Pune : Towards a Smart City of Change makers

What is Poorna Pune all about?

Poorna Pune is the Pune of our deepest dreams: a city which is spiritually fulfilling, economically thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable. It is a Compassionate City where everyone is a Leader who initiates action on things that they deeply care about in a way that others are inspired to join. It is a city of “Changemakers” (to use the term of Ashoka).
We can manifest this vision only if we work together. This is an invitation to be part of a community of collaboration for Poorna Pune.
Background: Many individuals, groups and organisations are already taking great initiatives to make Pune a better city. The time is now ripe for us to come together, swiftly and coherently, for seeding a new future for the City of Pune. To use a metaphor, there are many beautiful yarns of various hues floating in the wind. They now need to interweave with each other and co-create a beautiful tapestry for a new way of life in our City. We have become increasingly aware of a longing among experienced activists and citizens in Pune to have a space for deep, cutting- edge conversations that explore how we may work together towards a model city.
What do we aim to achieve?
• A Pune that is a thriving ecosystem for human evolution and well being. A city that is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just;
• A replicable template or a Process of how to make this metamorphosis happen; and
• A Cadre of evolved I-Catalysts® who can serve other cities with similar transformations.

A Few Philosophical Underpinnings:
The key ideas behind this initiative are : inclusion, celebrating diversity, being nourished by the Silence,Awareness and Peace within all of us and being Mindful. A few other points about this movement:
1) It follows the Golden Rule: Treat all others as you wish to be treated yourself.This is the foundation for the Charter of Compassion and Compassionate Cities (see Annexure 1);

2) Symbolised by The Wheel of Life: All people, institutions, NGOs, Businesses, Government agencies; etc. will all be in Service of the Common Good(represented by the wheel of life). Symbolically, we are all like spokes of this wheel and we share one common centre: a subservience to the Highest Common Good. All of us are servants of this Ideal.The well-being of the Whole is the guiding Vision. The Vision is wholeness-centric :learning and developing from wholeness toward wholeness.Every step of the way transcends the separatist philosophies, ideologies, designs and practices endemic to almost all of today’s social systems.

3) It is inherently appreciative and inclusive — a commitment to growing synergy-seeking alliances with existing initiatives that can contribute to the larger vision;
4) It is earth-based — is grounded in the reality that we are all not only totally dependent on our planet for our health and well-being, but uniquely equipped to develop a co-creative partnership with Her;
5) It embodies a commitment to Pune’s wholesome future throughout Pune’s immediate and extended stakeholder families. All research, development and implementation activity is in the service of movement toward a compelling shared vision for a wholesome life for all in Pune and beyond;

6) It embraces action-learning as a key design principle.Action and learning are multiplicative: all learning in service of generative actions; all actions designed to generate ripples of learning ;

7) It recognises that all that Pune needs exists in Pune now: We just need to connect the resources and people together by creating powerful contexts for clumping and clustering of ‘imaginal cells’ : those spirited and capable people committed to multiplying their lasting contribution through this initiative;
8) It is designed to develop expertise in a way that is decentralised, self-sustaining, self-regulating, self-propagating and self-evolving… we will all draw inspiration and guidance from the wellspring of Silence ,Awareness and Peace that is the primordial Source of all things good and beautiful in Life; and
9) It takes life as celebration of the now… as something to be enjoyed in each moment. So Art from the Heart is an important component in the journey.

 

