Vijay Sai Pratap MBA, 2000 – 2002, Prasanthi Nilayam. He is the co-founder and CEO of Gram Vaani (OnionDev Technologies Pvt Ltd), a social tech enterprise that builds innovative voice- based community media technologies for the underserved. He is an active part of the Catalyst team.
The professional journey
Brother Vijay Sai Pratap heads Gram Vaani (OnionDev Technologies Pvt Ltd), a social tech enterprise that builds innovative voice-based community media technologies for the underserved. Gram Vaani’s mission is to reverse the flow of information. It believes in developing and using appropriate technologies and people-driven processes to build participatory media networks that can empower communities. Working closely with rural and urban low- income communities and collaborating with over 150+ partners across the Social Development, Government and Commercial sectors, Gram Vaani has touched over 2.5 million individuals till date. The mobile Vaani platform allows the poorly literate to not just access and share life-impacting information, but also voice their opinions and ask questions to become better informed.
A telecom and technology for development professional for 17 years, Vijay Sai is a graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Madras and was blessed with an opportunity to pursue and complete his Master’s in Business Administration from the Prasanthi Nilayam campus, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning and he then further went on to complete his Masters in Business law from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore.
Vijay Sai, prior to embarking on his entrepreneurial journey, as the Director – Business Development, had built and was heading the Life Impacting Services (LIS) and Mobile Governance business unit as part of a listed global telecom services company. He led various award-winning projects for customers during this decade-long stint and had played key roles across functions, from account management, business development, regulatory liaison and support, project & delivery management to product ideation and conceptualization in the ICT for development space. After completing his MBA in 2002, he joined the Telecom equipment industry, starting his career in the sales function with a large Indian conglomerate where he served for about two years before moving into the Telecom services sector for a decade and eventually leading into the social entrepreneurship journey that he has been pursuing for the last five years now.
Brother Vijay Sai is an active member of the Catalyst Seva team.
Surrendering to the Divine Will: A key lesson learnt from Bhagawan
Brother Vijay Sai comes from a family that has been blessed with Bhagawan’s benign grace for over five decades, with many important events and beautiful experiences that have strengthened the bond of love. ‘Man proposes, God disposes’, a lesson that brother Vijay Sai says has been a fairly consistent and inevitable feature of his life plans and afterthoughts. Despite his attempts earlier, his eventual journey to the divine portals of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher learning was an equally unexpected, but the most important and life-changing milestone, that he believes significantly altered the direction of his life. While he does admit having only been able to fathom in hindsight the apparent deviations and reasons behind every life situation, event or dilemma, he believes, they emphasized the role of the Divine Will and Hand. It is in awe and with gratitude that Vijay Sai wishes to surrender to the Divine Mother’s love and prays for wisdom and humility to not necessarily understand, but surrender unconditionally to the Master’s Will.
Brother Vijay Sai mentions that he never really believed or felt supremely confident or deserving enough of all the privileges and blessings that came his way in life, nor did he have any exceptional academic or extracurricular achievements to lean on. But one thing he strongly believed and experienced has been the Divine Will, holding him through the difficult times and situations, giving him the strength to endure and persist despite challenges, eventually leading him to where he is today.
The broken pot
He speaks about a wonderful parable that he learnt while in Parthi – something that has stayed with him all along. A gardener carried two pots of water hanging from either end of a stick every day on his shoulder to groom a garden of beautiful flowers. One of the pots was hale and strong, while the second pot had a bruise that caused water to leak profusely from it all along the way that the gardener walked back from the pond to the garden. The bruised pot felt guilty and sad that because of its shortcomings efforts of the gardener was being wasted. But it was also surprising as to why the gardener still continued to use a broken pot to carry water. The pot cried out to the gardener and pleaded with him to forgive it and also enquired about why he would want to continue using a faulty pot when he could replace it easily. The gardener smiled and said that there was a reason why he continued to use the same pot despite all its flaws. The water that leaked from the broken pot helped nurture beautiful flowering plants that the gardener had planted all along the path that he carried the pots through. Each individual is bestowed with certain characteristics and capabilities. We seem to qualify ourselves as good or not so good, useful or otherwise, but in the eyes of the Creator, there is a reason for every individual’s existence, the role and responsibility defined for every person, small or big, in the broader scheme of life and His mission.
What is important to note is that we may not necessarily have the intelligence or vision to comprehend the Lord’s plans or capable enough to judge the situations we face, all we can do with love is to surrender to his will and have the faith he will take us through safely. Believe in yourself, surrender to the Divine Will, know that we are here for a reason, perform our duties diligently as ordained and that we will be duly called upon to play our role as part of the divine mission.
What keeps him going?
One of Vijay Sai brother’s favourite quotes is by Philosopher, Poet and author Ralph Waldo Emerson who says “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” Knowing one’s purpose in life is the ultimate goal and brother Vijay Sai’s career path has given him that opportunity to not just explore, learn and pursue his professional goals, but also introspect and align them to his life goals as well.
One of the most beautiful teachings of Bhagawan that he is inspired by has given him the strength and will to persist: “Integrity means Purity of intent, clarity of thought, Unity in thought word and deed”. His professional journey has put him through many such situations testing him on this front and he believes it is only Bhagawan’s grace that has helped him through with conviction and humility.
Memories
From the call he made to his parents informing them of his surprise selection for the MBA program, to the beautiful and blissful experience of the Summer Course in 2000, from the first steps into the boys hostel and “home” as he calls it, being welcomed with love by the senior brothers, to the brotherly love and fun filled days, rushing through the hectic afternoon activities to try and make it to the evening Darshan of our beloved Mother, from waiting eagerly to catch a glimpse of that orange robe to praying hard for an opportunity of Sambhashan and to hear His words of love, from tight deadlines to get through with the assignments and CIEs to being engrossed with their own version of the 20-20 called Mundu cricket, from the intense theatre programs to the grandeur of the Sports Meet event, from the emotional Dil Chahata Hai video making journey to the umpteen fun filled birthday celebrations, from munching chips and samosa in the hostel quadrangle to the unforgettable groundnut chutney and fruit salad from our hostel kitchen, from the service oriented self-reliance teams to the divine reverberations of Vedam chanting, from the hostel bell to the night prayers, every moment spent in this abode of love is etched forever in the memory of every student who has been blessed with an opportunity to stay in its lap.
