Sonam Wangchuk and a university of doers

James Cameron. Don Cheadle. Casey Affleck. Michelle Monaghan. Chris Pine. In a night brimming with stars at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, they were not even the biggest supernovas. That spot was reserved for winners of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise on November 15.

And the brightest of them was a small man with a big dream from India. Sonam Wangchuk, of Phey in Ladakh, clad in a traditional goncha, spoke eloquently of his ambition of building an alternative university of doers through crowdfunding.

Of young men and women who would learn by experimenting, fulfilling the two main drivers of his unusual life - education for life and environmental protection. It was a tribute to what Cameron called the spirit of "explorers, protectors, dreamers, the hope in these dark times".

Wangchuk, 50, is no stranger to the limelight. The basis for Aamir Khan’s character in 3 Idiots, Phunsukh Wangdu - though the actor/filmmaker never acknowledged his debt to the trained mechanical engineer - Wangchuk has been working in Ladakh for over 20 years through his Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). 

Collaborating with the government of Jammu and Kashmir, he has changed textbooks for state-run schools in Ladakh, making them accessible to students in their language. In 1994, he created an alternative, solar-powered, student-built, student-run school for failures, for those rejected by the system, and gave them an opportunity to make something of themselves, creating a vast alumni network of over 1,000 youngsters. 

All are part of his extended volunteer network which has helped him create ice stupas, or artificial glaciers, which freeze water in winter so it melts in summer and lasts till spring, in the cold desert of Ladakh. 

Sonam wants mountain people to own their technology and make them pioneers to solve their own problems. He has battled tremendous odds to get to being a globally acclaimed innovator - being cheated by pipe suppliers while building his stupas, being accused of being a Chinese agent, even being denied his claim on a beloved movie character.  

The 40^th anniversary of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise - it was instituted to mark the 50^th anniversary of the classic Rolex Oyster watch - has so far awarded 140 laureates from around the world a total of $8 million. Eighty of them were present at the Dolby Theatre, which is, of all things, situated in a mall (the Hollywood and Highland Center).

It was transformed into a magical wonderland with the awards followed by a sit-down dinner on the stage lit up by a thousand light bulbs. As the ten laureates turned fanboys and fangirls around Cameron - whom Sonam invited to Ladakh, asking him to go from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the world - the guests milled around exchanging stories.

Filmmaker Mira Nair, fresh off the success of Queen of Katwe; tabla maestro Zakir Hussain; and Rolex ambassador, the golden-voiced Vijay Amritraj, were only some of the celebrities in attendance.

But the evening belonged to the laureates and their amazing stories. Egypt-born former National Health Service doctor Andrew Bastawrous, who has created a smartphone-based portable eye examination system which will soon be making its way to India - Thulasiraj Ravilla of Aravind Eye Care is on his advisory board.

Kerstin Forsberg of Peru who is working with giant manta rays in her home country. Vreni Haussermann who is exploring and protecting Patagonia's fjords. Conor Walsh, a modest Irishman now based in the US who has developed a lightweight robotic suit for stroke victims to help in their rehabilitation.

Sonam Wangchuk. And five young laureates under 30 whose work varies from creating a common sign language dictionary for the world to researching polar ice micro-organisms in the Arctic. The 12-member jury for this year included the science star Marcus du Sautoy and philanthropist Rohini Nilekani.

Past Indian winners swapped stories. Like Arun Krishnamurthy who, through his NGO Enviromental Foundation of India, has worked to protect and regenerate lakes and water bodies throughout southern India - he’s a pollster by day which pays the bills for his passion.

Or Piyush Tewari, currently studying public policy at Harvard, who has been working in the area of road safety and was instrumental in getting then Good Samaritan Act passed (which ensures passersby who help people in distress will not be embroiled in legal issues). 

Or Romulus Whitaker, the great snake man from Chennai, who is looking to part with 1,000-surplus crocodiles and is happy to give them to whoever wants to set up another crocodile farm.

As their stories were told on a giant screen, with the stentorian voice of Lord Grantham aka Hugh Bonneville, the audience sat in attention, swept away from the woes of Trumpland, into a world of hope and promise.

Rolex may be all about precision and timing but the awards were ultimately about humanity.

(The author was invited by Rolex)

Also read: Why awards have become a joke in India