February 20, 2026 • 27 mins
Darriel Roy interviews the founder of Shanti Bhavan, Dr Abraham George. Shanti Bhavan was featured on the Netflix documentary, Daughters of Destiny.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for watching. This
shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands that
help you to live your best life and give you confidence.
As always, I want to keep out your morning with
some motivational advice to help you to feel inspired and
energize to start your day today, I want to talk
about the importance of focusing on solutions rather than problems.
(00:22):
The reality is, when we are faced with obstacles or dilemma,
the easiest thing to do is to be overwhelmed by
focusing on the problem and all the things that can
go wrong. But when we reframe our focus and instead
focus our attention on problem solving, we program our minds
to dwell in possibility rather than doubt. Just like everyone else,
(00:43):
successful people face the same obstacles and challenges that we do,
but instead of drowning in doubt, they come up with
quick solutions to remedy the problem, rather than dwell and
why it didn't work out. After all, it takes the
same amount of energy to stress then it takes to
figure out a solution to your problem. Making your mission
today to start focusing on solutions when you're facewood challenges
(01:04):
and see how fast the situation can change from negative
to positive. As Albert Einstein so famously quoted, we cannot
solve our problems with the same thinking we use when
we created them. Next up on the show, we have philanthropists,
businessman and founder of the Shanti Baden Organization, Doctor Abraham George.
Doctor Abraham, thank you so much for being on the
show today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'm fine, Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Well, thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We have so much to talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But before we get into your amazing work with the
Shanti Baden Organization, let's take it back to the beginning.
I know that you started your career in the Indian Army,
so tell us about that time and how it shaped
you into who you are today.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That was almost in my last life, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh well, now, I I was trained in an ELI
school in India for military offices training like the West
Point in the United States, and I was commissioned as
an officer at the age of eighteen and sent to
the emailayers. I was by the Chinese border for a
(02:13):
year and I met with an accident dynamite last and
badly in and then I went on to serve for
a couple of more years in the Pakistan border. But
that was the time when I was trying to get
out of the military and come to America for treatment
(02:36):
and things like that, and that was my beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Wow, well quite a story there. And I know that
you moved to the States and you got your MBA
and your PhD, which is very impressive. So tell us
how your academics kind of you know, meet you the
entrepreneur you are today.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, when I came to America, I didn't know much
of it. The thing academically, I fortunately got admission to
n y U and I did a couple of masters
and the doctoral program. My field was international finance and
(03:18):
I worked for JP Morgan for for nearly three years.
And during that time I had some ideas, partly from
my doctoral work and partly from my work in the
in the bank uh.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And that was the time when computers we didn't have PCs.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
At that time, we were using dumb terminals and we
didn't you know, model for connecting through telephone lines.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
But I wanted to see you if we could work on.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Applications using that terminal, the dumb terminal and more waiting
companies to solve their financial problems.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Using the computers. It was a little ahead of time, but.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I decided to leave the bank and work on it,
and from the basement of my apartment and with a
group of you know, very bright people used to work
for for Bell laps in at and t all night.
Actually they had other work during day. And after a
(04:31):
couple of years an application software application was introduced into
the market, and.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Then the challenge was to get corporate offices in.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
The finance department to leave their pencils and paper and
work through the computers. They would tell me things like, well,
you're doing okay. The back of an envelope, you know,
said you can do better. And it took ten years
(05:04):
of hard.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Work to really make some money.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And at the end of that ten year period, luckily
the pieces came along something I didn't expect, and that
changed the whole scenario. Corporations didn't have to spend the
money on timeshare networks. They could buy a PC and
our software was more expensive than the PC. And so
(05:33):
the next ten years we grew, but I spent twenty
five years before I made some good money.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That's the entrepreneur journey, right of the crime. The hustle
a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You should start from the basement of the garage.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean, that's how all the great stories started,
right from the patient garage and they made millions. And
fast forward, let's talk about the Shanti Aboven organization. What
inspired you to create it? By the way, I watched
the documentary yesterday and I was I was so touched
by all of the work you're doing. So congratulations on
all the amazing work.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Thank you, thank you. Well this for you answer that question,
I have to go back a little bit to Miami days.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I was at fourteen thousand feet above sea level minus
degrees and shortage of oxygen. We'll be very close to
the Chinese border. So there was always a danger India
of war with China before that, and so sitting on
top of mountains and looking down and seeing the clouds
go by, you know, for ten eleven months, you start
(06:43):
thinking what are you doing? And I happened to read
a couple of books which are very important, you know,
for the transition I had made.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
One by Vetran Russell, he wrote.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
The History of Western posophy, and the other by Albert Twitz,
who woned a weel price. He went in a canoe
all the way to Central Africa and started a started
a clinic for the tribals and and lived with their animals.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Well, uh, a veteran.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Russell's book, there's a line in there which says, there's
nothing right, nothing right about war.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It is about who is left. That caught me. What
what am I doing here? Am I getting myself trained
to kill people and spend the rest of my life?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So that was that was something that you know, I
was impacted by. The other was, of course Albert Twitz.
