We head out to Vijaywada from Chennai covering a distance of almost 400 odd kms. in a day which is roughly an eight hour drive.

At Vijaywada, we were hosted by Dineshbhai and family. Dineshbhai is a businessman who owns 8 multi-brand clothing stores across 4 cities but a person whose heart is in service. His business expertise is all about his people. His success mantra is “This too shall pass”.

Vijayawada is a small city with different communities – Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi and mostly they belong to the business class. Dineshbhai is a very well known businessmen and has a clout of people around him from all the communities. These communities are known for donating to good causes and running different social organizations. He had invited groups of friends to discuss and explore more in the area of serving. We were surrounded by food, people and questions about the yatra and our purpose. We shared about our humble experiments of RAK’s, Karma Kitchen and other such projects. These endless conversations suddenly find respite when ViR brings his tambura and the kabir spirit flows. All of us become one with those flowing words and calm comes over.’

Kabir’s magic helped us all decide on hosting a Karma Kitchen as everyone was in sync with our sharing about it at various locations. All were happy at the emergence and were excited about it. This was the first time they were coming together and hosting something and exploring love in service to the collective without attaching their personal name to it. The day ended with physical tiredness but the soul was fresh.

Dineshbhai has lovely twin daughters who were keen on “doing something” and wanted to try RAK. So we headed out with juice, biscuits and bread to offer to anyone randomly. This was their first experiment and they had never spoken to strangers on the street before. With a little hesitation the first ice-breaker happened with a cart puller who was loaded with a tree that had fallen. He was so happy and his smile melted the girls. We went on for an hour offering food and juice to auto rickshaw pullers who had not got any work that day, rag pickers and a fruit vendor too. He was most surprised as he thought we wanted to buy something and here the twins Nidhi and Nikki were offering something something instead. It was a joyful hour for all of us and everything seemed just right.
We were then in one of Dineshbhai’s M&M stores. He shared his journey of taking over the business from his father and how he and his brother run the show. What struck with me was the way he treated all his employees. He has not taken any formal degree in HR but his human development skill comes naturally. He then shared a story of a boy who joined them as a peon. He was bright and hardworking so Dineshbhai personally trained him and now he is the manager of all 8 stores! What was even more striking was we saw that manager helping a customer select clothes at one of the counters. Upon asking him he said he loved connecting with people and sales gave him an opportunity to serve a long-term customer. His understanding in building trust-based network was something I had learnt in theory of HR but never seen in practice. This was again a proof that universe rewards people who operate with a sound value base, humility and genuine concern for all.

In the afternoon, everyone was bustling with Karma Kitchen preparations and a group of friends who were keen to offer themselves to serve.

This reminded me of all the Karma Kitchens we had hosted in the past and I started missing all my friends in that moment. Time and again I have experienced coming alive by cooking, serving and spending those moments with the guests. The magic was created one more time in no time and we were all chatting like good old buddies at the Gurudwara kitchen. The evening unfolded with around 30 guests and kids who stay at the Gurudwara, multiple sharing circles where everyone poured their hearts out. At night I was in wonder of the evening that had transpired – a space that was moved by love with everyone’s cup of gratitude overflowing. Amidst all this, we got a chance to hold a satsang with Dinesh’s mom who is 60+. She shared about her guru and how “naam Jap”, chanting the name of lord brings her peace.

Varsha didi tagged us with food for the way and Dineshbhai tagged us with Rs. 10,000 to put it to good use. As this had not happened during the yatra so far, I felt a little awkward receiving it but there was a lesson for me to accept it humbly without differentiating much between tangible and intangible gifts. Before we left, ViR offered another round of Kabir satsang and as the words “kin sang sneh karah” flowed I closed my eyes and offered a prayer for this beautiful family and friends who became like sandalwood trees spreading the fragrance to whoever comes close by. We departed physically from there but everyone occupied a place in our hearts.

Before I begin sharing about Bhubaneshwar, I wish to mention a special person – Hariji, who has been an integral part of the yatra and helped arrange for our visits to Vizag, Bhubaneshwar and Jharkhand. Hariji was concerned about us being on the highway in unknown spaces with no reference so he arranged for our meeting and stays at schools in Vijaynagaram. At Bhubaneshwar, he had arranged for our stay at the Jindal steel guest house and we were to visit their steel plants at Jajpur, Kalinganagar and share about what we do. With deep gratitude to Hariji who connected us with yet another world of experiences.

