START OF TALKS AT ATELIER GARDENS: A CONVERSATION WITH SATISH KUMAR

It’s Thursday evening, almost 7pm. There is quiet whispering in TON1. A moment ago, the almost 90 guests who have come to our Atelier Gardens Campus this evening were engrossed in lively conversation. But now the last of the coconut water and rosemary mocktails are finished and returned to the bar, and the room’s attention is focussed on an elderly man in a kurta who takes to the stage.

The theme of this evening, the first in the “Talks at Atelier Gardens” series of events that will take place on campus over the next few months, is “Soil, Soul and Society”. Satish Kumar, the 86-year-old now sitting on the stage, is behind this idea. “To bring about true change, we need to live in harmony with the earth, ourselves and others,” explains the activist. He dreams of a world in which nature is considered a nationality, in which diversity does not lead to division, and in which the “we” culture replaces the “I” culture.

A life for spirituality

Kumar’s life symbolises his vision. As a teenager, he becomes a Jain monk and, in his words, renounces “the world”. But at 18, he realises that this is a very exclusive version of spirituality. He flees the monastery and joins an ashram where everything is done for everyone instead of for himself.

At the age of 26, Kumar learnt of the arrest of Bertrand Russel, who was 90 at the time and had protested against nuclear weapons. “I spoke to a friend and asked him: ‘And what are we doing here, two young men, while a 90-year-old is actively demonstrating? And so the two decided to walk to the four nuclear capitals (Moscow, Paris, London and Washington) – on foot and without money, because “peace begins with trust”.

Activism as a solution

To this day, Kumar is a staunch activist. “I may not be able to control what my actions lead to, but I can control my actions,” he says. You have to accept that the results are a gift from the universe, even if it can be frustrating. The responsibility lies with each and every one of us – everyone can, for example, place a plant by their window and thus contribute to making the city a little bit greener.

Words that are echoed in the Atelier Gardens. After all, everything here revolves around soil, soul and society: it’s no coincidence that the motto of our campus is “Celebrating Soil, Soul and Society”. Benjamin Rodrigues Kafka, our Vision and Community Director, who moderates the Atelier Gardens Talk with Satish Kumar, explains how the 7 trees that were planted here in 2016 have now grown to 120. For these and other efforts in the regeneration process of the campus, Atelier Gardens 2023 received the MIPIM Award for the best urban regeneration project. You can read more about this here.

The full conversation here: