About Me
I'm joining Service Space because ... it helps me stay true to my heart.
A good day to me is when ... I have helped someone smile.
My hero in life is ...Mom, Gandhi, Peace Pilgrim, and you!
My favorite book is ...Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
One thing I'm grateful for is ... I remember how small I am in relation to the universe.
Money And Intangibles Based In Love
Nov 10, 2020, 4 comments, 15 smiles
[Below is a stunning story from Ruth, on her experience receiving a priceless gift, that surfaced in the Priceless Pricing Pod that began this week.]

Paradoxically, my most priceless gift involves a gift of money.


The year my husband and I divorced, our daughter entered college and our son exited into the world. Despite the fact that my position at the college where I had worked almost twenty years contributed toward children’s college tuition as a benefit (one of the reasons I had stayed easily in high satisfaction work that paid a low salary), my daughter's first comprehensive college bill was a larger amount than my entire yearly salary! In the emotional turmoil of our divorce, my husband had opted not to pay any college expenses because both children were over 18, so legally he did not have to provide college funds. No amount of my normal creativity, organization and determination partnered ... Read Full Story
6 Lessons From Our Summer Interns
Aug 30, 2020, 4 comments, 18 smiles
Couple weeks back, fifteen of us completed a memorable summer internship. Across seven seemingly unstoppable weeks, 7 interns and 8 mentors came together to deepen in service. What transpired moved all of us, and we continue to be disarmed by the ripples that flow on.
When summer internship applications came in this Spring, Vishesh noted: "It's hard to say who's going to be the intern and who’s going to be the mentor this summer."
Indeed, the service-hearted intentions and experiences these young hearts articulated was so telling. As we dove into the summer, they showed up in full form every week. Rolling up their sleeves in concrete action, they served on existing ServiceSpace projects, as well as initiated their own service projects -- some of which are slated to continue throughout the year! Expanding their thinking, they'd read a new book every week related to values of service and kindness, and took ... Read Full Story
Glimpse Of Laddership Circles This Spring
Apr 25, 2020, 10 comments, 39 smiles
2020 will certainly be a year to remember.
In our ecosystem of aspiring generosity entrepreneurs, it also marks our fifth year of Laddership Circles.
Couple weeks back, 30 project initiators and 14 volunteers across 11 countries have circled up for 3 more rounds of these virtual circles. Each of us signed up to give 7-10 hours weekly to the six-week learning journey through the hands, head, and heart. With hands, we engage daily practices in our lives; with head, we share reflections on uncommon articles and case studies; with heart, we explore the intersection of inner change and outer service. Through it all, we learn from and inspire each other, tuning into patterns of positive deviance that our collective consciousness is surfacing.
From that space, it's been remarkable to witness everyone's budding intentions converge around questions of: How do we design for inner transformation? Can we innovate in a gift economy? What would ... Read Full Story
Kindness Contagion During Coronavirus :)
Mar 14, 2020, 1 comments, 8 smiles
A few stories some of us stumbled across, around constructive (and beautiful!) responses to coronavirus:
Kindness Proves Contagious As Coronavirus Spreads
10 Heartwarming Ways Everyday Heroes Are Helping People Affected By Coronavirus
Also, a 1.5-min video of the woman distributing masks, featured in story above
How To Keep The Greater Good In Mind During The Coronavirus Outbreak
After coronavirus cancelled their daughter's bat mitzvah party, a family turned the food into meal deliveries for people in quarantine
Coronavirus acts of kindness: Are you committing them? Have you witnessed any? (They're polling readers, via form submission, for any acts of kindness done!)
Stories of Kindness From Wuhan
Also, few educators have been dialoguing on how to hold space in suddenly-turned-virtual classrooms for intimate sharing, dynamic engagement, and transformation: How To Hold Virtual Learning Space In These Times?
If others have thoughts, insights, stories or resources that come to mind, would be great to hear more...! :)
After Mindfulness: In Service To A Common Heart
Jul 10, 2019, 7 comments, 42 smiles
Last week, Diana and Coleman convened bunch of us at UC Berkeley for a conference that explored a unique question: What's After Mindfulness?
How do the values behind mindfulness extend beyond meditation? Their vision was not only a curation of content, but a movement -- a convening space for values and transformation -- the seeds of which would ripple forward long after the two-day event. What began as two non-Buddhists signing up to organize an 11th Global Conference on Buddhism turned into a remarkable journey in innovating around the age-old values of our human spirit.
In a recent newsletter, Nipun recounted: "Originally, Diana and Coleman invited us to offer a presentation; but as they learned more about our organizing principles, they became enthralled with the idea of spreading a culture of non-commercial spirit of service throughout their conference. We invited them to move from legal contracts to trust in friendship, and they ... Read Full Story
What's Love's Business Plan?
Dec 30, 2018, 14 comments, 36 smiles
As we wind down on our final days of 2018, I'm reminded how around this time last year, a crew of volunteers were bustling into action, scheming up surprises for a palpable “Gandhi 3.0” retreat last January. After the gathering, with so many folks brimming with energy to spill forward the goodness, it felt natural to collectively deepen further through a 6-week virtual Laddership Circle, to learn from each other, explore transformation-led design principles, experiment within ourselves and with our communities, and engage labors-of-love that reflect the emergent field of collective wisdom.
Last Spring, 18 of us from 9 different countries signed on, and what a journey it was! Below are some of the many highlights.
“What’s love’s business plan?” Ana genuinely asked. "What system designs create the conditions for transformation?"
We quickly realized there's no one-size-fits-all answer, but it was remarkable to witness how the collective space of the circle supported each ... Read Full Story
Sister Lucy's Four Days In California!
Oct 27, 2018, 7 comments, 34 smiles
Sister Lucy visited us for a few days last week. The morning before she landed, someone made some South-India breakfast for her and left it with bouquet of flowers outside of the Mehta household.
Soon after Sister landed, she had a "leisurely 20 minute" breakfast, as we spoke at a San Jose's Center for Spiritual Living. She wowed the crowd with her candid stories, as they not only gave her a standing ovation but waved to all the kids at Maher.
She inspiringly spoke about interfaith. "On Christmas, you ask all my children, how many of you are Christian? They will all raise their hands. At Diwali, how many are Hindu? All hands. At Eid, how many are Muslim? All hands."
From there, we head to Banyan Grove for a "leisurely 7 minute" tea-time, after which we headed to The Pollination Project's salon, hosted impeccably by Ari and Ajay. In his follow-up note, ... Read Full Story