So we headed out from Vijaynagaram to Bhubaneshwar on NH-5 to cover a distance of almost 450 kms. This part of the yatra was somewhat structured and it was good once in a while to enjoy the flow within that structure. The road was beautiful and as we were driving I was thinking about all the beautiful roads that I had driven on and my heart was filled with a sense of pride for our country that is vast with manifold landscapes soothing the eye. Mother nature has been very kind to give us 12 months of sunshine and perfect seasons. Everything was gliding with us on that road. As we approached lunch time, we stopped by at Chilika lake. It is known as the queen of natural beauty with the expanse of blue water on one side and the evergreen hills on the other side. As it was off season, we had the luxury of the lake to ourselves for a good amount of time. We shared a prayer with the queen before leaving.

We reached Bhubaneshwar and were hosted at the Jindal guesthouse that offered a very luxurious stay. The following day, to our surprise, Jindal Steel sends a car for us to travel to Kalingnagar. We were informed that the road was not good and moreover, the area was influenced by naxalites and so they thought it was safer for us to travel in a local vehicle. So our car got some rest for those two days. After a 3-hour drive through villages and mining areas, we reached the huge gates of Jindal steel. This feeling of corporation, people in suits, blue collar and white collar, took me down the memory lane to companies I worked with and all the learning I have gathered. I was shaken out of my comfort zone of yatra to suddenly come to awareness and adjust to this old experience coming and meeting me in a new way!

My mind was alerted to the questions coming from the CSR head, who was our point of contact and the co-ordinator for all the activities we had planned. Before even I knew, I was in a conference room discussing Bhav yatra! Initially it was difficult to explain what “moved by love” meant as the CSR team would go back to asking about how we sustain and if “MBL” would pay us for volunteering!? I tried to explain to the best of my ability and then decided to demonstrate. Of course we had to work with constraints of “no financial implications to the company”.

That evening, ViR’s kabir appeared to help me as he started singing at the company club house and as he explained Bhav Yatra through songs, everything seemed to ease out. At the end of the satsang, those around opened up and discussed service in a new light. The next day looked very promising.

We visited a school cum hostel for girls that Jindal runs as a part of CSR initiative. ViR sang and I shared about the yatra with the girls. They were so fascinated and wished to join the yatra. In that moment I thought if there was a genie, I would ask to fulfill their wish to fly out as free birds, and also felt a little sad that girls in our country get so little chance to explore their own lives or even to travel on their own. I wondered why we were so conservative. Before we could leave, it started raining and everyone became happy that we will get some more time together. They invited me to stay in their hostel that night but it was out of the rule book so couldn’t do it. That experience will surely stay for a longer while and the urge to do something for women empowerment grew stronger.

Later, we were shown around the factory. The huge machines, the hot furnaces and strong hands toiling around brought us to the steel reality of their lives. There was just noise of machines, extreme heat of boiling iron and mechanized humans working around. As an outsider I was excited to see the factory but as I observed everything I got an eerie feeling that this place was void of joy and heartfelt compassion. I felt helpless as we could not carry heart pins inside otherwise we could’ve been able to bring a smile on someone’s face.

Well, we left with deep gratitude for what life had offered us. We did come up with an idea of sharing good thoughts with everyone who would join for lunch at the company canteen. So we took some chart paper and sketch pens and CSR team joined us to write good quotes and hand it out at every table. We also managed to put a little décor on every table. CSR team was holding back as they were not yet able to fathom what we were going to achieve. The best part was all of us tried; we shared, smiled and served every possible guest till the end of the lunch hour. Somewhere I considered the option of doing this more often at such places and try and do a little bhav raising!!

The CSR team had also organized a meeting with all their social workers in and around the area who worked in the field of rural health and education. The team shared some of the problems they faced when they offered health solutions. Illiteracy is wide spread to the extent that these villagers are not even able to reason between good and bad for themselves. It seemed like development is far away unless miraculous awareness campaigns are organized. It was ironical to see a campus that is ultra-modern and the moment you step out, you meet people who struggle for basic amenities. We could just hope and pray that things will turn around for better as we were driven back to Bhubaneshwar. The memories and truths of steel city remain.

The following day, we planned to visit Jagannath Puri and Konark temples. We were very skeptical about visiting Jagannath Puri as we had heard that the priests harass the pilgrims and on our way there were herds of people on a walking pilgrimage to the place. This guaranteed that we would face a long queue. The mind tricks you in to becoming stressful and we were thinking if our decision to visit during the pilgrim months was a wise one. However, we were immediately proved wrong as we entered the premises. No priests harassed us and we glided our way in front of the deity without much fuss or long queue. After about half an hour of prayer, we left for Konark.

