Grace... In A New Place

I am a fashion designer and maker from the UK. Currently based in Berlin, and travelling around India. This trip has been a long time coming. Me and India share a lot of similar values; textiles, yoga, delicious food. On paper it seems we're pretty compatible, let's see how I get on IRL.

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Trees and clouds sitting together in a puddle (at Berlin, Germany)

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Blessed. In Berlin 🌞 (at Osloer Straße)

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Now that's a Happy Easter (at Dharamkot)

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Happy Holi! (at Dharamkot)

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Rolls of India. Got me feelin hella #french and #exotic (at Rishikesh, Uttarakhand)

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#dateyoself #indiaedition #chai (at Rishikesh, Uttarakhand)

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Heaven in the desert

So I have left this little way of keeping in touch with my loved ones to go slightly quiet on the word front. I can promise it is only due to the fact I've been experiencing such whole and exciting ways of being and seeing that making them into sentences has been challenging. I could write you a novel about the three weeks I spent at Shri Jasnath Asan, this special fort in the desert. I could. But it would be incredibly self-indulgent and quite useless to anyone. And one must always keep some things for their biopic... I found them through the WWOOF India (links below) farm list; after working on a farm in Jaipur where I was eventually the only English speaker, and not entirely sure I was being useful at all. I reached out to Shree and she replied promptly and positively, it was decided. Arriving there was a huge relief. Travelling in India alone can be emotionally exhausting. Being in places is great, but getting from A to B often leaves me drained and wound up. Here I was welcomed by a warm community the minute I arrived. I forgot about the man who sat on me on the bus, and was handed a freshly baked Baajre Ka Sogra bread. (My first of many, a home-made millet flat bread served with ghee and natural sugar.) Life at Shri Jasnath is well-paced. Waking up before the sun to practice yoga, followed by a light breakfast before starting our work for the day. For me this was mainly spent in the garden or kitchen... My favourite ways to keep the wheels turning. These hours were also yoga, also practice. Inner work and outer work. Each day the volunteers spend 6 hours working around the Ashram - contributing with either cleaning, construction, gardening, teaching yoga, organising children's activities or teaching the local staff English. Our jobs most often reflecting a desire or skill we wished to explore. After work there would be another yoga class at 5pm, followed by dinner and Pooja. All of these things are done with the community of the ashram. This includes Guru-ji and Shree, the other volunteers and the local Seva workers. This gave us opportunities to connect with how life works in Rajasthan, sing Kirtan whilst making Beet Salad and sun-drying tomatoes, inadvertently learn Hindi and Marwari. I truly felt here that I was useful, understood and safe. Deeply nourished by the combination of yoga, work, warmth, delicious food and sound sleep. And oh, the ladles of ghee... It feels like a simple answer to the hours I've often spent at home worrying about how best to use my time - to be good, productive and kind. It proved to me that often the simplest way it the right one. All is perfect, all is whole; we don't need to make perfect happen. Because it's already there inside of and surrounding us. The people and spirit here will stay in my heart and influence my practice for many more moons. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity and circumstances that brought me to Shri Jasnath... I never expected to find another home and family in the desert of Rajasthan. Om Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat Purnamudachyate Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnameva Vashishyate Om Shanti Shanti Shanti www.shrijasnathasan.org www.wwoofindia.org www.workaway.info

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🙏🏼🤗🎪 (at Rishikesh, Uttarakhand)

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Ok Mother Ganga, do your thing. I'll do mine. (at River Ganga at Rishikesh)

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Storm leftovers... #Rajasthan (at Panchla Siddha)

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I live here right now 🙏🏼✨ #shrijasanth #ashram #nagaur (at Khimsar Fort)

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Err day be like... #shellingpeas #farmlyfe #woofindia #eatyourgreens 🌱 #ilovepeas #peasplease #innerpeace (at Saharia Organic Farmhouse)

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The Bench

Wow. A whole empty bench. Why is no one sat on this bench? Ah. Curry spill. It's small though, plenty of room for me to sit. Sits. Oh. The bench is attached to neither wall nor ground. Still, it beats standing. Just engage your core. Continues to sit. Core engaged. Family of rats emerges from behind the bench and descends on the curry spillage. Ohhhh. Rat family. I understand the bench.

