Yogakshemam 27102020
President KR Narayanan, 100. The country missed to celebrate. He addressed the Parliament at the midnight of 14 August 1997.
Paulo Freire, 98. Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been/is our guide to our development practice. The book itself is 50+. The key: Learning together and appreciating the ‘oppression’ would pave way for finding solutions. We would not be ‘silent’ after that appreciation.
Four Elections. Elections for the President of United States of America. Assembly Elections in Bihar. Bye-elections in Dubbaka Assembly Constituency, Telangana, near home. And elections for Graduate Council Seat in Telangana.
Voting started, to end on 3 November to select the electors. Biden versus Trump. There are others in the fray nominally. Libertarian Jo and Green Howie. Opinion polls say Biden, with his running mate Kamala, may win.
Bihar elections in three phases. First phase is on 28 October. Results will be on 10 November. BJP-JDU vs Mahaghatbandhan. Lok Jansakthi is the third. Nitish versus Tejaswi Yadav. Sushil Modi, Chirag Paswan – the key players. Opinion polls suggest Nitish gets next term as well. If the majority is not clear, there can be some drama.
Closer home, Dubbaka bye-poll is witnessing a contest between TRS, BJP and Congress. TRS may retain the seat. BJP is not taking it easy.
MLC Graduates’ Polls, very few of the graduates are enrolling as voters in the first place. It is a not-so-warm affair.
The third transition is heading forward towards – sutras. Action to action support. Graduation – management to leadership. Leadership to Mentoring. Mentoring to providing inputs when sought. Direct action to supporting partners. Working with interns in partners. Working with a portfolio. Led by interdependent leaders, fully responsible. Back to the field, with the people. Walking around. Wandering. May be e-wandering. Being available. Smooth levers, but long levers. With leaders of collectives, federal collectives, local governments, grassroots organizations, networks, schools, institutes, et al. With leadership schools. With communities of practitioners. May be visioning. Strategy. Planning. Nurturing. Co-travelling. Dialoguing. Listening. Watching. Writing. Reflecting together. More with Poor-Vulnerable and Marginalized. With HFPL.
Building immunity within. And without.
Sutra work. An intelligent thread that puts something together. For certain timeframe. For certain purpose. Sun rises in the east, at some time In the morning. We get going with our work around this fact. We do not discuss this to change it. Can we get into this kind of work pattern, form, rhythm? If we are tied at actions, words, emotions, thoughts, inner feelings and inner energy levels. Tied to coexistence. Tied to usefulness. Tied to the tune. Tied to the beat. Tied to the wave. Tied to the light. Tied to the play of light, shade, colours, sounds, breezes, flows. Tied to the rubric. Rubric of life. Life of coexistence. As one. Sankalp, Deeksha. Flow.
Another mentor. Mentoring invisibly. Phrang Roy. Deepening the faith and respect in women and indigenous communities, early in my journey of development practice. Their innate wisdom, knowledge and potential for the betterment of the world at large. Poverty reduction is actually working with the small enterprising producers and service providers. We are an enterprise country by our DNA, genes. We are self-employed. We do not like to be slaves. It is not in our blood. All our farmers, weavers, crafts persons et al are essentially self-employed entrepreneurs. Relentless pursuers taking risk. We can be small. We can produce for ourselves. Richly. Variety. Freshly. We can be trustees of an improved habitable and abundant planet and more.
Together, we can be there in sutras. In the flow. In the sangam. In the sankalp. With choice. With dignity. With joy. Sutras can take charge of us. Our engagement, livelihoods, living, lives and destinies. We coexist usefully in N, by N, for N. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of wilfully tied in useful local coexistence – sutrayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar