THOREAU INFLUENCE

This is a copy of the mail sent by one of my acquaintances. His quotes from Thoreau and Kundera were really fascinating. I thought you should all have a chance to read it. Also, if you dare, join FYRE BIKERS of Kalamassery - I too am a member! Biking Miles with Smile!
By the way, Jojo happens to be an MSW, my junior from TISS.


Hi!
Trust this finds you in the very best of health and spirits. I have been doing quite well, btw. Some three years since I have been in this place, Chintamani. So kind of that nomadic feeling is bugging me once again. For this is the maximum period I have stayed in any place throughout my life. Also the urge to just see places and that too on cycle, wandering around without any burdensome thought…reared its head few months back. Now it’s like almost, delivery time…..
Henry Thoreau once said, while he had gone and stayed in Walden for around two years, all alone, some two centuries back “…because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived”. Take some inspiration from that….do whatever you really really want to do and come out of it, a little bit more enlightened.

Plan to take off from my work for around two months or so starting this month end and spend cycling, meeting up with people during the time. Though I have not read much of Milan Kundra I found this quote of his quite motivating which was incidentally forwarded to me be one of my cousins with whom I shared the plan initially. This time very consciously trying to get away from the route bit. See, if it makes any sense to you, eh!
“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”

Currently thinking of covering Karnataka & Goa, very extensively, but there is no “fixed route”. Don't know, if time is there, then probably cross over to Tamil Nadu, move around to reach the southern end and then enter Kerala and ride up to reach home @ Kottayam somewhere around year end. The plan is to be mostly on the state highways and other smaller roads, avoiding the National Highways as much as possible. The NH has become a soulless road, of late, I feel and it’s a torturous stretch for cyclists and others who travel exposed to the elements.
This time, unlike last time way back in Oct-Dec 2001(when I did Udaipur-Kottayam strech), I'm going to take it much much easy. The focus would not be towards covering so many kilometers in a day but rather on other aspects such as
· Interacting with children and others. Talk to them about the environment and the way currently things are moving forward and how we all can stem the tide. Some kind of message, eh! Also kind of promote cycling because it has solutions to so many of the problems confronting us today. (Seriously, u don’t believe)
· see the kind of impact NREGS is making in people’s lives across the state. Now this is something again quite close to heart and large amount of my work, currently, is related to that only. Just wanted to see the kind of impact it is making on people’s life.
· There are many people who are working on Nature, Natural farming and Alternative Education related aspects across the state. So kind of stay with them and learn a bit or two, eh! For that is something I would like to try my hand at in the near future. Though think time is going to be a constraint. But I will give it a hard try.
· See all the places which I have been wanting to for a very long time, particularly the entire Western Ghats stretch; all those forests and mountains which I love so much. It’s going to be tough riding up and down but I think it would be worth the effort, eh! Any in any case I would be doing that stretch after I would have been on road for few weeks, so hopefully would have built up the required strength and endurance.
· Try & stay with people only in villages and other places unlike last time when I mostly put up in dhabas, hotels et al. This time I just want to stay with people in the villages and accept whatever they would offer me. And wherever they don’t, just move ahead….Hopefully by the end of the trip I would have built up few more relationships….
· Finally, hopefully discover and re-discover myself. And being alone on the trip is going to be helpful, guess. For I think one can have a communion with oneself, eh!

Preparation wise nothing much has happened till date but that is not making me lose my sleep also. Already have got permission for a sabbatical from my workplace. The one from amma….well almost!!! The mind is quite ready and so is the body and everything else should fall in place !! It's all there in the mind. Have jotted down as to what all I should be taking along with me. Again possessions are going to be limited, for otherwise your whole attention, would be on that only. This is a really low cost tour…don’t want to splurge on myself,eh!! Physically I, think, am quite fit and on weekends it's not a problem to cover 40 odd kms in 2 hours flat. But in any case don't think want to keep on eating the kilometers, while on the tour. Think in a day just want to do somewhere between 50-75 kms per day. Also I have to get a new bike also. Currently I have a BSA Mach but don't think she would be able to take the rigour of such a long tour…
Thanks for reading till here. And, if you are interested, why not join in…..
Wud luv to hear back from you…anything. Once again hope all is really well at your end.
Take care
jojo
currently @ Chintamani, some 80 kms NE of Bengaluru
-- "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."...Henry David Thoreau

