In 2016, Maitri Meals began its journey to provide alternate livelihood to the trafficked women living in brothels of GB Road, Delhi's largest red light area. Two women took the plunge and decided to live a new life with dignity and respect. Over the span of one year, the women prepared, packed, and sold more than 3000 healthy and hygienic meals. The project was put on hold in 2017 as the ladies went for trainings in several other aspects of kitchen management than just cooking. Amidst all... read full story

A few weeks ago, a Mumbai-wallah received a beautiful piece of prayer mandala art by snail mail - probably a personalized post he got in a long long time. It was signed off as "Sarjan" -- the act of creating the world, in this case with chants of love. No prizes for guessing who sent it - our loving sarjak Bhumika who created it during her stay at the Vinoba ashram, Baroda. The words weave a poem, a prayer expressing gratitude to the universe and celebrating its goodness which, as we a... read full story

In a fortnight, we are getting ready for yet another round of Laddership circle which we have named Monsoon Laddership Circle. In ServiceSpace ecosystem, Laddership circles are in the air with so many of them being hosted in a different format all across the globe. There are the themed circle, which focuses on different verticals like Educators, Business, Doctors, for Community Anchors and also all-inclusive circles for mixed group participants which are going on currently across the globe. I... read full story

As I recollect now, what a wonderful time it has been with the 5th graders every week since last 3 months. We meet on Wednesdays for an hour, but the sessions still don't have a name. For convenience sake we call it kindness circle. It all started with an idea during a youth retreat in Surat to have Awakin circles for parents and kids. The intention was to create a non-competitive atmosphere within the school eco-system. I wished to open a space within the kids where they could feel compl... read full story

[We just ended another 3 day Head Hand Heart retreat in Ahmedabad. And each time I've volunteered, I've come back more grounded. Sharing this beautiful recap of the three days that Linki so lovingly helped to put together, which we all had the opportunity to experience first hand.] "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." -Yoko Ono On a beautiful cloudy morning in ESI, Sughad, around 38 of us gathered from different corners of the co... read full story

[Two of our volunteers, Diken (in Ahmedabad) and Tharanath (in Bengaluru) share their transformative experiences through clowning with children who are terminally ill and the precious lessons about life that they have learnt from these little ones.] “I am a child at heart”- Diken “Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others, long after your sharing.” ~ Rumi Each one of us brings our own unique gifts to o... read full story

When it comes to greening, I get greedy. And I exhibit land Mafia traits. I got to know that a strip of land attached to our apartment was literally “no man’s land” because one faction of the government had encroached upon land that belonged to another faction. Well, these things happen in India. And we happened to have land that belonged to no one. So quite like the first thing that land mafia do, I paid the excavator contractor to move in with the heavy machinery to cle... read full story

A Sunday this month, a few cousins and me invited and hosted our immediate and extended family members for dinner. That went straight into everyone's hearts :) It was a gathering of many firsts! For the first time, we youngsters took the initiative of meeting and inviting the family members over dinner. It was the first time we all came together to cook. For some of my cousins, it was the first time they even held a knife, so cooking for 50 people was a unique experience :) It all started... read full story

When 30 participants from across the world walked into Sughad, little did we know how we would co-create a space of abundant love. On Day 1, Meghna Di and Jignasha Di began with a circle of sharing stories of small ripples that have moved us. It was so beautiful to see each one feel moved even while sharing their stories. Seema couldn't stop feeling grateful for her mother who has served her meals for the past 24 years. Now, when it's her time to cook away from home, she realiz... read full story

A few of us met Gautam Dada and Usha tai in Mumbai this week. Sharing a few pearls ... "Bhoodan movement was started for all -- not merely to take from haves and give to have nots. Everyone could take a dip in this Ganga. The rich weren't asked to give their 'excess' land. This was not a call for 'charity' but an act of sacrifice 'yagn'. It was about inner transformation." When he was young, he was in charge of paper work as a 'karyakarta' for ... read full story