I found this work extremely exciting, somewhat romantic.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Being alone out there, and and I wanted a life
something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So I when I was grown up, in the dynamite
blast that I escaped by a fraction of a second,
I was injured, but I didn't die. Obviously, I then
realized there must be a reason why I was had escaped.
And so with all the thinking and all the reading
(08:22):
and everything else, I made my mind that sometime in
my life, someday, one day in my life, I will.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Go on to serve people who are deprived.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had seen poverty in India, traveling, you know, all
over India, and also during the nineteen fifties and sixties.
You know, there was a lot of discrimination based on
cast and I was at bolved by that and I
wanted to contribute to changing that scenario. So those were
(08:56):
my motivations, and that led to my formulating some plans
when I make money. And it took me some time
to next twenty five years to make some money after
I started my own company. But it was all for,
you know, a different end. Making money was for ultimately
(09:21):
doing social work, and it took longer than I thought.
I thought I'd make money very quickly, but it didn't happen.
We always think, you know, those who start businesses. But
I sold my business at the end of twenty five
years to a fortune find company called Sunkard.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I worked for them for two years, but they wanted me.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
To stay back for a while to make the transition
sporoth and then sold everything I got.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I had consulting jobs, one with the Royal Bank of Canada.
I used to come.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Every month to Canada. I love being there in Toronto
and Montreal and all that. But anyway, I got rid
of all my concept consilting assignments and my computer software
company and managing directorate credit twice. I assigned from this
(10:21):
so everything almost called jerky. I came to to a
remote village in South India. That's where I started my
social work.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Very nice and Netflix actually did a documentary on Shanty
Bovin and the Daughters of Destiny. So tell us about
that documentary because it showcases a lot of your work
that you do.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Your showcases the four girls who who grew up there.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Netflix somehow discovered us and assigned the.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Award winning a producer arass and she said that camera
crew there for for a while and Netflix end and
they were there with us for almost six seven years
filming the children. They're growing up every year. They wanted
(11:20):
to see the transition from you know, small little girls
to the more mature girls. And so the filming was
pretty much not stage. Whatever they wanted to say, they
were allowed to say. I I could say anything until
the last day, the day before the film was released.
(11:44):
So then we found these kids, you know, talking about
their hopes and aspirations.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And so on.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, it was very touching. I love how rod is
You know that the documentary wasn't It showed India for
what it was. It showed the children how they were
being really authentic and I really enjoyed the documentary. So
and again, congratulations on all the amazing work and changing
these these girls' lives and all the kids' lives in general,
because as you said, there is a cast system in
(12:14):
India that obviously you know needs to change, but it
is that's the reality, right right right.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
It has changed a little bit, but not much.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, India has become somewhat prosperous, but that prosperity is
mostly the top ten percent, which is top ten percent
is nearly one hundred, one hundred and fifty million people
pretty good, they are doing well, and then another three
hundred million who are doing somewhat good.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
But there is the other billion people. How are they doing?
And that's the story that I wanted to tell.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
And you also establish the Baldav Medical Center that provides
healthcare or fifteen cities in India, so tell us about
that as well.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Well. I did a number of things.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I went with the idea of, you know, working the
area of poverty alleviation and social justice. But when you
start doing you know, social work in India in my case,
twenty years of absence too, and you see a lot
of things. And one of the things I noticed was
that the people in the villages, they were really poor.
