Ahead of My Time? Am I ?

When funders, mentors, and even friends echo the sentiment– 'You are ahead of your time' – I can't help but ask: Ahead of whose time? And what catastrophic event must unfold before 'our time' finally aligns with the time? Is this a comforting platitude, or a veiled admission of our collective resistance to facing what's already here? A deeper problem within our systems, a resistance to looking beyond the immediate horizon?

I look around and see a world that's quietly, subtly, yet fundamentally shifting. For over a decade, I've watched, clear-eyed, as the very fabric of human connection frays. We cheered the smartphone revolution, marvelled at the instant access to information, and now we're on the cusp of an AI-driven age that promises even greater connectivity. Yet, what's the chilling reality unfolding before us? Kids and adults alike are glued to their screens, disengaging from the vibrant, messy, beautiful world right in front of them. I see families sharing silence across a dinner table, eyes fixed on glowing rectangles, a void where conversation and connection used to thrive.

I see the startling rise in mental health cases – not just statistics, but the quiet desperation in the eyes of students and parents alike, disengaging from each other, from their communities, from themselves. I see the slow, agonising death of genuine community everywhere I look.

Beyond the digital fog, I see a world grappling with urgent, tangible crises – crises born from this very disengagement. The data screams about a widening SDG gap, but forget the charts. Just look around: we're losing the basics – clean air, potable water, nourishing food. Our cities and towns, even here in Gurugram, are flooding with terrifying regularity, a stark testament to what happens when we disengage from our planet. Who will rise to solve these monumental challenges if not citizens with agency, empowered communities, rather than an overwhelmed NGO world? We complain incessantly, but where is the collective will to act on what we see?

So, I ask again and again: if I can see this unfolding apocalypse, if most people with even half a brain can recognise these spiralling crises, then what exactly are we waiting for? What unimaginable depths of despair and destruction must we witness in a couple of years before the 'time' is finally right?

Are we waiting for the explosion? For the social fabric to completely unravel, for mental health crises to reach epidemic proportions so undeniable that they finally hit us in the face? Is that when we'll scramble for band-aids, patting ourselves on the back for "solving" something we could have prevented?

Perhaps the real meaning of "ahead of your time" is not that my solution isn't needed, but that the market isn't ready to acknowledge the depth of the wound. Funders, often reactive by nature, wait for conditions to truly fester before they inject capital. Are they waiting for the problem to become so catastrophic that it fits neatly into a pre-defined investment thesis, rather than daring to invest in prevention? And I think this is not even prevention, we are already in the catastrophic stage, don’t even know what we will see in a couple of years.

Or is it simpler, more disheartening? Is it that unless the 'West has done it' and proven its worth, we hesitate to act? Do we demand a global blueprint before we tackle the glaring issues in our backyard? This incessant need for 'Western comparables' isn't just about risk mitigation; it's a chilling indictment of our own capacity for independent thought, for local innovation, for solving the problems that are literally at our doorstep.

You see, I don't believe I'm ahead of my time. I believe I'm seeing the present, with all its cracks and fissures, and anticipating the inevitable collapse if we continue to ignore them. Why should we wait for something big to explode in our faces? Why not be pre-emptive, proactive, and truly solve for it now, before we turn around and say, "Yeah, she was ahead of the curve, but maybe we should have listened to her"?

The real question isn't what I'm missing. It's what they're choosing to ignore.