It was just few weeks back when Sangeeth shared the idea of Leadership Village with everyone in LeadCap Office. I imagining how this would look like, as I’m born and brought up in city of Mumbai; have rarely visited any village in Maharashtra.

I was part of National Social Service and NCC during my graduation days where I simply used to avoid going to such small and not so popular villages. I used to think “Arre yaar wahan jaake kay karenge?” (What will I do going there?), “Humare wahan jaane se unka kya bhala hoga. Hum apna kuch bhala kar na sake unko kya raasta dikhayenge?” (Nothing good will happen to them, even if we go. We haven’t done justice to our selves, how will we guide them?). These thoughts slowly started changing when I started working. In first job in Coca Cola India, I stayed in Sinnar Village in Nasik District of Maharashtra for about two months. That was the time I have seen a village community, how people are proud about their village, how much efforts they put in efforts to bring development in their place. Sinnar, the place known for its grapes and wines started becoming popular for using most advance technology in making wines.

But my greed made me to relocate and this time it was Bangalore the, IT hub of India. I worked with Hewlett Packard before joining LeadCap. During my tenure at HP, I used to go for outings on weekends. I visited places like Karwar, Dharwad, Hassan, Shimoga, Hubli, Dandeli etc. I also visited Waynad way back in 2004. It was a different place then. I’d seen some community riots due to political changes in India and almost for 3-4 days there was strikes happening. However when I was listening to Nibras this morning about the villages in Waynad; I was amazed. What a improvement! Through the pictures he shared with us; I am amazed by the way it has changed. I would also also like to salute to the students of Anne Frank Research who have taken hard steps to make their village a better place.

“Leadership Village” is a niche concept and it is first of its kind in the world. It was developed just few weeks back when one of our Leadcapper invited the students of Anne Frank Research center about internet best leaderships sessions (LeadLab). So what is this Leadership village all about:
1. It is a place where people are poised to make a change for betterment or larger cause.
2. It is a place where people are passionate abut leadership. They think leadership is decision.
3. It is a place where students receive active mentoring that will help them to discover latent skills.

It will be a “Leadership Democracy” where every individual will get equal chance to discover their true hidden potential. There is adundence of talent out here. There are people here who want to become fashion designers, air hostess, want to go abroad etc. and I’m sure everyone will be successful. They are really working hard to build this Leadership village. I’m very proud that the world will see this Leadership Democratic place in Wayanad District of Kerala.

Now its time for us to wake up and support them. One can contribute to LeadCap blog by writing about Leadership Village or if you have any ideas you can share with them and also in vacation do visit them. I personally will be sharing couple of project ideas with them when I’m there for inauguration on 30th May.

I’m eager to meet all leaders from Leadership Village.

Vidyadhar Prabhudesai