(13:30):
Most were living below one dollar a day in income
for a family today four five dollars, I would say,
it's still.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
There, very poor. And they were not employed regularly. They
had seasonal labor.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So I did a farm for two hundred acres to
employ all those women. Then I found that they were
not keeping goodell. They never go to the doctor and
so on.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So we built a hospital for them hospital. And then
I suddenly felt that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
The reason for poverty in India is bad governance and corruption,
and you know, I need to get into the field.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Of investigative journalism, and so I started graduate school for
journalists and there I ran into the problem.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I was falling sick from pollution, uh and I discovered
that lead was still being used in you know, the
gas lid, and all the vehicles were polluting the whole city.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So I came back to the States and met.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
With CDC World Bank, who UCPA everybody, and they trained
me and sent me with the butt of equipment to
test the children all over India to be.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Tested in seven cities, twenty three thousand children.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
There's the largest lead poisoning study that was ever done anywhere,
and at the end of which we held a conference
of twenty five countries.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Developing countries came.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Over because the mission was to introduce prevention and treatment
for lead poisoning. And then had a big impact because
in India the oil companies. Three oil companies sent their
directors and directors over there and they announced that within
(15:33):
eighteen months they will introduce under than gasoline. Obviously I
didn't do anything with the gasoline, but I think what
we did motivated them to do this quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Impacks some five hundred million people today living without letting
the gas lite. So I did a number of things,
but my love is for the school where the children
are who I get at the age of four. They
they they they are taken in at their at four,
(16:12):
because I felt that it's not I cannot change their
personalities or their habits and all that if I take
them later.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So I.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Accept only at the age of four, and the parents
have to literally handle the children to me. They stay
with me for ten months in a year, two months
they go home and and they're they're with me for.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Fourteen years and then another three four years in college.
We send them to good colleges.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
They stay in some most hospital, but again we cover
the expenses for them, and a number of them are
in Ivy.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
League schools today. This kind of transformation has.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Never happened in India, where children from one room hut
with no toilet or facilities or you know cooking, you
know kitchen, they go on to join Harvard and Mighty
and Stanford, you know, dot bud and so on. And
(17:26):
this year, for your information, one of our kids received
admission to University of Toronto.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
He's waiting for scholarship, but he hasn't got it yet,
so hopefully gets.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It and then we'll have one in Canada.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Very nice. I love that you're giving these children an
opportunity that they would never have because, you know, especially
with the cast system and just systematic poverty being stuck
in it, it's really hard for them to get out.
So if it wasn't for the school, they wouldn't have
that opportunity to go to Harvard, you have tier any school.
So I love that you're giving a chance to these
kids because I think it's much needed.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That's true, that's true. It's all about opportunity. People used
to believe that children from this kind of background don't
have the capacity to do well in life. They don't
have role models, they do something that their intellect is
not all that good. And I argued right from the
beginning because of bringing here in America. I said, no,
(18:33):
if you bring them up well and if you you know,
excellent education, they will do just as.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Well as children for our fluent families.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
People didn't believe it, and I can convince many people
because every time I went to somebody to talk about,
you know, helping a join you know, donations or something
like that, they would say, how long would it take
to I see some results next year?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I said, no, you had to wait. What do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What it?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Eighteen years? Isn't get out of my office.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, it's a long process of transformation right right right now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Every year the children are going out, you know, they
have reached that upper level. But you know, we star
and we started there were four years away.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And as well as being a philanthropist, we're also a
best selling author. You have a book, Mountains to Cross,
So tell us about the book and the importance of
giving back for you, because I know that this book
is all about being of service to the world.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Well, I wrote my story in autobiographical sense from childhood.
So because people ask me what prompted you to get
into this, what motivated you? I needed to explain that
a little bit, but mostly about my work in India,
not really the school, but all the other things. My
(19:54):
goal was that one there's several goals, but two or
three was to explain to others who really want to
be a service to others, especially in poverty, eradication and
issues like that anywhere in the world, what are the
kind of challenges that you're going to face, how do
you overcome them, and how do you win over the
(20:17):
poor because unless they believe that you are.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Doing something for them, their response is not very good.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Today, the children joined the school because the families think
this is their golden pass.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
So that's very important, and I want to tell the
world what my experience was.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The second important reason and how to do it and
sort The second important reason is a lot of people
who have made tons of money or good money, or
even those who haven't made that much money.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And they find they're not that happy, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
In fact, I read a is a couple of days
ago Musk saying that I have all this money, but
I'm not a I'm not a happy man.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, well that's interesting. So somebody wrote to him. I
wrote to this social media and they're wanting you all
the way. So I'm not sure that is his plan.
