I got shot…and it’s all for good 🙂

A few weeks back when I was at the NH7 Weekender festival, I saw what I think is a great chance to bring together music and the art of giving. And so this little film.

Rang De is a not-for-profit low-cost micro-lending organisation that provides small loans to low income individuals and families to help them on their way to sustainable livelihood and a dignified life. They do this through investments crowd-sourced from people like you and I. I will stress that these are not donations, they are investments and they can be as low as INR 100 which is about USD 1.50 or under a British Pound. The investment is repaid over a set period with a small interest that you can, if you’re willing to, forgo and contribute to Rang De to help run their operations. You can choose to re-invest the repaid amount or withdraw it (for regulatory reasons the withdrawal as of now can be done only to a bank account in India – hopefully that’ll change). The efforts of Rang De at reducing poverty have been much lauded as has their transparency of operation.

I’ve been associated with Rang De for 5 years since 2008, the same year it started operations. And the incredibly gifted musician Raghu Dixit is a Rang De ambassador. Raghu’s music has found a huge following not only in India but in the U.K. and the States among other countries. I thought of this blog as a link to the two and of this way to get more people involved with Rang De while exposing them to Raghu and his band’s lovely new album ‘Jag Changa’ (which means the world is good). As a contributor – if you choose to be one – to this campaign you could win one of 50 CDS (brilliantly packaged with the excellent design and artwork of Manek D’Silva, who incidentally did the artwork for this blog too) or digital downloads of ‘Jag Changa’.

This is something that’s very close to my heart and I’m glad to be ending this year on such a high note. I’d love to have you join me in this effort to make the world a little better, to bring the colours and music of joy to people who desperately need it, to make their ‘Jag Changa’. Please drop in on the campaign page at http://campaigns.rangde.org/jagchanga/ and the FAQs for details.

Wish you all a 2014 filled with Joy, Good Health and Prosperity!