and tell her she was going 20 mph over the speed limit. She admits guilt, pleads ignorance, and gets off with a warning! So that leads to the last option:

e.) cute girls make cops smile more than cards. Outsource future speeding to them!

Submit your answer by comment, but make sure you get it in before my ticket due date: January 8th, 2009!

__________________________

UPDATE - February 11th, 2009:

After considering everyone’s input, I decided to write to the court and explain 1.) that I was doing social service when I got the ticket 2.) that it was past midnight on an empty road 3.) I’ve spent most of the last 4 years giving my time in service 4.) there were people in the car with up to 1 additional hour of driving to do.

I offered to pay a more affordable $50 for the ticket, and spend $20 on doughnuts for my fellow speeders at traffic school as a way to introduce the story of how I made my officer smile, hoping that the court would see this as an investment in creating a better and safer world for officers, and very much in-line with my ideal of social service.

Today, the response came back.  The court decided to DROP MY TICKET entirely!

The privelege of being in a position to devote your time to serving society makes for a rewarding and charmed life.  I don’ t think anyone could have guessed that an added perk would be amnesty from a speeding ticket, but I suspect that there are many unexpected fruits from using your time to sew the right seeds.

Now comes the question of what to do with the $70 I saved on fines & doughnuts!  A nicer problem, for sure

Krishnammal Jagannathan Speaks at CharityFocus

Krishnammal Jagannathan, winner of the Right Livelihood Award for 2008, shared ancedotes and wisdom from her decades of struggle for social justice through non-violent means, including her time with Vinoba Bhave and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The video was recorded on November 12th, 2008 at the CharityFocus ‘Intergalactic Headquarters’ in Santa Clara, California.

Winning Film Festival Awards and Inspiration Investment!

Its not everyday that the curators of a film festival ask a filmmaker to submit his films to their festival, and then send him away with 5 awards, including the top 3 prizes and cash!  Yesterday, however, was one of those unbelievable days.

Here’s the awards from the My Hero Film Festival, held yesterday at USC.

Best of Fest Award for Law of Love

First Place Award for Law of Love

Second Place for Itipini Community Project

Special Hero Award For Friends Without Borders

Special Hero Award for Itipini Community Project

You can watch the Law of Love here, and the Itipini Community Project here.

When inspiration is the only currency that powers your work, you come out ahead whether or not anyone recognizes you or contributes financially.  And if you keep planting those seeds of inspiration, every so often, one will blossom into a tree that drops a ripe fruit in your lap    And if every tree has hundreds of fruits and thus thousands of seeds, in enough time you may just witness the birth of a ‘rain forest’ with enough ‘oxygen’ for everyone to inhale inspiration all day!

The feedback from the festival was that I should enter films in bigger festivals, and find a way to complete the feature-length Friends Without Borders documentary spanning 70+ hours of footage and 2 years of shooting.  I’ve been reluctant to enter festivals because I’m averse to self-promotion or even talking about myself, but I’m realizing that I may be blocking many people out from being inspired and in turn propagating that inspiration.  My reluctance has been facilitated by having no money for festival entry fees in the first place, what to mention the time to complete a feature-length film.  But if people want to see that happen, I’ll play my part

So in the spirit of allowing more people to participate in propagating the inspiration, I’m launching a new experiment here: Inspiration Investment !

Here’s how it works

If either the Law of Love or Itipini Community Project films move you, you have the opportunity invest in more people becoming inspired by these films by paying the cost of entering them into an upcoming film festival.  You can do so at 4 convenient levels, depending on your financial and ideological comfort with the gift-economy:

Livin’ It & Givin’ It -  Inspiring others and giving of yourself is your reward. Karmic ROI: potentially infinite.  Financial ROI: minus 100%

Payback is Sweet – Get your money back.  Karmic ROI: 100%.  Financial ROI: 0%

Dow (Tao?) and a Half -  Get your money back, plus 15%.  Karmic ROI: <100%.  Financial ROI: 15%.

