Name: Prosper S Marak
Location: Meghalaya’s

The story goes back to November 2008 when an attempt was made to open up a new coal mine on the periphery of Balpakram National Park. In any case, coal mining cannot be undertaken by private individuals as all coal (including that in Meghalaya) was nationalized in 1967. In blatant violation of the law of the land, ‘illegal’ coal mines continue to flourish all over Meghalaya.
In July last year, contractors came with bulldozers and began clearing the forests. The GSU swung into action. They seized the bulldozer and handed it over to the police. A protracted legal battle ensued; in the intervening period young men and women cleared the debris and began to reforest the area. They took turns patrolling the restored lands to ensure that the miners did not return to destroy what had been resurrected Marak’s associate Ginseng Sangma, also a student, believes the protests were the least they could do for the community and the forests they grew up in. They convinced over 100 school and college students to join in the innovative non-violent protest by replanting the forest stretch that had been destroyed by the bulldozers.

Read complete story here

Recently we had 18 media college students for a one week internship in Ahmedabad. It was first of it’s opportunity for us as we had never had more than 2-3 interns at a time. Till the day of their arrival we had no fixed schedule of what we will be doing. Deep down I knew, it will come when it needs to, I just had to be completely present. Intention of this internship was film production but we ended up learning and connecting more with life. Day would start with gratitude prayer and circle of sharing and then through various exercises explored about each others stories. It was zen filmmaking in real sense. I tried letting go and surrendered myself to the present moment and the moment I did that I felt uplifted and got connected with myself and them together. There was no separation.

We are still feeling the love from Circle of Ekatva gathering in Sughad (Gujarat), from June 27-29. About 45 grassroot leaders from across India (some from US and Japan too!) came together to learn about each others work, share heartfelt stories and lessons, and connect as family. Our hope was to facilitate new synergies amongst us and perhaps plant a seed for a broader movement of co-creative social change work.

for more info: www.movedbylove.org

” Find your truth through whatever you do”, our teachers always say…Here’s few experiments towards that humble effort.”

Monday : Joy of giving
Embracing the wisdom that nothing lasts forever, we try to gift one of our favorite possession to someone random every monday. Doesn’t has to be big, expensive or significant but any simple thing which we cherish and would like for ourselves. Since we started this experiment, we weren’t surprised to realize, we received much more in happiness than we could possibly give.

Gulab Devi, 45, is completely illiterate. Gulab is one of the many Barefoot Solar Engineers (BSEs) working across eight Indian states (Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Sikkim) to establish solar energy systems in areas where electric supply is either non-existent or highly erratic.

The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) support the Barefoot Solar Engineering programme. It is implemented by the Barefoot College, also known as the Social Work Research Centre or SWRC, an NGO based in Tilonia, Rajasthan.