But well, you know, I have heard people tell me
that they want to find a purpose in their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And I would argue that you'll find happiness and purpose
if you do good for other people, if you look
for yourself, and if you think that making more money
is your purpose, then of course you would have spent all.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Your life doing that. So I.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Show them what I have gained. I'm one of the
happiest people on this planet, and and what these children
have given me the joy. You know that their success
brings to me and many other poor people who were
benefited by my action. You know, I sometimes, you know,
(22:16):
tell people, when I drive to back to the city,
I have stopped at the you know, I stop at
the red light, and then.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Suddenly a woman comes over.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
She's really really poor with a baby on her hips,
and I can see she hasn't eaten anything. And then
I give some money, which I come prepared for that.
You know, somebody who's going to come to the window
and just see her face, the smile on her face,
or the happiness on her face that she got some
good money.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And you can't buy that.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You don't do these things for something in return. And
the joy you're helping people is.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
A purpose transforming their lives absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You know, I think most people think that when they
get that car, when they get that job, when they
get that two million, three million, ten million, twenty million,
that they're going to be happy. And once you receive it,
you actually realize that that that happiness is very short
term because then you want more, right and it's give
track to others, and we we're of service and we
(23:26):
see an impact that we have purpose because purpose is
different from just you know, monetary stuff. At the end
of the day, we're not bringing it with us, right,
it's right with others. So I love that you said that,
and you know you're going to be remembered for all
of the impact you've had, all the people's lives you've touched.
And I think that's a really great message for anyone watching,
is to give back because when you do that, you
(23:47):
actually make money. You make more money by helping others.
Then you just than just living for yourself.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
So I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Do you get to happiness in a different way, you know,
I today I think much about any hardship or anything
like that. That's not really I don't live in hardship.
In fact, I would tell the listeners, especially the young listeners,
I would say, make money first.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Money is very important. If you have the money, you
can do wonderful things with it.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's not about making money alone. It is also about
giving back. And but for those who have ate a
lot of money, think of what's the best way to
impact others, and that is through humanity work.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
In my case, I thought education is the best way
to make the biggest change.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Someone else may say, well, you know, maybe through some
medical help. You have to find your own calling and
you will find peace and happiness and joy in what
you do.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
And I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I created my platform to inspire, to uplift and really
to showcase that anything is possible if you have a
dream and determination.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
So would you say to anyone watching this is that
you know it might be going through a difficult time
in their lives.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes, yes, there's so many incidents you know I've written
about in the book In fact, it's a collection of
stories in some ways, all the experiences I've had, every
chapter is full of stories.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Each story tells you something. And it's not easy road
in some ways if you are physically there. If you
are not physically there and you're writing and check, it's
a different matter. And you come occasionally and see, you know,
you put good people finding good people as difficult, you know,
But in my case, I made the decision to be
among the poor. So I live in this remote village,
(25:54):
one of the worst in South India. And but you know,
it is different experience. But there are challenges, there are setbacks,
there are threads, There are all kinds of things, because
when you are trying to help the poorest, the richest
don't necessarily happy about their children are not getting educated
(26:17):
like the poor children.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
So and there therefore there is anger towards you. So
you have to deal with some of those things. But
we overcome all those things. Today we don't have those
kinds of problems.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, and Doctor Abraham, for those of our viewers that
want to get involved with johnsy Bobbin or purchase your
book Mountains Across where can we do so?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Well? But you see my book is the easiest.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right you just get out of Amazon or one of
those you will find the book Mountains Across or Abraham George.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Finding me is also just as easy. If you're an American.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You have two presidents by my name, Abraham Lincoln Washington.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Very true, very true, so you combine them. I'm at
Google that you'll find many, many sites.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Very nice. We're going to link at information below. But
doctor Abraham, thank you so much for being on the
show today. Again, congratulations on all your amazing work. I
know this inspired people anyone watching to give back as well,
so thank you for all of this.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Server well, I'm looking forward to Canadians liking my work
and the book. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Good Dear. Royscho is available on Roku, Amazon, bire tv,
i Heeartradio, and Apple Podcasts.
Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for watching. This
shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands that
help you to live your best life and give you confidence.
As always, I want to keep out your morning with
some motivational advice to help you to feel inspired and
energize to start your day today, I want to talk
about the importance of focusing on solutions rather than problems.
(00:22):
The reality is, when we are faced with obstacles or dilemma,
the easiest thing to do is to be overwhelmed by
focusing on the problem and all the things that can
go wrong. But when we reframe our focus and instead
focus our attention on problem solving, we program our minds
to dwell in possibility rather than doubt. Just like everyone else,
(00:43):
successful people face the same obstacles and challenges that we do,
but instead of drowning in doubt, they come up with
quick solutions to remedy the problem, rather than dwell and
why it didn't work out. After all, it takes the
same amount of energy to stress then it takes to
figure out a solution to your problem. Making your mission
today to start focusing on solutions when you're facewood challenges
(01:04):
and see how fast the situation can change from negative
to positive. As Albert Einstein so famously quoted, we cannot
solve our problems with the same thinking we use when
we created them. Next up on the show, we have philanthropists,
businessman and founder of the Shanti Baden Organization, Doctor Abraham George.
Doctor Abraham, thank you so much for being on the
show today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'm fine, Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Well, thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We have so much to talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But before we get into your amazing work with the
Shanti Baden Organization, let's take it back to the beginning.
I know that you started your career in the Indian Army,
so tell us about that time and how it shaped
you into who you are today.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That was almost in my last life, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh well, now, I I was trained in an ELI
school in India for military offices training like the West
Point in the United States, and I was commissioned as
an officer at the age of eighteen and sent to
the emailayers. I was by the Chinese border for a
(02:13):
year and I met with an accident dynamite last and
badly in and then I went on to serve for
a couple of more years in the Pakistan border. But
that was the time when I was trying to get
out of the military and come to America for treatment
(02:36):
and things like that, and that was my beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Wow, well quite a story there. And I know that
you moved to the States and you got your MBA
and your PhD, which is very impressive. So tell us
how your academics kind of you know, meet you the
entrepreneur you are today.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, when I came to America, I didn't know much
of it. The thing academically, I fortunately got admission to
n y U and I did a couple of masters
and the doctoral program. My field was international finance and
(03:18):
I worked for JP Morgan for for nearly three years.
And during that time I had some ideas, partly from
my doctoral work and partly from my work in the
in the bank uh.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And that was the time when computers we didn't have PCs.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
At that time, we were using dumb terminals and we
didn't you know, model for connecting through telephone lines.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
But I wanted to see you if we could work on.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Applications using that terminal, the dumb terminal and more waiting
companies to solve their financial problems.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Using the computers. It was a little ahead of time, but.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I decided to leave the bank and work on it,
and from the basement of my apartment and with a
group of you know, very bright people used to work
for for Bell laps in at and t all night.
Actually they had other work during day. And after a
(04:31):
couple of years an application software application was introduced into
the market, and.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Then the challenge was to get corporate offices in.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
The finance department to leave their pencils and paper and
work through the computers. They would tell me things like, well,
you're doing okay. The back of an envelope, you know,
said you can do better. And it took ten years
(05:04):
of hard.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Work to really make some money.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And at the end of that ten year period, luckily
the pieces came along something I didn't expect, and that
changed the whole scenario. Corporations didn't have to spend the
money on timeshare networks. They could buy a PC and
our software was more expensive than the PC. And so
(05:33):
the next ten years we grew, but I spent twenty
five years before I made some good money.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That's the entrepreneur journey, right of the crime. The hustle
a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You should start from the basement of the garage.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean, that's how all the great stories started,
right from the patient garage and they made millions. And
fast forward, let's talk about the Shanti Aboven organization. What
inspired you to create it? By the way, I watched
the documentary yesterday and I was I was so touched
by all of the work you're doing. So congratulations on
all the amazing work.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Thank you, thank you. Well this for you answer that question,
I have to go back a little bit to Miami days.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I was at fourteen thousand feet above sea level minus
degrees and shortage of oxygen. We'll be very close to
the Chinese border. So there was always a danger India
of war with China before that, and so sitting on
top of mountains and looking down and seeing the clouds
go by, you know, for ten eleven months, you start
(06:43):
thinking what are you doing? And I happened to read
a couple of books which are very important, you know,
for the transition I had made.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
One by Vetran Russell, he wrote.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
The History of Western posophy, and the other by Albert Twitz,
who woned a weel price. He went in a canoe
all the way to Central Africa and started a started
a clinic for the tribals and and lived with their animals.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Well, uh, a veteran.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Russell's book, there's a line in there which says, there's
nothing right, nothing right about war.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It is about who is left. That caught me. What
what am I doing here? Am I getting myself trained
to kill people and spend the rest of my life?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So that was that was something that you know, I
was impacted by. The other was, of course Albert Twitz.
