: Love Beyond Boundaries: Woman’s Collective Vision Helps Nurture Thousands Of Young Leaders #IndiaNEWS #Changemakers Ashraf Patel’s childhood was filled with messages and stories of co-existence,

Love Beyond Boundaries: Woman’s Collective Vision Helps Nurture Thousands Of Young Leaders #IndiaNEWS #Changemakers
Ashraf Patel’s childhood was filled with messages and stories of co-existence, peace, and tolerance. Her father, a civil engineer, and mother, a college professor, had many tales to tell their children about how they met, crossed fabricated lines of identities, and raised a loving family.
“My father was Muslim and my mother was Jain. Theirs was a beautiful love story, which we grew up hearing about,�? Ashraf recalls in a conversation with The Better India. “That was my compelling force — that love is bigger than the boundaries of identities humans have created. �?
Over the course of her 29-year-long career in the social sector, Ashraf has held this same message of tolerance and love close to her heart. This also forms the basis for her organisations Pravah and ComMutiny, which have worked with thousands of youths over the years to create leaders and changemakers at the very grassroots, who fight social issues, communal divide, violence, and more.
Ashraf says that she, along with co-founders Arjun Shekhar and Meenu Venkataswaran, was deeply impacted by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. They were all only in their late teens at the time.
Ashraf says a tolerant and peaceful upbringing shaped her vision. (Source: Ashraf Patel/Pravah-ComMutiny)
Beyond what divides us
Ashraf recalls being able to see houses on fire from her terrace in a south Delhi locality, stretching as far as the eye could see. At night, she would bid her father goodbye as he would head out with a hockey stick in hand. With other members of the RWA, he would stand guard outside the houses of his Sikh neighbours to protect innocent residents from violent mobs.
Alongside the fear of what could happen to her father, there was a sense of inspiration, she says. “To see him and other members of our neighbourhood take action that way, putting aside their own needs to protect others, was both scary and beautiful. It left a seed in my mind,�? she notes.
This seed would germinate when, a few years later in 1992, the Babri Masjid was demolished. By this time, Ashraf and Arjun were married, and along with Meenu, were working as HR executives in a corporation, enjoying a fast-paced life and high-paying salaries.
As riots and violence engulfed the nation once again, the trio knew that they couldn’t carry on the way that they were. “It was hard to enjoy the luxuries of life when the country was so deeply divided,�? Ashraf says. “We thought we had to do something to address this polarisation. It wasn’t just out there, it was among us, in our friends and peers as well. �?
As HR professionals, they had the ability to try and influence change from within, with training and value-based interventions.

Latest stock market news Twitter alternate of India

10% popularity Flash it Bury this