Ananthapadmanabhan: The Man in the Chauffeur Driven Auto

My first encounter with Ananth was at his home in Chennai in 2002. He shared his home with a few boys from the Alcott boys hostel for fisherman’s children where he also worked as a warden. While building Greenpeace India, he was also working with some of these boys to set up a business to loan solar lanterns to vendors on the beach for a small fee. The earnings helped a few boys pay their way through college.

Ananth was fascinated by the idea of addressing society’s “wicked problems”. Who do boys and girls who grow up in orphanages turn to for support when they have to leave the only home they know at the age of 18? 

We know that the environment is being destroyed because there are profits to be made and power is stacked against impacted communities and animals. How do we rebalance the power? 

He brought a fresh perspective to these issues and saw them as complex puzzles to be solved. This not just involved strategies to address the issue but also building the institutional backing to help create the impact. What does it take for a person to build seven organisations, five of which continue to thrive and create unique contributions to society? Ananth used to say “the key question was what can you do with the cards you have been dealt with within the rules of the game? Pick up those cards and pretend that they are the best hand you can get.” 

It was no surprise that he was deeply attracted by Greenpeace’s style of individual fundraising that gave the organisation its resilience. It was one of the earliest examples where he enabled the set up of over 200 fundraisers who would talk with citizens on the street and secure monthly recurring donations. He led from the front by spending time with the teams on the street. In one such instance, when Ananth was standing on the street asking for a monthly Rs 500 contribution, the person looked at him puzzled and asked him who he was. Ananth replied, “I’m the Executive Director of Greenpeace” and they retorted “Ya right and I am Bill Gates!” Ananth wore it with immense pride that people began to know Greenpeace in the country, but not who led it.

Ananth was not always easy to be around, but there was never a dull moment! He was madly demanding, stubborn and almost boorish about implementing every new idea he thought was good, but it was the same passion with which he took huge risks, some of them fairly deadly.

An unending source of energy, Ananth didn't fight cancer with anger; he wrestled with it gently, using every round to sharpen his spirit and find the 'gifts' hidden in the struggle. 

He never owned a car, shared his salary and savings with friends, those in need, and activists he admired, and indulged in his favourite Diet Coke with ice, cappuccino in the fanciest cafés, and Tamil-style shapad (the thali) with extra ghee!

A few days ago, a few close friends and family went down to be with Ananth when we heard that his health had deteriorated. He was unable to speak but was able to gesture and react to what we were saying. Robert, who rode an auto in Bangalore – that sported a colourful banner saying “Ananthabadmanabhan" – and over the years had become family and his personal auto driver, got the biggest smile.

While Anant passed away this month, he left behind a formidable legacy of setting up two global organisations – Amnesty and Greenpeace – in India that contributed to the shaping of the human rights and environmental justice action in the country. He leveraged the power of individual Indian philanthropy — small and large – by setting up Azim Premji Philanthropies and, later, Rootbridge. He went full circle to create WeLive for the 18 year-old boys and girls who grew up in orphanages and also distilled all the learnings and mental models to address “wicked problems” through Socratus. 

Divya Raghunandan is the Program Director of Greenpeace South Asia.

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