{"id":684,"date":"2018-04-23T12:54:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T12:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-indian-development-sector\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:18:53","slug":"once-upon-a-time-in-the-indian-development-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-indian-development-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Once upon a time in the Indian development sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

1) After a heart attack during his last fundraising disappointment, a nonprofit leader found himself at the pearly gates.<\/h3>

“So why should we let you in?” asked St. Peter looking up from his iPad.<\/em><\/p>

“Well I’ve spent over 25 years running an organisation that’s helped thousands of people,” the nonprofit leader replied. “We have also helped create path-breaking policy reform that affected millions more.”<\/p>

“Haan haan, but look here, it says here that your overhead was above 10 percent. Also, there are no crying or malnourished children on your nonprofit material, so how do I know if any of your impact is even true?” <\/em><\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

“What?? But you just let in that hacker who admitted to stealing.”<\/p>

“Ahh, we need him to fix the WiFi.”<\/em><\/p>

—<\/p>

2) After three failed startups, a young millennial decided his talents are better used to disrupt the development sector. To seek advice on how, he trekked many miles into the Himalayas to ask a renowned sage.<\/h3>

“Oh baba! I want to improve the lives of India’s children,” he cried, falling at the sage’s feet.<\/p>

“Hmmmm,” replied the sage with much wisdom.”Well, do you have any relevant skills or experiences?”<\/em><\/p>

\"donate<\/a><\/div>

“Ummm…”<\/p>

“Do you have commitment and a single-minded focus?”<\/em><\/p>

“… sorry what?” asked the millennial, distracted by a cat GIF<\/a> on his phone.<\/p>

“Have you ever spent time with any children?”<\/em><\/p>

“Uhhh,” he stalled, shuffling his feet in embarrassment.<\/p>

“Hmmmm, well then there is only one thing to do,” proclaimed the sage.”Go forth and become a consultant!”<\/em><\/p>

\"indian<\/p>

—<\/h3>

3) Raj and Patrick, two nonprofit founders were catching up in the buffet line of the latest conference on innovation and scale.<\/h3>

“How’s the Manchow soup?” asked Raj.<\/em><\/p>

“Meh” reply-grunted Patrick as he tried to balance an extra papad on the raita bowl.<\/p>

“You know, last week at the conference there was a rumour that Bill Gates might turn up. But it was just a recorded message.” <\/em><\/p>

“Oh no, a picture with Bill would have been great,” said Patrick, finally looking up from between the two gulab jamuns.<\/p>

“Oh I took one with a cutout they had in the lobby. My intern<\/a> is great with Photoshop. There was a huge line for the photo though, missed all the soup by the time I got it,” said Raj wistfully.<\/em><\/p>

—<\/p>

4) Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Priyanka Chopra walked into a vegan restaurant together.<\/h3>

“Why the long face Ram Mohan?” Priyanka asked as they sipped their bio-fresh chia seed infused waters.<\/em><\/p>

“Times are tough,” replied Raja Ram Mohan ruefully. “This whole Padmavat<\/em> movie has been a real dampener for our campaign. People are avoiding us out of fear of the Karni Sena.”<\/p>

“Bummer. If you’d like, I can ask Pitbull to do an appearance at your next fundraiser.” <\/em><\/p>

“Naah, I think we’ll be okay from next week,” replied Ram.<\/p>

“How can you be so sure?”<\/em><\/p>

“Our Satyameva Jayate<\/em> episode is about to air. It’s a good one, Aamir cries at the end. It even has a sad song by Arijit.”<\/p>

—<\/p>

This piece was inspired by an article written by Krishna Shastri Devulapalli on Scroll<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"donate<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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