Trustosity moved by love - pune - december 2012 - flow funding

Trustosity:
Trust Driven Philanthropy
"Sow the seeds and trust!"

Agenda
•Context
•Full Stories
•Additional Stories
•Recap / Lessons Learned

Context:
In December of 2012, about 55 community
organizers from around India met to deepen
their understanding of Giftivism in Pune,
India.

The 3-day gathering
anchored around 3P’s:
• practices for inner
transformation
• projects for
external impact
• platforms for social
change

At the very end of the retreat, each of the
participants received an envelope titled
"Small is Beautiful" containing 5000 Rupees
(100 USD) to go out into their communities
and spread some love using this amount.

To make this gift more meaningful, a few
creative constraints were put in place:

Meals on Wheels – Prem Coelho
Pune, India
maprem911@gmail.com
Project Description
• Deeply pained by the plight of the homeless, Prem was inspired
to start Meals on Wheels, a volunteer driven initiative to prepare
love filled meals for the homeless once a week.
• There is no centralized kitchen and every week different
volunteers offer their kitchen for the cooking.
• After cooking the meal, the volunteers sit in silence and send
their blessings into the world. Then they drive around the streets
and offer the meal to whoever looks like they need it.
• Prem encourages the volunteers to engage thru conversations
with the homeless as this is a simple way to reconnect with the
humanity within each person.
Stories
• “One cold winter day, we wanted to hand out blankets along with
food. When the shopkeeper got to know of our intentions, he
gave us a discount as well as some extra blankets as his
contribution!”
• “Recently my house maid volunteered her kitchen for us to cook
from as an expression of her solidarity. Very touching to see how
people of limited means express generosity.”
Personal Impact / Next Steps
• Requests from others to start their own programs in various
places around the world
• Age range of current volunteers – 2 yrs old to 80 yrs old!
• Dream is to scale the Meals on Wheels as a daily activity over
time, we need to build trust network first over time
• Will find an effective way to share stories and pictures via a blog
or website as well as social media

Wisdom Crafts – Sonal Agarwal and
Krupali Warade
Pune, India
krupaliwarade9@gmail.com, sonuagarwal1001@gmail.com
Project Description
• Sonal and Krupali pooled in their 5000 rupees fund to work on
creating handcrafted gifts of art and wisdom.
• Their dream: “To spread joy in the world by creating art pieces
with wisdom messages, and then gift them forward
anonymously.”
• In the recent past they have put wisdom messages on diverse
pieces like rocks, bookmarks, diaries made from recycled paper,
cards from old wedding invites, art frames, etc..
Stories
• Sonal: “I wanted to pay forward this experience of employing art
as a mindfulness practice with my mother and her friends. Once
a month we have an “Art Funday” where I have started
facilitating these art circles in my home where we reuse and
upcycle waste materials with my mother and around 20 of her
friends. It is amazing to see the changes that this art activity has
brought about in them as earlier they would only end up
gossiping when they met.”
• Krupali: “I love drawing, painting, writing and craft. Whatever I
do, I do with a lot of love and whoever receives these handmade
gifts feel very happy too. Its been an amazing experience.
Seeing the way people react i feel so much more inspired to
make a lot more handmade gifts. I want to keep this going!”

Trust Library – Harsh Gupta
Kolkata, India
harshpahs@gmail.com
Project Description
• Harsh: “I had gone to a friend's place for the first time and saw a
wardrobe full of books sitting idly catching dust. When I received
the gift of the 5000 rupees, the seeds of the Trust Library were
sown and I decided to initiate a gift library of inspirational
books. I hoped that the library would encourage the free
movement of books between the community and inspire folks”
Personal Impact
• Everyone has their own dharma, some give and some receive.
People need not do both.
• People were a bit afraid of picking a book on their own, but when
given with assurance and lots of love, they all read the books
with joy.
• Many folks have contributed money to buy more books (some
even anonymously), many more have contributed their much
loved books, some have contributed with more book suggestions
• I realize that giving is much more than giving of possessions and
more of ourselves.
Next Steps
• Harsh liked the spreading smiles through this Trust library so
much that he wondered how to seed this idea across the various
Awakin circles around the world. So he prepared small packets
of seed books and sends them to new meditation circles to seed
their own journey of melding theory with practice.

