Leap to Lanka, Leap to Leadership

SEALA 5 – DAY 1

In the epic Ramayana, the clever and heroic monkey god Hanuman makes a tremendous leap across the ocean to reach the island of Lanka. His goal: to arrive at the beautiful garden where Sita is being held.

In the epic South East Asia Leadership Academy, the clever and heroic participants have reached the island of Sri Lanka. Their goal: to make tremendous leaps in self-development at the beautiful garden Anantara Kalutara Resort where SEALA 5 is being held.

The materials are organized and ready. A paradisiacal environment, primed and ordered for optimal learning, trembles in eager anticipation of ten extraordinary days.  

The hard work of organizing everything to perfection has many faces and here are two of them: administration heroes Ayesha Shaukatullah and Roxi Bernard.

Anand Sharma extends the warmest of welcomes to the SEALA participants, offering them a pre-taste of the intellectual and emotional riches in store.

We pay tribute to the SEALA Sri Lankan members who have worked in the background for months on the program preparations. Heartfelt gratitude to them for their support, advice and creative problem-solving at many crucial junctures. 

John King sets the tone for SEALA's spirit of frankness, collaboration and profound questioning with a introductory inquiry into leadership. His opening gambit is deceptively simple: "What is the nature of 2?"

John meets his match in super-lateral thinker Su-Mae Chia, who stuns the room with the thought that 2 is a number that looks like a worm.

Whoa!!

Su-Mae has got a point!

Who knew?

We are learning new things already!

Bill Starnes takes the stage in the golden ballroom with some golden insights about leadership matters. 

The carat-content of Bill's golden words are put to the test by Zareen Qureshi. Will her touchstone finger-test expose hidden dross in Bill's thinking? 

But in fact the room is full of priceless elements and precious stones. A portrait of some SEALA gems: Umang Gupta, Irfan Chishti, Tika Putri, Saravanan  B. and Kumudini Perera-David.

We learn from the follow-on discussion of Personalysis that SEALA gems come in a variety of colors. For example, Karna Adita, Yasir Siddique and Zareen are ruby-red.

The sapphires are blue-sky thinkers... 

Samad Khan's youth-training activities in the great outdoors gives him an obvious affinity with nature, grass, trees, emeralds of the earth and other glorious green things...

Everyone wants a piece of Swan Saung Oo. Flanked by facilitators Ashok Mittal and Clark Plexico.

After the intensity of the first day's sessions, it's time for a relaxing, let-it-all-hang-out group selfie!

The evening is devoted to paired introductions:

Vanessa Hendriadi is a marathon runner –  and Vikash Mishra is chasing her story.

Bolat Duisenov suggests that he and Ali Zaidi are total opposites. But no longer total strangers.

Faris Fausz and Swan pose cozily out of the rain. (An umbrella would have come in handy at this point, Mr. Rainco.)

Monisha Agarwal and SEALA 5 staff member Zainab Khan share a love for music, dance, arts... and a confessed nervousness around certain animals.

Live music, as our Burmese doctor accedes with good grace to sing a favorite Coldplay song!


Other key moments:
Su-Mae's frogs
Yen's nocturnal border crossings
Amit's gentlemanly behavior on Mt. Kilimanjaro

Thanks to all for a long but stimulating first day of SEALA 5!