The Konark temple has been built in the form of a giant ornamented chariot of the Sun god. Today the temple stands as a ruined structure with most of the idols broken. The archeological survey of India has salvaged some part of it to be displayed in the museum. The ruins denote the end of Kalinga architecture.

Our trip to Orissa ended here and we opened a new chapter in the yatra as we drove towards West Bengal.

Meera Maran, the Compassionate Entrepreneur

By the time the Bhav Yatra reached Chennai, the mind had stopped interfering or planning about the coming day. All was in a perfect flow and there was no particular agenda in Chennai.

Anant from Coimbatore had referred me to meet Meera who runs Terrra foods [+] at Chennai. She runs an organic food product outlet and I was very impressed with all items as for the first time in 10 years, I could eat sweets without worrying about my sugar levels. So I thought of taking an official appointment to see her and try to learn some recipes for myself. We meet in her food factory –an extremely neat kitchen with all women smiling around as they make different items. The place is also aesthetically done up and upon asking, to my surprise, I found out that Meera was an architect!

The story of this architect turned organic food entrepreneur slowly unfolded and beneath a hardcore businesswomen I uncovered a person who is dedicatedly holding a community of women around her very strongly with love and utmost respect. She shared that all women who work are from nearby area and they are paid at par with the industry. To promote the organic farmer who sends her supplies of fresh veggies everyday she has agreed upon a price that will support him and does not bargain at any cost. She feels organic foods need to get their due and if we bargain at this end the producer is never going to feel motivated to supply authentic material.

She believes in compassionate service and it starts from where she starts from so there’s no compromise on costs, quality and compassion. She shared a beautiful story of how one event leads to the other. One day an executive from a fairly large organization visits her with a group of employees to check her work and place a big order for a party. Meera is feeling nervous and offers them different items to taste but they keep refusing it. In the end she gets the order and the basis of the order was that the executive found that the entire team working in the kitchen was smiling and happy and that was enough a proof for them to select Terra foods as their catering partners! She said that affirmed her belief one more time in not compromising on people who work for her. She’s weaved a thread of compassion by bringing together the farmer, local women and end customer who are all blessed by her work and solid determination to hold the fort against all odds. Even if it sounds like a marketing campaign, I would love to invite you to visit Terra foods if you happen to travel to Chennai.

The Gandhi Study Circle

At Chennai with no great agenda I was resting at my aunt’s place when she mentioned that there’s a Gandhi study circle organized at one of the colleges and we can meet the team who manages it. Taking this as a message from Universe I decided to meet them. With no idea of the location or people I hesitantly called them and fixed an appointment.

The place was seemingly far and had to make my way through a lot of traffic to reach Thakkar Bapa campus. As you drive in, the place shifts to a different world and you feel you are in a serene Gandhian space. Here I meet up with Premaji, Mohanji and Chandruji who run the Gandhi study circle once a week. Youth who are interested in knowing more about Gandhian values come to this space to read, discuss and share their thoughts. There’s also an exam that is taken periodically for the same. Interestingly, I learnt that a lot of cities have these study circles but are not connected with each other. Again the value of decentralized integration was felt.

While we were chatting Chandruji makes a few calls and in another half an hour, we land up in the office of a movie director. The movie director made a tamil flick on Gandhiji last year and he intends to make a movie on Vinobaji soon and hence Chandruji thought we should meet and talk! We had some nice conversation and I could only ask him to visit Pavnar and experience Vinobaji in addition to reading and discussing about him with people who have been with him. This experience in itself was very general but it clearly gave me sign that Vinobaji and Gandhiji are just not human figures who existed once upon a time in history but they are thoughts that prevail to guide whoever is ready to delve deeper!

On our way to Anandashram we are hosted by Konark Rai’s parents in their farm. As we enter the farm we read the words “Fatherland” that caught attention. Upon asking Rai uncle shared that this word is given by Adolph hitler, it means a land with created with vigour and hard work. Rai uncle’s father was a well-known freedom fighter of south. And hence he is named his farm fatherland. He shared some stories about their life and Konark’s mom fed us the most delicious cashew curry made from the farm fresh cashews!

AnandAshram, Swami Nithyanand Ashram, meditation caves and to Wayanad retreat.