I found this work extremely exciting, somewhat romantic.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Being alone out there, and and I wanted a life
something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So I when I was grown up, in the dynamite
blast that I escaped by a fraction of a second,
I was injured, but I didn't die. Obviously, I then
realized there must be a reason why I was had escaped.
And so with all the thinking and all the reading
(08:22):
and everything else, I made my mind that sometime in
my life, someday, one day in my life, I will.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Go on to serve people who are deprived.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had seen poverty in India, traveling, you know, all
over India, and also during the nineteen fifties and sixties.
You know, there was a lot of discrimination based on
cast and I was at bolved by that and I
wanted to contribute to changing that scenario. So those were
(08:56):
my motivations, and that led to my formulating some plans
when I make money. And it took me some time
to next twenty five years to make some money after
I started my own company. But it was all for,
you know, a different end. Making money was for ultimately
(09:21):
doing social work, and it took longer than I thought.
I thought I'd make money very quickly, but it didn't happen.
We always think, you know, those who start businesses. But
I sold my business at the end of twenty five
years to a fortune find company called Sunkard.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I worked for them for two years, but they wanted me.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
To stay back for a while to make the transition
sporoth and then sold everything I got.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I had consulting jobs, one with the Royal Bank of Canada.
I used to come.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Every month to Canada. I love being there in Toronto
and Montreal and all that. But anyway, I got rid
of all my concept consilting assignments and my computer software
company and managing directorate credit twice. I assigned from this
(10:21):
so everything almost called jerky. I came to to a
remote village in South India. That's where I started my
social work.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Very nice and Netflix actually did a documentary on Shanty
Bovin and the Daughters of Destiny. So tell us about
that documentary because it showcases a lot of your work
that you do.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Your showcases the four girls who who grew up there.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Netflix somehow discovered us and assigned the.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Award winning a producer arass and she said that camera
crew there for for a while and Netflix end and
they were there with us for almost six seven years
filming the children. They're growing up every year. They wanted
(11:20):
to see the transition from you know, small little girls
to the more mature girls. And so the filming was
pretty much not stage. Whatever they wanted to say, they
were allowed to say. I I could say anything until
the last day, the day before the film was released.
(11:44):
So then we found these kids, you know, talking about
their hopes and aspirations.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And so on.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, it was very touching. I love how rod is
You know that the documentary wasn't It showed India for
what it was. It showed the children how they were
being really authentic and I really enjoyed the documentary. So
and again, congratulations on all the amazing work and changing
these these girls' lives and all the kids' lives in general,
because as you said, there is a cast system in
(12:14):
India that obviously you know needs to change, but it
is that's the reality, right right right.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
It has changed a little bit, but not much.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, India has become somewhat prosperous, but that prosperity is
mostly the top ten percent, which is top ten percent
is nearly one hundred, one hundred and fifty million people
pretty good, they are doing well, and then another three
hundred million who are doing somewhat good.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
But there is the other billion people. How are they doing?
And that's the story that I wanted to tell.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
And you also establish the Baldav Medical Center that provides
healthcare or fifteen cities in India, so tell us about
that as well.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Well. I did a number of things.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I went with the idea of, you know, working the
area of poverty alleviation and social justice. But when you
start doing you know, social work in India in my case,
twenty years of absence too, and you see a lot
of things. And one of the things I noticed was
that the people in the villages, they were really poor.