Gift Restaurant – Rakesh Malani
Hyderabad, India
rakesh_malani@hotmail.com
Project Description (Rakesh’s words)
• Went to a nearby snack place (average snack cost was about 30
rupees) where we agreed with the owner for letting us foot the
bill for next several customers.
• When presented with no bill, each and every customer was
surprised... and each one of them enquired about who was
paying for their food... When directed by the owner in our
direction, everyone came to talk to us to understand why we
were doing it.
• Imagine kids saying that we are practicing generosity and
spreading love... everyone was moved beyond words!! Lots of
smiles, words of encouragement, hugs, high fives, people
wanting to join us became the norm that evening. The
atmosphere suddenly had become festive. We were making
friends in a hurry and feeling the one-ness with everyone.
• Included whole family in the exercise and many others came
and offered money as well
• Rakesh had offered a short-term bridge loan of 75,000 rupees
(1500 USD) to a colleague some 18 months ago that he had failed
to return. While he originally kept the pressure on, he was moved
by the gifting exercise. Returning home, he told the guy to treat it as
an unconditional gift from a friend and that if he so wished, he could
pay it forward in future to others in need.
• Rakesh has himself become more involved with philanthropy,
gifting a cheque for 7.5 lacs (15000 USD) to facilitate buying 30
acres land in Africa for sustainable livelihoods... a land that he
might never see... for people that he might never see.

Compassion for Animals – Kapila Ramakrishnan
Bangalore, India
kapilaramakrishnan@gmail.com
Project Description
• The flow fund of Rs. 5000 was used for Paru (the dog’s) surgery
and recuperation. But the incredible experience it gave us and the
kindness it awakened in the auto driver was priceless!!
• This dog is a stray that had a massive tumor growth that was
identified by a nearby vet
• Kapila and family took great pains to get the dog to the hospital –
along the journey was their auto driver, who could not believe the
effort shared for a stray dog
• After 3 hours of auto drivers time, he himself operated on gift basis
and asked for no specific charge
• Kapila will share stories of random acts of kindness by
animals and enclose Rs.100 (with a note) inspiring people to
use the money to perform acts of kindness towards animals
• This act of generosity has rekindled Kapila’s dream of creating
Happy Haven, a sanctuary where nature, animals and human
beings coexist and heal each other. She is actively looking to
manifest this dream with powerpoint and all!

Random Acts of Kindness – Bhumi Bhanushali
Mumbai, India
bhumibhanushali@yahoo.in
Project Description
“The intention was to start a smile revolution. I wanted to engage in
random acts of kindness and engage many others in the same too.”
Stories (Bhumi’s words)
• Started with gifting favorite books with personal notes
• Then spent Rs.500 for a smile stall called „smile space‟ that we
hosted for 2 days during our college fest and brought small gifts
& flowers which were further being tagged anonymously by
collage peers. Over 500 people directly tagged with kindness.
• It wasn‟t easy to decide what exactly do with the money keeping
in alignment with its purpose and I couldn‟t come up with
anything particular to do with it.. so decided to just go with the
flow.
• Lastly we distributed fresh lime juice amongst the watchmen and
guards as a gesture of our gratitude for their services.There
were smiles as well as tears all around.
• “Inspired by the feelings of joy we experienced doing random
acts of kindness, a couple of other friends joined me in
celebrating a friends 23rd birthday doing 23 unique acts of
kindness. Video”
• Making small acts a regular part of her life to share broadly

Additional Stories of
Transformation

Name: Lakshmi Ramamurthy
Location: Pune, India
(e): lucky.ramamurthy@gmail.com
I decided to use my 5000 Rs gift to buy blankets and gift them the homeless people on the streets as
it was an extremely cold winter. On 25th January 2013, my husband and kids set off at 9.30 pm
with 35 blankets, looking for people to give the blankets away along with some old clothes and
old shoes.
We stopped at a bridge near the railway station where there was a person sleeping on the
pavement, covered in a cotton blanket. I took the blanket to the person and as I neared the
person, I saw that the person was shivering inside. Still unsure who it was or how many were
under the blanket, I just covered the person. Immediately the person stuck his head out, and it
was a really old man who was shivering.
We exchanged a very powerful moment. I asked him his name. He said it was Prabhakar. He went
back into his blanket and I walked away moved and happy.
The next stop was at a signal outside a local college and the remaining blankets, old clothes and old
shoes were all absorbed by the needy.

Name: Neeti
(e): neetis1969@gmail.com
First I gifted Rs.1000 to an old gardener-women in my office to bear her medical expenses as she
herself had undergone a heart surgery. Rs. 1000 was footed for her medicines that she needed
every month. We developed a great one-to-one relation post this tag.
Next, I bought hand-gloves for garbage collectors and distributed them on the road side where ever
i found them collecting garbage with their hands. They were happy and even now i see them
using these regularly. 15 hand-gloves distributed and cost Rs.1000/- Nowadays, we exchange
pleasantaries on and off whenever we cross each other
I tagged 20 bird-feeders and distributed them at the Moved by Love retret in Ahmedabad retreat to
all. Thought of extending goodness with the birds too. (Cost Rs. 2000/-)
Anoynomously paid for a friends mobile bill for Rs.250/-.
Small acts of random kindness were done as sharing cold sugar cane juice with labors on the road
side, or with a weary traveler or with a salesman sitting on the roadside selling his stuff. The
smile on their face "SAID IT ALL".

Name: Parag Savla
(e): psavla@erols.com
Harsh's Library idea was rather inspiring so I was motivated to share some of my favorite books, and
felt I should help with some funds so that he could use them to share either requested books or
other books that he felt people would benefit from. I had already started procuring some books
that I wanted to share with "fellow pilgrims" at Urban Ashram so this was a beautiful, and
timely opportunity.
Sitting in my doctor's office it is readily apparent that many of his patients in that particular clinic
are financially challenged. The doctor is a very simple man and serves with great compassion
and diligence, and has intentionally chosen to serve in a very needy area. I thought it would be
wonderful to have him share this money with people who could truly benefit from it. Thus I
created 17 envelopes with Rs. 200 each and asked him to pass it to his patients as he deems
appropriate. I sat in the office to watch the ripples. The person who received the first envelope
refused to accept it as she was feeling very awkward about this. I felt, and confirmed that it
wasn't pride at play here. It was not perfectly clear to me as to why it was declined but the
doctor insisted that she takes it (considers it prasad) and uses it towards a blood test that she
needed, and he prescribed. She took it and it was certainly an interesting experience to
observe that someone who clearly did not have too much money was also so reluctant to take
it. I did not observe all the envelopes being distributed because it was a slow night for the
doctor. However, just knowing how the doctor serves these people I know that the money will
be well distributed. My children and mother also witnessed, and were part of all this.

Name: Parag Savla
(contd)
For the 3rd part, my daughter and I decided to buy some ice-cream, and Daabeli (a little bit like
Wada Pav) and gift it to strangers. In addition, we thought it would be cool to gift Daabeli to
the folks who we got the ice-cream, and ice-cream to the folks we got the Daabeli from.
However, the Daabeli walas were too busy with a steady wait so there was not chance of them
being able to enjoy the ice-cream. So we decided to simply tip them with a little cash but he
strictly refused saying this was his own business. I could be wrong, but I did not sense any pride
here. We wanted to insist that we gift them something in addition to giving him our business, so
we bought 2 candy bars for the two folks and gave it to them. Again, the main person protested
but my daughter insisted and left it on his cart. He smiled, almost rolling his eyes, but you
could see the surprise, and appreciation on his face. Many of the other folks we shared these
gifts with were surprised and almost didn't know how to react / respond. All in all, it was a
beautiful and enriching experience for my daughter and me.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Name: Beena Mansharmani
Location: Pune, Inda
(e): beens_143@hotmail.com
For some time now, I feed one meal everyday to a needy person on the street so I have really
started noticing how people live on the streets. When I received the gift of the 5000 Rs, I
decided to tag the homeless with something which can help them. I remember once going in
the cold on the bike with a thick jacket one early morning and complaining about how cold it is
until I saw a man who barely had any clothes on him. Being winter I decided to give them a
warm sweater and I thought milk would be really good for the children.
I had to make a couple of trips to tag sweaters and milk as it was not easy to find the right people
on the street and I had to make sure it really goes to the people who need it and will make
proper use of it. Every time I took a different friend or my sister and thought this may shift
something in them. I also made some conversation with them as to knowing their name, about
where is their family, sending them some good wishes, sometimes with and sometimes without
words and wishing them a happy new year. There were so many different kinds of people I met,
some very lonely, some people being in the same family but still didn't know how to share
among themselves and that’s totally understood looking at their condition, some insane people
who don’t understand anything out of which for few it was so difficult to even accept
something as these people are lost in their own world, few very old people in a very sick
condition but still on the roads to beg so they can have something to eat. Before giving the
sweater I always asked everyone whether they needed one and I remember this one lady who
was not wearing a sweater and I thought she may want one and she said no I don’t want one as I
already have it . I have never noticed anyone saying no as they may sell if they receive
something extra so was quite surprising.

Name: Lahar Mehta
Location: Mumbai, India
(e): laharmehta@gmail.com
We held a Seva Cafe gathering in Mumbai on Jan 13, 2013. I felt like contributing towards this event
was a wonderful way I could make an offering with the gift of Rs 5000 I had received from the
Pollination Project. I used the money towards printing and creating table mats I had designed,
which were colourful artworks with inspiring quotations. These are easily reusable as well, and
go a long way in helping creating an ambiance for such positivity- driven gatherings. The
remaining money was contributed towards groceries needed for the event.
The gathering was a beautiful experiment in generosity in which we got together a group of
volunteers, all offering their time towards cooking, decorating spaces and serving almost 100
people they had never met before. This was an opportunity to open our hearts and extend our
love to a larger community and family whom they could serve, with no expectation of return.
The ripples of this are expected to travel in all ways and we need to wait and see what it can
Inspire. Thank you so much for your gracious offering which made it possible to facilitate an
event like the seva cafe in Mumbai.
Here is a short blog on the event.
(http://www.movedbylove.org/blog/view.php?id=156)

Name: Afreen Shaikh
(e): afreen.shaikh06@gmail.com
I heard about this poor family of 4 children who had lost their father suddenly and they had no
money to eat any food. The father had been a hawker who sold cups and saucers and their
mother was a typical Muslim housewife who had never stepped outside the house.
So I went to meet the family to see for myself what their situation was and to also see how I could
help. As soon as I entered their dimly lit house in a narrow bylane of a slum, I knew they
definitely needed help. I discovered from my brief conversation with the family that so far they
had been helped by neighbours. I decided to use my gift money to buy them foodgrains so that
atleast till the family recovered from the loss they would not go hungry.
The day I was to deliver my gift to the family, I had to wait for 2 hours in the line at the
wholesaler's to procure the sacks of foodgrains for the family. I tried to be patient while I
waited, but the heat of the afternoon sun and the crowded shop had made me sweaty and
irritable. As I finally made my way to Hadapsar, where the family lived, I was calmer but eager
to hand over the gift and get back.
When I delivered the gift to the family, they were delighted. They all grabbed my hands and started
expressing their thanks and blessings all at once. That sudden display of mass gratitude
overwhelmed me and made me uncomfortable and I exited after a hurried goodbye. As i sat in
the auto, riding back home, I felt an amazing warmth fill my heart and before I knew it, I had
tears in my eyes.. (continued)

