My education is right at the top when it comes to sharing credit for making me who I am today. My years studying at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) gave me the foundation to view life and the world in a new light. I learnt detailing and questioning at IRMA. There is no better way of learning in politics or for that matter, anything else in life than developing a questioning nature.
Today, people see something on their WhatsApp and believe it with little doubt. But when I come across something, whether on the phone or told by someone, the first thing I do is that I try to find the source. I navigate through the systems that delivered that piece of the information to me and also try to find the source of that system.
My days spent working for the NGO Seva Mandir humbled me and brought me down to terra firma. Things there happened fast and one had to proactively keep pace. Working there toned down all the exuberance of youth in me and taught me that there was more to life than what at first seems to the best.
I have done plenty of volunteer work too. Volunteer work is better when there is direct development that you can associate with it. In those days, social work was not called activism. Delivery was more important than activism and both progress and development had to be in partnerships and by working with other people.
Merely being educated does not make you a better worker. Even if you are educated, you are but a small cog in the wheel and only pushing the plan laid down by many others. People have to be part of movements to bring about change, whether at work or in public life.
While I have done a lot of work for my constituency East Delhi in the past, I cannot alone take credit for the work. Things work in partnerships and with other people involved. I have played only a small role, and will continue to do so for all the work that still remains to be done.