Via Sunny Narang
#PaalaguttapalleBags #AGandhianSoftwareEngineer #DalitEnterprise #LetIndiaTeachYou #HowToDisoverYourself
Aparna Krishnan blogpost bio reads like this -
"In 1995, Paalaguttapalle (Dalitwada) became home. After studying engineering, working for three years, I resigned, and started looking for more meaningful and socially relevent work.
An understanding of Gandhi gave the paradigm, and the search led to this village. Nagesh also came 'looking for a village to work in', and this village became home. As neighbours, friends and teacher we became part of the village ...... and saw some of the timeless wisdom of villages ......"
Imagine the commitment , more than 24 years going and living/working in the same village .
Her understanding of Gandhi and India is fully rooted in this experience .
We met in Chennai in her home a few years ago , along with a couple of intense friends of hers and what a journey into Tamil culture , politics , rural livelihoods it's been .
One can never stop learning about India . Never .
Every pore of India has something fresh to teach , For me India is my biggest , deepest Guru .
Not any text . Not any theory .
For all fail completely .
Years ago I realized that the urban , metropolitan elites of which I am a part of have no heart connect left with rural India , which is majority of India.
Few volunteers , activists were connected via NGO sector .
They had to show results to their funders so spent a lot of time evangelizing "better social parameters" rather than first understanding the strength of their communities .
It was top down. We know , you listen .
My understanding of India comes from roaming and working in rural India .
With its various Jatis , it's Sampradaya .
Eating it's khana or cuisines , listening to folk songs and stories in the lilts of their boli or dialects .
And deep friendships with men and their families .
Farmers , Artisans , Sadhus .
From living with a sadhu and his dogs in a cave in Uttarakhand in 1988 to forest agriculture done by the Hegdes in Uttar Kanada in 1993.
From talking Adi faith in Donyi Polo in Pasighat Dak Bungalow in 1990 to sleeping in village temples distributing drought aid in tribal Udaipur district in 1987.
From working with traditional Chhipa block printer and thread worker Patwa families in Rajasthan from 1994 onward for more than 2 decades to discovering coastal Andhra temples earlier 2018 .
Nothing is forgettable .
Every space left it's lifelong imprint , it's people , it's flavours , it's wisdom .
And nothing I have read or seen anywhere .
All text is flat , video a bit better .
But there is no smell , no texture , no sense of deep eye connects , human vibes intersecting and diving in the flow of conversation .
So I tell young or old , if you want to feel , be India .
Travel , but with a way to get embedded in the local .
Find a friend to guide you , find people in that region who can be your sutradhaars .
Nothing deep or living is available in texts or google .
You have to suffer pain to get delight , to adventure in discomfort to get wisdom and love .
And be open and big hearted .
For your pettiness in your reality is truly your prison.
Freedom is not throwing away tradition or rituals , rules or laws , freedom is doing what one of the great siddhis that yogis talk about "parkayagaman".
Par , the other , Kaya the body/being , Gaman the empathy/travel .
Get into the other , as if you , your ego doesn't exist . Another being , another culture .
That alone , in real living creates the larger , deeper , universal life experience .
Then come back to yourself , your infinite being has one more flavour within to dance with .
There are thousands of meditation techniques .
Actually living itself is meditation , everything is a meditation , if done with full sat chid ananda , Truth Awareness and Openness To Let Delight Flow .
So Aparna delights with her women friends , teachers , co-travelers of Dalitwada , Paalaguttapalle.
And for her learnings and joy from them she helps them make the Paalaguttapalle - Dalitwada Bags and sometime market their lovely handmade , homemade aachars .
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