Alok is a school student living at Kanha Shanti Vanam, India. He loves music, gardening, writing, and has a zest for life and discovering new things.



Alok-Anand.jpg

Alok Anand

<h4
 class="block-heading"
 id="h-alok-anand-is-almost-a-teenager-here-he-answers-questions-on-friendship-and-how-his-friends-bring-peace-courage-and-confidence-to-his-life"
 >
 ALOK ANAND
 is almost a teenager! Here he answers questions on friendship and how
 his friends bring peace, courage and confidence to his life.
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <h4
 class="has-text-color block-heading"
 id="h-the-qualities-i-value-most-in-friends"
 style="color: #285976"
 >
 The qualities I value most in friends
 </h4>

 
 When we like the same things and like to play the same games. I love
 friends who have the ability to understand me, and to care for me when I
 need it. On the surface, I am very funny, energetic, optimistic, crazy,
 and sometimes very annoying; but inside I am very sensitive and can
 easily get hurt. People are unpredictable, and I don’t mind that, but I
 still have feelings, and some people can’t seem to understand that. The
 ones who do understand are those I call my true friends. This is the
 quality I look for most in a true friend: to be able to understand and
 care.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
 The ones who do understand are those I call my true friends.
 This is the quality I look for most in a true friend: to
 be able to understand and care.
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <h4 class="has-text-color block-heading" style="color: #265269">
 The type of friend I want to be
 </h4>

 
 I want to be a friend who is playful, fun, caring, funny, not too
 annoying, and kind. Most importantly, I want to be a friend who is able
 to understand others, so if they need to share something, they can come
 to me and I can help them solve it. I want to be a friend who is
 trustworthy.
 

 <h4 class="has-text-color block-heading" style="color: #29556b">
 How my friends have affected the way I deal with life and others
 </h4>

 My friends have helped me realize things about myself, like:

 <ul>
 <li>
 Sometimes, in excitement, I hurt people. Now I understand that I need
 to calm down. This came from Harita and Pushpa.
 </li>
 <li>
 I should never ever give up, because if I do I will tend to give up
 more easily next time. This came from Rahul.
 </li>
 </ul>

 When I am bored, I look forward to playing with my friends.

 
 I am sometimes scared to do the things I must do. But my friends Stella,
 Rahul, and Saral have told me that they shall be there for me, and that
 has made me bold and strong.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

Friends

Amir is a trained psychologist and educator with an interest in mind-body-heart medicine. He has been practicing and investigating how silence and stillness plays a role in our well-being and happiness. Amir is a heartfulness and mindfulness trainer, holding workshops and retreats internationally in close collaboration with Heartfulness Institute and other centers of excellence. He lives with his wife and two children in India.



Amir-h-imani.jpg

Amir H. Imani

<hr class="vertical-space1">
 <h4>AMIR IMANI explains the root cause of stress and what we can do to remove
 it.</h4>
 <hr class="vertical-space1">
 <h3 style="text-align: center;">What is the ABC of stress reduction?</h3>
 This question takes us to the root cause of stress, and the one effective way out of
 it. The very root of stress is really the lack of compassion and kindness we have towards ourselves. This is the
 A of the ABC of Stress.
 <h4>A. The root of stress</h4>
 It may sound odd, but if we dive deep inside when we are really under pressure, we
 will see that it is not only the toothache, or the upcoming mortgage payment, or the feeling low and depressed,
 but the fact that we do not want to feel the pain or the worry that makes us suffer.
 The closing of ourselves to life and what we are going through at difficult times is
 what causes us the most pain. Put it this way: it is not only the stressor that determines our level of
 suffering, but the quality of our relationship with it.
 Here is an example: first consider a day when you wake up early in the morning,
 spend some quiet time with yourself, walking, reading, breathing and stretching, before starting your working
 day. Then take a day when you jump out of bed and hit the road, hurrying all the way through your day. Your
 reactions to life and what it brings you are different. I welcome you to test it. An incident of, say, somebody
 cutting you out on the expressway will affect you differently on those two days. Perhaps on the first day you
 have more space for life. This brings us to the question: what can I do to deal with stress in a better way?
 This is the B of the ABC of Stress.
 <h4>B. What can I do?</h4>
 The answer is in the question. If the root cause of suffering is the lack of
 kindness, then the remedy is compassion and gentleness towards ourselves at all times, even when things are
 really stressful and out of our control. Having a soft corner in ourselves for the bad and miserable to come,
 stay and leave, maintains a degree of balance and reduces suffering tremendously. It is like being in the midst
 of a storm, but not getting lost in it; being in the water but not getting drowned. This is possible if we
 permit ourselves to be the way we are moment-by-moment, no matter how unwell we feel.
 How can we do this? This is the C of the ABC of Stress.
 <h4>C. How can I do it?</h4>
 Cultivate heartfulness and compassion. Take time to practise opening up to ourselves
 – to the way we are and the way we feel, in whatever way it works for us. This gives us the ability to do so
 even when things are not that good in our lives. There are numerous ways of training the heart to rest and
 return to its original state of openness and acceptance. Here are some of my favourites:
 A slow and silent walk in nature, with no aim in mind. Just walk
 and take in nature the way it is through our inner and outer senses.
 Sit silently and in a relaxed way with the mobile phone switched
 off. If you wish, you can bring the attention to the heart very gently and allow the heart to be the way it is
 without forcing anything.
 Lie down, staying awake, and pay attention to the way your body
 is, however it might be from moment to moment.
 Eat a meal with your awareness in the present with the food.
 Stay with how it tastes and feels to be nurtured by nature, thankfully.
 When feeling peace and gratitude, share these feelings with
 others by allowing the heart to open up and send joy and calm to all beings.
 <hr class="vertical-space1">
 <hr>
 <h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by AMIR H. IMANI</h4>
 <hr>

ABC of Stress Management

A self-professed liberal who at the same time loves the religious traditions of his native India, Amish has brought to life the mythology of Lord Shiva and the Ramayana for readers worldwide, and has developed a pop culture celebrity status as one of India’s most popular authors.

