Searching for Gandhi

After a very full first day in Hyderabad, India, the idea of blogging to attempt to describe this experience seems woefully inadequate. Prasad, our Gandhi scholar and guide, wisely had us spend the morning at a wellness institute named Addlife, clearing our mind and detoxifying our bodies with yoga, message and steam baths. The Yoga was supposed to be for beginners, but I'm supposing that means Indian beginners. It was equal parts taxing and relaxing for us American novices. All I'll say about the message was that it involved a lot of slapping, popping and clapping and that was just the face! We left feeling renewed and ready for the challenges of Hyderabad traffic and the stimulation of exploration (a reminder that mindful learning and leadership begins with taking care of one's self) On the surface, Gandhi can be found easily here-statues, portraits, named entities- but the deeper meaning of his life's message requires conversation and visitation-today included three remarkable venues. The first stop was Bhoodan Pochampalli where an amazing land gift movement began with a disciple of Gandhi, Acharya Vanobaji, initiating his 14 year walk across India resulting in thousands of acres of land being donated:one acre-one man-sustains life. Nearby, a State sponsored Technical Institute provides free tuition to rural students seeking skills and employablity. What's incredible is that a full third of their curriculum is devoted to the "Personal Self" with courses on leading a Gandhian value-based life. They would like to establish a relationship with Stritch related to moral and values based leadership and management. (Janice and Peter H. are you reading this?)Lastly, and the most most moving, was to the village of Burujugadda, a pilot in community development in rural village life that has transformed from 0% to 100% self sustainability and literacy over the last 25 years. Prasad has been their main sponsor and lived with the tribal inhabitants for the first few years to initiate the transformation. He says that now he just visits and enjoys the life they have created because they are now able to do everything themselves, however it's clear that he is still mightily engaged. The villagers welcomed us with song, gifts, and smiles a mile wide. Everyone was immensely proud to show us their homes, school and temple. Luckily we arrived on the last day of Harvest Festival activities and cheered them on with a motorbike race for the boys (that was judged on the basis of who could be the slowest and not fall off their bike) and a bicycle race for the girls (who proudly raced as fast as they could to show off their newly donated bikes which allows them to ride to the high school 3 miles away). Go Girls! What an amazing day.........more to come.