Gandhiji's Influence on Social Work in India

http://sfr-21.org/gandhi-nonviolence.html
In his leadership of the great national liberation struggle of India against British imperialism, Gandhi established the methodology of nonviolence, which is essential to a culture of peace. To Gandhi, there must be no enemy - only an adversary or opponent who has not yet been convinced of the truth.
Fundamental to his philosophy was the distinction between man and his deed. As he says in under Ahimsa and Search for Truth, page 86 in his autobiography, "Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. 'Hate the sin and not the sinner' ... It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator."
As he described in 1920 before a court of law in India, he called his methodology Satyagraha: "The term 'Satyagraha' was coined by me in South Africa ... Its root meaning is holding on to truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on one's own self.
"But in the political field, the struggle on behalf of the people mostly consists in opposing error in the shape of unjust laws. When you have failed to bring the error home to the lawgiver by way of petitions and the like, the only remedy open to you, if you do not wish to submit to error, is to compel him by physical force to yield to you or by suffering in your own person by inviting the penalty for the breach of the law ... In my opinion, the beauty and efficacy of Satyagraha are so great and the doctrine so simple that it can be preached even to children.
Speaking later that year to the Congress considering Non-Cooperation, Gandhi explained that passing a resolution was not enough but each individual must put make it work by harnessing the power of anger into the practice of nonviolence: "For non-co-operation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice and it demands patience and respect for opposite views. And unless we are able to evolve a spirit of mutual toleration for diametrically opposite views, non-co-operation is an impossibility. I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so, our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world."
Nonviolence is difficult and requires great discipline. Gandhi warned that there is no easy way. "It takes a fairly strenuous course of training to attain to a mental state of non-violence ... unless there is a hearty co-operation of the mind, the mere outward observance will be simply a mask, harmful both to the man himself and to others. The perfect state is reached only when mind and body and speech are in proper co-ordination. But it is always a case of intense mental struggle ... Such a struggle leaves one stronger for it ... Non-violence is a weapon of the strong. With the weak, it might easily be hypocrisy ... Love wrestles with the world as with itself, and ultimately gains a mastery over all other feelings (quotations from The Law of Love).
He compares the discipline that is needed to that of a soldier: "In daily life, it has to be a course of discipline though one may not like it, like, for instance, the life of a soldier."
Gandhi often said that while nonviolence was superior to violence, violence, in turn, was superior to passivity in the face of injustice. For example, writing in Young India in August 1920 (see Chapter 28), he said "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence....I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour. But I believe that non-violence is infinitely superior to violence..."
Nonviolence, according to Gandhi, must be founded on love. As he describes in The Law of Love "Wherever there are jars [conflicts], wherever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. In a crude manner, I have worked it out in my life. That does not mean that all my difficulties are solved. I have found, however, that this Law of Love has answered as the Law of Destruction has never done."
Gandhi was profoundly influenced by the teachings of Jesus, as he explained in a speech in 1925: "Non-violence ... requires greater heroism than of brave soldiers ... The world does not accept today the idea of loving the enemy. Even in Christian Europe the principle of non-violence is ridiculed ... Christians do not understand the message of Jesus. It is necessary to deliver it over again in the way we can understand ... But I must say that so long as we do not accept the principle of loving the enemy, all talk of world brotherhood is an airy nothing. "
Gandhi's message, like that of Martin Luther King, is essential for revolution in the 21st Century. New methods must be developed to defend the revolution against the violence of the inevitable attacks by the capitalist culture of war without falling into the trap of the socialist culture of war. Gandhi and King have shown that this is possible through nonviolent means.