amish1.jpg

Amish Tripathi

<h4>In this exclusive interview, AMISH TRIPATHI speaks with ELIZABETH DENLEY about what propelled him to write fiction. A self-professed liberal who at the same time loves the religious traditions of his native India, Amish has brought to life the mythology of Lord Shiva and the Ramayana for young readers, and has developed a pop culture celebrity status in the process.</h4>Q: Welcome Amish.Thank you.Q: Through your books it’s obvious that you love mythology and the ancient traditions of India. Where did this love come from?<img class="image-style-align-left" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Amish_4e3065f3a4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T07:59:54.351Z" alt="Amish">It’s my good fortune of birth. It’s not just the ancient traditions of India, but ancient traditions across the world. My grandfather was a pandit in Kashi, in Benaras, and he was a teacher as well at the Benaras Hindu University. So I learnt a lot from the family. We grew up learning our stories, our traditions, our philosophies. Both my parents are deeply religious, and one of the good things they poured into us is the respect and love for knowledge and an attitude of questioning everything. Nothing should be taken on blind faith.So one of the things I learnt early in life from my family was that in Vedic Sanskrit – the language of the ancient Indians – there was no word for ‘blasphemy’. Since the concept didn’t exist, the word didn’t exist. No one was beyond question – no one and nothing. And if you have that kind of attitude and yet you’re willing to learn philosophy, willing to explore faith, willing to explore spirituality, you can have a very rich life. It’s my good fortune that I learnt this from the family.We weren’t a very well-off family; we had a very humble beginning. But despite the constraints, there were always a lot of books at home. And since we saw our parents reading, it was natural for us to start reading. I read, my wife reads, and my son also reads. Children tend to do what their parents do, not what their parents say. So maybe these were the two things: learning from the family, and lots of reading.<img class="image-style-align-right" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tradition3_7ef4337981.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:00:36.003Z" alt="tradition3">Q: Did you always follow the religious traditions of your parents, or did you challenge this?I was deeply religious when I was young, but at the age of 15 or 16, when I entered college, I became an atheist. I was an atheist for more than a decade – an extreme atheist. I thought that God was wrong, and religion was wrong; that it was silly. Writing my first book, The Immortals of Meluha, slowly brought me back to faith.Q: Can you tell us how that happened?I think all of us discover the form of the Divine that works for us. For someone like me, who is naturally rebellious and anti-elitist, I guess Lord Shiva was the best god to pull me back to faith, and I say this with no disrespect to any other god or goddess. He is the ultimate god of rebels. He is a rule-breaker. He exists outside society, and he is a brilliant dancer and musician. He is very attractive for those of us who are rebellious by nature. For me this worked best.Q: So is that what drew you to write about him in your first trilogy?It was actually the other way around. Writing about him kind of pulled me back.Q: Okay, so why did you start with him?My book began with a thesis of pure philosophy, an explanation of the question ‘what is evil?’ And that was converted into a story later. The idea was to convey the philosophy through the story. And if I am writing a story to convey a philosophy on evil, the best hero is the destroyer of evil, Lord Shiva.Q: Your first book was published in 2010, and since then you’ve gone on to become the celebrity pop-culture author of India. It’s a big change from your humble beginnings. How has it been?It’s been fantastic! I worked in banking for fourteen years, and I resigned only after my second book. Part of having a humble beginning is you tend to be pragmatic about your life choices, so I resigned when my royalty check became more than my salary. It’s been a fantastic ride. I get to do what I love, which is writing, reading, traveling to historical places, and I actually get paid for it!Q: Why do you think your books have been so popular? Each of them has sold millions of copies. They are about traditional Indian mythology, and most of your readers are young. What’s the magic formula, Amish?When my first book was ready, every publishing house rejected it, saying,“This has no hope of success, because the primary readership today are the youth and youth aren’t really interested in religion. Even if the story is fast-paced, you’re writing about a god.”One of the publishers said, “You have these ‘gyan sessions’ where you are discussing philosophies, and this will not work with the youth.” I was advised to write a campus romance instead. So I actually self-published the first book, and it took off, and then many of the publishers who had rejected the book came back to me. It’s not that I predicted it and hence wrote it a certain way. I just wrote the book the way it came to me.So the pendulum swung to the other extreme, where every tradition was attacked, and many people felt unmoored and uprooted. If there are no roots to hold onto, that doesn’t feel like a good life either. Today humanity is doing so well materially; we have never had it better. In terms of physical security we’ve never had it better. Per capita violence is the lowest humanity has ever seen. And yet loneliness and unhappiness have probably never been higher.Many people want to find an ideal means to be traditional and also liberal: where you can feel a sense of connectedness to the Divine and tradition, yet still respect LGBT rights, respect women’s rights, respect the environment etc. I think many of these ancient stories serve that need.<hr>There is no point judging others. There is no point mulling over the past&nbsp; or worrying about the future. Learn from your past, plan for your future,&nbsp; but don’t get obsessed by it. The only thing in your control is this moment&nbsp; and your decision in this moment. So life should be about learning to make better choices now, and that’s the way to approach these stories.<hr>Q: Mythological stories are incredibly dynamic and non-judgmental. Tell us more about that.In fact that’s another intriguing thing about the ancient Indian way. Vedic Sanskrit did not have a word for ‘judgment’ either. Again, that concept did not exist.The entire approach to these stories was not to judge them, and it’s not that the gods or goddesses judged us, either. The entire perspective was to look at those stories, see the archetypes, learn from them and apply the knowledge in our own lives. The philosophy is very clear: the only thing that is in our control is our own choice within this moment. Our past is not in our control, our future is not in our control, and what other people do is certainly not in our control.So there is no point judging others. There is no point mulling over the past, or worrying about the future. Learn from your past, plan for your future, but don’t get obsessed by it. The only thing in your control is this moment and your decision in this moment. So life should be about learning to make better choices now, and that’s the way to approach these stories.If you take judgment away, the floodgates open up for learning. Judgment actually stops our ability to learn. In the Ramayan, Lord Ram is the hero and Ravan is the villain. We can learn from Lord Ram, but we can also learn from Ravan. Our task is not to judge him but to learn from him.Q: The first series was the Shiva trilogy. The second one is the Ramayan. Tell us more.The Shiva trilogy has three books: The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, and The Oath of the Vayuputras. And that was my imagination of what could have been the adventure of a man called Shiva, who lived 4,000 years ago, whose adventure was so grand that he was looked upon as a god. He discovered the Divine within himself.The Ram Chandra series is an interpretation of the Ramayan, literally ‘the travels of Ram’. And I am experimenting with a slightly complex storytelling style, called the multi-linear narrative.The first book, Ram – Scion of Ishvaku, is from the birth of Lord Ram to the kidnapping of Lady Sita. The second book, Sita – Warrior of Mithila, is from the birth of Lady Sita to the kidnapping of Lady Sita. And the third book, Ravan, which I am writing right now, which will come out by mid 2019, is from the birth of Ravan to the kidnapping of Lady Sita. The fourth book will be a common book up until the death of Ravan, and the fifth book will be about Lord Ram fighting his actual enemies. Ravan was only an opponent; his actual enemies were in his own land.<hr>Perhaps the way to look at Ravan is that he was a genuinely brilliant man, with an uncontrolled ego. Even if you are as talented as him, if you cannot control your ego, it’s not going to end well for you.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tradition2_b5b2c861c2.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:01:19.020Z" alt="tradition2">It’s a mix of different interpretations. You know, the modern Indian version of the Ramayan is actually a 1980s television serial, and if you see the really ancient version, the Valmiki Ramayan, he is not presented as a pure evil demon. He had strengths too. So the first Ramayan, the Valmiki Ramayan, was actually written from that nuanced perspective. He was a devout Lord Shiva worshipper, he was extremely intelligent, and he was a master of the Vedas. There’s a stringed instrument called the rudra veena, and it is like the sitar turbo-charged. Even the musical masters can’t play it, let alone master it. And it is believed that Ravan invented the rudra veena. Perhaps the way to look at Ravan is that he was a genuinely brilliant man, with an uncontrolled ego. Even if you are as talented as him, if you cannot control your ego, it’s not going to end well for you.Q: You’ve also written a non-fiction book, Immortal India. Tell us about that.Till Immortal India, I’d written fiction books. Step 1 was always some philosophy that I wanted to convey. The story was step 2, like a wrapper around that philosophy. The core philosophy at the heart of the Shiva trilogy is, “What is evil?”As the first step is normally the philosophy and the second step is the story, there are many readers who go deeper into the philosophy. So I wanted to write a book that just speaks of step 1, the philosophies, in simple bite sized articles. This book has my thoughts and musings on various subjects like spirituality, historical issues, science, and things like that.Q: What next, Amish?Right now I’m writing Ravan, the third book of the Ram Chandra series. I have various story ideas in mind, enough to keep myself busy for at least 20 to 25 years. I have 9 or 10 book series in mind. I’ve left clues for all of them in the Shiva trilogy. So even if I release a book 30 years from now, I have left a clue in the Shiva trilogy. I have enough work to do to make sure that I finish all those books before I die. I don’t want to carry them to my cremation pyre.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tradition4_696bb3dad5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:02:13.082Z" alt="tradition4">Q: A lot of your readers are young. How do you engage with young people? What role do you think your books play in helping them move forward into modern India?Today India is a country of youth. Coupled with that are the dramatic changes that have been happening in India since 1991.In fact, many say that our true mental independence as Indians started from 1991, not 1947, because after centuries of failure we started rising again in 1991. And that started the return of the historical self-confidence that defined India for many centuries.Angus Maddison, the British economist, has shown that for 15 of the last 20 centuries, India was the number one economy in the world. Of the remaining 5, thrice we were the number two economy. And we were extremely productive in science, medicine, navigation and everything else. We lost all of that in the last few centuries. Now you see a return of the historic self-confidence, but there’s also still the element of insecurity, which is why you find unnecessary aggression at times. And there’s also this youthful charge with it. This is a process of massive change.And in that story, who drank the poison so that it would not hurt others? It was Lord Shiva. That is why he has a blue throat. And that is what I suggest to people who are devotees of Lord Shiva: behave like a god. There is a process of change that’s happening right now. A lot of the effects will be positive, and will be good for India, but there are some negatives too. All of us devotees of Lord Shiva should behave like Lord Shiva: drink that poison, take that negativity out. Speak politely, speak nicely, speak positive things. Take the negativity out so that India moves in the right direction.<hr>This is such a wonderful time to be Indian! Nowadays you can dream any dream, and chances are you can pursue it. We’re doing well.<hr>Q: So is this your main guidance for young people today? How would you tell them to live their lives?I would say this is such a wonderful time to be Indian! When I was growing up there weren’t so many opportunities. Why did I choose banking as a career? Because there weren’t many opportunities. Nowadays you can dream any dream, and chances are you can pursue it. We’re doing well.This was our traditional way. Can we revive that? Then we will create a society of which our ancestors can be proud. How can we deserve that pride and support the rest of the world in the journey as well?Q: It’s a great note to end. Thank you!Thank you.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by ELIZABETH DENLEY</h4><hr>

Tradition, liberalism, and Lord Shiva

Amit founded the Turning Point Rehab in Surat, Gujarat, in 2015. A recovering addict himself, he works with clients to help them recover physically, mentally, and spiritually. Turning Point is a pioneer in world-class holistic programs and amenities.



