It was in 1989, when I left the cosy abode of small town Bokaro Steel City in Jharkhand for higher studies. As my friends from St. Xaviers' School are celebrating the Silver Jubilee of our passing out, it's an occasion to walk down the memory lane as the year 2014 winds up and at once, peek into the future of what the next 25 years may hold for us.
The winter as i fondly remember used to be warm under the puffed up handmade rajaai (quilt). Much of the time was devoted to studies, even skipping the occasional Chitrahaar on DD. Food was much tastier with a good variety of fresh organic vegetables (my favourite one being the satputiya jhiguni, an eclectic variety from the ridge gourd family) that we would get from the village behind the hills. The air was filled with expectations of life outside the small town. It was kind of a ritual that most of us would leave behind the small town as our dreams had grown much bigger.
As years passed by, the dreams only got bigger, if not larger than life. A brief 2 year stint saw me back in the Bokaro Steel Plant, more as a preparation for a CAT-shot at the IIMs and it all worked perfectly to plan. An MBA from IIM Calcutta took me to places where I wanted to be. To Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi where I spent much of the last 20 years.
Life has taken quite a few turns in the past 6 years when i was naturally drawn to the cultural and civilizational roots of our beloved country Bharat. The turning point came in a tête-à-tête with noted historian, social scientist, educationist and artist par excellence Ravindra Sharma ji, founder of Kala Ashram in Adilabad, presently in Telangana. This was over a five-day story telling shivir in Bijnor.
By some divine coincidences, I found myself in places where I least expected to be - in a village on the mountain slopes of Kullu in Himachal, in a Kathiavadi hamlet near Wardha in Vidarbha, Barsana in Mathura, Saurath in Madhubani, Punaura Dham in Sitamadhi and most recently to Naimish Aranya near Sitapur and to Kalamati and Karanjo villages in Jharkhand. In every of these numerous places, i felt a lot more energised - in body and mind - i could so happily settle down in any of these places for the rest of my life. The energy that comes from the oxygen-rich air and the pristine natural surroundings and sheer warmth of the village folks.
Coming back to the sickly, oxygen-starved cities and demented minds that the city does to even the bright ones is such a dreadful nightmare. I feel trapped and suffocated in its sharp confinements waiting for the earliest opportunity to be back in the rich and warm world of the villages.
The dreams have only grown bigger. Over the next 25 years, I dream of restoring the traditional richness, warmth and beauty of the Classical Bharatiya Village in every of the nearly 6 lakh villages in the country.
It may seem quaint to many of you in the Sick and the City as to what is life like in the Classical Bharatiya Village, unless you can wake up the pioneer and the explorer in each one of you and discover the village life on your own. A helping hand could likely come from my new venture on Rural Immersion at the cusp of Drishtee (www.drishtee.com) and Ekal Sansthan (http://ekalsansthan.org).
You could plan anywhere between a week to a few months in the various places that we are readying to welcome people for a warm and rich village life. For the Classical Bharatiya Village, this is not something that exists as of now, but something that we gonna co-create over the next 25 years, NaMo or NoMo.
A warm and lovely happy new year to all my dear friends from Alka, Sania, Pari and me.