INDIVIDUALS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

What I learnt from Naren
HARSH MANDER
Narendranath Gorrepati was a humanist whose initiatives for change were underpinned by humility and love…
He strived to practise every idea he preached; he was not always successful, but he always tried.
Crossing all societal boundaries: Narendrath Gorrepati with his wife Uma Shankari.
In his thirties, Naren returned to his village, to work on his farms and pursue a quiet life of service. He was born into a landlord family. His father, unwilling to alter the rules of the caste society of the village, refused to allow dalits to ente r the kitchen or sit at their table. Naren too was stubborn, but in his gentle way. The satyagrah he crafted was uniquely his: in all his years in the village while his father was alive, he ate his food on the kitchen floor, not on the dining table, and when there were dalit visitors, they ate with him on the floor. His wife and two young daughters joined him in this practice. So that his father was not lonely when he ate, Naren would sit with him at the table when he had his meals, but not eat himself. Only later would he eat, seated on the floor.
Narendranath Gorrepati, or Naren as we called him, breathed his last a few months ago, succumbing calmly on July 5, 2009 to a malevolent brain tumour. I was among his devastated family and close friends who gathered by his side, as his life ebbed away. We knew he was widely loved, but none of us was prepared for the crowds that gathered as news of his death spread. His body was taken to his village Venkatramapuram in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. Overnight people had prepared posters saluting him. The District Collector and senior officials observed silence in respect to his memory, which had never happened for a non-official in living memory. Hundreds of people joined his funeral procession. It was as though every home in the village, dalit or upper caste, had lost their own son or brother. Touching lives
I had known, loved and admired Naren for three decades now. But I had not suspected the extent to which he had touched — and illuminated — so many lives. There are very few who wear their goodness so lightly, so casually on their shoulders, as did Naren. I decided then to set out to rediscover my friend, after he left us. And in so doing, he taught me many lessons, of life and of goodness.
Naren was in university in Delhi with me, a few years my senior. He joined as an officer in the State Bank of Hyderabad, but was restless from the start. He resigned in five years, and initially worked for Lokayan in Delhi in 1980, at half his bank salary. He then moved to Hyderabad, with his wife and life-long soul-mate Uma Shankari. He soon involved himself in efforts to document the suffering of people displaced by the Srisailam mega-project, and joined efforts for communal harmony in Hyderabad. Crucial decision
A series of personal tragedies — the loss of Uma’s father, and Naren’s mother in a fire accident — pushed them to take the next decision, changing the rest of their lives. Uma recalls, “Somehow death became certain, life very, very uncertain. We realised that whatever good things we want to do, we should do today, now. We planned therefore to follow our hearts: go to our village, look after the lands with organic farming, and continue Naren’s social work”. So in 1987, the family returned to Venkatramapuram, where they lived until Naren took ill this year. Naren’s father joined them, they sent their elder daughter Samyuktha to school in Chennai, and raised their younger Lakshmi in the village until she grew older.
Naren was disillusioned by funded NGOs, so he crafted his own mode of social engagement, what Uma calls “a kind of Gandhian swadeshi-swaraj model. He believed that apart from taking care modestly of their own families, everybody should do some public work. It could be on a very small scale, restricted maybe to a panchayat or even a village. He also felt there were enough resources, funds for public work within even the poorest communities in India; it is just that people are not inspired to contribute these”. Naren decided to work within the district, without any funding.
He was troubled by oppression of dalits, and joined hands with friends for a padayatra, or march, through many villages, where they documented practices of untouchability like barriers to drawing water from the village well or worship at the temple, symbolically breaking the separate cups for dalits at tea stalls. He contributed invaluably to land reforms, countering conventional wisdom that there was no land left to be distributed to the landless, by painstakingly identifying — over many years — 12,000 acres of lands in the district, which were legally surplus but still held by landlords, and also temple lands. He would on an average day leave home at dawn and return by the last bus, travelling to villages and collecting evidence in land cases, which he would present to district officials every week. And when all else would fail, he would join the peaceful but forceful occupation of these lands by the poor. Naren would be at the forefront when the police would use force. Unconventional
Naren firmly believed in organic ecological farming, therefore he cultivated his own fields experimenting with these technologies, defying conventional market wisdom. His own travails and losses taught him first-hand the suffering of dry-land farmers, about which he campaigned extensively, and wrote a Telugu book Itlu Oka Raithu. He contributed to village self-rule by reviving and participating in village settlement of family and land disputes. He fought the destruction of crops by elephants in ways that would protect both the elephants, by creating a corridor for them, and victims who lost crops, by adequate compensation. He resisted and helped reverse heavy electricity tariffs on farmers.
Naren had phenomenal moral energy but he was not a moralist, as Vijay Pratap, another friend recalls. He was never judgemental about others; he did not make other persons feel small for the choices they were making. Yet he was resolute and uncompromising in the pursuit of his own convictions. He strived to practise every idea he preached; he was not always successful, but he always tried.
Even much more important than what he contributed to his people, was how he related with them. Dalit families recall how Naren used to routinely visit their homes, eat with them and wash his own plate. He helped educate many dalit children and youth, and encouraged inter-caste weddings. In his own home, everyone was welcome and fed generously, even as Uma sometimes argued with him about how they would make ends meet. He sent mangoes from their orchard every year to all: to comrades, and officials, but never forgot all the poorer people who had no mango gardens of their own — the washer-folk, barbers, potters, smiths, carpenters, mechanics, and school teachers. Everyone’s friend
His comrade Rajni Bakshi recalls how he uniquely crossed all boundaries: everyone was his friend — the police, government officials, Naxals, RSS members, Communists, Ambedkarites, dalits, casteists, even the very persons whose lands they were claiming for assigning to the poor. Human rights activist Balagopal recalls, “To Gandhians he spoke of class struggle. To Naxalites he spoke about the immorality of violence”. Both mourn him inconsolably today.
There are perhaps many who did more than Naren for land reforms, for organic farming, for dalit equity. But what made Naren different was that all the work he accomplished, he did with humility and great love. He carried no rancour against those he fought. “Naren did not work for a mere acre of land or more wages or better farm prices or subsidies. He worked for truth, justice and love.”
In the months since I wept by his bedside, bereft as his last breath left him, these are the lessons — of life and goodness — that I learnt from my friend Naren.