Amit-Karekar.jpg

Amit Karekar

<h4
 id="h-amit-karekar-s-story-is-one-of-deep-inner-challenge-and-triumph-over-darkness-with-help-from-loved-ones-and-professionals-and-the-determination-to-live-he-turned-his-own-life-around-and-is-helping-others-to-do-the-same-at-turning-point-rehab-a-safe-haven-for-all-souls-who-have-lost-themselves-to-substance-abuse"
 >
 AMIT KAREKAR’S
 story is one of deep inner challenge and triumph over darkness. With
 help from loved ones and professionals, and the determination to live,
 he turned his own life around and is helping others to do the same at
 Turning Point Rehab, a safe haven for all souls who have lost
 themselves to substance abuse.
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 width="614"
 height="795"
 alt="dealing-with-addiction2"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/dealing_with_addiction2_ad3d95392e.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T04:50:37.068Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 My story has been a roller-coaster ride. A lot of ups and downs. As a
 child, I was obedient and soft natured. During my school days, I became
 rebellious, probably because I always liked to be the center of
 attention. I was so obsessed with certain things that I couldn’t really
 strike a balance, and as I grew older, I became stubborn. During my
 college days, I could not tell my parents that I did not want to do an
 engineering degree, and so I wasted two years of my life instead. They
 said I shouldn’t be wasting time and that I had never known
 responsibility in life. Taking things for granted and being stubborn
 took me downhill.
 

 
 I was born with a silver spoon, having everything at my disposal. I just
 had to enjoy life, or so I thought. My parents loved me a lot, but I
 took undue advantage of their feelings. Instead of using my privilege
 for my benefit, I abused it. That’s how it all began.
 

 
 I had a girlfriend in school, and breaking up with her gave me one big
 reason to start self-sabotaging. In college, the drugs and alcohol
 started. First beer, then marijuana, then “brown sugar,” the kind of
 heroin we get in India. And so I became a hardcore “smackie” within a
 period of six months.
 

 
 I was completely powerless over that addiction. I didn’t realize it and
 my parents didn’t intervene because they thought I would be okay, and
 obey them one day. They kept waiting for that day, while my addiction
 went to another level, and I became suicidal. 18 months down the line I
 was completely messed up. They took me to a psychiatrist and I took
 medication. I did a drug detox, but it didn’t work. I relapsed and was
 taken to rehab when I was 18. I did a program for around 35 days, but me
 being me, I picked up all the notorious guys from there, got their
 contacts and planned what I would do after getting out: more drugs. That
 was how I was.
 

 
 I had a long journey of rehabs and relapses, seven to eight rehabs, and
 every time it was the same thing: I went to rehab, got clean, did the
 program well, and all the counselors were very impressed with me. I
 liked to be in their good books. And I was good at sports. I would never
 receive any punishment and everything was pretty smooth. So fear of
 rehab was not something that worked in my case. This went on for around
 20 years.
 

 
 Finally I got married, and one fine day my wife told me, “You know, this
 is not working out. Let’s just stay apart for six months and I’ll see
 what you do. Take your time to decide whether you want to carry on with
 our life or you want to live your way.”
 

 
 I packed up everything and thought, “Wow, this is amazing. I’m gonna be
 free from today. No responsibilities. Super. God works.”
 

 
 I met a friend and told him, “Just set me up in some ashram where I can
 stay. I just want to disconnect from everything.”
 

 Escapism was everything for me.

 
 I wanted to escape from each and every situation in life. I did not want
 to face it; I did not want to fight it; I only knew “flight” and that’s
 what I did. But for some reason, my friend didn’t comply. He said,
 “You’ve gone nuts. I’ll set you up in a rehab facility. Go there and do
 some service work, help them out, and you’ll be able to figure something
 out. Do it for 20 days.”
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 alt="dealing-with-addiction3"
 width="163"
 height="410"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/dealing_with_addiction3_187d49bbfc.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T04:51:09.212Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 That’s how my journey of recovery began.

 
 Service is one of the final steps to recovery. You are supposed to
 motivate others that recovery is possible, and give hope and strength to
 the people who are suffering with addiction.
 

 
 They accepted me in a rehab center in Mumbai, and I started taking
 sessions, but I was just faking it. There’s a slogan, “Fake it till you
 make it,” and it’s been true in my case. I started helping people to
 realize what was wrong, why they should turn their lives around, and how
 to learn the concepts of balance, etc.
 

 
 And then I was shifted to Surat to start a center there. The adventurous
 me said, “This is it! You’ve got to go there. Whatever you will do in
 the future doesn’t matter at this point in time. This is the best you
 have in front of you – just go for it.” Honestly, I didn’t have anything
 else in front of me, and my parents and wife had also given up hope.
 

 
 So I packed my bags, moved to Surat, and stayed at the rehab house to
 set things up. People said the house was haunted, but that’s what kept
 me there – I was all in for the adventure. I hung around for some time
 and then we got a client. And so my journey began with that connection
 with another person, who arrived fresh to recovery. He compelled me to
 stay, and I stayed for around 8 months.
 

 
 I was working for True Care in Surat. My father figured out that this is
 what I did best, so he encouraged me to start up a center. That’s how
 Turning Point was created.
 

 
 My wife came back to me, and has supported me a lot. She’s the backbone
 of the center. She’s always been the backbone in every walk of my life,
 and if not for her I would not have become a responsible man. I look at
 it this way.
 

 
 In a nutshell, I had everything at my disposal, but I took things for
 granted. I had never understood my responsibilities, and I was never
 left alone. Even if I was busted by the cops, my father would bail me
 out. I didn’t have anything to worry about. These things allowed me to
 hold on to bad company, and I did not know where to strike the balance.
 

 
 I was enjoying life and ruining it at the same time. I thought I was
 having fun, that I was happy, but I was not.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 alt="dealing-with-addiction4"
 width="600"
 height="775"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/dealing_with_addiction4_23a0bf8d6b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T04:51:51.452Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 We have a slogan in our program, “If you want to keep what you
 have, the only way is by giving it away to others.”
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 The events of 8 years back changed everything for me. Taking
 responsibility for myself and my life was a turning point. When my
 parents and my wife backed out, that’s when I realized, “I’m on my own.
 I have to sort it out. I have to get it together.”
 

 
 Now I’m going well. It’s fun. Doing the same thing that got me back to
 life 8 years ago keeps me going. We have a slogan in our program, “If
 you want to keep what you have, the only way is by giving it away to
 others.”
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM</h4>

 <hr />

Dealing with addiction

Amit Ray

The essence of life

Mr. Ghosh is one of the world’s most celebrated authors and thinkers, best known for his historical fiction. He holds two lifetime achievement awards, and has been awarded the Padma Shri, the Jnanpith Award, the Dan David Award, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.



Amitav-Ghosh.jpg

Amitav Ghosh

<h4>
 AMITAV GHOSH
 is one of the world’s most celebrated and awarded authors and thinkers. In
 conversation with
 TARA KHANDELWAL and
 MICHELLE D’COSTA, he talks about his latest
 book,
 The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, a
 non-fiction story highlighting the origins of our current climate
 crisis.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 AG:
 Thank you for your very generous words of welcome.



 TK: Your latest book,
 The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, weaves
 history, colonialism, migration, superstition, and much more, to tell us
 an origin story of our current climate crisis. As a millennial, I am
 really interested in this very urgent issue. Why did you choose the lens
 of the nutmeg to tell this story?



