Tag: karonakuch

I feel like talking to you!

I mean, I used to think that the entire humanity will fall into the abyss and perish! But this thought doesn’t frighten me anymore. I have decided to live life the way a human being ought to live and leave the rest to nature! Or to God, if you believe in him!

I have become a part of Gram Seva Sangh (GSS), an organization in service of the village. Since we are locked out and since don’t have much to do, we are running a positive campaign, #KaronaKuch, meaning Do Something! We have a dream! We want to achieve what we call a Sacred Economy. It simply means Gandhian Economy Plus. Gandhian Economy is based on complete hand-making. We have given 40 % concession to automation and renamed it Sacred Economy. This is in-fact a concession we made to our Bad Habits, which we believe are acquired, hence not a sin!

A Tribal worshiping Nature; Photo by Arjun Swaminathan (Check Native Picture for More Stories)

Forty percent automation, in any case, brings most of the service sector and most of the MSME into the gamut, where almost all the city workforce works! City labor is also sacred after all! GSS is an organization for the young! Some of us oldies, like me, call ourselves mentors, just to give a little respectability to ourselves! Most mentors, however, are people who have worked in one or the other sector of, what Gandhiji called, Constructive Work. One of the mentors for example, has built a women’s handloom collective called Charakha and also a handloom marketing trust called Desi. Charakha is the largest producer of naturally dyed handloom fabric in the country, while Desi runs lovely little shops for the sale of the handmade allover Karnataka.

A Weaver on loom, weaving at Charaka Womens Co-op Society, Bhimanakonne, Karnataka

We have decided never to contest elections, or to take positions of power through GSS. Hopefully this is our credibility! Let me put it this way; we want to be spiritual through social work! Even God should work and be socially driven, we believe! Morality and ethics are all based in hard work, we believe! The more natural such work is, it is better we believe! The fruits of such work, if it is Handmade, it is even better we believe!

Then comes awareness! We believe that awareness is God! But awareness comes, not through rituals and mantras, but through participation in social work. Unfortunately religion, though great, has got itself killed through rituals and mantras. There is a need to revive religion through action!

Naturally Living Rural Man; Photo by Arjun Swaminathan (Check Native Picture for More Stories)

We won’t ask you to shave your head! Nor to wear a robe of a particular hue! Nor to desist life! We will only ask you to live your life with awareness while you leave the others to enjoy theirs! Sister, brother, come and Join us!

  • Gram Seva Sangh

www.gramsevasangh.org | gramsevasanghindia@gmail.com | +91 9980043911

Facebook: @gramsevasanghindia | Twitter: @gramsevasangha  | Insta: @gramsevasanghindia

Address: Gram Seva Sangh, Flat #102, Shesha Nivas, 1st Block, 1st Main, Thyagaraj Nagar, Bengaluru-560070

The Day of National Fasting-Friday, 10 April 2020

                Samaj Sevaks, constructive organizations and Gandhians from across the country have strongly felt the need to atone, at the time of this Corona Crisis, for the sins that we have committed against migrant workers. We are all jointly responsible for the utter neglect of the village poor during the last few decades, which made them migrate desperately to cities and live under sub-human conditions. On behalf of all the citizens and in continuation of our campaign #KaronaKuch, Gram Seva Sangh has decided to give this call for a national fast. The Fast shall begin on Friday, 10April 2020, at 6 am and end at 6 pm. On that day we shall fast from wherever we are. During the fast, we shall introspect and decide as to, how to undertake the difficult task of strengthening the village economy and village society in the days to come.

Kindly note! There shall be no public demonstration or public meetings or violations of the social distancing discipline during the entire period. Nobody need leave their house or their post of responsibility during the campaign. Kindly also note, that this fast is not against the government. We appreciate the efforts being done by the Government as also various other public institutions in this regard.

This fast is an atonement. We shall be grateful if people do not politicize it.


  • Gram Seva Sangh

www.gramsevasangh.org | Email ID: gramsevasanghindia@gmail.com | Mobile: 9980043911

Facebook : @gramsevasanghindia | Twitter : @gramsevasangha  | Insta: @gramsevasanghindia

Let’s Cross Over

#MonsterEconomy is dying, Let’s Cross Over…!

                                                                                                 – Prasanna

Let’s Cross Over

Monster Economy is dying. But we are unable to accept the fact. Like the children of a dying Grand-old-man, we have put the economy on ventilators; in an expensive hospital, called experts from all over the world, taken suggestions, even when those suggestions are contradictory to each other, and spent huge amounts of, scarce, national and international resource, on the treatment.

We are so completely involved with the dying monster that we don’t even want to go out of the emergency ward and see life as it is being lived. We do not want to notice for example, that even in the few weeks of the Corona Emergency the living world has already started looking livelier. The carbon emission levels have already started to come down and that the atmosphere has started showing signs of recovery. Nor for example do we, see animals (even wild ones) crossing over city streets, deserted and thus safe!

Instead, we want to go quickly back into the death ward, to pump more oxygen on to the dead lungs of the dying man! We are scared! Terribly, terribly, scared! The fact remains that we do not know how to manage without the monster! We do not know how to give up all the comforts that the old system offered! Unlimited travel, unlimited luxury, good looking malls, expensive hotels, connectivity and comfort!

But think! The wild animal crossing the street in a deserted city, whose picture we saw on the social media post, was crossing over and not intending to walk the street. We, on the contrary, have been walking the street, and want to continue to walk the street! We feel scared to crossover! We feel unsure on the natural ground; feel insecure with a hard working life! That’s our dilemma!

Look at it this way! The grand-old-man distributed his wealth unequally. His pet son (10% of the population) got a lion’s share, while the hard working children (90% of the population) had to scramble desperately for food even. The old man never cared for the old woman, meaning the nature! He is like the father in the Dostoevsky novel ‘Brothers Karamazov’. Of course, like in the novel, the monster economy has a few good qualities. For example, being driven by the machine, it looked after the business well. Let’s remember the good qualities, put a nice picture of it on the wall and cross over. In the novel one of the sons of the rascal father is called Alyosha Karamazov. He is a nice human being, almost a saint. We will have to follow his example, whether we like it or not!

Anyway there seems to be no choice. Why should we postpone the inevitable? If we pump more oxygen, the monster may breathe for a couple more years, but each such delay can put the living world to extinction. Let’s do Something.

  • Prasanna

Playwright, Theatre Director and Social Activist, Gram Seva Sangh