JANUARY 26th 2009: NEW SCHOOL CELEBRATION-report from Chideshwari-Magod
Today the 26th January 2009 is the first Republic day that the Muktananda
Sanskrit Vidyalaye celebrated in their newly built school. It was great. The
students put in a lot of love preparing a great show which consisted of music,
plays and talks. We all had a great time
JANUARY 26th 2009: VALSAD EXHIBITION-report from Chideshwari-Magod
The exhibition today was an invitation by a collector from Valsad to put up
a SHK stall in a village where SHK villagers are working. It was a good experience
and all went very well. Many people attended including some politicians. The
feedback was very positive.
JANUARY 26th 2009: MUMBAI SCHOOL EXHIBITION-report from Radhika Luthra-Mumbai
I was asked to pen down
my experiences about my involvement in setting up and running a SHK Exhibition
at our children’s school selling SHK products. My divine kids Prachee and Rahul
insisted that I had a stall in their school and my first thoughts were to promote
Shantihastkala.
I happily stepped into this role, full of excitement, only to discover later that none of the SHK sevadars (volunteers) would be available on those dates as they were attending a function in Magod. My husband Raja, gave me ample moral support uplifting my spirits and also the energy of excitement bestowed by my kids made me drive smoothly through this.
I met Shri Gurudev just 2 days before the exhibition and mentally put forward my situation before him saying “this is your exhibition, you wanted it and so you will make it happen. I am just the medium.” I destressed myself and sure enough, everything was taken care of magically.
The exhibition was a success. We received a lot of appreciation as we are working towards a cause and people genuinely like the products. The principal, the vice principal and the trustees of the school spent a considerable time appreciating and buying our products. It gave them immense pride in discovering that this was the result of the efforts of an ex-student of their school, Shri Gurudev himself. They were so impressed and are now planning to send the students of Jamnabhai school on an excursion to Magod to see SHK in action.
I am happy
to have had this wonderful opportunity and would like to thank many people:
Gurudev for believing in me; my kids and husband who were there all throughout
to support me; the SHK family without whose efforts all this could not have
happened and most of all my sister-Chideshwari who has sown the seeds of tree
and gave shape to it and is constantly nurturing it and pumping the positive
energy into me…
NOVEMBER 23rd 2009: CURRY DAY AT CULLENS-report from Vanya Cullen- Yallingup, Western Australia
Vanya Cullen is the managing director of Cullen Wines at Margaret River in the southwest of Western Australia. Vanya visited Magod Ashram three times in 2009. She was so inspired by the work of the SHK team she ordered some goods to be sold at a Curry Day to be held in the vineyard restaurant. Here is her story.
Being inspired
by everything Indian and in particular Gurudev, Shanti Mandir and Shanti Hastkala
we decided to host an Indian extravaganza at our vineyard restaurant in Margaret
River Western Australia.
This seemed to be a good opportunity
to showcase the extensive range of Shanti Hastkala products in another part
of the world. Chideshwari and I worked together the get the goods into Western
Australia. It was a trial run to test the market and see how the products would
sell.
A pre Curry Day shop was set up at my house displaying the Shanti Hastkala gear. It was a full day as Kailas, Camilla and myself worked hard to get everything ready. We had only just finished pricing everything when people started coming through the door. Everyone loved the clothing, and handicrafts. Two days later we transported the clothing down to the restaurant and setup shop for the Indian banquet. There was a real buzz as racks were gone through and baskets rummaged. We felt truly blessed.
Our Sous
Chef Sathish Kumar originally from Trichy in Southern India had spent 15 hours
making a bright pink Ganesh which was displayed in the restaurant during the
luncheon. As well as fantastic food and friends, Dinesh had given us some beautiful
classical Indian music which was played in the background giving a lovely ambience
People loved the story of Shanti Hastkala and how it came to be and expressed they were happy their money was going to a good cause.
Many people watched the SHK DVD that had just been produced and commented on how much pride the artisans took in their work, how great their work is and what a great project SHK has evolved into…