Name: Afreen Shaikh (continued)
I knew that the gratitude and blessing I received that day had to be shared with the amazing, folks
at the Pollination Project whose generosity and trust made this possible for me. So I shut my
eyes and send some metta as my way of saying 'thank you' for giving me this opportunity.
I loved the feeling so much that later that evening as I was walking down MG road, I was
automatically attuned to opportunities to spread the love. I found a sole traffic Policeman
waiting at a junction and it was a busy Saturday evening, the place was crowded and yet he
stood there directing traffic.
I ran to a store and bought him a chocolate. I was not my most confident self as I walked up to him
but I was high on Giftivism. So I walked over to him and as I handed the chocolate to him, I
thanked him for his service and for managing the traffic well. He seemed more uncomfortable
than I was, but he gave me a lovely smile and said Thank you to which I replied, 'No no, Thank
YOU'
As I floated down the road, still high on Giftivism, I saw an old lady begging at the bus stop. She was
bent over and looked almost blind. Now with my confidence having risen after my two shy
attempts, I walked over to her and handed over a ten Rupee note, looked her straight in the
eye and gave her a wide smile that came from the bottom of my heart. she returned my smile.
I was as happy to give as she was to receive. Our smiles matched.
Joy of Giftivism indeed! its addictive!

Name: Birju Pandya
Location: New York, USA
(e): birju@servicespace.org
Shared the funds with a gift-economy based gentleman in Ahmedabad who is teaching organic
gardening to slum-dwellers with the deeper goal of seeding inner-transformation in them as
well.
Birju shares: "The act of thinking through the possibilities of generosity continues to open my hand
to the idea of love. I want to see how i can take all the unused time in my life and make it
more and more about building a wide community."

Name: Manoj Pavitran
Location: Auroville, India
(e): manoj@auroville.org.in
I gifted 15 fleece blankets for a few elderly and poor grandmothers in the village close to my home.
My intention was to honor and acknowledge the presence of the grandmothers of the village
during the Pongal festival, an important festival in India.

Name: Jhanvi Trivedi
Location: Kolkata, India
(e): jhanvi.trivedi@gmail.com
We planned a SEVA CAFE experience in Kolkata on 23rd January 2013. I gathered a group of
volunteers including friends and family and we cooked a wholesome meal for kids at a local
orphanage. We then spent a whole afternoon, spending some time in interacting and playing
some games there, followed by lunch. Rs.5000 was spent in partially buying some of the
provisions for the food to be cooked and partially for buying small return gifts.

Name: Monita Chandawat
(e): monita.chandawat@gmail.com
I have 2 maids working at my home. I took both of them and their kids for a one day picnic to a hill
station 2 hours away called Mahableshwar. Because of their poverty, they barely have enough
for their basic needs. I felt like expressing my gratitude for their services to my family, and
treat them to a paid holiday.
It was an amazing experience, just superb!! They had a great time in this trip. At the end of the day
while returning they were actually in tears because they never felt so special in their whole life
till now.

Name: Vinit Sankla
(e): vinitsankla@gmail.com
I paid the fees of my maid's kids for 3 months with the money I received. She is a very hardworking
lady and when I interacted with her I really felt like doing something for her and what better
than reducing a bit of her burden.
When I first told her that I want to do this for her she could not believe it and she was really
overwhelmed and almost in tears. She even bent to touch my feet. Giving used clothes or a
meal is different and doing something like this is different. I feel very inspired now to take this
forward and am motivated to continue these generous acts.

Name: Yogesh Mathuria
(e): yogeshm@worldschoolofhappiness.com
I decided to step up the monetary gift with my personal contribution. I met with the a few folks
who work selflessly to support children with multiple disability. They were raising funds by
selling participant passes of Mumbai Marathon 2013 at Rs. 6,000/-. I decided to buy pass using
the funds provided and decided to run the marathon for their cause.

Name: Ramesh Sheth
(e): shethr213@gmail.com
Ramesh uncle who happened to be our oldest retreat participant at the age of 78 is a long term
follower of Swami Vivekananda movement.
He shares: "I have already passed on the amount to a group active in the celebration of Swami
Vivekananda's 150th birthday starting from 12 Jan 1913 till next 12th Jan 2014."