 AG:
 The story of the nutmeg I take as an analogy for what is happening in the
 world right now. The nutmeg tree was a miraculous plant that existed only on
 the tiny Banda Islands and their surroundings in the Maluku province of
 Indonesia. For millennia, the nutmeg tree brought wealth and prosperity to
 these islands and the islanders. They became great entrepreneurs sailing
 across the Indian Ocean. Ultimately, the Dutch arrived and wanted to gain
 complete control of the nutmeg trade. So, what did they do? They wiped out
 the islanders. The islanders were destroyed because of their miraculous
 tree.



 It is an analogy for what has happened to our planet. We were given a
 beautiful planet full of all kinds of miraculous things. And now we have set
 about destroying this gift. The story of the nutmeg and the Banda Islands is
 one of the earliest examples of what’s now known as the resource curse, that
 is, a resource that ultimately creates devastation around it. Another
 example is oil in Iraq or Libya. In the same way, the vast gifts of the
 Earth have now been exploited to the point where the whole Earth is becoming
 subject to the resource curse.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<img decoding="async" width="559" height="708" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/The_resource_curse2_5367552113.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:32:26.531Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 MDC: That’s really
 heartbreaking. I will never see the nutmeg in the same
 way again after reading your book. The first chapter is one of my
 favorites, because you talk about how one small incident of a lamp falling
 changes the course of history. You were haunted by this particular
 incident while you were writing the book in Brooklyn during the pandemic
 amidst all the ambulance sirens. Will you please narrate this story to our
 listeners? And what did it feel like writing this book in the middle of
 the pandemic?



 AG:
 It was a very strange time. You’ve lived through the pandemic, so you will
 be aware how strange it was. Everything was changing in the world. New York
 City, especially Brooklyn, is a very lively, vivacious place, and suddenly
 everything went quiet. On the street you could hear a dog bark from blocks
 away, except for when the ambulances were racing through. And that was
 happening all through the night and day. My house is not very far from one
 of Brooklyn’s largest hospitals, and outside there were refrigerated trucks
 for all the bodies of the dead. It was a very eerie time of great fear, as
 you will remember from your own experience.



 I had been planning to write this book for a long time, and just as the
 lockdown started, I began work on what ultimately became
 The Nutmeg’s Curse. Very little is actually known about what
 happened in the Banda Islands in those days. I first learned about it from a
 very short book by an American historian, Willard A. Hanna,
 Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and Its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands. That’s where I read about the
 lamp that fell in Selamon on the night of
 April 21, 1621. It really caught my attention and I thought, “How does the
 falling of a lamp lead to this calamity?” I wanted to see what had happened
 in greater detail, and I discovered that the only book that addresses this
 history was written by a Dutch archivist, J.A. Van der Chijs, published in
 Dutch in 1886.



 I discovered this when, on impulse, I did a Google search and found a pdf of
 the book. I printed it, but it was in Dutch so I couldn’t read it. On
 another impulse, I typed some of the Dutch sentences into a translation app.
 Then mysteriously, miraculously, something comprehensible appeared. I began
 to spend hours, days, typing in paragraph after paragraph, page after page
 of this Dutch book until I was able to piece it together with some help.



 TK: I love the way you
 describe this in the book. Was this the most
 challenging part of researching this book, not having access to the
 language?



 AG:
 It was so frustrating, but I’ve dealt with many languages and I didn’t
 allow myself to be intimidated. I thought, “If I persevere I’ll be able to
 do it.”



 MDC: I think it’s also
 an intellectual challenge that pushes you forward
 in a way.



 Your book addresses some of the many violent ways in which Europeans have
 invaded places and impacted their original inhabitants. One shocking fact I
 learned was how the Lord Chancellor of England, Sir Francis Bacon, justified
 the massacres on the islands as having been willed by God. So, what did you
 discover when researching this book that was really shocking to you?



 AG:
 When I got into the historical sources about what had happened during the
 colonization of the Americas, the scale of the violence was absolutely
 unbelievable. Between 70% and 90% of the Indigenous populations were wiped
 out through extraordinary orgies of violence. What happened in the 16th
 and 17th centuries in the Americas was quite unprecedented. The
 scale of that violence really has no match anywhere, honestly.



 But I think it’s important to understand that climate change, the way that
 it is unfolding, is also a kind of violence. It’s the kind of mediated
 violence that has also unfolded in the Americas. The violence of the
 Americas was of a particular type; it was not like the Second World War
 where people were killed with machine guns – that technology didn’t exist
 back then. In fact, a large part of the violence of the colonization of the
 Americas unfolded via the environment. Environmental changes wiped out
 people’s ways of life. The environment itself became an instrument of
 violence. And this is what we are seeing today; the environment has again
 become an instrument of violence.



 For example, the people in Bengal are losing their lands, losing their
 livelihoods, to rising waters and intensifying cyclones. Climate change is
 not merely a thing of greenhouse gas emissions and policy decisions. Climate
 change is a kind of war. We’re confronting a form of ecological violence.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<img decoding="async" width="559" height="708" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/The_resource_curse3_e40fedd8a5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:34:07.891Z" />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="text-center">
 But I
 think it’s important to understand that climate change, the
 way that it is unfolding, is also a kind of violence.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 TK: And it’s so
 visceral, the changes that people deal with on a
 day-to-day basis. I’m really interested in the way you wrote about climate
 – this paradigm shift. It made me think very differently. You said that
 literature needs to change the way climate is written about. Michelle and
 I were trying to think of books in which climate is front and center or
 the plot vehicle. In all the books we came up with, either the genre was
 dystopian or it was self-help or non-fiction, like Bill Gates’ latest
 book, which gives suggestions like a manual. Yours was such an interesting
 paradigm shift. So, can you tell us how you feel fiction should address
 climate change? You mentioned that one way is to give voice to non-human
 entities. Can you elaborate on that?



 AG:
 Yes. The problem that arose in the 17th century is that the Earth came to
 be thought of as dead by elite westerners. Over time, across the world,
 people accepted this view. Farmers and fishermen don’t accept this view, nor
 do the Adivasis [Indigenous communities in India]. For them the
 Earth is alive and filled with many kinds of beings –
 Adivasis think of forests as living beings, and now we know that
 forests are living beings. But you can’t compensate for the loss of forests
 by planting trees somewhere else, because a forest interconnects the
 multiple species and entities.



<hr class="vertical-space1" />
 


<hr />

<h4 class="text-center">
 Adivasis
 think of forests as living
 beings, and now we know
 that forests are living beings. But you can’t compensate for
 the loss of forests by planting trees somewhere else, because a
 forest interconnects the multiple species and entities.
</h4>

<hr />


<img decoding="async" width="559" height="636" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/The_resource_curse4_418a6f312f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:35:56.432Z" />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 For me, the most difficult challenge facing us today is to do with ethics –
 what our ancestors did, what you read in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,
 and so on. Those texts are filled with the voices of non-human beings of
 many kinds. The Mahabharata begins with snakes, and they are an important
 part of the Mahabharata. That is the greatest challenge facing us today –
 how we write about non-human beings of various kinds. In modern Indian
 literature there are writers who are giving agency and voice to these
 non-human elements.



 MDC: Yes, another
 Adivasi writer I’m reminded of is Hansda
 Sowvendra Shekhar. I absolutely love his writing, his stories are full of
 nature, everything comes to life. You don’t usually see that in stories
 that are set in urban spaces.



 You have addressed
 climate through fiction in your book,
 Gun Island, and through your non-fiction. So, what are the
 takeaways you want your readers to go away with about climate from fiction
 versus nonfiction, because they are two very different forms?



 AG:
 They are different, but they’re also not so different.
 Gun Island is a novel while The Nutmeg’s Curse is
 non-fiction, but in many ways there is a huge overlap. In
 Gun Island I wrote about migrants who are instances of the crisis,
 and I’ve written about the migration crisis in The Nutmeg’s Curse.
 They are interconnected in many ways. In order to really write productively
 about our situation, we have to forget some of these ironclad distinctions
 that were made in the past between fiction and non-fiction, and so on. There
 was always a lot of overlap between these genres.



 A famous example is the work of Herman Melville. Melville used huge amounts
 of non-fiction in his work. He was an ethnographer, so Moby Dick is
 filled with information about whales. In fact, the whole story is based on
 an historical incident. I think we are going to have to loosen the
 boundaries as we go ahead.