We reach another small town Kahnangad at Anand Ashram. This Ashram was started by Swami Ramdas fondly known as Pappa. At the Ashram there is a 24-hour chanting of Sri Ram that goes on. Everyone is considered equal here and are offered food and shelter at all hours. We met our dear friend Datta, he is a monk without robes, a yoga teacher and a seeker. He is associated with a movement that Ashram runs for schools called VITAL- Value Integrated Teaching and Learning. The concept clearly talks about Value education to become a part of academia and going one step further of its integration with subjects. So the team VITAL is trying to teach subjects like Maths, Science, Social science etc. by using anecdotes that signify a value. We attended a three day retreat at Wayanad to learn this process of integration. Pratik did some vibrant Rangoli and retreat became a MBL space.

Some of the highlights included welcoming all participants with a hug as this is not a common thing done in this part of the world. We visited the Gandhi Ashram here where Gandhiji had stayed and we listened to Gandhiji’s voice through an audio lecture. As a part of three day retreat we visited an old age home that the Ashram supports. We met and spent time with inmates. On the last day we shared about service space and MBL and together all of us focused on our own values and wrote gratitude notes and tied it at a space and hugged trees. We connected with some beautiful souls who participated at the retreat. One such couple was Sharada amma and Appa. They lovingly took care of us and shared the importance of “Japa-chanting”. She said chanting enables kindness in word, thought and action.

Datta took us to mystical caves created by Swami Nityananda who was a saint around 1940’s. He remained mostly silent and unaware of worldly happenings. His Ashram is in a forest called Guruvan where he stayed and meditated in a cave. He then created 40 meditation caves with his hands for people at Kanhangad, we were blessed to sit an hour there. Swami Nityanand passed away at Ganeshpuri near Mumbai in 1961 but the aura of his practice and presence is something no one can miss.

From this mystical place we were drawn to another forest valley named Chaka Manga Katiel. Which translates being amidst jackfruit and mango forest. This is an organic forest farm owned by a friend named Roy. He is a person who sacked his job at Eneron US to becoming an organic farmer. He stays on the farm without any electricity and uses solar energy, cooks his own food mostly what the farm supplies and is determined to go strong against tropical rains while sipping hot coffee in his shack made from Arecanut wood. The commitment to their vision gives boost to the hope for a better tomorrow and I am reminded of the quote “we manifest what our tomorrow is going to be as today is product of yesterday and tomorrow will arise from today’s thought (shared earlier in my reflections on Ashrams near Baroda and Narmada). “

We spent a day with him in the forest enjoying rains, sounds of crickets and birds and lot of jackfruit and mangoes. This was the first time I slept in a tent a little scared of insect biting me but the experience was otherwise and hearing the pitter patter of the rain I slept peacefully like a baby.

Starting with Karma kitchen Bangalore trip was much promising and offered us bag full of surprises. We had a beautiful Awakin at Anupreet’s and Taranath’s home. A Kabir satsang hosted by Shabnam and deep conversations that we had with Susheel, Amma and Kapila at their homes. My best friend Shagun got a chance to connect with MBL group and she and her family attended Awakin. This was very moving for me. A sense of completion was felt on witnessing two worlds coming together in the space of peace and service. Our dear brother Datta also visited Bangalore and one day Shagun took us all to visit pyramid valley. Pyramid valley has a huge space for meditation created in the shape of a huge pyramid.

Bangalore to Tenkasi

As we moved ahead from Bangalore, we stopped at Navdarshanam, it is a place that was a barren land converted to organic farming forest by IITians some 20 years ago. Had a hearty chat with Nagendraji and Gopiji while taking a walk through the farm. Then we headed off to Thulir a remote village in Tamilnadu where a school for tribal kids is run. These kids come after their regular govt. school to learn more. We danced on the banana song with them and enjoyed rains in the evening. We met two volunteers who have given their heart in supporting these kids, Nikhil and Balaji. Balaji is a also an avid runner. Nikhil a budding filmmaker loves to play with kids and finds meaning in their real lives then reel life. In the evening we experimented cooking on the earthen wood fired chulha. Before reaching Coimbatore we stopped by at another organic farm owned by Ram and Rama a couple who has homeschooled two sons and live a life powered by solar.

Upon reaching Coimbatore our dearest Nisha and Ragu-the boss and Om the superman became our guardian angels and made sure we rested enough and had right food. We realized how food plays a critical role in our lives and is a key factor in our thoughts and action. Pratik got his first chance at sowing sapplings with Nisha. One night I had a dream that Ragu is painting our Bhav yatra car and writing “peace” on it. Next morning the dream came true. We bought paint and brush and got Ragu to write it and his sister wrote in German! This is the place where even cars get wiser. Hence, we decided that whatever state we go in we will get people to paint “peace” in their language.

