Rebel at Grameen

Bangladesh kept me on toes… If I say Grameen or workload kept me on toes, it would be a false statement. But, ‘Bangladesh kept me on toes’ is surely a right phrase! If I am supposed to compare my work output and the amount of time I am putting in, it might be one of the worst ratios ever. Actually, there is not much work that I can do anyway. Most of my internship is about learning through observation. Anyhow, I never realize how I end up spending most of my time in work related activities! In the remaining time, I try to squeeze in some for reading and some for television!

So, what have I been doing actually? I have been observing the functioning of Grameen Bank, visiting field offices, branch offices, interacting with borrowers, members, and field staff, so on and so forth. I also visited other Grameen organizations such as Grameen Shakti, Grameen Danone, Grameen Trust, Grameen Kalyan, etc. Grameen is like this gigantic structure which holds more than 30 organizations/social businesses/operations in its embrace.

Today was my last day at Grameen! Tomorrow I’ll be flying for Birmingham for the Rotary Peace Symposium. To conclude the internship, all the interns are expected to write a report about their experience with Grameen and submit the same. What happens of that report? I found hundreds of old reports in a cupboard, stacked over each other, full of dust! Most of the reports spoke the same things, the visit to Grameen, and experiences of interviews. A few were actual replication of past reports. I was unsure if I wanted to join the bandwagon by writing a report that will be stacked and never looked at. So, I chose a radical way. Instead of praising Grameen and writing a redundant report, I chose to highlight the concerns about the internship program. Keep my report as short as possible so that it would be worth reading and would help the concerned make any changes if possible. I did not wish to claim that I knew everything and that what all was happening was wrong. My only idea was to highlight some crucial factors that kept surfacing in my discussions with other interns. And so, started the report!

I turned in my report yesterday and had a meeting with the GM of the international programs department. She was rather happy that I had written a report which would help Grameen with the internship program. The report was accompanied with a basket of mangoes for all the staff, thanking them for all their help. Everything seemed well, but only till this morning! Today morning, when I went to Grameen to express my final words of gratitude and receive my internship certificate, the picture was different. My coordinator did not have his usual smile, nor there was much chatter. With a blank face, my coordinator asked me to wait cos the DGM wanted to have a meeting with me. I was already in pain due to a splitting headache… And to top it, this confusion. Or, was I already expecting this, and my headache was a signal?

The DGM came and asked me what I had done during my period at Grameen and none of it was shown in my report. I told her that in first few paragraphs I had specified why I have not written about them. Then I had a meeting with my coordinator and another coordinator. As I came to know, it was being taken as a negative feedback bout my coordinator, which in reality was not the case. Rather I had thanked my coordinator in the report for all of his support. Anyway, to cut the long story short, I realized that either my communication skills sucked or else there was a huge communication gap cum misunderstanding… My report has been taken as if I do not appreciate Grameen neither do I appreciate its work, nor do I understand Prof. Yunus. For those who all know me, know that this is not true… And now, I have to put it in a way that it will be understood by the Grameen people…

Friends, often than not, we choose to keep silent about the concerns we might have in regard of the things we love. The same silence at time is mistaken as an approval of what is happening. And when someone chooses to speak the unspoken, it leads to misunderstandings… This is not my first experience with it… It is evident from the title “Rebel” awarded to me by Susan!