One of the people who made our stay at Chennai valuable is VR Devika, who has been working, for many years, at keeping Gandhi and his ideas alive and vibrant amongst the students. She has been invited to conduct workshops on Gandhi and spinning (on charka) at the SPICMACAY convention at IIT Chennai in June. Devika is looking for volunteers to help her conduct the spinning workshops during the convention. The volunteers will later be able to conduct workshops on their own, elsewhere. If you are interested, you can write to her or I can connect you with her. ------------- We bought a couple of charkas during our trip to Gujarat and Wardha, and have just started taking the baby steps in spinning, after learning it from another dedicated Gandhian enthusiast, Karunakaran. It is a meditative experience. Two charka experiences will stay fresh on my memory, reminding me of its multiple potentials even in this modern age, so much removed from the days when it was seen as an important tool to achieve swaraj. 1. It was quite a sight to see the 90-year old Narayan Desai at Vedchchi, on his charka everyday, sitting upright and spinning with deft hands, defying his age. It was the best time for the 20+ foreign students [who had travelled from various corners of the world, to undergo a 4-month course on Gandhi and peace education, living a spartan life] to have one-on-one sessions with him to understand Gandhi better or explore ideas to apply non-violence in a Brazil, or a South Sudan [where a civil war had re-erupted]. 2. We met a bunch of young tribal students from Chattisgarh, who had travelled with their teachers to Sevagram at Wardha, to learn spinning at the Nai Taleem school there. The kids were from the Imlee Mahua School in the Bastar district, run by an ex-consultant from Chennai, who sees the potential of spinning in education and livelihood. And there was a doctor, fresh out of college and about to join a hospital run by Prakash Amte, who had also come to Sevagram, specifically to learn spinning before starting his medical career in rural Maharashtra. --------------- Here is Devika demonstrating the craft. https://youtube/watch?v=fD766bXwbg8
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 10:39:05 +0000
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