Shades of Being Alive

Its a path we are beginning as a couple, Vibhuti and me. However we hope we find a community to do this together with, because it will be simply more fun. In this blog, I wish to share with you why I/we intend to do this. And what is the dream that we are pulled towards. Most of the intentions, are the ones that I am already trying to live, locating myself on a land - is like an extension to this journey, it feels to me. Sharing this with you because you have contributed so much to my life and work. And I seek to keep walking with you, over a long period of time. Our teacher Humberto Matruana (in fact, our teacher's teacher ;)) would say - Whatever you choose in the manner of your living gets conserved for the future generations. So far over the last decade of living an aware life - the most important focus has been to live. I didn't want to just earn a livelihood I have wanted to live. What it has meant for me is to be witness to what is unfolding in life through me. I am als...

  The compartmentalisation of the human being.  On one side, each of us can access the entire universe through ourselves, on the other side, we are forced into a system which makes us part of a mega-machine extracting and violating the Earth. These opposing forces create burnout.

More and more, its becoming visible to me- what’s the work for us. Perhaps, our life’s work. Over 8 years into Youth Alliance, it seems we are just beginning.  Humanity faces a civilisational crisis - that is made up with ecological crisis because we are consuming twice more than earth can regenerate; economic inequity because less and less people own more and more wealth in the world; political polarisation because nationalistic identity based division is rising world over and even spiritual crisis, because we feel more and more alienated from our own selves.  Or perhaps, as human beings we are in a stage of transition. From an industrial society to a life sustaining one. From a story of separation to a story of interconnectedness or interbeing.  From Google Last 8 years, in our work - we have created spaces for young people to get in touch with their own selves, with nature and with people whose realities is completely different from their own. Initial...

Gramya Manthan has been happening for 8 years in the same village cluster in Kanpur Dehat and we have been sitting in the shade of this banyan tree since then. Only this year, we began calling it Dadimaa Bargat (Grandmother Banyan). Gramya Manthan invites people to reflect on one’s days - how would it be to draw from a witness of 300 years, was a sense we tried to hold. Grandmother Banyan has seen several storms, monsoons, changes in her lifetime. One of the work that has happened to us and through us is to reclaim the sacred in nature. Looking at nature not just as a material resource but as a spirit. And not just nature outside - what would it be to not just look at our own bodies as a material resource? Another aspect to this has been experiencing a different rhythm of life than the rhythm most urbanites are used to - clock-time, weekday-weekend etc. Experiencing seasons, experiencing daylight and nightsky, experiencing birds chirping or trees shedding leaves. We would start the d...

Contributor: Shashank  As we come to a close of 2018, reflecting on several aspects of us evolving and getting more rooted - what enabled it and what became a barrier. In these times, even personal change is radical as it has become increasingly difficult to take charge of our own lives given the technocracy indoctrinating our lives. Youth Alliance has been blessed with a community that stands firm and continuously enables personal change as well as collective. Sharing about 11 organizational experiments that we began towards a zero waste being - all these experiments in our office space and work culture have emerged naturally from the being of the people involved. There are no policies written, no strategies made and no budgets put aside. 1. Composting in Office  Post  EarthShastra , it was almost natural to set up compost pots in office to reduce our waste by over 70% with simply some space and two pots. No smells, no insects - only some...

I have enjoyed this song since Masan came, but last Saturday it occured to me in absolutely different tune. I kind of peeled another layer and a new meaning became visible to me through the song. For me this song, in a simple yet profound way summarises the predicament of the modern human selves, the self which is in incessant pursuit. a search for infinite in the finite world  a search for happiness in material wealth. Not realising that wealth comes from well being and well-being is a state of being and so is happiness. The world has always been an illusionary reality to seek its true meaning, one would need to go beyond it Modernity with its sophisticated ways has just expanded its influence on the selves In a way that we are always running And yet getting nowhere. This song showed the mirror to me See if it does to you? If yes, we will sing it along.. Here's the song, lean in..listen. Beginning with setting the metaphor of musk deer, ...