As it was the
start of the new year and I felt that this year should be a special year,after
2019 was a year of so many unforgettable moments, I decided to make a short
visit to Sristi Foundation a eco sustainable village near the outskirts of
tindivanam before the city of Puducherry where my friend Mr Ebin, a research
scholar is doing his internship over a year and has always got a fruitful
experience of life apart from the normal busy schedule.
I started on the eve of Pongal (a festival of
tamilians) and it was a enriching experience to understand life, apart from our
normal day to day life, and I reached in the afternoon of the 17th
of January 2020 and I was greeted by Ebin and we had to ride around a small but
long road inside the village of Kunanmangalam which the village was once passed
by a King, who had his chariot broken and had no other choice to stay over and
was joyfully taken care by the people in the vicinity and looking at the
character and the respect and down to earth character of the people he named
the village as Kunanmangalam, and we rode around and reached sristi foundation
a lush campus, that is surrounded by nothing but a dry road and I was
overwhelmed with Joy looking at the greenery since I am from Chennai and we don’t
get to see that, not only me but almost a whole lot of people.
Adding a bit of a short story which I read
from,
Sristi Foundation
was named after the Sanskrit word which means «creation». Indeed, we want to
create a world for those who are marginalized and people with intellectual and
developmental disability, a world which they could call their own, and where
everyone would be treated with equal respect. To achieve this goal, we bought
8.39 acres of land in Thazhuthali Village (30 km from Pondicherry).
I had to dine in
for lunch and had the fortunate chance of meeting its founder Mr Karthikeyan
Ganesan, a Young Energetic, always caring individual who was a revelation, in
the story of life and how he had to give about his little contribution for the society,.
Then it was a foundation
where they take care of people with disability, my possibly the second
experience of having a meal together, and was rejoicing the afternoon, filled
with smiles around in seeing me, then set out to take a ride around the
foundation to explore the various sustainable activites and quite overwhelmed
in understanding the fact that even when the entire surrounding go without
crops in summer, there is our foundation that helps to sustain life and move
on.
Understanding the
idea of a fruit forest was a different experience and enriching was to see few
friends from foreign land, were on foot to learn the art of agriculture and
help to learn the art of life.
Then evening
dawn, with a little bit of a drizzle and we set out to a nearby village taken
care by the Youth who have been
idealized and moved by the values of Dr BR Ambedkar for a short festival
celebration where all young ones be part to bring out their talents.
And also was a
opportunity to witness the village is separated by the road in centre, where
one end of the town , is led by the lower caste and the other end of the town
lived and nurtured well by the Upper caste, it’s still a dream of understanding
developing India and yes that’s life.
We returned back
to our home, which is bamboo, house, lush air in the night surrounded by the
stars and green fresh air, the 1st time, I ever had never to see a
fan needed.
The next day was
a melancholy in witnessing the dawn of the morning rises along with you and
your part of it, wish we still find something like that in life and the morning
began in a experience to speak to the young people of the foundation on leadership
and what changes in life when you ask the question WHY?.
It was a
memorable sessions of all that I gave, since I was finally getting to see a lot
of people showing interest, since being in the fast moving world, many sessions
where I addressed we find people equipped with media and the influence of
it and they miss the art of meeting in
person and speaking,.
I felt happy in
doing a better job in this short span of time and making them understand the
need of values and how important it is to take guidance from holy books.
And we broke down
for lunch and helped to spend some quality time, in speaking with the children
to understand each one’s story and personally, I have listened to few stories
and of the way they were before here and how life has transformed them to understand
and move a pace with life.
We then set out
as it was the evening and we had a nice evening spent at a little while in the
nearby vacant area surrounded by trees and gazing at the stars and was
fortunate, and made me realize this is life, though there is many we get in
life, we tend not to move with and we stop, and realized enjoy life no matter
what it is…
Money will come, but time doesn’t.
And
retuned back to our home and room and set foot to bed with the quietness of
life.
We
began the next day, in meeting the Mr Karthik and was a long conversation on
life, values, biology and the contribution to society at large and it was fruitful word to understand the need of life
and how to go about it.
I
bid a big thank you to all and returned back to my home back, with lot of
memories of life, walk, and the art of there is more to life than work.
It gave me the
life learning of Is it time to unplug? despite our busy schedule of life and no
time to even talk moments, do we need a pause to understand the essence and the
value of personal time and the growth phase of one's life is when you give time
than the mobile phone in hand...
