Newsletter:

Newsletter No 8 klick here to read

Antaranga Aug 2002

Newsletter No 7 klick here to read

Antaranga Dec 2001

Newsletter No 6 klick here to read

Antaranga July 2001

Newsletter No 5 klick here to read

Antaranga November 2000

Newsletter No 4 klick here to read

Antaranga April 2000

Newsletter No 3 klick here to read

Antaranga July 1999

Newsletter No 2 klick here to read

Ursula Chowdhury December 1998

Newsletter No 1 klick here to read

Anantha and Francis Aradhya  .September 1998

Newsletter Number 1    [back to top]

Dear friends,

this is the first newsletter from our project.

Happily we can write about several growthprocesses  regarding the building of our residential community on the Bannerghatta Road. (about 15 kms s-w of Bangalore)
In may of this year, the construction of the first house and of the workshopbuilding have started. The digging of the bore-well has been postponed for several months as water for the construction is delivered from our neighbour's well.

The contractor, Mr. Sukumar, seems to have developed a genuine interest in our non-profit-making enterprise and he takes a lot of care and energetic decisions to enable the building process to develop steadily. This is a big achievement in the Indian context and in their way of working.

The foundations of both buildings have firmly been fixed on the granite rock bottom. The flooring of the workshopbuilding is ready except the central part of it for which Anantha and Georg Leuzinger, the architect, have developed an artistic idea. This central part will become pentagonal (like the workshopbuilding itself) and will be made from wire cut, red bricks.

The contractor expects the workshopbuilding to be ready this month whereas the house is said to come to completion in early 1999 ….., if everything works out well!

Steady building means steady payments however, we were just waiting and waiting for the prior permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi to receive foreign funds. In April of this year, we filed the third application and just on the day of writing this newsletter, we received the positive news that the permission has been granted; at the time of sending out these newsletter we actually did receive the document here in Bangalore. Meanwhile, our Dutch friends of Camphill India have transferred an amount of Dfl. 50.000,00, so we will be able to keep the building process ongoing. Soon, the transfer of money from all our resources in the West, can start.

Here in India, fundraising activities have been put in a higher gear. Gene Hashmi, a young man who is a writer and advertiser by profession, has put a lot of thoughts to the Camphill movement in general and hi has written a fresh and modern text for a brochure on the Bangalore project entitled: “Deep in the heart of nowhere”.

As an example, a quotation from one of the short chapters he wrote in this brochure, quote:

            - Much has been said and written about the issue of disability in this country, yet not enough has been clarified. Our country has over 9 million mentally handicapped children. This is, at best, a conservative estimate. The people and organisations qualified to work with these children are grossly outnumbered. Sooner or later, these children's parents pass away, friends pass on. And just what happens next ?
It was to address situations like these that Camphill first came up. The situations, over the years, have hardly changed. That is why Camphill, even after sixty years, still considers its work barely begun. Today, Camphill continues to do what no one else would and works where no one else will: “deep in the heart of nowhere”, unquote.

 Most of his time and most of the energy and of the materials used for the production of this brochure have been sincerely donated by Gene and his friends. Wonderful!

The brochure will be taken to many different organisations and companies in and around Bangalore.

Since the month of May, we have a so called “action group”, with consists of about 7 members, who try to prepare and care for all the necessary steps in this pioneering phase.

We meet once a fortnight and discuss about the fundraising, the building process, the name!?, the application procedures, etc., etc. Very interesting and challenging. Especially when it comes to decision making and defining our future identity through that.
We are also preparing for a festive opening celebration in April or May of 1999! (so keep an eye on cheap flights!).

A woman, Jaya Yegnaswamy is writing a short play for the occasion. Through that play, we want to send a message about the social situation of those amongst us who have to live with mental disabilities in India anno 1999. We want perform the play with future co-workers and residents of the community.

The news about our project is slowly spreading amongst parents and institutions in Bangalore. So, more and more phonecalls reach us for more information and applications forms. In the newsletter “A common cause” from Karnataka Parents Association for mentally retarded citizen, we have published an article about Bannerghatta Road.

Two of our Dutch friends of Camphill community Christophorus came to visit us in Bangalore during their India holiday trip. Franz Josef van Nispen and Roderic Gradenwitz, who is the chairman of the Dutch Trust Friends of Camphill India, came to see the land and the progressing buildings. They expressed their enthusiasm and supported us with many good suggestions, ideas and with moral support!

At this moment, we are running a small, temporary, day-care centre for four adults who could also assist in all preparations. So far, an 31 year old woman, born with a Down syndrome, has joined us. Meanwhile, we have met with three other candidates.

And last but not least, we'll bring the news that our sublease of the land from the Arya Jana Seva Trust has been put into an officially registered agreement” The rent will be Rs. 100 annually for the period of 82 years.

For the time being, we're not looking at the details and consequences of that faraway future, but we are fully in the “here and now”, full of ernergy to “assist” the actual birth of the Bangalore community,

Friends, thanks you for your support!

On behalf of all the members of Friends of Camphill India, many greetings from a very rainy Bangalore.

Anantha and Francis Aradhya.

Newsletter Number 2     [back to top]

Dear friends,

It is the beginning of December; Bangalore is enjoying the best time of the year with sunny days and blue skies; the nights are getting a little cooler and after the rains the surroundings have turned green again. It is also the time of the year when we feel the Christmas spirit around us and in our Day Centre we celebrate Advent with carol singing in candle light and soon we`ll start baking Christmas cookies and rehearse our Christmas play.

We have four special people with us just now; Girly, Shalu and Adrian have been joined by Susan who is visiting with us for a few weeks and whose parents are very keen that she should join our community. Francis and Anantha plan their days with loving care and their children, Aruna and Padma, have taken a great liking to our special friends and there is much fun and laughter when they are together. They all went for a picnic to Lalbagh in November; an enjoyable outing for all, and after running races, playing badminton and other games, the pizzas which were baked earlier at home, were consumed eagerly.

Meanwhile, the buildings of our future residential community on Bannerghatta Road continue to grow and we are confident that we can have the opening ceremony by end of March 1999. We have started sending out application forms to parents who are interested in a place for their children and we are also actively searching for future coworkers who can adept to our work and be part of a Camphill-inspired community. At the same time we are contacting more and more local people to support our venture financially and our Brochure which has received quite a few compliments, is being distributed in many places. This brochure has been created by Gene Hashmi, a very talented young copy writer and his colleague, Hari, a great photographer.

We have come a long way indeed! And this raises questions: How did all this come about? Who were the people behind this work? When did it all start and why?

I have to go back to October 1987 when I was in the US and met with Kumar Mal whom I knew from our earlier days in Bombay and who told me about his present life in a Camphill Village in Copake, N.Y., a residential community with mentally handicapped adults. Three years later he came to India with three more friends from Camphill Copake and while in Bangalore, they were keen to find out the residential facilities available for special people in our city. There was very little that I could show them. I was invited to visit Camphill Copake and in summer 1992 I spent a month living and working in their community – a totally new and inspiring experience for me. When Kumar came to Bangalore again later that year, we had talks with friends here and the thought of building a similar community in Bangalore took roots. And on 1. February 1993 my longtime family friend and business partner, V.R. Kalki Krishna, and I registered the Trust, FRIENDS OF CAMPHILL INDIA, with the aim of working towards a residential community with mentally handicapped adults. We selected 7 Trustees: R. Ramchandra, a retired agricultural advisor to the UN, became vice-president; Verena Ravikumar, a Swiss friend and furniture designer, joined as Secretary; V.R. Kalki Krishna, business man and founder member of his Lions Club, chose to be our Treasurer; P.N. Narayan Rao, a retired Bank officer; Dr. Sudharkar, a retired physician and Kumar Mal were elected Trustees and I was given the privilege to chair the Trust. A few month later two ladies joined our Trust: Jayapriya Vasudevan, a publishing consultant, and Ann Britto, an educationist.

Meanwhile the connection to the friends in Camphill Copake became stronger and we had frequent visits from them: Roswita Imegwu visited in 1991 and gave the first talks on Camphill Villages to groups of people working with mentally handicapped persons; Penelope Roberts came several times, held a workshop on Camphill life and Antroposophy, and was instrumental in starting our first Day Centre and in Summer 1993 I had one more opportunity to spend a month in Copake. In January 1994 we opened our Day Centre with a young couple as houseparents and a small group of people with special needs. It looked like a good beginning, with many activities and also a growing interest in our little venture. But then our houseparents left us, Kumar and Roswita who came from Copake to take over as houseparents, could not stay more than three month either, because of visa problems; expenses in a rented house were high and the parents of our special people would have preferred a residential community to a day centre, and so, with heavy heards, we had close our centre after 14 months.

 Our Trustees decided that we should put all our efforts in finding land on which we would build our future community and so the long search began. We saw innumerable plots of land all around Bangalore, but not seemed right. Either the location was wrong, or the cost too high, or the owners didn`t want to sell after all and, in retrospect, it seems that this was really a trial period. Where we meant to build a Camphill inspired community in Bangalore? Was the time right? Did we have the endurance, patience, strength to go through with our plans?

Meanwhile we had made contact with a young couple in Holland who were living and working in a Camphill community there. Anantha Aradhya is from Shimoga, Karnataka, and his wife, Francis, from Holland; they have two small children, Aruna and Padma, and the whole family was eager to come back to India and start working there. This was a ray of hope. Would they join us as our future houseparents?

At about the same time our treasurer, Kalki Krishna, met Mr. P.J. Bagilthaya, a wellknown personality in Bangalore and a philanthropist involved in many charitable institutions. While discussing our search for land, Mr. Bagilthaya suggested we look at the Arya Jnana Seva Ashrama on Bannerghatta road, and if we found it suitable for our purpose, we could lease part of their land. It did not take us long to drive there and what we found seemed like the perfect answer to our hopes. A peaceful place with a small Ganesha temple, a few houses where some twenty senior citizens spent the eve of their lives, and a large green expanse of land waiting to build on, to teem with life, to welcome our community! Our search had ended! We eagerly accepted Mr. Bagilthaya`s offer to lease the almost two acres of land for 83 years and while it took some time to sort out the legalities of the lease, we finally received the blessings of the Swamiji who headed the Ashram Trust and could start planning ahead.

Now followed endless sessions with our architect, Georg Leuzinger, who took up the challenge of designing our first residential house and workshop with great enthusiasm and meticulous care for every little detail and his assistant, Peter Pavan, and slowly our future home and workshop took shape on paper.

In the meantime the Aradhya family had moved to Shimoga and came frequently to Bangalore for talks on our project. After living in India for several months, they realized that their future was really in this country and they went back to Holland to wind up matters here. They also took that opportunity to create an awareness for our work amongst their friends and relatives and started a fundraising campaign for us which was later followed up enthusiastically by Harry van Rijckevorsel, the father of Francis. He started a Support Group for FRENDS OF CAMPHILL INDIA in Holland and through their donations the construction of our first residential house became possible. Our friends in Copake also promised us financial support, as did a group in Scotland and another one in Germany. And Kalki Krishna brought the good newsthat the Lions Club of Someshwarapura, on the occasion of their 25. anniversary, would finance our workshop building.

The tiny seed that was sown in February 1993 and which needed so much patient nurturing, finally started to sprout. On Sunday, 19. April 1998, we celebrated the Bhomi Puja on “our” land, when the building tools were blessed and the ground was cut – a very colourful ceremony which was witnessed by a large group of people who were all in some way involved with our work.

Immediatcly after this event, work started on the construction of our first house and the workshop and since then the buildings are growing and the fast development id due to the involvement of our contractor, A.Sukumar, whose interest in our work is not limited to the constructions only, but also to the future growth of our community. He has gladly accepted our inivation to become one more member of our Trust, along with Dr. C.D. Sasi Kumar, a retired surgeon  vice-admiral, and B.R. Madhava Rao, a retired acronautical engineer.

Work continues on other levels as well. We have send out application forms to parents of mentally handicapped persons who would like to have a place for their son or doughter in our community and we are also on the lookout for people who show interest in our work and would like to join us as resident coworkers. At the same time we are intensifying our local fundraising by making personal contacts with companies around Bangalore and we hope for a good response.

In 1939the first Camphill Community was founded by Dr. Karl Koenig in Aberdeen in Scotland. We look forward to opening our Community sixty years later in Bangalore in March 1999.

On behalf of Friends of Camphill India I wish you a blessed Christmas and a peaceful New Year

Ursula Chowdhury

Newsletter Number 3     [back to top]

Dear friends,

Greetings from all of us at Friends of Camphill India in Bangalore.

Looking back over the past six months there's a feeling of progress and achievements and of things getting done. Our first house and workshop were nearing completion and during many visits there we decided on colours for the walls and floors, on built-in cupboards, the layout of the kitchen, a solar system to heat water for the bathrooms, a water tower to assure a good supply of water throughout the year and we had our own bore well dug: 530 feet deep. The water is pure and tastes great! At the far end of our land a pond was dug and the earth used to fill up the space in front of our buildings. And to facilitate transport in future we bought a second hand jeep through a friend.

Meanwhile our Trustees and Action Group met regularly and the Day Centre was running well under the dedicated care of Francis and Anantha. We held interviews with parents who had decided to send their children to our residential community and met with four young men who then joined us as coworkers. Francis and Ursula made many trips to town to get together all the many things needed for a big household: chairs and mattresses and pillows, sheets and towels and bedcovers, cooking utensils, plates and glasses, and many meters of cloth that had to be stitched in to curtains. The beds and tables were made at the building site.

By the end of February we started the preparations for our Opening Day.
Anantha with the special people in the Day Centre made paper for our invitation cards in a beautiful yellow shade, while the others planned the program for our special day and compiled the never ending list of invitees. Shalu's father, Mr. Kumar, printed the cards for us and soon they were on their way. Anantha and his four coworkers moved to the community a week before the Opening to get  the house ready and also to start laying out a vegetable
garden.

The 28th of March arrived and with it a number of  visitors from out of Bangalore: Rudolf Bitter from Christophorus, a Camphill Community in Holland; Penelope Roberts and Roswitha Imegwu from Camphill Copake, USA; our chief guest, S. Venkatesh with Vasanth Deshpande from Pune and our dear friends Angelika Mandaiker and S. Padmavathi from Chennai. Together with a few close friends from here we assembled in our new house on this sunny Sunday morning for the laying of the Foundation Stone, a beautiful pentagon-dodecahedron made of copper, a precious gift from our friends in Holland. We sang our very own song which was composed by Tina Bruinsma and her colleagues in Hyderabad with words taken from our brochure: "Not all who wander are lost".

Adrian, one of our future residents, recited a Celtic house prayer and Anantha spoke a prayer in Kannada, our local language. Francis explained the ceremony and its significance, while Penelope Roberts introduced and spoke the words of the Foundation Stone Meditation.
A scroll with the prayers and all our names on it, together with crystals brought from different areas, were placed in the foundation stone which was then put in the ground in a special place inside our little puja room by Georg Leuzinger, our architect, and Shirley Abraham, one of our future residents.
After a lovely lunch shared by all the guests and coworkers in our workshop building, we were ready to receive the many guests for the afternoon program. More friends from Camphill places abroad who happened to be in the area joined us together with a host of wellwishers and friends from Bangalore with their families.
The 150 chairs sets up under a shamiana (tent) in front of the house were all occupied. The house was beautifully decorated with colourful streamers and more than 200 roses (a gift from Dutch friends), garlands of mango leaves and a lovely rangoli on the front porch. The program began with the lighting of an oil lamp by one of the elderly ladies from the senior citizens home next door to us and after singing our own song again, Ursula, as president of the Trust, welcomed the gathering and then, together with Francis, presented the history of our Community from its beginning six years ago until this day. Whenever a name was mentioned, that person was invited to come to the front and sit on the steps and in the end the large group assembled there was duly photographed. Roswitha Imegwu introduced our chief guest,
S. Venkatesh, who had been in our first Day Centre four years ago and, after losing his mother suddenly, had become our first resident. Meanwhile he is living in Sadhana Village in Pune and we were happy that he could be with us on this occasion. After a short and meaningful speech by Venkatesh and the Celtic house prayer by Adrian, the name plates of our house and workshop were unveiled and the red ribbon across the doorways cut. Our first house is called ANTARANGA (Sanskrit for inner path, the heart, the mind's thought) and our workshop which is build in the shape of a pentagon is named PANCHANGA, meaning five elements or parts. Now the doors were opened  for our visitors to see the inside of the buildings and enjoy plentiful refreshments, while a group of young people performed a Gujerati folk dance. The second part of our program included a talk by Penelope Roberts, blessings and greetings from a number of friends and a hearty "Thank You"  to all who had come to share this special day with us.

Next morning a few of us assembled again in the hall of our house and one of the elderly men of the senior citizen home performed a Puja with prayers and offerings  in front of both Hindu images and a portrait of Christ, thus dedicating Antaranga to its future task. Our friends from out of Bangalore left us the next day, except for those who had come from abroad and we could spend a relaxed week with them now that the excitement of the opening was behind us.

A visit to Lalbagh, some shopping in the city, evenings of talking together, and then on Saturday a festive dinner and bible evening which is the tradition in Camphill places in the West. The next day was Easter Sunday and Aruna and Padma searched eagerly for Easter eggs around the house and brought back baskets filled with "goodies". 
Our friends all left us soon after and we returned to our daily life again. Anantha and Francis with their children went to Shimoga for a short and not too restful holiday and on their return started packing up their belongings.
On 26th April they moved to Antaranga, their future home. The house was far from complete and they faced difficult days with no water, many power failures, a make-shift kitchen in one of the bedrooms, the first heavy rains and storms of the rainy season and workmen in and out of the house throughout the days.
It took patience and a good portion of humour and slowly the house took on a comfortable look as room after room was completed and decorated and filled with life. Meanwhile we have water in plenty, our own permanent power connection should come any day now and, hopefully, we'll also have our own telephone soon. The road leading to our house is almost complete and the garden is providing the first vegetables which is an enrichment of the daily meals, as the weekly market in close-by Bannerghatta does not offer much choice. We will plant many fruit trees during the monsoon and a long row of coconut palms, apart from a variety of flowering plants. The seedlings are a donation from Gururaj Pagad. We express our hearty thanks to him.

Now we are in the month of July and Antaranga has, meanwhile, become home for fifteen people. There are Shirley, Shalu, Susan, Doyita, Sanjay and Ragavendra, our special friends, and as coworkers we have Saji, Das, Helen, Caroline and the Aradhya family: Francis and Anantha with their children Aruna, Padma and tiny baby Uma who was born on 20th June 1999. Both mother and child are happy and doing very well! Day by day we are working hard to blend this group of people together and create a sense of belonging and homeliness. We do this basically through working together. Cooking, cleaning, gardening and taking care of the laundry are our main occupations at present. Whenever all of us sit together (for morning prayer, during meals or tea breaks) we usually experience a joyful mood in which there is a lot of space for exchanging personal interests and humour is part of our gatherings. It is indeed wonderful to hear happy laughter ringing through the house! Susan, Sanjay and Ragavendra have proved to be real jokers at times.
It seems that everybody is adjusting fairly quickly and apart from Sanjay's trying to play the active role of night watchman, Susan's difficulties to get up in the mornings and Shalu's occasional reluctance to cooperate in our daily tasks, everyone shows a great willingness to be here and to be part of this life in Antaranga. A big compliment must go to Anantha and Saji who have really worked very hard from March onwards to help the house through the difficult first months. Slowly we are having enough "man/woman power" !
Das, an experienced 45 years old coworker, has joined us from 1st of July; Caroline from Holland is with us for two months; Helen Lorimer, a young British woman with Camphill experience, has arrived on 7th of July and will be with us for at least 6 months, and shortly a young German man, Ulrich Gams, will come and do his 15 months Civil Service with us. Meanwhile we had spontaneous help from Steve (son of Ann Britto), Verena  (a volunteer from Germany) and Ottla (a friend of the Aradhyas from Holland). They  have left us again and we want to express our thanks to them for their timely support. The coming period will focus more or less on the same points as in the past months: building up the rhythm within the house and working towards establishing good work activities for all within the community. Panchanga, our workshop building , will be finally completed by the end of this month and we will set up a pottery as our first workshop. Candle making and paper making will follow, and with the donation of a weaving loom from the parents of Susan, Mrs. and Mr. Modayil Philip, we hope to make a slow start with weaving. 

