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Showing posts from February, 2015

Community Service

A Tibetan tent in the Newark Museum Simple Serve came out of a constant need to learn about and fix things around the community. With a background in Sociology that was born with the essential understanding to bring change in the world, to live the change you believe it- this has been the basis of my volunteering efforts.  I write this blog to enable others to find something to do and also for people to know what can be done.  To bring "change" to small things, to attitudes, to thoughts. Being involved in the Township Schools, in the Environmental Commission, co-organizing the Earth Day Fair for the last two years in the spring and being a part of Ootsav second time in a row this year- is in many ways a small attempt at doing that.   From the perspective of an outsider to growing to be the insider- this has been a learning and fruitful experience.   I am a huge believer of the fact that community service creates dependencies in a good way that can bring about a feeling

another year of music

on my tea box to do another program of classical indian music would be a dream come true. It is here that I love to be creative with what I would like to do.  >>>>I wrote this in November of last year and it is coming true!

Some thoughts while doing the work with women facing violence in their intimate relationships.

It's a delicate line between asking a woman what she wants and telling her what's good for her. It is something I learned the hard way (and got trained) as a women's advocate while working with women who seek out help. Initially- after the first feelings of "doing-good" you get to another plane where you see a pattern of women going back to abusive relationships (with good reas ons- stigma, children, financial stability -and those are real ones). Then all you want to do is be there for them. Be there. Be there. Without judgement. Secondly, as an advocate- you take a few calls everyday and meet a few women; a lot of them desperately seeking help and sometimes asking for shelter. You need to have a better handle on your own understanding about the fact that you are not the judge of what is to be the right thing for someone else's life. Meaning you counsel as a peer and not as a "helper" or a "fixer" of problems. The training I did as a