Neha Anand: Cultural Legacy
Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people.
—Peter Strople
It was just after the crack of dawn in Calcutta, India and Neha Anand has just stepped out of her tiny apartment to get to work. Her call center supervisor has assigned her the early morning shift this week. She didn’t mind. She enjoyed doing customer service work and in helping others understand and appreciate technology. In her job, she gets to answer and respond to customer requests from all over the world, mostly from America.
Yesterday was such a busy day, she resolved almost ten customer problems each hour. She prides herself for being consistently polite, dependable, and efficient.
The only setback in her work was her pay. Despite working so hard and doing frequent overtime work, she could hardly make ends meet. For a few years now, she had been living close to a hand-to-mouth existence. Much like several nations across the world, the cost of living had gone up while salaries have remained at the same level.
She took a deep breath to calm her mind. She proceeded to walk briskly toward the already bustling streets of Calcutta.
She glanced at the vendors already setting up their stalls to sell products for the day. For some, it was bread. For others, it was specialty food like phuchka. And for others, services such as haircuts. She always had a high regard for entrepreneurs. Their work ethic, courage to face risk and uncertainty, bootstrapping and creative flair to generate any form of profit intrigued her.
As a young girl, she dreamt of being an entrepreneur. She wanted to have her own small business, create jobs in Calcutta, and perhaps help transform the lives of many. “How did this dream end?” she wondered, “Could I possibly still start a business at some point in my life?”
She continued walking toward her office. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a teenage girl painting a beautiful graffiti art on the wall. “What a wonderful image,” she thought “What a captivating cultural representation of India!”
She decided to talk to the girl. She was very impressed by her art, but more so her courage. While laws on vandalism were hardly enforced, she still could get into trouble. She was touched by the fact that the beautiful artwork added beauty to the street. Seeing such art would brighten the day of many pedestrians.
She stood close to the girl and said, “You make such beautiful art! What’s your name?”
The girl was somewhat startled, but relaxed when she saw Neha. “Thank you... I’m Shanaya.”
Neha was curious, “What made you decide to do such painting on the wall?”
Shanaya replied softly, “I don’t have a canvas and I found some extra paint from my neighbor’s shop.”
The A-ha Moment
Her response hit Neha like a ton of bricks. She was speechless. She felt a rage build inside of her. “How can we waste so much talent around the world because of poverty?” She thought “How can countries miss on a golden opportunity to showcase their art and culture? Something needs to get done. I need to help.”
Neha took a photo of the graffiti and got Shanaya’s home address. They agreed to meet and discuss an art project.
While at work, Neha couldn’t get Shanaya of her mind. “How many Shanayas are out there in the world? So many talented artists didn’t have a proper venue for their craft.”
Back home that night, she decided to do something about it. She realized that in life we could either watch things happen or make things happen. She had merely watched things all of her life. She went through the motions and all the hustle and bustle. Now she wanted to lead something. This was the time and moment to do something significant and pursue her entrepreneurial dream.
Neha started typing up a business plan for a web platform called Efitti or e-graffiti. The idea was to create a giant virtual wall in a website where artists can either upload a picture of their art or simply express themselves by freely painting their own graffiti. Any artist or art enthusiast from around the world can participate. In fact, everyone can participate. One can scribble in an “I love you” text and refer the wall coordinates (line and row number) to a loved one. Why not democratize art and allow everyone an opportunity to express themselves virtually!
The Disruption
Efitti will be like Facebook, but with a personal, artistic touch. It will be a subscription service. It will be free for most users, but professionals who need more space to display their craft would pay a rent for wall usage. There would also be space for advertisements. In order for this socially driven enterprise to be sustainable, there had to be an income stream.
The business plan was a mere start. In the coming months, Neha rallied a few friends to help her kickoff E-fitti. She set up a formal company to pursue this dream. Shanaya became her poster child, with much of her amazing art prominently displayed as an example for others.
The number of users has reached millions in just a few months.
Neha prides herself the most not just for the venture’s success, but her ability to showcase Indian art and culture to the world. She is very pleased by the participation of art enthusiasts from many other countries. In her own small way, she managed to start a cultural revolution.
Legacy Lesson 6: Cultural transformation is a tool for rapid change with the convergence of technology and globalization.
Art courtesy of Allison Brannon