One day we took off to Kaladi – Birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya. This place is of great spiritual significance. We dipped our feet in the river where Adi Shankara’s life changed to his becoming an ascetic. Meditating in that space was blissful and insightful experience.

At Coimbatore, my co-traveller changed and Darpan came in to be with me till Pondicherry. We left with car load of love, prayers and healthy food for our way.

Our next destination was Madurai where we were welcomed by Aravind family. Aravind family has always been super loving and inspiring. Deepa in middle of 1000 things she does comes to fetch us and Vara Aunty welcomes us with warm food. If we had any notion of being busy and no time to host anyone we should train ourselves at Aravind. The secret behind Aravind Eye care running excellently are these people who hold the space with humility, love and care at the core. We spent three days soaking in this energy and rejuvenating ourselves. We were also lucky to meet Aruna mozhi who volunteers with Sevalayam. We had planned to leave in 2 days but Aruna amma will not allow us to leave so we stayed put for one more day and we witnessed universal magic unfold. I had read about a place Amar Seva Sangham (ASS) and wished to meet them, however I could not find any information about it. Aruna Amma invited us for lunch and in a conversation she said I should go to this place and it turned out to be ASS. She gave all information and also connected with Pushpalata who later hosted us at Ayikudi, Tenkasi.

We left for Tenkasi the next day and met Sankaraman and Pushpalata who run this organization known as Amar Seva Sangham. They work for treatment and re-hab for paraplegic patients in the surrounding areas. Pushpa took us to their home near seven falls at Kutralam where we had an early morning shower at the waterfalls. Then we went to meet another inspiring couple who run an Ashram called Om pranav ashram. Traude and Vishwanathan with their daughter Savitri take care of orphans, oldies, cows, rice fields and dozens of stray dogs who find shelter here. The way Traude has accepted Indian culture and Tamil language is commendable. She bathes cows, cooks and lovingly tends to all old amma’s who dote on this Austrian daughter.

Here we met a 105 year old dada and we asked him what is his biggest learning of life..his simple answer was- only the name of God stays everything else will go away so make sure you are connected with that Name.

From Chaka Manga Katiel, we headed off for Bangalore. We passed another forest area, the Nagarhole sanctuary for elephants and other wild life. We spotted many elephants and had to take breaks to allow them to cross the road first! We reached Bangalore by evening, the city that holds lot of nostalgic moments of my past life when I was a resident for a couple of years.

The first couple of days were spent going down the memory lane. I experienced the passing of time like sand from our hands and we still hold on to a lot of memories and are stuck in time sometimes, all we need to do is let that pass too. Then came the happy day of Karma Kitchen at Vriksh. We had almost around 20 volunteers from all over. It was one big celebration. A beautiful Rangoli done at the entrance by décor team floored all the guests as they walked in.

We met this marvellous group who run “little more love” and are engaged in Random Acts of Kindness in Bangalore. It was started by a young enthusiast Nestin who got inspired to do something when at one Christmas they sang carols for seniors at a home and saw them smiling. We all found our common link of love and had conversations around how it has changed our lives.

We also had another special appearance by a person who is engaged in teaching football to underprivileged children. He has been featured in BangloreTEDx and has dreams of touching lives of as many kids as he can. As we were talking Amma (Kapila’s mom lovingly known as “Amma”-mother) was showering love in abundance by feeding us and gently getting everything in order before the guests arrived. Karmakitchen had all flavours of life love, laughter, small fights, smiles and ended with silence.

Our dear friends Tharanath and Harish took us clowning one day. We went to ‘Desire society’ a home for children affected with HIV. For next couple of hours smiled, laughed,hugged and there was happiness all around. These kids are from underprivileged background and they go through a lot of physical and emotional pain due to HIV. They suddenly get upset and cry in middle of a game and you would not know how to react. They get stomach pains or dizziness and back pains if they stand for too long or laugh too much. The average age is 8 years, the age that is bubbling to jump and do so much but is limited by these sudden bouts. As a team we engaged them in fun so that they will forget the pain for a while. Hats off to Harish and Tharanath for doing this every month from the heart and the kids wait to be with them.At the end of the day when I reflected on the whole exercise I had only tears and prayers to offer.