Name: Aabha Gupta
(e): aabhagupta@yahoo.com
I used my 5000 Rs towards providing tea in the morning for all the night shift security in my society
everyday. They also share it with the other people who come into the society early in the
morning like the milkman and the newspaper guy. It is a pleasure to see the smile on their face
early in the morning when they see that flask of tea coming. They are filled with so much
gratitude. I hope to spread similar smiles and compassion among people through this project. I
hope people are encouraged to pay it forward just like they receive.
This small experiment in generosity has inspired an idea called 'Chai Cutta'. There are quite a few
tea stalls around Pune. I would buy a few cups of tea and give some kind of stickers or coupons
to the stall owner for those. They could be displayed on a board outside the stall. He can use
these to offer tea to the homeless and others who cannot afford to buy a cup of tea from him. I
would like to support this project till it picks up and other people who buy tea at the stall are
motivated to buy an extra cup and leave it on the 'Cutta' for someone who cannot afford it. The
idea is to implement this at a couple of tea stallls first to figure out the logistics and then
implement at some more tea stalls."

Name: Shrikant Vellore
Location: Bangalore, India
(e): srikanth.vellore@gmail.com
Recently a friend of mine introduced me to a personal caretaker of destitute children. A lady who is
doing this purely in a personal capacity and could use help from any of us.
I was thinking of buying and gifting a simple 'Art kit' to each of those children (some are spastics,
autistic etc). My idea with this is to get them to express themselves via art, meet them
regularly and track their works. Perhaps at a later date, i could arrange for a local forum to
exhibit their work and help them get publicity and sales for it.
I was thinking of buying and gifting a simple 'Art kit' to each of those children (some are spastics,
autistic etc). My idea with this is to get them to express themselves via art, meet them
regularly and track their works. Perhaps at a later date, i could arrange for a local forum to
exhibit their work and help them get publicity and sales for it.

Name: Suvid Shaha
(e): shahasuvid@gmail.com
I bought notebooks and a special edition of amar chitra Kathas and gifted it to the children of the
city's sweepers, policemen and traffic police. I was looking for an idea and the idea came in an
email which was to buy special republic day special edition of amar chitra katha comics.

Name: Neha Jain
(e): neha90_jain@yahoo.co.in
There are 2 new Awakin gatherings that started in Pune and I gifted them a Tibetan singing bowl
each to start and conclude their silent hour with the beautiful melody of the bowl.
Also there is a community space called Loft and it has recently started Friday movies. I gifted the
space beautiful embroidered cushions as an act of kindness to seat all their guests.
My experience has been inspiring for me to practice the kindness act in many ways. For instance,
when I went to buy the singing bowl, the shopkeeper was so inspired by my proposed act of
kindness, that he ended up gifting me a precious stone for the space.
Its beautiful how quickly the ripples spread when you see one person doing it,the other wants to
participate... :)

Name: Deepti Gujar
(e): more.of.chriiya@gmail.com
I was inspired to find many creative ways to spread ripples kindness in the world with the gift of
5000 Rs I received. Here are some of the things I did:
1. Pay it forward at a restaurant
2. Paying for someone's cab
3. Gifting a meditation bowl to a friend
4. Gifting a healing session to someone who really needs it but cannot afford it
5. Sending flowers

Name: Vaibhav Dugar
(e): vaibhav.dugar@ektitli.org
Inspired by the monetary gift of the 5000 Rs, I set into motion a few simple ripples of love and
kindness:
1. Bought around 10 books of "One straw revolution" which tagged to people who have been
inquiring on Organic Farming
2. Paid an honorable tyre-puncture-fixer to gift the repair of a puncture to the next person who
comes after me.
3. I randomly paid the bills of various people who were dining while I was or gifted them a drink to
accompany their meals.
4. I bought toys for around 70 kids whom I have just started teaching on organic farming.
The puncture-fixer was the one that I will like to mention here. When I asked him to tag someone,
he agreed to tag someone else as his initiative :)
So now there were two strangers getting tagged with kindness:)

Name: Kokil Poddar
Location: Bangalore, India
(e): kokilpoddar1@gmail.com
My sisters' maid who has a 4 year old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to be
operated urgently. I routed the 5000 Rs I received as a pay-it-forward gift at the retreat for the
surgery apart from including whatever I could from my side as the surgery was to cost 2 Lacs.
An interesting ripple has been that I was able to have more people contribute for the surgery and
have requested people to think about donating to hospitals wherein people who cannot afford
treatment can get care.

