Race Chase Grace - Part 2

The last two days were awesome with promotions, tweets, posts, mails, adding people, requesting people, facing challenges, pumping up people's mood...

Slowly the whole team started to getting to know each other, better working with each other’s limitations and constraints with so much care devotion and love. Conference calls via Skype and Google talk were happening globally and people were getting all the more excited as the lead narrowed down. We just passed Twloha Inc for the second place. We were thirsty for first place. Not just for the one million dollars which was going to be used for Isha Vidhya in India and Isha Care Clinic in the US. For the recognition that was long due to Isha's volunteers.



We all felt the oneness in the process. People didn't sleep that night. We doubled up the pace of what we doing.

It was still amazing to see the spirits of the people I was working with. Some of them twice my age, some younger by a few years. People I never imagined I would be so close with, and forever I treat them better than I would treat myself or family.

For several days, the Isha centre in Tamil Nadu had gotten its strong base of volunteers to come out and vote. There were line ups in places likes hostels, centers, and cyber cafes. Votes were gathering fast and the lead had reduced drastically. Only Invisible Children was ahead of us.

Both Isha and Invisible Children were moving at a rate of more than 3000 votes an hour in the final few hours. We were catching up, moving at 4 votes/second and the Facebook server got hung up due to overload when there was an hour left. A big jolt to our path to victory.

We were hoping as a result Chase would extend the 12 am deadline but it did not happen. By this time all the activities started getting media attention and smear campaigns started taking off. It wasn’t the best thing to happen when charities, who were trying to contribute for the benefit of humanity, played dirty games like this. This become a hot topic in our discussion, but by now moving at such a speed, all we could do was sit and watch every minute.

During the last hour we were on Invisible Children's heals. The lead had come down to a few thousands. Both of us crossed 100,000 votes. My folks in India didn't need much support to stay awake, other than a few songs by Sounds of Isha and the speed of our scoreboard.

In the last few minutes, all eyes were oscillating form the scoreboard to the clock. 3000 votes and 15 minutes left. It looked like we could do it, yet it looked far off.

Down to five mins 2000 votes ... all eyes on the clock and the leaderboard, pressing f5 every 2 seconds.

Finally it stopped, the competition ended.

$1MM

Invisible Children Inc

San Diego, CA

123990 votes

$100K

Isha Foundation Inc

McMinnville, TN

122742 votes

We lost by 1200 votes. There were tears in my eyes. Not because we lost, but because so many people around the world cared enough to vote for a better place to live in. Out of all the wars we have been a been a part of, this one was for the well being of the planet, for us and for our kids. It was a victory for humanity no matter which team had won.

Congratulation messages, acknowledgements, sharings... We had become closer than a family in a span less than a week without looking at the sun, food, sleep. Nothing mattered in the last few days. It had come to an end and we didn't want to part. My people back home hadn’t slept the whole night and didn't want to leave too. We wanted to share the moment and joy together.

At some point we had to get moving on, but we knew we are always working together on some level of heart, mind, and soul for Isha and for a better planet.

In one week I had a crash course and experience in social media marketing. I became friends with so many different people and backgrounds. Many sacrificed kids, food and other activities in life. All have become a huge part of my life and we are always in touch like a family. People I have never met before.

I do hope I will be fortunate enough to meet them in this life time and surely we will remember the glorious days where we raced for the Chase competition and experienced grace and care in a way we never imagined before. These moments and people will live in my heart. Forever.