Dharma

Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre…
Every field of action is a field of Dharma – the field of battle of the Kurus, though battle in itself might be adharmic, was becoming a field of dharma. There is always a question of ethics, morality, norms and values.
Any situation, in this sense, becomes a situation of ‘volition’ – of willingness and decision making. The more so with the area of voluntary action, of development work and welfare, where the basic choice is of a willingness to serve.

Dharma and Mahabharata
Story told by Sage Markandeya to Dharmaraja while the Pandavas were in exile (vanavasa)
Brahmin Kausika – great austerity in brahmacarya – crane, perched above, shat on his head – he looked up in natural anger – and the bird was consumed in fire. ..Kausika – sorry for the unwitting destruction of the bird.
Went seeking alms – a housewife, busy with daily chores – asked to wait – utensils, master of the house needing her service, cared and fed, then came with alms – ‘sorry for keeping u waiting’ – angry – this is not fair – ‘be not angry with me; I kept u waiting only because, I had been first doing my primary duty towards my husband. I am no crane to be burned by your violent thought.’
Brahmin was mortified – she further told – oh great one, you do not know the secret of duty, and the evil of anger; go to Mithila and be instructed by Dharmavyadha, living in the city. – In all humility, he went ahead. There he found out Dharmavyadha, to his shock, a butcher, selling meat.
Dharmavyadha called out: Revered sir, is all things well with you? Have you been sent by that revered Brahmin lady? Please come.
Stupefied! Went home, found a very happy home, got instructed in the great duty of family and returned to take care of his parents, whom he had neglected.
Gita XVIII, 45-46
Sve sve karmanyabhiratah samsiddhim labhate narah
Sva karma niratah siddhim yatha vindati tacchrnu
Following each his own activity, a man finally achieves perfection. Now hear how the performer of action prescribed according to qualifications attains perfection. (45)
H. Being reaches perfection by the honest pursuit of whatever calling falls to one’s lot in life. Irrespective of the occupation, and mode of its choice – circumstances. Spirit of sincerity, faithfulness…
Yatah pravrttibhutanam yena sarvamidam tatam
Svakarmana tam abhyarcya siddhim vindati manavah
By whom is the existence of all entities; by whom all this is pervaded
Through worshipping him, by one’s own action prescribed according to qualifications, a man attains perfection. (46)

