despite india’s recent economic boom, more than 350 million indians live below the poverty line.  many have become urban poor: living on the streets, begging for a meager existence, and addicted to drugs, yet fighting to maintain the hope that characterizes the human experience.

the salaam baalak trust runs a heartbreaking walking tour of the area around the new delhi train station, delving into the lives of the 2,500 street children living in the area.  20-year old tour guide brijesh tells his own extraordinary story of running away from home in bihar to delhi at age 8, collecting garbage, flirting with gangs, and sniffing glue, before using the support of the salaam baalak trust to graduate high school and achieve matriculation to technical college  on the tour, he’ll introduce you to the street children and provide stories about their relationship to gangs, police, and prostitution.

the experience is shocking.  less than a few hundred meters from a major delhi tourist hub – and the platform for a luxury train that glides through new delhi station every few days – young children on the margins of society crawl under train trolleys, pillage garbage heaps for items of value, and experiment with drugs.  and while the salaam baalak trust has achieved remarkable results in its efforts, the scope of the problem is simply too large for a single organization to tackle.  at the conclusion of my tour,brijesh took me to visit the nearby red-light district: the sight of scantily clad women beckoning at the men on the street from their upper story windows (the better to prevent potential escape) reinforced the horror in his stories.  the sadness and depravity were stunningly, overwhelmingly real.

despite its subject matter, this tour is safe, insightful, and hopeful: this is an experience that will stay with you long after you leave india.

Contact:  Salaam Balak Trust or Brijesh (99100 99348)

high on glue, a street boy poses in the railway station.

three street children in the new delhi railway station.

a teacher struggles to retain his students’ attention at a street school run by the salaam baalak trust.

a street boy at salaam baalak’s school.

cycle and auto rickshaws wait outside of #64, one of delhi’s best known whorehouses, near the ajmer gate.

young, daytime prostitutes beckon for clients from high above the street.

two young prostitutes fight for attention in a window above the street.

low level railway employees make their homes near to the tracks at the new delhi railway station.

which is more important for your community?  which should your neighbourhood focus on?

are you sure?

delhiwallas from across the city make the pilgrimage to the street-side stall sita ram dewan chand for the best chhole bhature (chick peas in spicy gravy served with puri) in town.  sunday morning comfort food at its best – so good that delhiwallas ration themselves to only once per month…if they can resist!  Despite its incongruous location, sita ram dewan chand serves more than 500 people daily.  a great bargain at Rs24 a helping!

find sita ram dewan chand at 2246, chuna mandi, paharganj. on the same street as the imperial cinema, a few blocks from the paharganj main bazaar.

there aren’t many experiences that will get you into the swing of india like the early morning flower market across from the hanuman temple, on janpath near to connaught place, in new delhi.  at 5 am each morning, hundreds of flower wholesalers line the area to hawk their colourful wares. delhiwallas love flowers; more than us$100,000 is spent on flowers each day in delhi, making this market one of the largest of its kind in asia.  be sure to get there early to watch wholesalers unload thousands of orchids, roses, and colourful garlands out of cars, lorries – even rickshaws!  a great, authentic, and fragrant introduction to delhi’s world-famous hagglers and india’s extraordinary colours.

see you when i see you.  read me, write me, laugh with me.

with love - jordan.

today like so many other people around the world i remember what it’s like to touch that part of me that creates hope.  today i can honestly envision a time when love, respect, responsibility, service, and citizenship rise to the forefront of public discussion.  and today i can feel as if those things can be ultimately achievable.  in this man so clearly distinguishable from all other presidents, i can see the love and excitement and energy and hope that makes us all human.  today i feel like i can conquer the world; if you do too, obama has already been the best president of our lifetime.

“One voice can change a room; and if a voice can change a room, it can change a city; and if it can change a city it can change a state; and if change a state, it can change a nation; and if it can change a nation, it can change the world!”