We have experienced a very intensive and rich period since moving to Antaranga and we will not dwell on the difficulties we had to face as pioneers after Aruna expressed a thought that supported us through all the hindrances and unexpected delays. He said: "God only wants to see whether we are strong enough"! And that is so very true, because we all feel thankful and content that we are allowed to live in Antaranga and are given the opportunity to grow here. We have had many visitors already and all of you are most welcome to visit us at any time. We hope to get an extension of the Ashram phone and can be contacted through their number.

Warm regards to all of you  from all of us at Antaranga.

Newsletter Number 4     [back to top]

Dear Friends.

Greetings once again, from all at Antaranga.

Our fourth newsletter took longer than expected. The extensive work  going on at our community leaves little free time to sit down and reflect on what lies in the past; we live so much in the here and now, and every day is a new challenge. And yet, just a few days ago we were made to ponder on what has been achieved, when we celebrated our first anniversary. It was hard to believe for all of us that already one year has gone by  since we took the first steps into our new house.
Our community is growing stronger with every day and we have a few newcomers among our special friends. Javeria, a 24 year old Muslim girl, is  with us now, and the men have been joined by Babu, Rajendra and Unnikrishna.  Altogether we have nine adults with special needs with us at present and with more inquiries coming, our house will soon have reached its full capacity.
We have been very fortunate with our co-worker group. Das and Saji from India, Helen and Rahel from England and Ulrich from Germany, together with Francis and Anantha have  been able to build up a rythmical life of working together, enjoying together and sharing our cultural activities. Of course, we all had to face times of inner struggles occasionally, but in general it has been a rewarding year of growth and humour.
There was much to celebrate over the past months, and it was so special that the first festive occasion was the christening of little Uma Michalja, the third child of Francis and Anantha, by Anand Mandaiker, a Christian Community priest from Basel (Switzerland),  who was travelling with a group of Swiss and German students in India and visited our community on 30th July 1999.
Many Hindu and Christian festivals were observed within the community and with the participation of our neigbours, the senior citizens of the Ashram. 
On Christmas Eve a large group of parents and friends assembled  and watched the Christmas play in which all members of the community took part. Much preparation and practice had gone into this perfomance, and the shining eyes of our actors and actresses expressed so well the pride and joy they took in their roles.
At the end of February 2000 we held a five days workshop on Camphill Life, Social Therapy and the Four Temperaments and we were happy to have Dr. Nick Blitz and his wife Anne (from a Camphill Community in Ireland) and Angelika Monteux (from Camphill Scotland) with us at that time. They gave lectures, lead us through discussions and answered questions. The days started with yoga and some of the themes were expressed through Eurythmie and painting.
This workshop was of great value to our co-workers, who are still new to Camphill and the ideas behind it and it also gave the many parents who attended a better understanding of our work. We hope to hold similar workshops at least once a year. On the last day of the workshop we were joined by Aban and Dilnawaz Bana (from Bombay) and a visitor from Switzerland, Johannes Glenk, who introduced us to a special kind of massage. On 28th March we could celebrate the first anniversary of our community. Many parents, siblings and friends joined us in the afternoon, we sang our own song, Susan welcomed the guests, Shirley  recited our house prayer after the oil lamp had been lit by Raju and some of the  participants were asked to say a few words. Helen spoke on her experience as co-worker and the challenge of participating in the pioneering stage of our community;  Sarojini, one of the elderly ladies from the senior citizens home who takes part in many of our activities, talked on the cordial relationship we have as neigbours; Joe Fernandez, father of Doyita, expressed his joy and gratitude at the wonderful improvement that he has observed in his daughter; and Ursula, representing the Trustees, mentioned the amazing progress within the community in such a short period and requested the parents to join in our fund raising efforts and help us ensure a stable future for Antaranga. Francis then asked all of us to walk on the new path around our workshop building, which had been constructed over the past months by Anantha and his workforce. Later we were invited to watch and join a folk dance performance by all our residents who had been practicing eagerly for this day under the guidance of Sindhu, a dance teacher who spent one evening a week with us. The celebration ended in the traditional Antaranga way with a big spread of cakes and cool drinks.
Activities in our workshops are growing. Before Christmas Das and Babu made many candles that were sold very successfully at a Christmas Sale in a shop in town. Helen bought two more small weaving looms and plenty of colorful yarn and weaving is going on well. The first rugs woven by Susan and Helen were taken to Holland by Peter Visser, a Dutch volunteer who was with us for a month, for sale at a shop in Utrecht. Saji does clay work with another group and has set up a small kiln and the first products from the pottery were sold during our anniversary along with more rugs from the weavery. Work in the garden is still the priority, our fruittrees are growing well and watering during the hot summer months is hard work indeed. During a visit from Peter Proctor, advisor on Bio Dynamic Farming, New Zealand, the first bio dynamic compost heap was started! We have had many visitors from around the globe during the past months; some stay for a few days, others have heard about us and come to see us for a few hours and we are always happy to hear their positive comments. Frans Jozef van Nispen and Roderic Gradenwitz, family friends of the Aradhyas, were here from Holland, and so were Harry and Paula van Rijckevorsel, the parents of Francis and Paul, brother of Francis with his son Guido. We receive continuous support from all sides,  very often in concrete form: Dr. Nick Blitz brought us a big parcel of medicines from England, a donation from Weleda. Our friends in Holland continue their financial aid in a big way, and there have been private donations from many friends in Scotland, Germany, Switzerland and the US. Wellwishers in Germany have created a website for us (www.friends-of-camphill-india.de) and one friend, feeling sorry for our gardeners who had to carry heavy loads of mud and stones, returned with a wheelbarrow on his next visit. These generous gestures are a great encouragement to us and we are grateful to all our supporters.
Now we are into our second year and we look ahead with confidence. We hope to fill the house with three more special friends and look forward to welcoming the next batch of co-workers from abroad. We soon have to bid  farewell to Helen, Rahel and Ulrich. We thank them for their wonderful contributions to our community and wish them all the best for their future. And we are happy that our Indian co-workers will continue being with us. Right after Easter the whole Antaranga household is invited for a week's holiday to Connoor in the Nilgiris by the parents of Susan, Mrs. and Mr. Philips. And after our return the annual holiday will start for all and we will have time to rejuvenate our forces and get ready for the challenges of the coming year.

All of us at Antaranga wish you a joyous Easter festival.

Newsletter Number 5     [back to top]

Dear Friends.
The calendar year is coming to a completion. We have started  preparations for our Christmas play and we expect many guests to join in our celebration. The role of Mary will be played by Rachel Roberts, a newcomer to our house. She is a 30 year old woman with Downsyndrome. She cannot hear or speak, and so our rehearsals have a very intense and special mood to it. We have great hopes that she will be a beautiful Mary. The permanent residents in our  house are Shalu, Susan, Shirly, Doyita, Javeria and Rachel on the women's side (and we have three more names on our waiting list). Our men are Raghavendra, Rajendra, Unnikrishnan and Sathya, 24 years old, who has just recently joined us. Our co-workers are: Saji, Dass, Mary, Francis and Anantha (and the children Arun, Padma and Uma). As volunteers we have now two young men from Germany, Florian and Benjamin, who are doing ther civil service with  us for 13 months and Christine and Daniela, two young German women and Sarah from Belgium who stay with us for 3 months. And last but not least: Ladu from Goa who came to offer his service for 5 months. 

