***

‘Shok aur rosh ke liye shabd nirbal, nirjeev hain’ (Words are weak, dead for expressing our sorrow and our anger)

‘Enough is enough’

‘I do not have adequate words to express what I feel – anger, hurt, betrayal, fear, empathy, sorrow. I hope and pray for a safer India for my people.’

‘A cowardly act from a cowardly group for a non-existent cause. I am proud to see us united in this hour of grief’.

‘For once, lets come together and fight for ourselves’.

‘The game has changed. So should the rules’.

‘Unprecedented events call for unprecedented response’.

‘Resilience is over-rated’.

‘Hope that the lives were not lost in vain, and that this creates a movement that unites us all so we get our institutions right.’

‘A tragedy in so many senses. We must bond together, across all the artificial boundaries and stand united – to console and to defeat’. (Note left by a British friend)

‘Secure borders, happy home’.

‘Thank you for organising this opportunity to express my solidarity with those back home. I am a Mumbaikar whose heart broke during the 1993 riots. I thought I couldn’t be hurt again.. I am deeply anguished by all the sadness and soul-searching it requires of us. May something strong and glorious emerge. May not this divert us from the anger and the pain of our Indian siblings left behind by globalisation or we may be crying for more than just 26/11.’

‘I am amazed by the common view and feeling everyone I speak to expresses. The recent events in Mumbai have come as a huge wake-up call for all of us to start doing something about our own future. Something that goes beyond blaming our politicians and intellectualising about what needs to be done. This is the silver lining that will lead to something concrete and constructive coming out of this. We MUST overcome!’

***

Many thanks for organising today’s event. I like most Indians are sad that it took the ghastly events of last week for us to all start thinking of how we are going to bring about these changes.

I for one have been thinking on these lines for a while but haven’t (until now) found any people with similar ideologies.

A lot of people want change overnight whereas what we discussed is a long and slow process.

Yes, thanks to technology there are now ways to accelerate spreading the message and building momentum but one still needs a unifying cause and sound fundamentals to do so which take time to embed.

Let us meet in mid January as I would like to share some ideas that I would like to bring to the table. These particularly revolve around the fund-raising side. To start a strong movement and make it strong but more importantly sustainable we need a lot of recurring sources of capital.

Today fund-raising in India happens in the possibly the most obscure fashions. However there are ways to change that and people will buy it when plans are put forward in a professional fashion.

Also, when starting a movement in addition to the leadership you need a massive grass-roots volunteer base but also a strong middle-management layer. Every successful movements have the following recipe:

1. multi-faceted approach but simple ideologies
2. presence across all layers (top management / middle management / key volunteer base)
3. A nationwide presence
4. a pyramid like donor structure.

The key principle behind fund-raising is start early and tap them young. The more people you have that give small amounts the better. As they grow affluent they will give more and more. You want few people giving major amounts because they will start to yield more pressure and will create inherent conflicts sooner or later.

http://www.slideshare.net/jaihind/a-tribute-to-victims-of-terrorism-in-india-presentation

We had close to 70 people and a vigorous discussion on the sidelines re. what steps could the government take in such situations to minimise the danger and the loss from terrorist attacks.

There was also some discussion on the need for all of us to get more actively involved in politics.

More update on this (and some quotes) soon.