(13:30):
Most were living below one dollar a day in income
for a family today four five dollars, I would say,
it's still.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
There, very poor. And they were not employed regularly. They
had seasonal labor.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So I did a farm for two hundred acres to
employ all those women. Then I found that they were
not keeping goodell. They never go to the doctor and
so on.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So we built a hospital for them hospital. And then
I suddenly felt that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
The reason for poverty in India is bad governance and corruption,
and you know, I need to get into the field.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Of investigative journalism, and so I started graduate school for
journalists and there I ran into the problem.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I was falling sick from pollution, uh and I discovered
that lead was still being used in you know, the
gas lid, and all the vehicles were polluting the whole city.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So I came back to the States and met.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
With CDC World Bank, who UCPA everybody, and they trained
me and sent me with the butt of equipment to
test the children all over India to be.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Tested in seven cities, twenty three thousand children.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
There's the largest lead poisoning study that was ever done anywhere,
and at the end of which we held a conference
of twenty five countries.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Developing countries came.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Over because the mission was to introduce prevention and treatment
for lead poisoning. And then had a big impact because
in India the oil companies. Three oil companies sent their
directors and directors over there and they announced that within
(15:33):
eighteen months they will introduce under than gasoline. Obviously I
didn't do anything with the gasoline, but I think what
we did motivated them to do this quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Impacks some five hundred million people today living without letting
the gas lite. So I did a number of things,
but my love is for the school where the children
are who I get at the age of four. They
they they they are taken in at their at four,
(16:12):
because I felt that it's not I cannot change their
personalities or their habits and all that if I take
them later.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So I.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Accept only at the age of four, and the parents
have to literally handle the children to me. They stay
with me for ten months in a year, two months
they go home and and they're they're with me for.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Fourteen years and then another three four years in college.
We send them to good colleges.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
They stay in some most hospital, but again we cover
the expenses for them, and a number of them are
in Ivy.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
League schools today. This kind of transformation has.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Never happened in India, where children from one room hut
with no toilet or facilities or you know cooking, you
know kitchen, they go on to join Harvard and Mighty
and Stanford, you know, dot bud and so on. And
(17:26):
this year, for your information, one of our kids received
admission to University of Toronto.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
He's waiting for scholarship, but he hasn't got it yet,
so hopefully gets.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It and then we'll have one in Canada.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Very nice. I love that you're giving these children an
opportunity that they would never have because, you know, especially
with the cast system and just systematic poverty being stuck
in it, it's really hard for them to get out.
So if it wasn't for the school, they wouldn't have
that opportunity to go to Harvard, you have tier any school.
So I love that you're giving a chance to these
kids because I think it's much needed.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That's true, that's true. It's all about opportunity. People used
to believe that children from this kind of background don't
have the capacity to do well in life. They don't
have role models, they do something that their intellect is
not all that good. And I argued right from the
beginning because of bringing here in America. I said, no,
(18:33):
if you bring them up well and if you you know,
excellent education, they will do just as.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Well as children for our fluent families.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
People didn't believe it, and I can convince many people
because every time I went to somebody to talk about,
you know, helping a join you know, donations or something
like that, they would say, how long would it take
to I see some results next year?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I said, no, you had to wait. What do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What it?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Eighteen years? Isn't get out of my office.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, it's a long process of transformation right right right now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Every year the children are going out, you know, they
have reached that upper level. But you know, we star
and we started there were four years away.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And as well as being a philanthropist, we're also a
best selling author. You have a book, Mountains to Cross,
So tell us about the book and the importance of
giving back for you, because I know that this book
is all about being of service to the world.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Well, I wrote my story in autobiographical sense from childhood.
So because people ask me what prompted you to get
into this, what motivated you? I needed to explain that
a little bit, but mostly about my work in India,
not really the school, but all the other things. My
(19:54):
goal was that one there's several goals, but two or
three was to explain to others who really want to
be a service to others, especially in poverty, eradication and
issues like that anywhere in the world, what are the
kind of challenges that you're going to face, how do
you overcome them, and how do you win over the
(20:17):
poor because unless they believe that you are.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Doing something for them, their response is not very good.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Today, the children joined the school because the families think
this is their golden pass.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
So that's very important, and I want to tell the
world what my experience was.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The second important reason and how to do it and
sort The second important reason is a lot of people
who have made tons of money or good money, or
even those who haven't made that much money.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And they find they're not that happy, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
In fact, I read a is a couple of days
ago Musk saying that I have all this money, but
I'm not a I'm not a happy man.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, well that's interesting. So somebody wrote to him. I
wrote to this social media and they're wanting you all
the way. So I'm not sure that is his plan.