Double Your Money -  Get your money back, and then get your money back again.  Karmic ROI: ?  Financial ROI: 100%

Financial prizes at these festivals can be hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.  So, if these films win at ANY festival, than EVERYBODY who invested will get the return on investment that they requested.  ‘Payback’ will happen on a first-come, first-paid basis.  After everyone has received what they need, I will accept the remainder as a fund to continue to survive in the gift-economy by making short films, and even longer ones if the universe facilitates that.  And If I win nowhere else, then every investor falls into the Livin’ It & Givin’ It category by default

To simplify the process for everyone, I’ve listed some upcoming film festivals along with entry fee and deadlines below.

Upcoming Film Festivals

When contributing to the Inspiration Investment Project, please add a note specifying the 1.) film you’d like to invest in (Law of Love, Itipini, Other),   2.) festival you would like to see it in (one from the list of festivals above, or other that you specify),  3.) dimension of your investment (from the 4 categories listed above).

Here’s a PayPal button to bring it down to a single click for you.  I can’t figure out how to get it to say ‘Invest’ instead of ‘Donate’ 

Also, please add a comment to the blog after you invest in a particular film and festival, so others don’t duplicate and I don’t get rich through your generosity!  Remember, only one investor per film per festival!!

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UPDATE- 11/24/08

Nipun suggested that ChipIn might be a more fun was to raise the inspiration funds needed.  It also lets people invest smaller amounts to reach the target for each festival.  So here’s links to pages where you can track progress on the fundraising, in order of deadline.  BTW, the deadline listed above is the date that festival organizers need to receive the film by– which means the money needs to be here at least 4-5 days earlier!  So hurry up and click on the where you want to invest!

Cleveland International                            Law of Love /    Itipini

FirstGlance Hollywood                             Law of Love /    Itipini

Ashland Independent                               Law of Love /    Itipini

Garden State                                            Law of Love /    Itipini

San Luis Obispo International                  Law of Love /    Itipini

Seattle International                                 Law of Love /    Itipini

Vail                                                          Law of Love /    Itipini

Santa Barbara International                      Law of Love /    Itipini

AFI Dallas                                                Law of Love /    Itipini

Los Angeles                                             Law of Love /    Itipini

Nashville                                                 Law of Love /    Itipini

Beverly Hills                                            Law of Love /    Itipini

Gen Arts                                                  Law of Love /    Itipini

Palm Beach International                         Law of Love /    Itipini

Aspen Shorts                                           Law of Love /    Itipini

International Family                                Law of Love /    Itipini

Newport Beach                                        Law of Love /    Itipini

London Independent                               Law of Love /    Itipini

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UPDATE – 11/25/08

More than enough money has been raised!

I’ve been awed and humbled by the generosity that’s flowed in.  Multiple people have told me that they want to fund every single festival, and where possible, I’ve stopped them so that others have an opportunity to be a small part of the inspiration.  One friend was just hospitalized from a fire in her kitchen with 2nd & 3rd degree burns, and she sends in a donation and offers to compose a score for a future film!  Another friend in India lives on $200 a month, and donates $65 of that to inspiring people on the other side of the globe!!  Yet another friend made films in Seattle, and not only funds both for the Seattle Film Festival, but offers to forward to all her film-investor friends in the city!!!  Another friend steps in and sends over $800 as a gift to his wife, joking that this is the true ‘Law of Love’!!!  What’s more astounding is that everyone simply wants the ‘Inspiration Capital’ returns instead of the financial returns, and most are bypassing the ChipIn system to remain anonymous to the world in the process.  Truly amazing.

I feel like I’ve already ‘won’ so many times over with this process– the conceptualizing, shooting, writing, and editing were all gifts before the first person saw any of the work, and then the hundreds of people who have been moved have made it even sweeter.  With this kind of energy behind these films, I feel like we’re going to touch a lot of people out there!

Thank you all for Investing in Inspiration!