My  parents'  prayer has been heard  - by Sumesh Wadhera, brother of Shal. My association with Camphill India is almost five years old, but is is only during the last 18 months that  I have come closer to them and known them better. This was the time when they moved to their own new building on Bannerghatta Road. During my visits to this place,  I have discovered how people at Camphill live as one big family; so attached, so normal, fully confident and proud.  I feel all the credit goes to the dedicated team of co-workers who have set up a world class campus from scratch  within the short period of one and a half years. They shower their love and affection on all the special people. I was particularly impressed by the high quality of hygiene and cleanliness which they have maintained at every level  within the community. My sister Shalu was one of the first residents to move to this place and  I must confess that the improvement and change in her attitude is something unbelievable. Actually, in the last two years she has become a different person altogether. Now we find her more happy, satisfied and a confident girl. For my mom and dad who were worried about her future, it feels now as if their prayers have been heard. Now Shalu comes and stays with us during her vacation and tells us about her sleeping alone, managing her clothes independently, participating in Yoga, interacting with everyone at Camphill. Most importantly, her grasping power has improved a lot. We find it much easier to make her understand things. When she is at home, she aways remembers and recalls Francis, Paddi, Das, Shirly. And after a weeks vacation, she looks forward to going back to her Real Home. My sister Shika and brother-in-law Nayan are equally touched by the people of Camphill India. My  parents and myself are really thankful and grateful to Camphill and we pray to God to give them all the strength and power to succeed in their mission. I always wish to see Shalu happy and smiling. 

Civil Service abroad - by Florian and Benjamin

First we can say that we are happy about our right choice to come here to fulfill our civil service. Because we did not want to go into the army in Germany, we work here as co-workers for thirteen months. This work is most of the time gardenwork and usually we are quite happy with planting bananas, peanuts and strawberries. Also, the company of the special friends is a possibility for us to collect new experiences which helps us to broaden our horizon. And with this nice company we think we can manage to stay here for thirteen months. The best thing we like is to be in a homely atmosphere and not in a big institution where you work alone by yourself. And also we like to be in a young community where we can help to build for the future. 

Panchanga - by Sebastian, our co-worker in charge of the pottery Panchanga is the name of our workshop building which plays a most important role in our life. There are four rooms named Ania, Agni, Jala and Pruthvi. In these rooms we have a paper workshop, a candle workshop, a weavery and a pottery. We are not such fast workers, sometimes we take one week to finish weaving a mat or two days to tear one paper in to small pieces or two days to finish one potcandle. But we enjoy this learning! For one person the company and joy may by more important. For another its a real pattern of work. It is a very lively place and there is always lots to do! For us it is important that all our special friends involve themselves in some work or the other. So that he or she can feel that they are doing something useful as part of the group. And that they can be proud of it also. Once in six weeks the whole community gathers and we show all the things that have been produced. It is great to see the joy of each and everyone when looking at and speaking about their work and receiving appreciation for all their efforts. I cannot say that it is only due to our input as coworkers that our special friends improve. They themselves want to improve. This inspires us to strive together and do better every day.


Message from Susan, one of our residents.

Hello, friends.
My name is Susan Philip.  I am 33 years old. I came to live in Antaranga more than one year ago. I do cooking, weaving, gardening, cleaning, Yoga, singing and drama. I have many friends here, especially Anantha.  I am enjoying my life. Sometimes I will go to Domlur, to Shirley's parents. What else to write I don't know. So all the best to you and happy Christmas from Susan.


To conclude this newsletter, a few announcements and recollections from this past year:

In April 2000 we went on holiday to Conoor with the whole house community. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Philip (parents of Susan) who arranged the whole trip for us. We had a great, great time! We had our annual parent/sibling meeting on the 2nd of July. The parents talked about their experiences of now living at home without their sons or daughters. We also discussed fundraising and it was decided to bring out a Souvenir on the occasion of our second aniversary in March 2001. All the parents promised their help in collecting advertisements. One parent suggested raising the monthly fees to Rs. 2750.-and this was accepted by all those whose financial status permits an increase. We had again a nice visit from the parents of Francis. Harrie, the father, constructed a lovely double swing in front of the house (now used by young and old) and new shelves everywhere. Thanks again! Peter Proctor and his wife Rachel came again to help us with the spreading of bd-preparations in our garden. The garden is still under continous transformation and the fruittrees are growing well. The first bananas are getting ripe and we have been eating beans, kohlrabi, carrots, beetroots and chillies from our garden. Because of some wonderful donations we have been able to purchase a new stove, one more washingmachine, a secondhand fridge and  new tyres and new paint for the jeep. Many, many thanks to all those generous donors. In Febrary 2001 we will conduct our second workshop on social therapy. The theme will be around the questions: how to run a special extended family in a spiritual, ecological, therapeutic, artistic and economical way. Good news: Ursula will soon be back with us after a half year break. We are looking forward to her return! 

Dear Friends, we want to express our friendship and thanks to all of you. We wish you a blessed Christmas and a fruitful New Year 2001!

With best wishes from
Francis Aradhya
on behalf of Friends of Camphill India

Newsletter Number 6     [back to top]

Dear Friends.