But well, you know, I have heard people tell me
that they want to find a purpose in their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And I would argue that you'll find happiness and purpose
if you do good for other people, if you look
for yourself, and if you think that making more money
is your purpose, then of course you would have spent all.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Your life doing that. So I.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Show them what I have gained. I'm one of the
happiest people on this planet, and and what these children
have given me the joy. You know that their success
brings to me and many other poor people who were
benefited by my action. You know, I sometimes, you know,
(22:16):
tell people, when I drive to back to the city,
I have stopped at the you know, I stop at
the red light, and then.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Suddenly a woman comes over.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
She's really really poor with a baby on her hips,
and I can see she hasn't eaten anything. And then
I give some money, which I come prepared for that.
You know, somebody who's going to come to the window
and just see her face, the smile on her face,
or the happiness on her face that she got some
good money.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And you can't buy that.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You don't do these things for something in return. And
the joy you're helping people is.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
A purpose transforming their lives absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You know, I think most people think that when they
get that car, when they get that job, when they
get that two million, three million, ten million, twenty million,
that they're going to be happy. And once you receive it,
you actually realize that that that happiness is very short
term because then you want more, right and it's give
track to others, and we we're of service and we
(23:26):
see an impact that we have purpose because purpose is
different from just you know, monetary stuff. At the end
of the day, we're not bringing it with us, right,
it's right with others. So I love that you said that,
and you know you're going to be remembered for all
of the impact you've had, all the people's lives you've touched.
And I think that's a really great message for anyone watching,
is to give back because when you do that, you
(23:47):
actually make money. You make more money by helping others.
Then you just than just living for yourself.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
So I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Do you get to happiness in a different way, you know,
I today I think much about any hardship or anything
like that. That's not really I don't live in hardship.
In fact, I would tell the listeners, especially the young listeners,
I would say, make money first.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Money is very important. If you have the money, you
can do wonderful things with it.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's not about making money alone. It is also about
giving back. And but for those who have ate a
lot of money, think of what's the best way to
impact others, and that is through humanity work.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
In my case, I thought education is the best way
to make the biggest change.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Someone else may say, well, you know, maybe through some
medical help. You have to find your own calling and
you will find peace and happiness and joy in what
you do.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
And I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I created my platform to inspire, to uplift and really
to showcase that anything is possible if you have a
dream and determination.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
So would you say to anyone watching this is that
you know it might be going through a difficult time
in their lives.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes, yes, there's so many incidents you know I've written
about in the book In fact, it's a collection of
stories in some ways, all the experiences I've had, every
chapter is full of stories.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Each story tells you something. And it's not easy road
in some ways if you are physically there. If you
are not physically there and you're writing and check, it's
a different matter. And you come occasionally and see, you know,
you put good people finding good people as difficult, you know,
But in my case, I made the decision to be
among the poor. So I live in this remote village,
(25:54):
one of the worst in South India. And but you know,
it is different experience. But there are challenges, there are setbacks,
there are threads, There are all kinds of things, because
when you are trying to help the poorest, the richest
don't necessarily happy about their children are not getting educated
(26:17):
like the poor children.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
So and there therefore there is anger towards you. So
you have to deal with some of those things. But
we overcome all those things. Today we don't have those
kinds of problems.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, and Doctor Abraham, for those of our viewers that
want to get involved with johnsy Bobbin or purchase your
book Mountains Across where can we do so?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Well? But you see my book is the easiest.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right you just get out of Amazon or one of
those you will find the book Mountains Across or Abraham George.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Finding me is also just as easy. If you're an American.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You have two presidents by my name, Abraham Lincoln Washington.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Very true, very true, so you combine them. I'm at
Google that you'll find many, many sites.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Very nice. We're going to link at information below. But
doctor Abraham, thank you so much for being on the
show today. Again, congratulations on all your amazing work. I
know this inspired people anyone watching to give back as well,
so thank you for all of this.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Server well, I'm looking forward to Canadians liking my work
and the book. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Good Dear. Royscho is available on Roku, Amazon, bire tv,
i Heeartradio, and Apple Podcasts.
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