ENCHANTED POOL
Exile – fire-kindler by a deer – hunting - no avail - very thirsty – in search of water – a pool – a yaksha – in spite of warning – all died – then Yudhishthira – answers questions
What rescues man in danger? – Courage.
By studying which science one becomes wise? – No science; from association with the great (satsangati).
More nobly sustaining than earth? – Mother
Higher than sky? – Father
Fleeter than wind? – Mind
More blighted than withered straw? – sorrow-stricken heart.
What befriends a traveler? – learning
Who accompanies man in death? – Dharma alone.
What is Happiness? Result of good conduct.
What is that abandoning which man will be loved by all? – Pride.
What is the loss which yields joy and not sorrow? Anger
What is that by giving up man becomes rich? Desire.
What makes one a real brahmana? Good conduct; not the learning of any Vedas.

Yaksha, pleased. One of your brothers can now be revived. Choose.
Nakula.
Why? Dharma. I am surviving as Pandu’s son from Kunti; at least one from his wife Madri also should survive, hence Nakula.
All survived.
Test by Yamraja, the God of Dharma.


Receiving Favours and being forced to lose the track of dharma.
Salya, the brother of Madri, who was received by Duryodhana, and hence had to repay hospitality by being an alley.

CASTE
Uthanga, Krishna’s Brahmin friend of childhood. After the kurukshetra war they met. Uthanga asked about the well being of his cousins, Pandavas and Kauravas, and was aghast when he came to know of the disaster. Prepared for a curse on Krishna, who did not do things to avert the tragedy.
Krishna explained and showed his Viswarupa and Uthanga was happy. Krishna wanted to give him a boon; but he did not want any. However, on insistence – may I find water wherever I go. Granted.
Once, in great thirst, in a desert, remembered the boon; a Nishada in rags, and pulling a few dogs, appeared. Offered water from his water skin. Refused; in spite of insistence, refused.
Then asked Krishna why thus, and immediately realized that it was no Nishada, but a test for his integrity and philosophy.
Krishna – it was Indra with amruta, who on my insistence agreed to give it in the form of a chandala, to test your jnana, which was thought to have transcended the mortals.

Dharma of Dan (CHARITY)
After the war, aswamedha. A weasel, half gold, came in rolled around, and laughed in a loud human voice. All were shocked.
Then he narrated the story: The pound of maize flour of the Brahmin of Kurukshetra. V. poor. Lived on gleanings – wife, son and daughter-in-law. Ucchavrtti.
Sever drought. One day, with great difficulty gathered some grain. Ground, and about to eat. A Brahmin guest, very tired and hungry.
Brahmin gave his share to the guest. Still hungry and unsatisfied, his wife too. Similarly, all the four. The guest satisfied; praised their hospitality and sacrifice;
Chariots came and they were all RELEASED and accepted into higher realms of swarga.
The weasel got the fragrance wafted from the flour of the brahmana, went there to find only small crusts left over on the floor, rolled on that, and became golden.
When compared to that, this is nothing.

THE WHAT, WHY & HOW OF SW

1. Social work as a goal oriented, planned, systematic, change process.
2. Creative Responses to needs – cases:
CASE 1: Childline – Jeroo Billimoria
1098
Vision
A child-friendly nation that ensures the rights of all children.
Mission
CHILDLINE will reach out to every child in need and ensure their rights and protection through the 4 Cs.
· Catalyze systems through active advocacy.
· Collaborate through integrated efforts between children, the state, civil society, corporates and community.
· Connect through technology to reach the "last mile"
· Communicate to make child protection everybody's priority.