 TK: Your research also
 involves speaking to travelers, climate refugees.
 You’ve spoken about Bangladeshi migrants who move to places like Italy
 because of climate conditions in the Bengal region. Could you share an
 anecdote about this? What kind of things were foremost in their minds?
 What were they running from?



 AG:
 Well, I met many Bangladeshi migrants who told me the stories of how they
 left. Often, agriculture had become impossible in their villages, because of
 the erratic rainfall, because of changes in the seasons, and so on. That’s
 increasingly the case across the world. Many of them were forced to leave
 because of those reasons, but if I asked them, “Are you a climate migrant?”
 none of them would accept that. I was very struck by that because
 Bangladeshis are well educated about climate issues. The Bangladesh
 government and many NGOs in Bangladesh disseminate a lot of information. We
 would do well to study what Bangladesh has been doing in terms of both
 education and resilience measures.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<img decoding="async" width="559" height="464" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/The_resource_curse5_2a7aac66cd.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:37:27.836Z" />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 It was very interesting talking to these guys. I would say, “Are you a
 climate migrant?” and they would say, “No,” because it wasn’t just climate.
 It was as Margaret Atwood said, “It’s not just climate change, it’s
 everything change.” There were political difficulties, family issues, and so
 on. In these Italian migrant camps, there were lots of Bangladeshis and
 Pakistanis, but very few Indians. I think the Indians who have been
 displaced by climate tend to migrate within India, except for the Punjabis.
 They are migrating on a large scale now, abandoning their lands. Other than
 that, most migration tends to be toward Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, or the
 West Coast.



 One story I particularly remember was of a young Pakistani boy from a
 farming family in the Punjab. I was speaking to him in Rome, and he had
 fought with his father. It happens all the time, everywhere. At any other
 time, he probably would have gone off to another village, or to a relative,
 and spent a few weeks there. Sooner or later, his father would have said,
 “Son, please come back,” and he would have gone back. In his case, he was
 sulking and he went to the railway station. There he met up with a group of
 migrants who were making their way to Europe and he fell in with them. He
 made this incredible journey, half walking, from Pakistan to Iran, then
 crossing Iran to Turkey, where he was shot at by Turkish soldiers. From
 there he finally ended up in Rome. This is one of the ways in which the
 world has really changed.



 TK: I just can’t wrap
 my head around that story! You know, I recently
 reread your book, The Hungry Tide. It’s amazing the way you
 brought the Sundarbans to life. You have also depicted the Sundarbans in
 other books like Jungle Nama and Gun Island. How have
 things changed in your portrayal of the Sundarbans from
 The Hungry Tide to Gun Island?



 AG:
 The Sundarbans is a landscape and ecology that is being absolutely
 devastated. Each of the cyclones that has hit the Sundarbans in the last ten
 years since The Hungry Tide has made the situation incredibly dire
 for the people there, much more than I imagined. Cyclone Aila was a
 devastating blow to many people, and every year it’s gotten worse. Cyclone
 Amfan in 2020 was completely devastating – a lot of the reclaimed land,
 which was fertile, rice producing, was submerged under seawater. Those lands
 may not be cultivable again for years. Many people have lost their
 livelihoods.



 MDC: Yes, it feels
 like a dystopian world, but unfortunately it is our
 reality, and it is something that we can’t escape.



 TK: On that note,
 thank you so much for being here today and talking to
 us, sharing your insights. The books you’ve written have changed the way I
 think, and they’ve added a lot to my life. Thank you.



 AG:
 That’s wonderful to know. Thank you very, very much.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
 <figure class="has-img-center" style="width: 559px !important">
 <img alt="the-resourse-curse" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/The_resource_curse6_980322347f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:38:43.455Z" />
 <figcaption>Image Source: rawpixel.com</figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>


<hr />


 To listen to the
 original podcast ‘Books and Beyond with Bound’, please
 go to
 <a href="https://boundindia.com/books-and-beyond-podcast/" target="_blank"
 rel="noreferrer noopener">https://boundindia.com/books-and-beyond-podcast/</a>


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

The resource curse

Sri Mātā Amritānandamayī, often known as&nbsp;Amma, meaning mother, is an Indian spiritual leader,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru">guru</a>&nbsp;and humanitarian, who is revered as “the hugging saint” by her followers.&nbsp;She is the chancellor of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita_Vishwa_Vidyapeetham">Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham</a>, a multi-campus research university.

Amma.webp

Amma

Two kinds of poverty

Amruta Patel

<h4
 
 id="h-amruta-patel-is-a-student-at-the-london-school-of-hygiene-tropical-medicine-she-has-been-studying-marshall-rosenberg-s-nonviolent-communication-and-heartful-communication-for-the-last-several-months-here-she-describes-an-experience-volunteering-at-one-of-the-covid-19-vaccination-centers-in-london-where-she-was-able-to-apply-her-newfound-communication-skills-in-a-challenging-situation"
>
 AMRUTA PATEL
 is a student at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine. She
 has been studying Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication and Heartful
 Communication for the last several months. Here, she describes an experience
 volunteering at one of the COVID-19 vaccination centers in London, where she
 was able to apply her newfound communication skills in a challenging
 situation.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h3 class="has-text-align-center">
 
 How Communication Changes Lives
</h3>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 I have been volunteering at the COVID-19 vaccine centers in London on some of
 my days off, and what an experience it has been! After a year of stunted
 conversations over Zoom and carefully extracting myself from situations with
 too many people, I found myself in a massive hall welcoming hundreds of
 strangers on their way to getting their jabs. It was overwhelming, exciting
 and sobering to be a part of this group effort to help combat the virus.



 During one of my shifts, I was working in the post-vaccine waiting area,
 checking on people to see if they were feeling well during their compulsory
 period of observation before they could leave. Everything seemed to be going
 well, and most people were largely positive about the experience, while some
 were still nervous about the vaccine and its effects. The mood was light and
 the vibrations happy, when suddenly a man marched into the room, anger and
 frustration rolling off his shoulders in palpable waves. He exclaimed, “I
 refuse to wait! I’ve waited 45 minutes already for this bloody jab,” as he
 rushed past the paramedics.



 I put my hand up and said, “Sir, please wait for a while so …” and was
 promptly knocked to the ground. I still don’t believe he meant to do it. I
 think I was just in the way, and my arm a bit too close to his frame. He moved
 with such force and energy that the momentum pushed me over. The only thing I
 felt in that moment was shock, as I turned and watched him stride out of the
 room. Not even a moment’s pause to apologize! But then I centered myself and
 thought, “Everything is all right. You are fine and no one was hurt.”



 When I told this story later, my family was upset at the aggression shown
 towards me. He could have stopped and helped, or at least said thank you to
 the people who took time out of their days to volunteer. But perhaps we should
 ask the question, “Why did he do it?”


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h5 class="has-text-align-center">
 I did not have to see this situation as right or wrong. I could feel
 compassion toward someone without letting their behavior or situation
 upset me or my mood.
</h5>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 From what I observed in the few moments I spent in his orbit, he was wearing
 paint-splattered clothes usually seen on contractors or workmen. In addition,
 the vaccination process was running a little late and appointments were
 delayed that day. Perhaps he had a job to get to, or perhaps his manager was
 phoning him to ask why he had not arrived for work yet. If he was paid by the
 hour, perhaps the delay was affecting his ability to make a steady income in
 an already-tough economic climate.



 I have no idea what was going through his head that day, but I have learned to
 look for the drivers behind someone else’s actions and words. In doing so, I
 could remove myself from the situation and empathize with his potential
 predicament. You would think that after eight hours on my feet I would have
 felt incensed and irritated by the whole event, but I left my shift that day
 feeling completely happy and fulfilled. I had contributed to something much
 bigger than him or myself and had thoroughly enjoyed doing so.



 I did not have to see this situation as right or wrong. I could feel
 compassion toward someone without letting their behavior or situation upset me
 or my mood. I cannot think of a more useful way of interacting with the
 complex and dynamic world that surrounds us today.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Turn it around

Ananya is a designer and illustrator who enjoys finding dynamic ways to tell stories. She works on projects with social impact, and runs a youth collective bringing innovative design approaches to climate action and gender equality.

