DEHRADUN: “What’s your life lesson?” Deepak Ramola from Uttarakhand asked Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on a recently aired episode of TED Talks India Nayi Soch. And as Ramola, a life skills educator and writer from Dehradun, looked intently, Khan in his quintessential style gave a candid answer: “I spend two hours with myself everyday…and so should everyone for no one is better than you are.”
Ramola is the founder of Project FUEL (Forward the Understanding of Every Life-lesson), an initiative that passes on life lessons collected from the people to others in need of inspiration. Khan hosts the limited edition show that brings together stories of inspiring Indian innovators.
As Ramola wraps up his presentation, Khan is shocked to know that the Project FUEL founder is just 25 years old. It’s then when Ramola asks, “Please tell us what have you learnt from your life.” Khan is quick to respond. “I have two life lessons: Treat people how you want yourself to be treated by them. And, make sure to spend time with your own self…even when you undergo failure, for no one is better than you are.”
“It’s powerful because when SRK answers that question, a lot of people who follow him try to reflect what their life lessons can be. But I was more thrilled because it (the answer) was so simple yet important - that we’re so busy with life that we don’t take time to pause. If SRK can take out two hours every day, we, too, can try to do that,” Ramola tells Hindustan Times, recollecting his experience of the talk show.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s powerful because when SRK answers that question, a lot of people who follow him try to reflect what their life lessons can be. But I was more thrilled because it (the answer) was so simple yet important - that we’re so busy with life that we don’t take time to pause. If SRK can take out two hours every day, we, too, can try to do that,” Ramola tells Hindustan Times, recollecting his experience of the talk show.
{{/usCountry}}Inspired by his mother who couldn’t study beyond Class 5, Ramola started the initiative that has taken him across India as well as to countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Sweden, Germany, France, The Netherlands and Hungary for gathering life lessons. He has worked with Syrians during a 90-day tour to the refugee camps in Europe last year.
Besides showing glimpses of his endeavour on the show, Ramola also spoke about the ‘Wise Wall Project’ under which he along with his team painted walls of abandoned rural homes at Tehri district’s Saur, one of the 1,000-plus ‘ghost villages’ in the Uttarakhand mountains that have turned fully/almost uninhabited due to mass migration.
Having gathered life learnings from all around, Ramola feels everyone has something to teach. “There are 7 billion people in this world, which means there are 7 billion mistakes you can learn from. You can actually learn from every walking human being, irrespective of their age,” says the youth who has written lyrics for films like ‘Manjhi-The Mountain Man’, ‘Wazir’ and ‘Monsoon Shootout’.
“Every human being is a walking book and you can start (learning about their understanding of life) now and here with a simple hello and with the question ‘What’s your life lesson?’”