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Yesterday I went to fabric heaven 😇✨ #rajasthanitextiles #blockprinting #naturaldye #indiancraft #colour #fabric #indigo #cotton #prints (at Sitapur Industrial Area)

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Thoughts from the Amla tree...

Maybe, all we really want from life is to hit a tree with a big stick and for fruit to fall out of it.

Amlas are Indian gooseberries, and I have spent the last week hitting them out of trees. They are not immediately tasty, you need to work for it. If you chew them for about a minute, it becomes sweet like a grape. I’m a total Amla fan. My fellow WOOF volunteers aren’t so crazy about them, but we’re all equally passionate about gathering them. It’s nice work. I’ve been climbing trees - something I’ve never really done up until now and I love it. I guess I’m making up for lost time being helplessly sensible as a child.

So far, I don’t feel like I’ve learnt a lot about organic farming. But I have about how people live out here in the villages, and what the lifestyle is like. And I think it’s helped me understand India more as a whole. Seeing the quieter, calmer side of life here I’ve realised that farm life and work are one and the same. The families that live on the farm and nurture it and live from it’s produce. It’s like the upkeep of a house, but bigger and the house has an owner. Some of the people who live here work directly for the owner; driving him, cooking for him, etc.

One of these people is Suresh, who also cooks all of the food for the volunteers. He is, unsurprisingly, my favourite person here. He is constantly smiling, like he can’t help it. His English is very limited, but he knows this makes him very funny to us. For some reason he calls us either “one hundred” or two hundred". For example, I was lying down after lunch today and he asked the others, “Two hundred dead?” He calls anyone who is part of a couple “husband”. Hannah didn’t want her chapatti and he asks Rob, “Husband no hungry?” It doesn’t get old. We just said good night to him as he was warming his feet on the fire (a classic Suresh move) and he shouts back, “Good morning!” As well as a comic genius, he is really hardworking and has fed us so well. He is in the kitchen all day, and is always the last one to eat. He actually has to wait until everyone has eaten before he can. And I can’t wash up his plate.

These unwavering rules of hierarchy are really strange for me. It doesn’t feel right. I’ve never lived in an environment where some people aren’t allowed to eat side by side. Or to just wash each other’s dinner plates. It feels uncomfortable to partake in, and be aware that it’s something I actually have to respect here. I can’t just swan in and tell people the way they’re doing it is all wrong. And I wouldn’t want to, but I think rules like this feed inequality.

It sounds cliché, but equality is a human right that not enough people have. I am incredibly grateful that I’m privileged enough to make this trip and waffle on about inequality and Almas. But I’d like to think I’m ready to sacrifice it for equality.

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Namast - hey!

Yoga is the same everywhere, it's my mind that keeps changing. Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't been able to practice yoga (asana or meditation) as much as usual whilst travelling in India. But I think that's the nature of travelling, there's very little routine to the hours and days - which is definitely something to enjoy and embrace! However the farm does have some routine, and today was the first time I'd practiced yoga asana on my own since arriving, and it felt so different. I felt so different. I witnessed and moved with a new idea of myself... And the old ideas too. Well, up until the back bends when I was joined by two little helpers. There are loads of kids who live on the farm and who have been doing dance classes with another of the volunteers who teaches them. These helpers were the children of the farm manager and they asked me if I was exercising, then started doing push ups beside me. I taught them some shoulder stands (which they loved), child's pose and headstand. They were pretty into it! Very interested and happy to try everything, despite the language barrier and my lack of finesse in adjusting a four year old doing a shoulder stand. They went off to dance class and joined my meditation afterwards, but got bored and started decorating my mat instead... So I guess yoga is different sometimes.

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Home sweet home 🌿💤🛌 #organic #woof #woofindia #farmlyfe #mudhut #thatched #sleepytime #thereisalsorats #theyarenice (at Saharia Organic Farmhouse)