Ananya-Patel.jpg

Ananya Patel

<h4>ANANYA PATEL explores the timeless nature of wisdom and how it affects every little detail of our everyday life.&nbsp;</h4>

Timeless Wisdom

The gigatonne challenge

<h4
 id="h-ananya-patel-shares-her-experience-of-the-gigatonne-challenge-and-how-it-has-helped-her-learn-about-community-building-and-teamwork-with-elizabeth-denley"
 >
 ANANYA PATEL
 shares her experience of the Gigatonne Challenge, and how it has
 helped her learn about community building and teamwork, with
 ELIZABETH DENLEY.
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Q: Ananya, tell us about yourself and what you’re doing.
 

 
 AP: I am a
 graphic designer and illustrator. I’ve also co-founded a climate action
 group in Vadodara, India, called the Vadaavaran Collective. We started
 as a youth-led climate action collective in 2020, in the middle of the
 pandemic, as a lot of us were back home with some time on our hands. We
 signed up to the Gigatonne Challenge run by Complexity University. This
 global community supports and trains people around the world to tackle
 complex global challenges, including climate change.
 

 
 The Gigatonne Challenge helps teams around the world build capacity to
 reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. You start with a small
 target and increase your target as your team grows and becomes stronger.
 The goal is for different teams everywhere to contribute to the global
 movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create green jobs, and
 build resilient communities.
 

 
 Q: What sort of projects are you working on?
 

 
 AP: We
 started with composting for sustainable waste management. There aren’t
 any waste segregation policies in Vadodara, so a lot of waste goes into
 landfill, which can be a health hazard. As young people who didn’t have
 much experience in the climate space, but who shared a deep concern and
 who wanted to impact our community, we started with food waste to start
 building the muscle for tackling this complex challenge.
 

 
 We began working with small residential communities, helping them set up
 composting systems locally. And that has evolved. Initially we were
 collecting waste in our personal vehicles, composting, blogging,
 designing bins with a logo, etc. Then gradually we were at the third
 level of the Gigatonne Challenge, trying to abate 10 tonnes of carbon or
 greenhouse gas emissions per month, for three months, and we received
 some funding to do this.
 

 
 We approached a couple of low-income communities, low-cost housing
 residents in Vadodara, and a self-help group of women with a certain
 level of literacy and education. They were trained by the government to
 carry out public health awareness, AIDS awareness, and other campaigns
 at the community level. They had a considerable impact and influence in
 their community, so we asked if they would be willing to learn how to
 compost and manage waste. We would train them, we would employ them, and
 we would help them set up a livelihood-generating model so they could
 carry this forward. That’s where things started to make sense for our
 group: something that might work for the future, something we could
 replicate.
 

 
 Q: You’ve talked about a lot of decisions. Who made those decisions?
 And how did you make them?
 

 
 AP: We were
 conscious of having a structure and organization where everyone had a
 voice. There was a core team of five or six of us, and a wider volunteer
 and community network. We communicate dour proposals within the network,
 and asked, “Would you like to have an active role in making this happen
 and taking these decisions?” Those who did joined the team.
 

 
 The team of five or six of us steer edit forward, while people in the
 wider network were happy to lend their time and go with our decisions.
 In our team meetings, we heard from each person, what leads they had
 pursued, what insights they had, and what next steps we could take. And
 then the team discussed the best use of our time, resources, and energy.
 

 
 It was important for each team member to have a role and a
 responsibility, and everyone had an equally important role. If any one
 needed support, we offered it. Or, if anyone felt overwhelmed by their
 tasks, help was there to prioritize.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 It was important for each team member to have a role and a responsibility, and everyone had an equally important role.
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 decoding="async"
 width="622"
 height="802"
 alt="climate-action2"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/climate_action2_997d4c2a6b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:44:43.900Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Q: So you worked together as a team without one person leading.
 

 
 AP: Yes.
 The Gigatonne Challenge has a certain structure of targets, reporting,
 and documentation to record the data and tell the story accurately. Some
 team members were good at working with data, while some were good with
 the community, talking to people and connecting with them. We tried to
 find a balance between both those things, and tried to keep the essence
 of what we were doing at the heart of it, while keeping an eye on our
 framework and what we needed to do.
 

 
 Q: How did the composting project go?
 

 
 AP: I think
 it was successful. The women produced a lot of compost, which they then
 started to sell as an additional source of income. We took them to the
 Maker Fest, which happens in Vadodara once a year. We tried to draw out
 these little opportunities over the course of the year, and get these
 women to talk about their story. They were given a bit of training from
 the government and from other organizations to sustain their business,
 make business decisions, and become financially more stable.
 

 
 They faced a lot of community challenges, and a lot of compost was
 destroyed in the process. But through all that, these women kept going.
 They kept collecting waste, they kept talking to people. The lady who
 led the group was a good spokesperson. We tried to highlight her voice
 where we could.
 

 
 We were then approached by other self-help groups around the city,
 wanting to do something similar, because they saw it was bringing value
 to this particular group.
 

 
 I’m about to start a project with a bit more structure – six groups in
 six different localities. We’ve got another round of funding from the
 Gigatonne Challenge and we have designed an action-learning program
 where we gather the women, along with our volunteers who will be working
 with them, and our mentors who give a few hours a week to help these
 groups design their systems.
 

 
 It is an equal education space, and a really lovely environment to have
 these conversations. We have designed a three-month training program on
 waste collection, composting, maintaining compost, basic planting, and
 gardening. Our hope is that we can guide these women to work in their
 localities – where can they find sources of waste, where can they set up
 composters, etc.? Our volunteers and mentors will help them make sense
 of the information, put it into a system, and support them to set up
 livelihood generation hubs around Vadodara. We call them “Waste to
 Wealth” hubs.
 

 
 Q: And you’re also working with Kenyans. Tell us about that.
 

 
 AP: In
 Vadodara, I gradually took on more of a leadership role, coordinating
 the different arms of the team. I found it very fulfilling, and was able
 to use a lot of my skillsets and interests in different ways. So I was
 asked by the Gigatonne Challenge at Complexity University to start
 supporting teams in other parts of the world, and was then introduced to
 a team in Bungoma County, Kenya.
 

 
 It is a youth visionary network that has been operational since
 2018.They wanted a way for their work to have an action-oriented
 tangible impact, which is why they signed up to the Gigatonne Challenge.
 They are farmers in their 20s and 30s, who are very passionate about
 improving farming processes, livelihoods, and the quality of crop
 production in their area. I’ve been working with them for the past 12
 weeks and they have successfully moved from level1 of the Gigatonne
 Challenge to level 3.
 

 
 Q: What does that mean?
 

 
 AP: The
 level refers to targets. A level 1 team has just been introduced to the
 challenge. They are getting a sense of how to take an action-oriented
 approach toward climate crisis. The team is put through a two-week
 program where they are guided by experienced faculty and coaches. I was
 a coach for this team. And their goal for the two weeks was to set up a
 system that abated one tonne of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions
 within the two weeks. It had to be measured in accordance with the
 climate science.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 width="600"
 height="446"
 alt="climate-action3"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/climate_action3_f62cff8b24.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:45:23.943Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Many teams choose food waste because it’s accessible and doesn’t require
 too much infrastructure, expertise, or money to setup. This team also
 chose food waste because composting fertilizers is valuable for their
 farms.
 

 
 When you finish level one, you move to level two, setting up a system
 that abates ten times the carbon or greenhouse gas emissions per month.
 Just to give you a reference, one tonne of carbon or greenhouse gas
 emissions is around 700 to 1200 kilograms of food waste.
 

 
 In Kenya, the team found big market centers where farmers and other
 vendors sold their produce every day. There was a huge source of waste
 that was being dumped or taken to landfill, so they would collect it by
 handcart, bring it to their farms, and create compost.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 decoding="async"
 width="600"
 height="341"
 alt="climate-action4"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/climate_action4_0ae95734ab.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T13:46:02.199Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Q: So, after 12 weeks, what happens next?
 

 
 AP: At this
 stage we’re trying to have a much more structured and intentional way of
 leading teams through. Vadodara was one of the first teams to take up
 the Gigatonne Challenge, and when we started everyone was still figuring
 it out. It’s quite a new approach, completely based on action, in
 accordance with the science, and how we divide the work among everyone
 in the world.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4>

 <hr />

Climate action initiatives

<h4
class="block-heading"
id="h-ananya-patel-talks-about-the-evolution-of-the-gigatonne-challenge-a-grass-roots-environmental-movement-she-also-explores-leadership-why-teams-should-sometimes-take-a-pause-to-connect-and-how-a-sense-of-responsibility-toward-the-people-involved-helps-her-stay-focused-on-the-challenges-at-hand-this-is-part-2-of-her-interview-with-elizabeth-denley"
>
ANANYA PATEL
 talks about the evolution of the Gigatonne Challenge, a grass roots
 environmental movement. She also explores leadership, why teams should
 sometimes take a pause to connect, and how a sense of responsibility
 toward the people involved helps her stay focused on the challenges at
 hand. This is part 2 of her interview with
 ELIZABETH DENLEY.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h3 class="block-heading">
Next Steps in the Gigatonne Challenge
</h3>


Q: How many teams are there around the world now participating in the
 Gigatonne Challenge?



AP: At this
point, we have around70 teams – some not so active, some very active,
some at level 1, some at level 4 – which is 40 times the amount of
waste. It increases 10 times for each level.



I designed a lot of the crowdfunding material for social media,
especially for the more focused campaigns to communicate with the world
about the vision and the work that has been done.



Q: Apart from food waste, what other projects are involved?



AP: There
are a couple of teams in Canada working with energy, with their local
councils. The councils are receptive to creating policies that limit the
use of energy in office buildings.



For the teams in the southern hemisphere, a lot of the work is with
sustainable zero-emission transport, from carts to electric vehicles.
The Gigatonne Challenge helps the teams get electric vehicles for their
work, so that they don’t add to the problem.



Q: Ananya, where do you see this going? You’ve been there since the
 beginning stages. This is something that works at a grassroots level
 around the world, and it’s coordinated out of a university. What sort
 of leadership will make this grow going forward so that it has a huge
 impact on the world?



AP: I
started out as a team member physically going to restaurants and food
vendors, picking up bags of garbage, bringing them to compost, and
actually doing the work. Now I’m helping other teams do that, because I
have built a capacity, I’ve built some experiential knowledge.



I’ve spent time with communities who are experiencing this issue on a
much larger scale. I think I have a responsibility to support these
communities, to help them pick up skills.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
<figure>
 <img
 alt="environment-teamwork2"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/environment_teamwork2_700x555_15503eaa19.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T11:16:33.181Z"
 />
</figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


The climate crisis is something we’ve grown up with, and we can’t ignore
the way it’s happening in the world. One of the things that really had
an impact on me were the big fires in the Amazon. I remember thinking,
“What do we do? What is the future for me?” I know a lot of people who
were coming out of university and starting their careers, and trying to
figure out who they are, when the pandemic hit. A lot of things were
uncertain. At that point I was like, “It doesn’t help to just fret about
it.”



If you can imagine a world where all these issues don’t exist, maybe you
can do something about them. It just made sense to me. I’ve always
wanted my work to have an impact that is beyond myself, that means
something more to the world, and this is something I have stumbled upon
that gives me that.



Q: You’re also a designer and a very good illustrator. How does that
 capacity help with this?



AP: The
teams do a lot of really hard meaningful work, but they don’t have the
tools or the capacity to share their stories in an impactful way.
Telling their stories makes a huge difference. While designing a lot of
infographics and visual material for the Gigatonne Challenge, I have
started to see how the creative aspect comes into play – communicating
the story, and the design.


<h3 class="block-heading">
Tips for Young Leaders
</h3>


Q: What qualities do you think are important for young leaders today,
 given the uncertainty of our future and the need to do something and
 not just wait for somebody else to do something?



AP: When
there is this intense need to do something, it’s easy to get caught up
in the work. I remember being so focused on the project and making sure
the team was okay that I didn’t ask myself, “Am I okay?” Had I done
that, I would have supported the team better. It’s important to take a
minute to assess yourself, what you’re going through. It’s difficult and
challenging, and a lot of people have anxiety about it.



It’s frustrating because things don’t work out sometimes, and it’s easy
to just keep going and going, especially when you don’t have much time.
It’s important to take a step back, assess how you’re doing internally:
Are you in connection with yourself with why you’re doing this work? Why
are you in this space? While working with people, it’s important to keep
reminding yourself of these things, and place yourself in your world. It
helps to keep going, otherwise you can easily feel burned out or lost.
When I did connect with myself, I was able to communicate better with
others.



When I was open about the challenges I was facing, the other team
members were more open about what challenges they were facing. That
created a space in the group where everyone felt it was okay to share
what they were going through.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<div class="block-image">
<figure>
 <img
 alt="environment-teamwork3"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/environment_teamwork3_700x521_d9be731718.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T11:17:07.196Z"
 />
</figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


Q: Is that how you deal with differences of opinion in the team? With
 a team of five, obviously you won’t all agree on things all the
 time.



AP: We
haven’t been in a position of insane conflict, but when everyone is
feeling overworked or tired then conflicts bubble up. I just press pause
on everything.



For example, one time we were not able to agree on how we were spending
the money or what our priorities were. We were all tired and feeling
pressured, so I said, “Can we press pause?” That meant no more spending
money for the next three days. We didn’t go to work for the next three
days. We took a moment, and then we came together and had a physical
meeting.



We spent half a day connecting with each other, talking about what was
important to each of us, why these challenges were coming up, and why we
were having disagreements. That pause and reset helped us pick up and
say, “Okay! Now we’ve understood everyone’s needs, what do we need to do
as a team? In our group’s needs, everyone’s needs came into play. My
training in Heartful Communication has really helped.



Q: Any last words?



AP: The
reason I’m able to continue working with people in this way is because I
have a sense of responsibility toward them. If you don’t have that sense
of responsibility, you can’t do the work as effectively on an
operational level. It’s important for me to remind myself why I’m doing
it, what my role is, and what I need to do to make this work. Then
balance that with accepting those things are not in my hands, as I need
to be patient and mindful with those.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL
</h4>

