Last month I returned to India, it has quickly become one of my favourite places on earth. I cried leaving my husband and children, feeling all the Mum guilt at going, and questioning whether it would be a good use of money during a time when cashflow is limited; but then I cried leaving the ladies and their beautiful country!
This was my third trip out, and I think my best to date. Possibly because I am more confident, I know my way around, I have built friendships and my experiences this time affected me more. In terms of the business, my trip is invaluable really for sustaining and developing relationships, and for collaborative working, but I have also found it invaluable for me too, I was going to write as a Mum, but actually, not as a Mum, as me! I have a sense of liberation when I am there, when I am not just a Mum, Wife, or founder, I am me. The carefree person riding a scooter on dirt tracks with the wind in my hair, the woman who could read and write, and with no phone signal, not feel tied to a mobile device. As someone who suffers with a bad back, the climate and relaxed state I was in meant that for the first time in a long while, my back didn't cause me any pain.
During my time there, I experienced such kindness and generosity, from everyone I met. I visited the wonderful Community Seva Centre and witnessed the remarkable work they are doing in providing education and vocational skills to the children they support. I was taken by one of the ladies, (and now my friend,) to visit beautiful Hindu temples and was treated to some delicious food lovingly prepared.
The main thing that I discovered was the importance of community. I accompanied Mathi to one of the outlying villages where work is distributed to homeworkers each week and collected the following week. I was greeted by a group of women sitting outside a home, chatting, laughing, singing and smiling. Women who share life together, they share their highs and lows, their joys and sorrows, they laugh and they cry together. It struck me how their skills, love of crafting and possibly their gender, bring them together in a way that I'm not sure other things do? It has got me thinking about that feeling of community, and how it has been largely lost here in the UK, and what we can do to bring back communities? I feel that often people are so caught up in their own lives, in everyday busyness, that we don't bring people together enough. We have lost the ability to slow down and nurture the communities around us, to spend time with those who share a similar interest or characteristic, and so, I am planning ways in which I can harness my motivation and inspiration to create something special. Until then I leave you with some of my wonderful memories, with the video diaries I recorded whilst there. I hope that you enjoy them.
Rachel x