To Love Another: Sadanand

April 11, 2019

To Love Another: Sadanand

For one human being to love another is

perhaps the most difficult task of all,

the epitome, the ultimate test.

It is that striving for which all other striving

is merely preparation.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

In Indian mythology the god who created the human race, rather all vegetation and life, Prajapati, is a very old man. He is the father of all. He has created the lifeforms and their protection is left to Visnu, forever young, and destruction to Siva, also young and exuberant. The three gods, Trimurti, are worshiped together, Prajapati or Brahma is severed and protected. This myth is synonymous to the living culture of India, to protect and respect our creators; having spent their life for us give them a special space in our lives. Our culture in inclusive of all age groups living together, much before the concept of retirement came in, we had the idea of 'vanprasthashram', where people retired from their duties towards family and led a life of solace in forests in proximity with nature. But nowhere in our culture fits the concept of giving up the age-old in family because we cannot look after them. Yet with the changing lifestyle, nuclear families, migrations to other countries we have the rising need of Old age homes, which are individual initiated paid facilities mostly private. These places try there best to make the age-old live a good life, but in their minds most of them are forlorn since its not their own choice of living the last few years. Most of these people don't need economic support, their 'distant' families pay for their amenities, all they need is respect and protection. They are not ill, they are not dysfunctional, one just needs to make them feel normal and help them live a regular emotional life. Its not easy, it is really not easy for one human to love other fulfilling each other's lives. And it is yet not an extraordinary effort to be able to love! Its important to remember though that loving someone is not giving rather getting more and more. So one can love in every way and anyway, there is simply no prescribed one!

Being part of Sadanand was such an experience, where love become so much more than an emotion; absence and presence of love had so much more of a meaning. Sadanand is an ongoing project where artists interact with the people living in old age home and paint a wall with their participation taking cue from the conversation and the environment. In the first Sadanand event at Anand Vruddhashram Palghar, "I am reminded of Karna and Krishna dialogue on Kurukshetra," Nakul, one the artists observed philosophically the second day of stay. "I have given charity, donated wholeheartedly all my life. why oh Krishna do I suffer like this now Karna asked. The donor benefits more than the seeker, Krishna told him, charity has become your vanity. You get much more than you give, and thus Karna you have got too much!" Nakul said he understood what Krishna told Karna, that day after interacting with the old people there and painting for them. Sadanand has been an illuminating and philosophical experience for me and certainly all the participating artists. Begun with co-ordinating with old age homes, Inner Wheel and the artists, it began as work and transgressed the borders of at and work and became a soulful awakening.

Sadanand has been an activity which has opened up the possibilities of art interaction to innumerable tributaries, all leading to the ultimate truth of 'ananda'. The project was to simply give back to the community from where were getting to support the thousands of artists for the last four years. And to support them with what we were good at, our artists and art! A novel project, thus began taking shape. I would have never imagined the outcome and what the project gave back to us. Sadanand humbled us with the lesson that we can only receive from the world, after contributing largely and that one can make a difference by doing his best in what he is good at.

I by no means am interested in sharing the vulnerabilities of living loneliness, rather I would better share the joys of life that this experience has brought out. Every person staying in these places have a story, and every story is mind-boggling. But one realizes with frequenting these places that it is simply not possible to resolve the issues, what is better to to make the present more livable, more lovable. It is amazing that the Sadanand events were able to achieve this to a large extent. With a different group of artists, with varied temperaments and different locations, each experience was unique. Thus was the outcome in each project, satisfying was the part that artists didn't bother to entangle themselves in the emotional jargon of the places and people; they freely expressed there own selves. The first place, Anand in Palghar was as its name, an extremely happy place. The space itself thus proved an inspiration and became a surreal flight into jubilant balloons. The second and third spaces, Abhalmaya and Sahyog were places for mostly bed-ridden people, and were thus difficult for the artists too. Both the groups responded with a flourish of colours, one group with bounty of brightness, other brought nature inside for the ones stuck to bed.

Each of these artworks are unique in their character, and unique in the experience. The Anand and Matoshree Vruddhashram grand parents were super excited to participate and thus have painted walls in their own style. At Anand, the artists painted the swing in the campus. At Matoshree, the artists opened the walls to everyone, making the grannies draw on their tab and projecting the images on the wall retaining the naivety of the line. The images of the works speak for themselves, and I would rather encourage all to go and visit these places to see. The whole intention of Sadanand is to generate this dialogue, to connect the fragments of our society, to bring different age groups together, to emotionally bond generations together such that they complete each other by being there for each other. Your visit could make a huge difference in someone's life.

This project opened up a side of our society which could be avoided but is still stark face of reality. Old age homes are spaces which have been formed because of the human emotional conflicts and are thus quite a man made catastrophe. While it is unavoidable, this project brought forth an important lesson, that one can always make a difference in the world by doing what one is good at. Sadanand was enriching as an artist, and much more towards being human. The visits to these spaces brought forth the dedication and passion of the people who had conceived and were running the old age homes. The work that these guys are doing is nothing short of miraculous and the success of this project is because of the dedicated Manisha Kotak, Dr. Aparna Deshmukh, Pravin Shah and their teams, the unseen heroes who live and die with the people at the end of their physical life journeys. Old age home shave a different vibe in their space altogether, these are people who have lived their lives and thus there is a unique air of incompleteness in fulfillment that hangs around. I just hope that this small intervention makes a wee bit of a difference for some moments in their lives.
I cannot thank enough the artists, my friends who actually made Sadanand happen, Nakul Dhangade, Ciby Samuel, Swapnil Jagtap, Rajesh Chaudhari, Abhijit Nigade, Sameer Gorde, Jitendra Thorat, Abhishek Acharya, Nitin Vare, Umesh Panchal, Kunal Namdev, Kedar Namdas, Aniket Supe and Sushmita Man. And also the photographers who documented the same in the beautiful images put in here, Darshan Mahajan, Pravin Tapkir, Yogesh Pawar and Saranpani Kusre. A special thanks to Mayur Hule, Ankita Mirkale, Mansi Kansara, Vedika Patil, Nabha Tagwale, Salonee Gonge, Sanjana Sawant, Isha Mahajan, Apurva Kakad, Prachi Oswal, Sayli Patil, Nayna Naphde for being there and their support. This event for organised under Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation and I was privileged enough to be a part of it.