CNN iReport

Popular American author and marketing guru Seth Godin's latest book is called 'Tribes'. The tag line goes 'We need you to lead us'.

Seth says...

"Today everyone has an opportunity to start a movement - to bring together a tribe of like-minded people and do amazing things. And yet too many people ignore the opportunity to lead because they are 'sheep walking' their way through their lives and work, too afraid to question whether their compliance is doing them - or the world - any good.

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change.

A movement is thrilling. It's the work of many people, all connected, all seeking something better. The new highly leveraged tools of the Net make it easier than ever to create a movement, to make things happen, to get things done.

You can't have a tribe without a leader - and you can't be a leader without a tribe"

Well, I am really proud that I too belong to a tribe. The tribe is called "Chennai Trekking Club", the leader is one hyper cool dude who goes by the name Peter Van Geit and on Nov 1st 2009 we had a shared interest: "To Save Tada". The change we wanted to see was a beautiful Tada devoid of all plastic trash and smashed alcohol bottles. And WE DID MANAGE TO DO THAT AMAZING THING!!

A team of 230 members where quickly transformed into packs of garbage busting commando es armed with gloves and garbage bags, on the lookout for the terrorists - bloody plastics and bottles. And Man! Did we have a haul!!

Strewn all around, lying high and low, stuck inside the crevices and hard to reach places were innumerable water bottles, caps, plastic wrappers, whiskey, beer and gin bottles (not whole but smashed to pieces). The organizers had done a terrific job of demarcating the whole hill by the use of flags. The numbered flags showed each group where exactly their hunting ground lay. And once that became clear, each team quickly went in for the kill. Even the little kids played their parts by guarding our bags from our ancestors while we were busy scavenging the place. We were joined by the personnel from the forest department who gave a helping hand in bringing down the collected garbage.

We piled on enough garbage to fill a tractor to its capacity!

You could actually feel mother nature breathing freely after a successful respiratory track operation!

Of course I wouldn't stretch it too far by saying we knocked off all garbage from Tada. That is near impossible given the present attitude of people visiting the place. But we have made a start which is very important. It is now up to the forest officials (who were shame faced by what they found) to see to that this exploitation is stopped. The security guards too were taken to task. They were severely reprimanded by the senior official. The media were present and every single detail that Peter spelled out was noted. Hope this creates the needed awareness. (Actually I loved the feeling of watching the scribes interview Peter in the jungle. He was flanked by the forest officers. Shall upload the video on youtube and share the link).

And then it was time for some fun. We went up to the pool at the top and splashed around. Terrific swimmers like Gowri Shankar, Brijesh, Guru, Guna and of course Peter (and others whose name I don't know - sorry) came to the aid of non-swimmers like me. They turned into human ferries pulling people from one place to another! Gosh! I better learn swimming soon! And as always folks started climbing to great heights before plummeting down into the water with a loud splash.

And special thanks to N J Balaji who had organized 'yummy' food for all of us.

It was fun folks! Thank you all for organizing and leading us on this great cause. Looking forward to more such treks.

I would like to sign off with further wisdom form Seth Godin.

"It's a myth that change happens overnight. It doesn't. It's always a matter of accretion. Drip, drip, drip. Improvements happen a bit at a time, not as grand-slam home runs that are easy to get. Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time.

Long enough that the critics realize that you're going to get there one way or another..."

Cheers,
CTC Team

http://www.google.com/profiles/peter.vangeit