CASE 2: MAITRI
CASE 3: SAKHI – www.culturalacademy.org
CASE 4: CSR of GMR Varalakshmi foundation http://www.gmrgroup.co.in/branchindex.aspx?branchid=23
To make a difference, in the areas of Education, Community Service, Health, Hygiene and Livelihoods, through empowerment and capacity building of the poorest of the poor and their institutions, especially in rural India with humility, compassion and empathy.
CASE 5: CRY
Rippan Kapur, the airline purser who founded CRY, was an ordinary person driven by an extraordinary dream - the dream that no Indian child would be deprived of rights as basic as survival, participation, protection and development.Like all of us, Rippan got upset to see the disparities that exist between privileged and underprivileged children. He hated to see children begging and working as servants. Unlike most of us, though, he did something about it. In his case, the action started young.He joined his school's social service club and read to the blind, visited children in hospitals, held reading and writing classes for street children, and started a free dispensary at a slum the Club adopted. To raise funds for these activities, the Club sold milk. It even won a shield for the best Interact club!These qualities of resourcefulness and determination were to come in handy when Rippan and 6 of his friends started CRY with Rs. 50/- around Rippan's mother's dining table. That was 29 years ago, in 1979. They felt that something needed to be done to improve the situation of the underprivileged Indian child.

What makes people like Rippan, Beena, Jeroo, Fr. Jose Alex/P.O. George to do things that others did not think of?
To do things in a manner different from what many others would?
What makes them do whatever they did and how they did?
WHY? WHAT? HOW?
The answer is both the history and philosophy of Social Work?
What makes people do what they do, the way they do – this is the (their) philosophy of social work.
When we examine carefully we find a frame of mind – a pattern of thinking – a set of values; often having their roots in some sort of religious/spiritual/secular ‘ideologies’.
Ideologies
A set of values and beliefs held by individuals, groups and societies that influences their conduct. Ideologies are systems of abstract thought (as opposed to mere ideation) applied to public matters and thus make this concept central to politics. Implicitly every political tendency entails an ideology whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of thought

Triumph of Cross - History & Philosophy

Today is Sep. 14th. For a Christian, who is familiar with the Church calendar, this is a significant day. It is the feast of (the triumph of!!) the Holy Cross!
Now being students of history and philosophy course, this feast could be interesting - both for its history and philosophy. I will not elaborate.

History: The feast has historical reference to the instance or series of instances that transformed what was a passionate and committment movement for egalitarianism, sharing and justice into one of the most highly formalised, hierarchical, and powerful systems/institutions in the world. From a radical movement, the feast goes back to the times of Emperor Constantine who is said to have got a divine inspiration (sign!) or a very visionary political insight, by which he was asked to wage his losing wars with the Cross (till then the sign of defeat and defame) as his sign! It also has the tradition that after the victory in the war, Constantine and his pious mother Helen, found the original cross that hanged Christ at Calvary! This marks the beginning of Christianity becomig a state religion, a centre of power and entering a phase of peaceful existence.

Philosophy: The christian philosophy of suffering as salvific is symbolised by the cross - if one submits to God's will, and endures suffering as a means of sanctification, s/he is finally led to victory - over the various conflicts in life!

The eastern Christian symbol of the flowering cross is rich in this symbolism. It shows a cross with buds on all its four edges, indicating new life, and lack of Christ crucified on the cross indicating his victory over death and suffering!

HIPHIFI of Social Work

History (Hi), Philosophy (Phi), Fields (Fi) of SW - that is hiphifisw. This blog will discuss the philosophy and translation of the same into action (praxis) of Social Work.
Though the title is indeed hi-fi, the discussions are meant to be both down to earth, as well high frequency! This should help all of us to express ourselves, discuss and debate and clarify our thoughts.