“To those who seek peace and security – we support you.  And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

america, we share those ideals with you.  thank you, from all of us, for making this moment come true.

do you think we’re progressing towards this goal? or is the message of the UDHR too idealistic to achieve?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 1

looking at life through an economic prism often convinces us that incentives are best utilized when expressed economically (i.e., if you work longer hours this week, i’ll pay you a lucrative bonus).  stepping away from that prism, however, unearths all sorts of non-economic incentives.  sometimes those incentives are expressed in time recaptured (i.e. an extra day off) or in time repackaged (i.e. a day spent compiling a mix tape a friend will love).  sometimes they’re expressible only in ineffable emotional terms (i.e. those people who find reward when following their heart for love, joy, or adventure).  coming to understand someone properly inevitably means comprehending which incentives inspire them.

and the truth is that we’re at our best when we’re achieving rewards.  nailing that client presentation and bagging the sale feels good, but not only because you’re going to get paid.  hitting the ball out of the park feels great, but not only because your team is going to win.  when we do those things, we ignore that the client needed the product and that the park wasn’t exactly major league sized.  instead, we feel pride in creating our own goals and then surpassing them.  in german, there’s a great word - funktionslust - that means the pleasure taken doing something what one does best.  maybe we all can’t pronounce it, but we definitely know the feeling.

what’s interesting is that the word - the state of being - is necessarily personalized.  it doesn’t refer to being the best; it refers to doing something that one does best.  and everyone does something best.  not better than everyone else, mind you; simply better than everything else that person does.  it might be something as simple as peeling carrots.  using chopsticks.  throwing a football.  dancing to great music. what is it for you?

doing those things well reminds us that we are actually capable of doing things well.  and remembering that we can do things well inspires us to try other, riskier things.  becoming aware of our own joy in expressing our capabilities is an incredible motivator towards taking on additional risk.  this is an inspirational touchpoint, although now that i write it i realize that “The Things That Make Life Worth Living” expresses that concept in a far more authentic way.

these days, i hear a lot of people who say that their goal for life is to change the world.  that’s a really great, caring, and loving objective.  and when i hear people set out to change the world, what i really hear them saying is they want to create opportunities where they can be at their best.  sometimes we overlook that we can be at our best every day.  being at our best isn’t a goal to be achieved in the distant future.  it’s here right now, today.  it’s expressible through funktionslust.

so when we think about incentivizing ways to change the world - as friends, as coaches, as teammates, as employers, as parents - we should consider funktionslust.  how do we create opportunities where people can do things they are good at?  how do we create achievable goals within those spheres?  and how do we get people to practice the things they are good at and then capitalize on their inspirational effect to take on otherwise uncomfortable risks?

one final thought.  it would be unfair of me to dismiss financial incentives out of hand: very clearly, we rely heavily on money to purchase valuable goods, to create financial security, to sustain ourselves, etc.  but because money can’t sing, dance, play, or laugh, it can’t be an expression of our funktionslust; we can never achieve that same joy from a financial incentive in itself.  is there a way to recapture the joy?

i want to tell a quick story about a restaurant in india called the seva cafe, which i wrote about here.  the seva cafe runs as a part of the gift economy.  guests were made a promise: the meal would be served by friendly and engaging waiters, it’d be created and served with love, they could eat as much as they liked, and, best of all, the entire meal was free!  at the end of the meal, however, each guest was asked to think of someone like them entering the restaurant the next night and looking forward to the same type of experience - after all, everyone, all over the world, LOVES a free dinner.  in order to pass along this chain of free dinners, each guest was asked to pay it forward; to give a gift to someone who they’d never met.  no donation was expected or asked for: people were only asked to listen to their heart.   amazingly, the restaurant has been running stong, relying exclusively on the gift economy, for several years.

i love how the seva cafe demonstrates a way to reconnect money and joy.  each guest got to experience the profound and exciting pleasure of offering help where it’d be appreciated, instead of expected, to someone who they’d never get to meet.  and i love that this story teaches an important lesson: a good way to accept a free lunch is to say thank you; the best way is to treat a free lunch for someone else.

every day, someone in your city is doing something good.  maybe it’s holding open a door.  maybe it’s singing on the subway to enrich your ride home.  maybe it’s answering a question you’ve recently asked online.  or maybe it’s a free lunch.  if those are the type of experience that you want in your life consistently, then they are worth reinforcing.  next time you come across a good experience, consider how you could reinforce it positively.  or, consider how you could reinforce that behaviour by doing something for someone else. because the design of our city permeates the walls of our homes and our workplaces.  and because the most engaging livable societies are those that reinforce creatively, directly, and thankfully.

what are some good experiences you’ve come across in your city recently?  what are some creative ways that you’ve seen great behaviours reinforced?  what are some ideas about how we could consistently inspire positive feedback?