Author: Sylvie Spraakman

A friend of Swaraj's developed a water tour of Udaipur City. He generally runs tours, but adapted this one to focus on water. Really I'm starting to think I should request water tours everywhere I go, it's just so fascinating! Udaipur is known as the city of lakes. Before the city was developed, which was … Continue reading More water tours →

Last week we visited the community of Adesar in Gujarat to see how salt pan workers live. The local word for making salt is "bhor". In this area, it involves extracting briney groundwater (which is the norm there) and letting the water evaporate out in large "pools" that were built by creating earth walls. Water … Continue reading Making salt in the desert →

We spent the last 4 days of WIL-India at Swaraj University, the global centre for unlearning. This is a rural centre, where "students" live communally in dorms and keep up the maintenance of the centre. The land is farmed and there is livestock. It's a beautiful and peaceful area, perfect for deep exploration and learning.  … Continue reading Unlearning and Appreciation  →

Yesterday we arrived in Bhuj after quite the ordeal at the Mumbai airport. That place is mayhem, then add to that that we are a group of more than 40 people - and eek! All worked out and we arrived at our hotel and had more mayhem as each of us had to hand fill … Continue reading Bhuj and deepening our group →

We visited a fishing village that is located on the sea side of the Bhandra neighbourhood , which is a posh neighbourhood with coffee shops, a dog park, a jogging lane, and lovely promenades along the sea. Where Bhandra didn't look beautiful was on the sea side - you could see piles of garbage, sewage … Continue reading Lessons from a fishing village  →