If you have a great idea, we have the land…

– Uma Shankari

There used to be an advertisement for Titan watches a few years ago: ‘If you have the inclination, we have the time.’ I would like to say, ‘if you have a great idea, we have the land, a house, a village and a history to offer.’ Someone may ask, ‘what about money?’ I feel there is no dearth for money in the country, what we need are persons with passion for an idea and the patience to carry it through.

After about 30 years of living and working in the village I want to ‘hang up my boots’, as they say, but not before handing over to a new person/team to continue, innovate and energize the rural economy and society in tune with the times. Our land, house, and our history (of our work in the village and the district) are there on offer, free of cost, to anyone with noble dreams for our country and our planet. I will be happy to assist during the transition with guidance and resources, if needed.

What we have tried to do in the last 30 years can be accessed from the links to our writings I have provided at the end.Here just a line or two about what we did by way of introduction. My husband (Late G.Narendranath) and I went to  live and work in his ancestral village called E.Palaguttapalle, in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh around 1985. Around 1995 Aparna and Nagesh joined us and we worked together and individually on several ideas and activities. We also linked up with many broader forums to voice our concerns, such as National Alliance for Peoples Movements, Human Rights Forum, Patriotic and People Oriented Science and Technology Foundation, South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture-Kisan Swaraj, etc.

Read more – If you have a great idea_Uma Shankari