A newsletter like this one can never convey all that happened in our community over the past six months, but I will try to give an impression of at least the most important events.
What moved all of us very deeply was the sudden passing away of our friend Raju who had lived in our house for 18 months. More about this a little later.
Around January 2001 we offered several disabled men a one week trial period and finally selected Narahari (42 years) and Shankar (31 years) to join our community and fill up the last room on the men's side. With them our house has reached its full capacity of 12 residents.
Narahari was born without speech or hearing and due to an unfortunate course of events, he also started to loose his eyesight. It was therefore very important for him to join us as quickly as possible. Very courageously he searches his way around and with the little vision that he still has, he is learning to weave, to do clay work and he also helps folding the daily laundry. He has meanwhile adjusted beautifully.
Shankar is from Mysore and although a very clever person, he joined us with the message that God has given him two hands: one for eating his food, the other to "clean his bum", but for no other purpose!! Although Shankar was accepted in January, due to several circumstances, he joined us only in June 2001. After his first trial month with us, he is showing to be cheerful company, verbally he is very sharp and slowly he is even willing to engage both hands in some work or the other.
On 3rd of February 2001 we had 60 Japanese visitors. They were in Bangalore for a Yoga course, and our yoga teacher, Murai, brought them to our community. Their visit became a cultural event with an India dance performance from our side and Japanese singing from theirs. With their many cameras and video tape recorders they were quite a sight, but they posed many interested questions, gave us generous donations and purchased almost all the products from our workshops.
At the beginning of February 2001 Mrs. Vidhya Murthy, a speech therapist, assessed all our friends with hearing and speech difficulties and gave us very good advice on how to stimulate them. With great wonder we are now experiencing that Sathya who never spoke in his life but has good hearing, is now starting to make sounds and attempts to repeat simple words.
From February 21st to 28th we conducted our annual Social Therapy Workshop. Penny Roberts from Camphill Copake, Frans Jozef van Nispen from Holland, Aban and Dilnawaz Bana from Mumbai and Murai Nobuyoshi were our guest speakers and without going into the details of the workshop, we can say that for our community members in particular it was a very positive experience to hear more about social therapeutic approaches to life and living together in a community. We realize that Shirly has benefited immensely by the intense work we have done together during this workshop.
Right after the workshop we enjoyed another visit by Peter Proctor and Rachel. The garden received biodynamic preparations and the gardeners were given good advice.
In March 2001 our community had its 2nd birthday. Though we kept the celebration simple, it was a beautiful and festive event and our guests, Roswita Imegwu and Kumar Mal from Camphill Copake (co-pioneers of our Trust) and Margaret  Shillan (a close friend of the Aradhyas) made this day still more special. We launched our first "Souvenir" on this occasion. It was very artistically and professionally done and brought in quite a bit of money. We thank Shashi and Sumesh of Triple Ess Advertising Pvt. Ltd. and all the parents and friends for their contribution and we hope to repeat this fundraising project next year.
Then the summer holidays started and the Aradhyas went on a 2 months holiday -cum fundraising trip to Holland. A special highlight during this time was the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents. Francis attended a very inspiring workshop in Aberdeen for "homemakers" and on 12th May an "India Day" was held in the hometown of Francis' parents. The credit for organizing this very successful event goes to Paula and Harrie van Rijckevorsel and Nel van der Werf, a board member of the Dutch Trust "Friends of Camphill India". Many friends and relatives were involved in the creative and thoughtful presentation of the different aspects of our community; the video made by Murai was received with much enthusiasm and so were the Indian snacks prepared by Anantha and Su, an Indian living in Holland. There was even a Bharat-Natyam dance performance by one of the participants and the many Indian products found eager customers. Among the 250 visitors were even a few of our earlier co-workers from Bangalore: Caroline, Peter, Uli, Sarah and Manuela. The event definitely refreshed our connection with the more than 100 donors we have in Holland and several new donors signed up and gave generous contributions. We can count on continuous support from Holland in future too, and at this point we want to express our sincere gratitude to all our friends there.
During the absence of Francis, Anantha and their children the community was well taken care of by our active team of co-workers. Arokiadas had the overall responsibility and was ably assisted by Saji, Florian, Benjamin, Helen (who had come back from England especially for this period), Lidwina from Holland and Anna from Germany. We are thankful to them for doing a wonderful job and making it possible for the Aradhyas to enjoy their holiday.

We came back on the 24th of May. During our holiday we did receive worrying messages from Antaranga that Raju was not at all keeping well. And after our return we found that everyone was deeply concerned about Raju's health. He had become physically very weak and needed care around the clock.
On 30th May 2001 Raju insisted on joining his friends for morning prayers even though a day earlier he hadn't had the strength to walk. A little later Ladu, one of our co-workers, led him back to his room and offered him his morning tea and biscuits. Raju quickly drank his tea, patted Ladu on the back and said: "I want to sleep now". Ladu helped him to lie down and while still in his arms, our dear friend breathed his last. With prayers, singing and reading from the Bhagavad Gita, our house community spent the hours around Raju in his room until his family came at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to take him away.
We have lost a dear friend and we wish him all the light and peace that he had been longing for.
Some of our parents were upset on hearing about the sudden demise of Raju. In our next parents meeting by the beginning of August 2001 we will make space for all to express their concern and to pose questions.
During the last month we had a stream of new applications. Kanav from Delhi, an 18 years old boy, has joined us for his trial period and so our house is full once again.
We have made the first step towards constructing our second house and discussions with our architect, contractor and Trustees are taking place. We hope to start the building process in the near future.
On 13th of June we had a special co-workers meeting. On this occasion we heard from Das and Ladu, our Indian co-workers that they want to commit themselves to work with us for a longer period. Das has now brought his wife and daughter into our community. Welcome to Shanta and Asmi!
On the same day Saji and Helen received a positive answer from Camphill Copake, USA, that they can soon join the three years course in social therapy there. We wish them a fruitful time.
Dear friends, we thank you for your interest and support.
Good wishes from all at Friends of Camphill India.

 Francis

Newsletter Number 7     [back to top]

Dear Friends.

Isn’t it an incredible phenomenon that this time of the year is so richly filled with festivals of almost all religions? Dassara and Diwali for the Hindus. Advent and Christmas for the Christians. Ramzan for the Muslims and Hanukkah for the Jews. And as far as we understand, all these festivals have a relationship to the same theme: LIGHT OVERCOMES DARKNESS.

Let us hope that the intense celebration of these festivals will generate strong positive energy for the present world situation and for individual human destinies.

 We are already in the middle of the Advent season and earlier we had celebrated Dassara and Diwali in the most wonderful way. Diwali, especially, brought us so many rich experiences: the Puja, when a very impressive gentle cow was washed outside and worshipped and fed inside the house (that she rewarded us with her blessings can still be seen on various walls); melodious Kannada devotional songs by Anantha’s sister Nalini; delicious food; beautiful illustrations of various Diwali stories about Rama and Sita, Laxmi and Bali, prepared by the children Arun, Padma and Asmi; and of course the many home-made diyas (oil lamps) burning at night.

The day ended with a splendid display of fireworks. We must admit that on that evening our ecological consciousness had gone into a deep sleep!

As usual we have had many visitors over the past six months. Let us mention a few: In August 2001, Ma Narmadha and Swami Sethuram gifted us with an interesting workshop on Pranic Healing. In November we had a visit from Aban Bana who brought to us Rosselke Zech (an anthroposophical doctor) and Guy Wertheim (director of Weleda South Africa). With them we held a one-day workshop about “healthy human development and its disturbances”. And fortunately for us, we could once more welcome Rachel and Peter Proctor from New Zealand (consultants on bio-dynamic agriculture).

Talking of biodynamic agriculture makes us want to share news about our own garden. Due to the hard work of our previous Civil Service volunteers, Benjamin and Florian, we are now enjoying our home-grown sweet papayas, many kilos of French beans, basil, parsley, bananas, chillies, potatoes, etc and we had a good ragi crop.

On the first Saturday in December we took part in the United Charities Bazaar in the centre of Bangalore. We sold homemade bread and biscuits, organic basil, bags, floating candles, little dolls, plants, beaded chains, pottery items, handmade paper and baby clothes. It was altogether a rewarding experience, after all the hard work that many of us had put into this. A special Thank you goes to Verena who organized everything very well. We went home with memories of many interesting conversations, laughter and a sale of more than Rs. 10 000.00!

