Samanvaya News Room

 It was perhaps in the early days  of being introduced to the alternate sector in the late 90s or early 2000s that I was introduced to the amazing book called Bapu Kuti by Rajni Bakshi . It had profiles some of the most amazing people who were making a big impact already in the country. We were fortunate to meet up with some of those in the book and work with a few of them as well.  But I had not met with the Rajni Bakshi till early 2019. In fact, I saw her name appear in an online group couple of years ago. It was in Jan 2019 when she came to the Vikalp Sangam meeting in Auroville that I actually got to meet with her.  A serious scholar, she was hanging out with another one of her generations heroes for me, Uma Shankari .  While in the office she recorded an interview with with me as part of the Ahimsa conversations that she was having.  Of course, due to background sounds and poor recording quality, we had to do it again and the same is online now . ...

"so you came to flaunt how rich you are, living among all these amazing people", commented LC Jain when i met him physically the last time in Bengaluru. I had taken an amazing voluntary network coordinator with me to meet him. I had visited him couple of times earlier, once met his wife, Devaki, briefly when I had been to his place for lunch with my wife. Among the many materials he had sent me as reference for my work were one lecture by her. She was charming when we met and made great sense when I read her lecture. In  2006 , when Dharampalji died he sent a personally written note for the memorial meeting we organised in Chennai. When he passed away in Delhi, it was a personal loss because I learnt much even within the short duration. So, when I ordered this book it was with an expectation that was personal as well as professional. It arrived yesterday and I haven't put it down yet. What a remarkable life! It is one thing to be born into an upper class south...

 

Snippets of conversations on Ahimsa, it was great to have this conversation with Rajni Bakshi. Though the first conversation was recorded under better environment in the middle of moving around and having lunch together in Sustainable Livelihood Institute in early January, due to disturbing nature of the audio we had to re-record the interview again during the lock down in the more sedentary position with me sitting in my cluttered home office....The full conversation is already available on youtube alongside these snippets.