As a change maker I went with a big ego bringing transformation and helping the villagers in the hamlet where there were so many reports of malnutrition in the state of UP India.The villagers greeted me and I went around as if an expert with the air of " know it all ". I was given good sumptuous food by the village headman with Indian bread and vegetables. After the meal i noticed a banana leaf kept near an Ant hill under a tree and one or two person coming and peeking at it occasionally catching my attention.I got lost in my work and rounds around the village.In the evening I saw that a few folks had gathered near that tree and soon they shooed away the ants on the leaves.to my surprise the next instant they were actually licking the leaf and enjoy the act.
Out of sheer curiosity I reached that spot and asked them what they were doing as I felt it revolting, here is what they had to say " this is our meal, the ants have gathered crumbs that are very nutritious and good for body." I was taken aback. What on earth were they speaking of ? The head man explain " you people from the city are used to the habit of filling the stomach to satiate hunger.By making hunger less doesn't mean the body is getting the nutrition it wants......it may just fill the stomach. The City folks are used to sedentary life style.We at the village have hard labour to deal with every moment. For us we need nutrition to sustain ourselves to have enough energy to discharge the work. We don't fill our stomach but we give what the body needs to be healthy and strong......our lean bodies doesn't mean there is malnutrition or starving and you being plump doesn't mean you are healthy . We have just adapted ourselves to our living conditions".
Nothing had prepared me on this stark reality of shared identity.he was working to ensure his people were protected and fed while I was trying to do the same and each of us saw each of need to CHANGE. They wanted us from the urban life to see their wisdom in their concept of nutrition and ridiculed our approach and we looked at theirs and did the same.
What emerged for me that day was transformational.I gave up my activism approach forever.I realized that I had so much to learn as yet and my paradigm had shifted. There is abundance for every one on this planet and each of us have adapted to the environment we are in.In the mode of GOODNESS we see only GOODNESS and spread GOODNESS. that way all the negativity diminishes. Elimination of negativity completely is a foolish past time..The more I wage a war on poverty the more i see poverty and the more I spread poverty.The more I see hunger the more I spread hunger. So i just had no more to fight for and wage war or be angry about .I saw that all around me are in the same mode Fighting for something or the other when I made peace with myself suddenly I saw that every one around are also trying to make peace with themselves in shred identity.
On Jun 21, 2012 kishor Jagirdar wrote :
Out of sheer curiosity I reached that spot and asked them what they were doing as I felt it revolting, here is what they had to say " this is our meal, the ants have gathered crumbs that are very nutritious and good for body." I was taken aback. What on earth were they speaking of ? The head man explain " you people from the city are used to the habit of filling the stomach to satiate hunger.By making hunger less doesn't mean the body is getting the nutrition it wants......it may just fill the stomach. The City folks are used to sedentary life style.We at the village have hard labour to deal with every moment. For us we need nutrition to sustain ourselves to have enough energy to discharge the work. We don't fill our stomach but we give what the body needs to be healthy and strong......our lean bodies doesn't mean there is malnutrition or starving and you being plump doesn't mean you are healthy . We have just adapted ourselves to our living conditions".
Nothing had prepared me on this stark reality of shared identity.he was working to ensure his people were protected and fed while I was trying to do the same and each of us saw each of need to CHANGE. They wanted us from the urban life to see their wisdom in their concept of nutrition and ridiculed our approach and we looked at theirs and did the same.
What emerged for me that day was transformational.I gave up my activism approach forever.I realized that I had so much to learn as yet and my paradigm had shifted. There is abundance for every one on this planet and each of us have adapted to the environment we are in.In the mode of GOODNESS we see only GOODNESS and spread GOODNESS. that way all the negativity diminishes. Elimination of negativity completely is a foolish past time..The more I wage a war on poverty the more i see poverty and the more I spread poverty.The more I see hunger the more I spread hunger. So i just had no more to fight for and wage war or be angry about .I saw that all around me are in the same mode Fighting for something or the other when I made peace with myself suddenly I saw that every one around are also trying to make peace with themselves in shred identity.