<hr />

Environment, teamwork, and leadership

When needs must

<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.45%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share2_c6792f7ace.webp" alt="earth-we-share2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share2_c6792f7ace.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share2_c6792f7ace.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share2_c6792f7ace.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h4 style="text-align:justify;">In December 2023, ten ceramicists and sculptors met to collectively express what it’s like to share a world in crisis, through their medium of clay, which is so connected to the Earth. ANANYA PATEL was there to observe the artists in their element, and write about the projects they were working on.</h4>&nbsp;Over a span of two weeks in December, ten ceramists and sculptors from around the world gathered at the Ceramics Center, a not-for-profit studio established in Vadodara in 1998. It was among the first of its kind in India, offering support to artists, and at its heart was Jyotsna Bhatt, the late artist and beloved teacher, who was integral to the evolution of the Ceramic Center and the growth of the community. The center has always operated under an ethos of providing space, infrastructure, and technical expertise to facilitate the experimentation and execution of creative ideas, with a focus on creative expression rather than commercial gain.&nbsp;These ten artists were the second cohort of the “Remembering Jyotsna Bhatt” camp series in her memory, to bring new voices and perspectives to the center. They united under the theme, “The Earth We Share,” collaborating, experimenting and reflecting on the interconnected relationships between humans and the environment, and the issues emerging from geopolitical tension and climate change. The camp culminated in a group exhibition where the artists invited viewers to reflect on the beauty and fragility of the Earth we share. As they worked, artists reflected on their creative practice, on working at the Ceramic Center, on their interpretation of the theme, and on what it means to create art in a collective community setting.With her roots in Vadodara and a long standing relationship with the Ceramic Center, Falguni Bhatt conceptualized this edition of the camp, selected the artists, and curated the show. “This series of works explores the theme of lost landscapes and the impact of human activity on the natural world. I seek to highlight the beauty of the natural environment, while also drawing attention to the ways in which we have altered and destroyed it.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:69.01%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share3_36f32cd7e0.webp" alt="earth-we-share3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share3_36f32cd7e0.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share3_36f32cd7e0.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share3_36f32cd7e0.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Shalini Dam explores geopolitical narratives in her work. Here she prepares the components of her six-meter-long piece exploring the duality of peace and war through its symbolism in various societies and cultures.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.28%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share4_9bcab48f2b.webp" alt="earth-we-share4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share4_9bcab48f2b.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share4_9bcab48f2b.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share4_9bcab48f2b.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.19%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share5_639a6c67c6.webp" alt="earth-we-share5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share5_639a6c67c6.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share5_639a6c67c6.webp 400w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share5_639a6c67c6.webp 400w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Jean Appleby, head of Pottery at the Heartfulness Institute, came to the camp to develop an artistic project.“From the first time I made art, I felt some guidance, that the ideas came to me in full form, not like I was discovering so much as I was receiving.”&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:69.14%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share6_c7846604d9.webp" alt="earth-we-share6.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share6_c7846604d9.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share6_c7846604d9.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share6_c7846604d9.webp 800w," sizes="100vw">&nbsp;Recently, the guidance Jean received led her to explore an imagined narrative around early human civilization. She crafted a collection of objects created and preserved by early beings to be discovered and used in the present day.&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:70.59%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share8_877097ff3d.webp" alt="earth-we-share8.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share8_877097ff3d.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share8_877097ff3d.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share8_877097ff3d.webp 800w," sizes="100vw">On creating these vessels for others to reflect upon, she hoped to “inspire us to recognize that many beings from many places have inhabited our planet. All beings entrust us to nurture Earth for all to become ONE.”Shweta: “I believe an artist’s thought has a voice that rings through their work to resonate with its audience. The artwork is an expression of that minimalism that hopes to provoke the viewer to reflect and delve deeper within. My ceramic works are in reverence and gratitude to our life force or energy, to Nature, and our planet Earth.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:69.81%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share7_8fe4c1f09b.webp" alt="earth-we-share7.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share7_8fe4c1f09b.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share7_8fe4c1f09b.webp 400w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share7_8fe4c1f09b.webp 400w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.23%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share9_16e48ac01a.webp" alt="earth-we-share9.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share9_16e48ac01a.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share9_16e48ac01a.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share9_16e48ac01a.webp 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure>Dr. Julie Bartholomew was inspired to continue her research on bees and insect communities. She started her Habitat series in 2020 as a response to the loss of biodiversity, particular insect life, following the wildfires that devastated habitat in Australia. A beekeeper herself, her pieces are architecturally constructed working hives that can sustain bee communities and promote their population growth.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.36%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share10_08d98eebc9.webp" alt="earth-we-share10.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share10_08d98eebc9.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share10_08d98eebc9.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share10_08d98eebc9.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:67.58%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share11_d71f1e9077.webp" alt="earth-we-share11.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share11_d71f1e9077.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share11_d71f1e9077.webp 290w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share11_d71f1e9077.webp 290w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;This interest in bees and their collaborative communities is also shared by fellow artist, Antra Sinha. Antra says, “I am intrigued by the different types of shelter that exists in our civilization, and their status. I continue to think about hives, bees, and the collaboration that exists in communities of sentient beings and compare it to humans.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.96%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share12_8169d71f20.webp" alt="earth-we-share12.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share12_8169d71f20.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share12_8169d71f20.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share12_8169d71f20.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:71.08%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share13_17f5b72bbe.webp" alt="earth-we-share13.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share13_17f5b72bbe.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share13_17f5b72bbe.webp 400w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share13_17f5b72bbe.webp 400w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Indrani Singh Cassime shared her insights on the artistic collaborative community developing at the Ceramic Center. “I have made some lifelong friends, so overall it has been a fantastic experience. We have markings and angles. Hidden and seen, yet to be explored. To me exploring a new material and pushing its limits is just like exploring a new friendship.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:71.25%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share14_e27cd1e84d.webp" alt="earth-we-share14.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share14_e27cd1e84d.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share14_e27cd1e84d.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share14_e27cd1e84d.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:49.16%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share15_61d6b2ef3f.webp" alt="earth-we-share15.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share15_61d6b2ef3f.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share15_61d6b2ef3f.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share15_61d6b2ef3f.webp 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Indrani used this opportunity to experiment with the distinctive features of her environment and the synergy emerging within the group. She brought her own materials, like volcanic sand from a beach near her studio in Pondicherry, and mixed them with clays, glazes, and wood fire ash from the Ceramic Center, creating pieces with unique textures and effects. Her series of Memory Vessels are made of various mixtures of clay collected from her fellow artists’ workstations.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">To me exploring a new material and pushing its limits is just like exploring a new friendship.</h4><hr>Khageswar Rout is inspired by the unique materiality of the medium: “All the natural elements work together to create a ceramic piece. It emerges from the earth, and water gives it malleability, without which you cannot shape it. Air dries it in place, but keeps it fragile and tenuous, until it is cast in fire to give it strength and hold its form.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:60.3%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share16_42123ea71e.webp" alt="earth-we-share16.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share16_42123ea71e.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share16_42123ea71e.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share16_42123ea71e.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;He, along with others, observed that in India, very few community-centered studios exist, where artists have the opportunity to work on equal ground, share ideas and knowledge, and draw inspiration from one another. “We have become used to working in our own studios, to make and promote our own work. We have forgotten that art is meant to be learned and created by receiving from and giving to one another, not in isolation. It used to be that way, but we don’t teach young artists that, and we don’t practice it ourselves.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.35%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share17_16a7fcaf44.webp" alt="earth-we-share17.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share17_16a7fcaf44.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share17_16a7fcaf44.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share17_16a7fcaf44.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Art is meant to be learned, and &nbsp;created, by receiving from and giving to one another, not in isolation.</h4><hr><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.66%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share18_412abff9ae.webp" alt="earth-we-share18.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_earth_we_share18_412abff9ae.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_earth_we_share18_412abff9ae.webp 800w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/earth_we_share18_412abff9ae.webp 800w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;After just a few days in each other’s company, a sense of togetherness and harmony emerged in the space. Each participant supported and collaborated with the others to enhance their knowledge and explore new avenues, lending a fresh set of eyes and a helping hand when needed. They expressed the need for artists to share their learnings and experiences in community art spaces so young creatives have access to more knowledge and opportunities. Many generously shared their new discoveries and recipes with the Ceramic Center, facilitating upcoming generations of ceramic artists, and nurturing an environment of respect and care where they can produce meaningful work that pushes boundaries.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Photographs from the CERAMIC CENTER, BARODA</h4><hr>

The Earth we share

Anchal Shrivastava lives in Pune, India. A Renaissance man with a passion for life itself, he learns from observation, experience and most of all the insights from the heart.

anchal-shrivastava-img.jpg

Anchal Shrivastava

Being spiritual, at its core, is just being aware of the spirit inside and attending to its needs. My body has
 material needs of food, cleanliness, exercise etc. which I fulfil duly as it keeps me running. Similarly, my
 soul too has needs of purity, positivity, righteous living, love etc.&nbsp; So when my soul is deprived of its
 needs, how can I realign my soul and body to become one, which is the secret and primary need of success in any
 field?
<img decoding="async" alt="self-being" width="280" height="283"
 class="lazyload py-3 img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/spirituality_in_daily_life_2_img_498cc1b25a.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-30T10:21:31.620Z">Righteous
 living pertains to, but is not limited to, doing the right thing always, which we have made very difficult for
 ourselves in today’s life. We have become so used to doing things as per our convenience, that we don’t care
 whether what we are doing is morally and ethically right. So, who is really harmed here? Not others, but only
 our soul, which is getting engrossed and heavy. We can really feel the difference when we do something good,
 especially something good for others; we feel good and light. It’s a beautiful feeling, isn’t it!
So what I am trying to speak of here is a basic need, and the primary teaching in every religious and spiritual
 institution – the right way of living. If there is anything more important to spirituality than this, it is the
 right way of thinking, which again eventually builds up to righteous living.
Now one may ask how do I know what is right and what is wrong? Well, the soul always knows it, and guides us too!
 What we have to do is be aware of the presence of our soul inside. Believe me, you can listen to it. But to be
 able to listen to your inner Self takes a lot of practice, and this practice is best known as meditation. So I
 believe including this very practice of listening to the soul in our daily life, acts as the first and very
 important step towards finding spirituality in our daily life.
As they say, “Keep calm and meditate”.
&nbsp;

<hr>

<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by ANCHAL SHRIVASTAVA</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Photography by MONA MISHRA</h4>

<hr>

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