All the days in spent at gramshree i felt elated at the turn of events and often wondered how the exact cards were unravelled that was of progressive imperative.

I may have mentioned before that i volunteered at an NGO in ahmadabad in january.It had always been on my list of things to do before i finish college to spend my time working for a non-profit org.I did not have any one in mind and while i was doing my research i stumbled upon a blog whose writer was involved in upliftment of women through arts and handicrafts.i contacted her and she told me about gramshree.

Granshree deals with empowering women to a sustainable living condition by offering jobs in weaving and stitching.It has proved itself to be a successful synthesis of arts and social cause over the years.

The next step was to find out more about this organization and to know if they were open to volunteer work.It was sorted and it worked in my favor.

I gave it a few days to plan out my trip.And finally i was set to go.

I arrived at gramshree and met punit bhai(who took care of my work schedule) to get an introductory tour of all 3 floors including different departments of the workshop and to the leads from teams who gave me warm friendly smiles and probably refrained from talking with a general assumption that i did not know gujarati.

I was only listening to punit bhai describing the names of different department with their meanings and was closely following the syntax of his hindi.I knew i had to pace up my hindi for the next few weeks.

Back in the prayer room i met another volunteer Anita and Raghu bhai(who also is the care-taker of gramshree).I was further introduced to various other causes initiated by gramshree and raghu bhai individually.I subconsciously drew comparisons with the success of each of those causes if it were to happen in bangalore.

As evening drew closer i was told to visit seva cafe.a cafe which runs on pay forward philosophy,where i met a cluster of people(volunteers/visitors/friends from gramshree) from eclectic background,who i could recognize were treading the path towards ' being the change'.I met my roomy Sujata,to her huge smile and inquiring after whether i was feeling hungry,amidst the gaieties of the evening organized in remembrance of Eshwar Patel kaka,and i knew this was going to be larger than what i had come expecting!

Archana ben

I don't know her name but we exchanged many smiles and laughter during my quilt-making doncumentation. Inspite of linguistic impediment(not sure if she understood/spoke hindi) or rather non-communication its amusing how comforting she was to be around.

Bina ben.Her effervesence shadowed everybody else in the room.

She was the quietest,doing her work like it meant everything.
Notice how the little water bottle is tucked at the crevice in the wall.