Name: Yash Maniar
(e): yashmaniar.90@gmail.com
1)A part of the monetary gift was used to buy paints and Glass Bottles. The idea was to promote the
use of glass bottles and replace them with plastic bottles used at our homes, which were then
gifted. These Bottles have interesting designs and quotes on them. All of us came together to
design these bottles.The gift was used to bring the community together and get them involved
in art and ofcourse its great to see friends use these bottles, instead of the plastic ones!
We plan to continue with this activity of coming together to design these bottles and gifting it to
friends.
2) We've bought books which were gifted to friends in the form of pay-it forward.
3) Remaining amount was gifted to a community Space.

Name: Jagruti Khabiya
(e): jagruti_khabiya@yahoo.co.in
I am deeply passionate about nature. I am always looking for opportunities as to how I may
contribute towards nature. I used the 5000 Rs gift to ignite the love of trees by gifting saplings
to my friends and family anonymously with an accompanying quote. I am also very concerned
about the plight of stray animals and I used some of the money towards giving food to our
roadside friends.

Name: Akshat Jain
(e): jainakshat23@gmail.com
I helped a patient to pay his one day hospital bill of Rs.2000. The rest of the money I gifted towards
finishing the repair work of a local temple.
The little seed that was sown through this gift of 5000 Rs has started evolving to a point where
everyday I think about "how can I make somebody's day thru a smile, or tag or act of kindness.
And it feels amazing to practice it everyday such that the generosity muscle is getting stronger and
stronger and I hope to sustain this practice all my life.

Name: Uma
Location: Auroville, India
(e): umah@auroville.org.in
I bought stainless steel plates and cutlery for 30 people. At Auroville we have many gatherings and
for folks tend to use paper or plastic plates for serving food. I felt it is more eco-friendly to use
re-usable stainless steel plates and even their durability is for decades.

Name: Vipul Shaha and Christian Calisas
Location: Udaipur, India
(e): vas379@mail.harvard.edu
Thanks for the wonderful times i got the opportunity to spend with the service space family.
Christain and I decided to pass on our gift of rs. 5000 to ravi who is working the ragpicker's
community in Udaipur. ravi has been a 'khoji' with swaraj university and currently a staff
member at shikshantar. he calls it the udaan group.
ravi, who has a long experience living and working with street children, has been regpaularly
visiting udaan community for the past 4 months. he plays cooperative games with the kids, they've
also done painting and crafts work, healthy food cooking
paper bag making, theatre etc. ravi's intention is to recognize the immense beauty, generosity,
talent, joy, street-smartedness, jugaad skills, that the ragpicker children possess.
he also appreciates their ability to learn and share in an informal setting.
his vision is to continue to work with these children and allow free emergence of idewhas, creativity
and projects. when udaipur starts to look more professionally at its waste management and
segregation, ravi would like to see this community
to have its say and due in the process.

Name: Vipul Shaha and Christian Calisas
(contd)
personally for me, the rs.5000 helped get outside the 'give and take' mindset and offer my time
at shikshantar (4 months) as a gift rather than a paid internship. it also led me to organize an
evening of giftivism
by the lake front which was extremely well received (although the funds were provided
by shikshantar and a group of american students visiting us).
thank you for stimulating a new thought and action process!

Name: Divya Gupta
Location: Delhi, India
(e): divyagupta.lsr83@gmail.com
It starts from a village in Ahmadabad I have been visiting quite consistently. 2 years back AIREP, an
NGO working in Ahmadabad villages set up an RO water plant in July 2011 in the village as a
social entrepreneurial project where they used to give purified water @ Rs 0.20 per litre.
The story begin when they found that the drinking water in the village was very contaminated and
they started looking for a solution to that. Finally they came with an idea of putting up a
community water RO plant to purify water and to sell it to the villagers at as cheap as @ Rs
0.20 per litre. (We pay Rs 15 for same purified water by Bisleri).
So project began with a capital investment of around 1 Lakh from the NGO itself and the
operational costs were being covered by the money villagers used to pay for the water. The
role of an operator is the most important in the whole project as he is the one who is going to
run the show and basic daily activities of the whole project.