Arun Dada asked one of us, “How is life treating you? She replied, “It's going great, I am getting work that I like by God's grace.” Dada shared, what does true grace mean? He added, “When the situations are in our favor we often tend to feel His grace but do we feel the same grace when the situation is against our favor or will. Can we still laugh and be equanimous is the real test of His grace”. Next day before going to the office, I was dropping Arun d... read full story

[I happened to share this beautiful story in our Laddership circle.] Jignasha was sitting on the banks of river Ganga attempting to write her first Laddership reflection. Just then a child came by selling flowers and wheat balls to feed the fish. One went and another came by and then another one. So, she thought to herself that these kids are here to tell her something. She put her laptop aside and started having a conversation with them. One came and started telling her all these stories and... read full story

A few weeks ago, two of my seniors at NID - Itika and Gonga, as a part of their 10 weeks System Design Project, selected their topic as "quality of life". So somehow the professor asked them to go visit Sughad and they ended up meeting few people there and landed up joining the retreat which was going to begin the next day. And today morning they all had a presentation and I was smiling so much when I saw the batch presentation starting with a minute of silence and in a circle. ... read full story

We were at Golden Temple listening to kirtan (verses of Guru Granth Saheb being sung with deep devotion). Some people around us were sleeping, we noticed that one person had kept his feet towards the temple but as soon as he noticed that, he changed the direction of his legs. Mostly out of respect, people do not keep their feet stretched out towards temple while they are sitting. That same evening, we met one wise friend, a policeman, who shared many stories of Guru Nanak – including re... read full story

While we were on our way to Golden temple last week, Arun Dada shared few stories of his first hand stories with Vinoba-ji ... On Sleep:Vinoba often spoke about three kinds of sleep. First is the state of Su-Swapna, where we indulge into dreams that gives pleasure. Second is Du-Swapna where we experience dreams of fear, anger or some kind of conflict. And third is the state of Ne-Swapna where there are no dreams. This is the deepest and healthiest state of sleep, the closest to Brahmalok As s... read full story

I'm currently at a unique university, an inclusive campus where 46 speech and hearing impaired students graduate each year. I have been doing one on one sessions with these students to get clear on their goals, have a reality check of where they are and have a plan in place for next three months. Every morning, I made it a practice of setting the intention in my heart of "May I be instrument for them to get what they need right now." And for the last two days now, I am seeing fe... read full story

A couple of days back, I volunteered at the David Sassoon Industrial school, Matunga in Mumbai - for the Green friends activity - an urban gardening project, run by Ashiyana volunteers. I have known from Sachi that it happens through the week, and specially on Sunday many volunteers join hands for more than a year. And yet, it took me really a long time to actually show up as a volunteer on a Sunday morning. I was unsure who I would find there as co-volunteers as I had not RSVP-ed in advance.... read full story

Beautiful note of appreciation from Israel: Dear staff and volunteers of Seva Cafe, I visited your wonderful space with Gandhi 3.0 about a month ago. I was so struck by what you are doing! I am an organizational psychologist, and what you are doing, in my language, is creating the future, here in the present. Every evening, Seva Cafe demonstrates the future we can all live into. If you remember, you spoke to us from the stage, and moved us with your authenticity and commitment. Anyway, ... read full story

I was talking to a a noble friend and I was telling him "I learn few things in each and every retreat, sometimes a few things are reminders, sometimes I see blind spots, sometimes I see inspirations and a few other times I also see the unknown". On listening to this, he said why don't you write about your experience and what you learned in the retreat and it made sense. This blog is dedicated to the experiences and learnings from the recent Head-Hands-Heart retreat that I was part ... read full story

Last year in December I went for my first 10-day Vipassana course in Igatpuri. While Vipassana is a solitary practice, the fact that 40 more friends from moved by love were going to be sitting in the same course was a comforting thought, since it was my first time. Two days into the 10-day sit, I started coughing. There was hot ginger water available in the dining hall, but I only had a regular plastic bottle and my plastic bottle could not keep it hot for long. Moreover, the bottle wasn&rsqu... read full story