Meeting Dr. Ramanjaneyulu, Founder of CSA-India

We knew we are on a mission and unto something great. If you think about it, SOIL exists to tell the stories of amazing human beings and their impact on humanity. Could you imagine getting to see, experience all these stories through the lens of SOIL, we could not have asked for a better school. This is the seed in our head, as much trivial our work would be compared to the people running these amazing non-profits, doing a great deal of work on the ground, but for us as filmmakers, we still can and will walk away transformed and schooled by the human kindness of these selfless human beings. Selfishly, we have found one of a kind and a better school for us. Everything I said above, was assured and validated when I met Dr. Ramanjaneyulu on the morning of Feb 18, at San Jose Airport. I had gone to pick him up, so I could drive him to the video interview from SOIL and then the AIDS presentation that he gave later that evening. From the time we shook hands at airport to the time we finished the interview, there is one thing that will stand clear again and again - his humility. He is an established Agriculture Scientist, Philanthropist and a leader, who is now a voice of the farmers, he shakes all that off with his humility. He comes across as that teacher who we all admired in our school days, he who wants you to succeed not just in the exams but in life, he who really cares and commits to his job. I was amazed not just by his knowledge on Agriculture but his vision, a wholistic one on how to move forward. We sat down to interview him, and I can't believe we did that for almost 2 hours. This was not the plan. It was supposed to be much shorter, but his answers and stories drew me in and kept me curious to learn more. Hope you will get to see some of this soon from SOIL. I would like to share few thoughts from my experience interacting with him. While we were driving to Stanford University, where we had planned to film him, I started sharing about SOIL with him and why we are doing this. He thought this was a brilliant idea and he really grabbed to the fact that skilled volunteers, in our case, filmmakers will come forward to tell stories. I felt good to get some validation from an experienced philanthropist. But the key thing, which he conveyed in the feedback and hopefully we will strive to get there sometime soon. He told me that a lot of people come to him, at the age of 35 plus and sometimes, even NRIs returning to India, to say “I wish to help now and I want to do organic farming, can you advise me?”. Dr.Ramajaneyulu says “ Ofcourse I can help you and gives them the best of what he can offer”. But he shared with me, if you think about it, at that age, do you have the energy and appetite to learn something new, the field of Agriculture is as complex as Technology, so the root of this is why do people come to realizations so late in the game, especially mid life. We started discussing this topic with enthusiasm. He highlighted that the focus really should be on the school students, especially from 8 standard onwards and give students the taste of all fields, allow them to experiment and teach them to make a decision based on their passion and interest. Mainly, allow them to fail and learn. Most often, students in India, all end up doing something which allows them to survive, compete with social metrics that we tend to lose sight of what really excites one and then all of a sudden, in mid life we realize their job is not something that excites them. Dr. Ramanjaneyulu said “ Do what excites you and life will never be boring and you will never feel old”. I was thrilled to hear these words. He told us that SOIL could focus on films that can educate and sort of guide the schools kids, give them direction, make them aware of various profession and career options, so they walk in knowing their interest and needs, to the best of their knowledge. We agreed on this and hopefully SOIL will be some service on this goal and/or partner with non-profits that have this mission. To me, meeting Dr. Ramanjaneyulu was an eye opener. To solve any major problem, you need a good team of leaders and experts coming together. When we see what CSA and Dr. Ramanjaneyulu is doing, is that they are looking at the wholistic picture of why farmers are failing, why are they committing suicide, what is the root cause, what circumstances and ecosystem causes this situation, what solutions that we can build collaborating with farmers, governments and other stakeholders and how do we sustain this. On numerous, front it just seems like his team has done the research, they know what they are doing and if any force wants to join them, you will not be disappointed and will have the right guidance to help in this space. We are glad that we got an opportunity to meet him, speak to him and learn from him. It is important for any of us, when we feel passionate about giving back or a problem in our society, its important that you get a neutral, unbiased expertise to understand the subject, so you align yourself to give your best. Dr. Ramanjaneyulu inspires me in that sense and I look up to him, for having chosen the field of agriculture and becoming a leader, driving force for organic farming and sustained agriculture for the prosperity of farmers and consumers alike.