The Meta Network:
IT Support: CDAC,K-Point, Persistent, Anupam Saraph(Former CIO Pune City),Coursehub; Zensar,Persistent etc.
Supporting Networks: Ashoka,Compassionate Action Network,Learning Societeies Unconference,Pachamama Alliance, Initiatives of Change;INTACH; Marattha Chamber of Commerce and Industry(MCCIA);Confederarion of Indian Industry(CII); Symbiosis, Maharashtra Institute of Technology; Retired Armed Forces Officers; Tata Management Training Centre: Pune Municipal Corporation; Leaders’ Quest UK; Bahais;Charter of Compassion;India @75; Young Global Leaders of World Economic Forum; Social Venture Partners; National HRD Network;L&OD Network; DASRA , Retired Officers of the Armed Forces, etc.
Business Houses: Like Zensar; Thermax, Forbes Marshall; Tata; Sudrashan Chemicals; Finolex; Praj, Amdocs, Persistent, KPIT, Bajaj Group , Sakal Group; Prominent Builders in Pune etc.
Media and Public Affiars: Perfect Relations; Sakal Group ; TOI; DNA etc.
Academic and Research Institutions in Pune: NCL;NIA,NIBM,DRDO;ARDE; Youth in colleges;
Education: I of C (Education Today Society Tomorrow ) Teachers Network; Orchid School;Aman Sethu; Bahai Schools Network;Symbiosis Network; IBS; Learning Societeies Unconference etc.
Intellectual Partners: Bill Veltrop and Maxim Shkud (Global Guild of Evolutionary Architects :GlobalGEA, USA);Ashoka(Changemeaker Cities); CAN(Compassionate Cities); Debashish Nayak(Ashoka Fellow); Indu Capoor(Ashoka Fellow); Anu Wakhlu(Ashoka Fellow); Sudanshu Palsule;Anne Stadler; Arun Maira(Planning Comission);Retired and acting Officers of IAS and IPS in Pune; Leaders Quest,UK.
Artists: For a celebratory movement/ongoing festival of “Art from the Heart” to bind and connect people; Nikita Mittal(Dance), Varun Venkit(Drum Circle); Musicians; Song Writers; Troubadours; Pragnya Wakhlu, Justin Rayne Nash, Srrutii Keer. Etc.
Spiritual/Cultural: There are many spiritually active Masters in Pune.This augurs well for the movement for a Poorna Pune. Also a thriving Gift Culture and many people who are trying out alternatives in education;Food; Lifestyles etc.

The Process/Steps(not necessraily in the order presented)
• Sharing the Vision with a few Changemakers in Pune; Creating a loose guiding Coalition of passionate leaders
• Getting the MCCIA and CII Pune to sign the Charter for Compasionate Cities
• Creating a skeletal secretariate(1-2 people) till the movement takes hold and is self sustaining
• Creating a skeletal coordination website for Poorna Pune
• Enlisting key Networks and Leaders(The Mavens and Nodes)…People who are Spirited, Resourceful AND richly connected
• Developing I-Catalysts®… a spirited Cadre of Catalysts of Inspiration,Initiative,Integration and Innovation who will catalyse the changes in an action Learning mode.
• Developing Graphic Facilitators/Graphic Recordists
• Mobilise different networks and keep spotting potential I-Catalysts®
• Developing a process of surfacing and choosing ares for change and Self-organising and bringing people together (Tools like Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Conversation Café will be used)
• Get Project Teams to be equipped to monitor and run projects resourcefully.(Simple project management tools)
• Evolve Metrics, Mantras and Measures of success for Poorna Pune… SURE : Simple, Understandable;Remembered and ( therefore) Executed!
• Connect with Global resources from cilties like Portland (OR) ,Seatlle(WA) USA, Curitiba,Bremen ,Kyoto etc. in a learning process across cities.
• Launch the ideas of Compassionate Games and “Leaders Everywhere” in Pune
• Keep capturing stories of success and share them across networks
• Work collaboratively with Udiapur(Manish Jain); Gurgaon(Anil Sachdev); Ahmedabad(Debashish Nayak); New Delhi(Anita Bhargava)

First Draft written on 25th May 2013(Budh Poornima). It draws from the work of Bill Veltrop and Maxim Shkud(Evolutionary Architects) www.globalgea.net and Arun Wakhlu www.pragatileadership.com

Annexure 1

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all cultural, religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow beings, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary, in all aspects of our lives, to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others – even our enemies – is a denial of the reason of mere existence of all our lives. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion, culture, geography, languages, economic status, gender and a lot more.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and integrating it with the way we lead our lives ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions, cultures and most importantly of upholding Indian Ethos thereby encouraging a positive appreciation of diversity in all respects ~ to encourage everyone to have respect for women, men and children ~ to restore the environmental balance of the millennium city ~ to actively work with the Government, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations to find sustainable solutions for today’s problems

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

I affirm the Charter for Compassion and promise to work towards making my city a more compassionate city to live in.

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