Our Native Village

Being recognised

After a hard days work, as I head home, the first welcome is from my two dogs, wagging their tail, excited to see me come back home. In fact they recognise the car even as I approach the drive way. It just feels so good. It feels good to be recognised. It feels even better when recognition comes from your peers group. And that is how we feel.

In the year 2008, we were recognised by the Responsible Tourism movement from London, and we won an award. Now we have won yet another award - The GMR Express Award for 'Excellence in Environmental Protection'.

 

This award is even sweeter because of the competition we beat: The Oberoi, New Delhi, CGH Earth, ITC Windsor Hotel, MakeMyTrip - all well know mega brands. We feel fortunate that we were honoured.

 

And the icing on the cake was to hear what the judges said, "Our Native Village is not a big brand, it is a passion driven venture. There is complete commitment to the environment and certain conscious initiatives have been taken such as not having a bar, despite it being a revenue generating area."

Follow this link to get the full story: http://www.expresstravelworld.com/201108/management07.shtml.

 

A sense of renewal

Today is a new beginning. I just feel this way today….a renewal that is intimate and full of emotion and passion. And several hints of this sense of renewal continued to happily punctuate my day.

Through the day I went through a series of events, none interconnected, yet at a deep level completely connected at an energetic level…

While the day began quite ordinarily this morning, I unusually sat down to continue reading the fabulous book I had started a couple of days back – Journey into Forever by Kiara Windrider. (I also had the honour of meeting Kiara when he visited Our Native Village last week and gift me this book.) I just finished a very interesting chapter and this sense of renewal started to intensify.

Soon after I finished my breath work and meditation and had to attend an unusual number of phone calls and messages before breakfast. I then sat down for breakfast, and had a profound and meaning full sharing with my family. And this sense of renewal got deeper and deeper.

At work, today our new web site also went live (www.OurNativeVillage.com). Our Face Book page is also ready to receive guests (www.FaceBook.com/OurNativeVillage), and so is our YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/OurNativeVillage). All this we have been working on and intending for years. And it had to be complete today! Another hint of the sense of renewal.

Four unusually energising telephone conversations before I got to work….never happened before

In the office, for the first time I had an amazing conversation with the Chief Manager HRD & Training of Corporation Bank, Mr. Satyanarayanan, who is trying to develop a short programme for some employees who are retiring from the bank. He was quite thrilled to hear about our ‘Purpose of life’ programmes under our Heal Your Life banner. Most importantly, he and his organisation seemed so concerned about the people who were retiring, and their primary concern was if they are letting these people retire with enough inputs for them to cope well after retirement. This is the first time that I was hearing such concern for people leaving an organisation. What an amazing concern for an organisation to have! This seems new too…

It is mid day and Kapila from Our Native Village posts this on her FB page “Yogananda guru says: "Repeat after me.." and I repeat "I shall remold my consciousness. In this new year I am a new person. And I shall change my consciousness again and again until I have driven away all the darkness of ignorance and manifested the shining light of Spirit in whose image I am made." It is March 8th today and a message for the New Year comes up today…another hint of renewal!

It is evening now and as I finish my last meeting of the day an hour ago, the wonderment of the day continues to delight me. I had a long conversation with someone I have been trying to talk to for many weeks, and realised that this person is so close to the work we are doing in spirit, and in mind and in soul, it was truly fantastic. And add to ythis, we have almost finalised another person to join our organisation who will be helping our efforts to spread the message of holistic health.

Renewal the whole day…renewal of hope… of belief in the human beings sense of higher order emotions like compassion, love joy and gratitude, renewal of the total being.

And this is my first blog….something I have been attempting to do for the last 5 years! What a beginning!