Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement, after a 15 months of conflict in Gaza; some 15,000 soldiers, 50,000 civilian deaths. Ceasefire in three phases – initial 6 weeks for de-escalation and exchange of hostages; towards permanent end to the war; Return of the bodies, reconstruction plan for 3-5 years under global supervision. The USA gets credit for this ceasefire agreement.
Doubt remained – is 2013 Maha Kumbh or 2025? It seems it was 2013. What we have now till 2157 are Purn Kumbhs. 2157 would be a Maha Kumbh. 2025 is special, they say, because we see 7 planets in alignment in January and February coinciding with Kumbh time. 500 million people cumulatively congregating at Triveni over the 45 days in itself is something special. Chaotic serenity. Spiritual humanness. Ritual commerce. Deep reflection times, teams, spaces.
35 years ago, our classmates, colleagues, roommates TS Rajan, SS Manoharan, on a TVS 50, met with a fatal accident, a road transport bus hitting them, within a furlong from where we stayed in Anand. They slipped into a coma, one into a deeper state, and the other quickly out of it. Subsequently, Rajan succumbed to it and could not be revived despite best efforts in Ahmedabad hospital. Manohar recovered from the coma but we took time to get out of the whole thing. Fraternity at Dairy board and IRMA, each one, made Manohar in particular and all of us around in general to get back to normalcy. Teachers-staff at IRMA, colleagues at Dairy board have tended to us. A lot of time, in any case.
The feeling that we should get to the grassroots, to the cutting-edge to appreciate the reality on ground, and see how to make a small difference had been mounting within us. This incident reinforced that feeling. When talked to, leadership in the Dairy Board did not agree. At first. We were not willing to fight and go. Ms. Patel slowly tried to nudge us to a field transfer. We were not OK with that. Finally, the leadership gave an offer – one could go, the second had to wait a year. Manohar was the first to go. I had to wait an extra year, being in IRMA and available to the Market Intervention Core team as and when required. At IRMA, I was with Brains-Trust, chaired by K; with Dr Aneja in Policy; in National Oilseeds Sector Policy Analysis – making the national oilseeds and oil estimates; teaching ‘information’ et al. After some 10-12 months, I could leave Anand to join Manohar on the ground. Being and working with tribal communities.
Manohar, with 3 years with Boithili, joined ACCORD and was with Gudalur Adivasi community, via a small stint to be with his father’s neem-based enterprise. He was not OK with ‘business’ ways. He stayed put there till the ‘end’. And a year later, with Community Coordination Network coming into being, Kovel Foundation taking off, some wonderful and pioneering work at Girijan Cooperative Corporation and GCC seeing changes in leadership subsequently, I moved back to Anand to work with Commons at National Tree Growers. Dairy board leadership made an exception to take me back into its group organizations. 3 years later, I finally reached Hyderabad and stayed put. Through Outreach; Akshara Livelihoods; Independent professional; Naandi Foundation; SERP (combined AP); NIRD Practitioner-Academic; National Rural Livelihoods Mission, GoI-UNDP; APF, RySS-APCNF.
Next. What would Manohar say? Can we flow with the need, intelligence, direction of the universe? Can we mentor? Can we take our teams?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flowing. Kumbh, Rajan, Manohar guiding. In N? Sankalpayoga for 7L.
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