The next day, Sunday 2nd Dec. 2001, we were ready for another big gathering. We welcomed all the neighbours, several Trustees, our architect Georg Leuzinger, contractor A. Sukumar and several construction workers on the occasion of the Bhoomi Puja (ground cutting ceremony) for the second family house of Friends of Camphill India. Mr. Venkannaiah, our friend and neighbour, performed the Puja with utmost care. The sky was blue as ever and hundreds of dragonflies flew continuously between heaven and earth. We experienced a real blessing for this future home and hope for a consistent and fruitful flow in the construction process.

Now that December is here, we have started preparations for the coming Christmas play. We do look forward to meeting many of you on the 24th to celebrate Christmas Eve with us.

And who are here to make all the preparations? Our new co-workers from abroad are: Simon, Bettina and Oliver from Germany, Helena from the Czech Republic, Christel from Denmark and Su-Jie from S-Korea. It is again a very dynamic and positive-minded group who together with Ladu, Saji, Shanta, Das, Anantha and Francis make up a good co-workers team.

People might have wondered what happened to Saji and Helen. Unfortunately, Saji did not get a visa for the USA. Helen decided go to a Camphill Community in Scotland where she is waiting for Saji to join her also for one year of voluntary work. Saji is in the midst of preparations for this step. We hope that he’ll get his visa this time!

Now we would like to introduce our latest and youngest member of the house: She is Neha Rane from Mumbai, a lovely, talkative and sensitive girl of 17 years who brings a lot of happiness to the family. We hope that she will soon settle in completely.

And then the latest news about all those not mentioned above:

Shalu is still improving her skills with hanging up the laundry.

Shirly, Hari and Susan have done an amazing amount of colourful, professional weaving.

Kanav has been appointed “master of ceremonies” for all birthday parties, as he proved to know all the ins and outs of such celebrations.

Sathya will be at the centre of our co-workers attention during their coming workshop in Social Therapy from 1st to 3rd January 2002.

Rachel is learning to communicate in sign language and we are all learning along with her.

Vidhya Shankar has accepted life with us and tries to help wherever he is needed (or, better formulated, wherever his help is demanded).

Unni still showers us regularly with impressive shouting, but his very charming nature more than compensates for this.

We found out that Raghavendra drinks more than he should! The cup of tea that he so faithfully carries to Ratnamma, our helper in the garden, is usually half empty by the time it reaches her! The good news is that he still has the financial support from his friends in the Stourbridge Community in England – many thanks to them.

Javeria is going to play Mary in our Christmas play and she is really putting in her best efforts. Through her inspiring love for the small achievements in life, Doyita has been keeping spirits high in every workshop she attends.

And then, last but not least: Adrian, who joined us in September as our first day student. With his arrival a new stream of activities in the community was initiated.

Only one name has not been mentioned and that is little Uma who plays and sings and grows and who brings to you on behalf of all of us

Good Wishes for a Christmas and New Year filled with Light and Peace.




The whole Antaranga Family in September 2001




Newsletter Number 8    [back to top]

Dear Friends.

In the month of June we attended a wonderful performance: “Earthsong”, put on stage by around 100 children and youngsters from various backgrounds. One of the main characters of the play was a girl with extraordinarily expressive hands and eyes. Especially impressive about this girl was the fact that she seemed to have overcome the burden of her paralysed legs and was fully connected with the undisturbed, whole-some spirit dwelling so brightly in her!

In our next Panchanga work meeting we evaluated the drama performance and got into an interesting conversation amongst ourselves. Two touching contributions came from Neha and Adrian. Neha said: ”I never felt handicapped but it were the people around me who kept on saying that there was something wrong with me.” Adrian added very calmly that he was called handicapped because he was brain damaged…

Are these two young people not telling deep truths? It is a great and important awareness to experience that it is the instrument alone that is damaged and that the musician himself is whole and hearty.




Narahari


Javeria

It is quite some time since we sent you our last newsletter, but I can assure you that every day of this past half year has been worth writing about.

We started the year 2002 with a very inspiring workshop on Social Therapy under the guidance of Angelika Monteux from Camphill Aberdeen. One very interesting contribution from her I would like to quote here: ”nowadays we are struggling so much to find a good name for our friends with a mental handicap: “mentally challenged” (aren’t we all?), “mentally retarded”, “people with learning disabilities”,etc, etc. But what is actually wrong with the word “handicapped”? The term comes originally from the world of sports. When a race between several strong young horses is held, it can happen that a few horses who would have a very high chance to win the race will be given a “handicap”; an extra weight under their saddle to make the journey more challenging and more difficult to go. Does that not give more meaning to the word “ handicap”? Handicaps are definitely the extra weight that make the path of life more difficult, harder …and richer? With the handicaps that are given to us, we can learn something special and we can teach something special to others?!

On 31st of March we celebrated our third anniversary. Since this was also Easter Sunday we performed a short drama: ”The Hare in the Moon”. Vijay Kaikini from Mumbai (who had just joined us for a trial period) played the role of Brahma very convincingly. Unfortunately for us, the parents of Vijay decided later on that they wanted their son in a home closer to Mumbai. So from 14 residents we are back to 13 again.

In the co-workers group we also had changes. Mr. Das who had been with us from the beginning left together with his wife and daughter, because a mutually satisfying integration did not come about.

Then as a gift from heaven, Joy (26) from Kerala joined us in March and two months later a young, fresh and enthusiastic boy, Baba(18), from Coorg arrived.

Talking about our Indian co-workers, we should mention that Mary came back after a five-month’s period of severe back problems. She is once again in charge of our kitchen and feels very much at home.

On the side of the western volunteers we enjoyed the great support of Oliver (Germany), Christel (Denmark) (who helped greatly to make Neha, our youngest and newest member feel at home), Helena (CZech-Rep) and Mei-Song (S-Korea). Bettina (Germany) who was with us for a full year left in July on her way to Emerson College in England. Simon (Germany) is going to complete his Civil Service shortly and will travel a bit before going home. All these young people are so wonderful in their sincere interest to experience the world of social service and their will to give the best of themselves. We thank all of them and wish them well on their future paths.

A new batch of volunteers is already arriving. We will have more to tell about them in our next newsletter.

During the summer holidays we all enjoyed a well-deserved break. Due to the unexpected help of Alex (USA) and Ross (Australia), the running of the house and garden continued smoothly and we are really grateful to them.

Mrs. Sarojamma, our neighbour, teaches English every Sunday morning to a group of our friends. We hope for more such valuable contributions from our neighbours.

Very sad news has to be shared from our Board of Trustees. At the beginning of the year, Mr Jathanna from the Arya Jnana Seva Trust (our neighbours) was invited to become a member of our Trust also. We looked forward to an effective co-operation with him. This was not to happen. Before our first meeting with him, Mr Jathanna was taken away from this life in a dramatic accident. We all felt shocked and sad. We wish his family strength and light to go on.