Name: Divya Gupta
(continued)
Now here comes Sursang kaka, he has been working as operator from last almost 2 years now (in the
whole village, he was the only local person to help us and take up this offer) at as low salary as
Rs 3000 a month, and because of this work he has not been able to give attention to his
agricultural activities also.
In addition, the NGO hasn’t been financially doing so well, so they have been defaulting in paying
him even Rs 3000 a month (even the revenues coming from the plant was not enough to pay
him)! So a few months back, Sursang kaka announced that he wouldn’t be able to continue as
the earnings from the plant are not being enough for his family as his 2 kids are growing up and
he needs to earn much more money to send them to college in Ahmadabad. The NGO doesn’t
have any option than to shut the plant down because there was no one to run the plant.
I recently got to visit the village again and just appreciate the service Sursang kaka was doing by
supplying purified water to families in the village, I anonymously tagged him with Rs 5000 with
an appreciation note as a gift to the services he has rendered to the village without expecting
salary in return (with a hope that he continues to supply purified water to the villagers)! I don’t
know if I had made an impact or not but I truly feel content having appreciated for the good
work he has done and making an attempt to inspire him to continue the good service he was
doing to the village.

Name: Pratyush Rajvanshi
Location: New Delhi, India
(e): pratyush.rajvanshi@gmail.com
Countering random acts of violence with stories of goodness.
My story: I was deeply pained by the recent random acts of violence that had disturbed the peace in
my city. I wanted to reach out to the larger community and engage them in a process to help
shift the society from a path of violence towards kindness and peace. When I received the 100 $
grant, I involved a couple of my friends to design, print and distribute 1000 paper pamphlets
with inspiring stories of generosity and transformation (inner leading to outer) at multiple
venues across Delhi. Assuming that atleast 3 people read each pamphlet, hopefully this will
impact about 3,000 people in some miniscule way.

Review
• In total, 42 people were tagged with $100 each
• $800 remaining for follow-on or other gift-
economy projects
• ~30 additional stories will be included in
separate document with shorter write-ups

Why Stories?
• Stories speak to the intangible:
o In our metric-driven world, it takes stories to highlight the importance of things that we cannot
quantify.
o There is no number to signify a shift in thinking, but it can be illustrated beautifully in a story.
o It is a way to articulate what is happening holistically to those who would only look to more metric-
driven definitions of outcomes.
• Stories allow for personal reflection:
o As Vinoba would say, for action to create shift in thinking and being, reflection is also needed.
o Requesting people to share stories offers an opportunity to ensure such reflections take place,
allowing each person to see for themselves how invitations to shift thinking leads to broader shifts in
micro-actions.
• Stories give importance to small things:
o Again, from numbers driven perspective, we as a society lose sight of small things.
o The starfish story as a telling example, stories are a method to transcend that bias and help people
understand that the world is simply an amalgamation of the small :)
• Stories facilitate transformation of all parties:
o While it would be one thing to think of transformation as ‘ones own’, reality is that we are all
deeply interconnected to each other.
o In that space, the ability to share our transformation on any level offers an invitation to those
connected to us to explore the same.
o Consequently, one’s family members, friends, even funders of the flow funds can receive a message
for transformation that would not be accessible otherwise.

The Story Behind the Story
• Each external manifestation had an internal
shift behind it
• There is much more that has happened for
each person – how to measure changes to
family life, community cohesion,
environmental awareness?
• We are facilitating total shift, but they take
time and are unpredictable

Lessons Learned
• What went well
o Relationship building
o Ecosystem support
o Amount of funds
o Successful facilitation of mindset shift
• Areas to strengthen
o Importance of creating context
o More personal interaction
o Speed of turnaround
• Edges
o Speed vs Emergence
o Expected results vs Unexpected (and
amazing) results
o Short-term stories vs Long-term shifts

Trustosity moved by love - pune - december 2012 - flow funding

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Trustosity moved by love - pune - december 2012 - flow funding