On the ninth of June we enjoyed, together with some of our neighbours, an extraordinary concert by Mr Vasudeva Rao who played the Mridangam, together with his friends on the violin and other South Indian classical instruments. I would like to say that this was really a healing experience.

The first rains fell in the month of May and a five-hour heavy downpour transformed our whole garden dramatically. One wall of our well collapsed and we could just about rescue our pump set, which was hanging halfway down the wall. Quite a bit of sand and rubble was washed away from the building site of our second house and the garden next to Panchanga was turned into a desert. We were made to realise how much power there is in water!

Unfortunately, the real monsoon from the west, which usually starts in June/July, has still not arrived. Everybody is now desperately waiting for more rain to come soon.

The last news concerns our second house. We can hardly believe it, but the construction phase is coming to an end. The big workforce of Mr Sukumar (contractor) and Mr Leuzinger (architect) is succeeding once again to materialise another part of our dream into a strong beautiful house for 12 more residents and a number of co-workers. We hope to celebrate the inauguration around the end of November 2002. The waiting list for this second house is already substantial, so we look forward to fill this house with life very soon. We still face a big challenge, as we have not yet found new house parents. Please, could you all think actively about this burning issue.

We are reaching out into the future, facing known and unknown factors… By the middle of this month we will have our annual parent meeting and it will be a pleasure to have this get-together again. Then we are working hard towards the coming Christmas bazaars where we want to sell our products…. and deep in the back of my head a tune is already vaguely vibrating for another Christmas play…..

To all our well wishers and sponsors, especially from Camphill Copake and the Dutch Trust Friends of Camphill India, who donated so substantially towards the construction of the second house, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude.

Best wishes to all of you.

Francis Aradhya

On behalf of all at Antaranga





Newsletter Number 9    [back to top]

 

Dear Friends.

Another newsletter is long overdue and we are aware of it. The months fly past and are packed with events and activities and leave little time to sit and reflect on the past six months.

During the last months of 2002 the building activities around and inside our second family house came more or less to a conclusion. The house is built on the lines of Antaranga, with a spacious sitting room, an open courtyard from where the rooms of our residents branch off, and a private area with rooms for our house parents and their children on the first floor. In the basement there are the co-workers’ rooms and a large hall that provides space for workshops, social gatherings and other activities. A covered veranda from where one can overlook the garden and the other buildings in the community surrounds the house. Just below the house is our “waste water treatment plant”, where the sewage from our two houses and the senior citizens’ home is being purified by natural means and we hope that this will help us fight the extreme water shortage in our area and our gardens can finally get sufficient water again. This is a unique project, as it also produces bio-gas for cooking in our kitchen, and we hope that it may inspire other people to copy it.

 

Francis and Ursula were busy shopping for the many things that are needed to make a house look cosy and soon the windows had colourful curtains, the beds were made and many pictures decorated the walls. Anantha planned the kitchen and meanwhile it is well equipped to cater to a large family. Our Dutch artist friend, Frans-Jozef van Nispen, spent time with us again and put much thought into the design of a beautiful copper vessel that would hold the “Foundation Stone” and also created a window grill in an intricate design above the altar in our little prayer corner which gives this space its very special atmosphere.

When Roswitha Imegwu und Kumar Mal from Camphill Copake, USA, paid us one of their regular visits, we took this opportunity to celebrate the “foundation stone ceremony” of Santvana, our new house, on 23rd October 2002.  The sitting room was beautifully decorated, our residents and all the co-workers and volunteers were awaiting the guests and there was music, talks and reading out of the special messages that were placed inside the copper vessel which was then embedded into a prepared space on the altar by our dear visitors.

On Sunday, 1st December 2002, we celebrated the Opening of Santvana with a large gathering of friends, parents and trustees. It was a beautiful day. After a sumptuous spread of cakes and snacks and a brisk sale of products from our workshops, the ceremony began. Dr. Shekar Sheshadri, a renowned psychiatrist of Bangalore, was our chief guest and after he cut the ribbon across the entrance, all the many visitors walked through the house, upstairs and downstairs, holding on to a rope, to the accompaniment of lovely singing by all in the community. Later, Dr. Sheshadri gave us an inspiring talk and then the “stage”, the space in front of the house, was cleared and we could witness a beautiful play written by Francis specially for this occasion, in which all the residents and co-workers and volunteers of our community took part and even our gardener and one of the old ladies from the neighbourhood. It was a thought-provoking play that left a deep impression in everybody.

We were already into December and preparations for Christmas started. The singing of carols rang through the house and all were involved in practicing the Christmas play which was performed on 24th December, when a number of parents and friends were gathered again. Meanwhile the Aradhya family had dear visitors from Europe. Francis’ brother with family was here from France and two more friends came from Holland and they were the first occupants of Santvana. When the community closed between Christmas and New Year they all left to spend a much-deserved holiday in Shimoga, Anantha’s hometown.

The year 2003 started with the preparations for our annual workshop on Social Therapy, and on 25th January we welcomed Penelope Roberts and Stephan Rasch from Camphill Copake, USA, Aban and Dilnawaz Bana from Mumbai, our Yoga teachers Murai Nobuyoshi and Mrs. Rama, and a host of other participants, including a delegation from Nepal. Once again, Santvana provided plenty of space for all our guests from out of Bangalore. The programme included lectures on various aspects of Social Therapy and Anthroposophy, Eurythmie, Yoga, painting and singing. After the workshop we came to the conclusion that now might be the right time to start preparing for a regular course in Social Therapy, which would enable our co-workers and others to deepen their understanding of people in need of special care.

By the end of February the next big step was taken within the community.  Francis and Anantha with their children and a few of our old residents and co-workers/volunteers moved to Santvana to make their permanent home there. The others remained in Antaranga, which is now cared for by our older, experienced Indian co-workers. Both houses will slowly take in new residents and the first newcomers, Ramesh and Deepak, are already with us. A new rhythm is evolving and though many activities are still shared, each house is now starting to create its own identit

In a growing community we experience much joy and feel proud of our achievements, but at times we are also faced with problems. A series of unfortunate accidents and illnesses involving co-workers and volunteers and even some of our construction workers, have overshadowed the community and forced us to reflect on the meaning of these happenings. In a time of worldwide conflict we, in our small microcosm, are also not spared. We pray that we can overcome these adversities and gain strength and new insights from them. Francis and Anantha want to take this opportunity to express their deep gratitude to the Trustees who stood behind the community with incredible support during all these misfortunes. Our Trustees have been true to their name: they are those friends in whom we can have full trust and who trust us totally.

We have just about completed our fourth year and the infant that struggled to stand up and walk is now stable on its feet. We have been joined by a number of new Indian co-workers who take to community life with ease and enthusiasm, and the foreign volunteers come and go and bring much colour and new talents to this Camphill Family.

Over the past months we have been fortunate to receive a number of donations again and we would like to thank our friends in the USA, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and here in Bangalore for their continuous and generous support.

Greetings and many good wishes from

Ursula Chowdhury and all at Antaranga and Santvana.