Today, I am saying good-bye to India. On Tuesday, at 00:40 hours, we are scheduled to fly from the New Airport of Mumbai back to Munich. An intense week is at its end.
My impressions are full of mixed feelings. I read about the culture and history of the country. There is an interesting Wikipedia article about the national flag of India. I strongly recommend reading it to all those who are interested.
The wheel on the early version of the flag is a spinning wheel. As an addition, I can give you the following story which you will not find in Wikipedia:
Ghandi is said to have converted his people into a species that learned the spinning and weaving techniques in order to make them able to produce the sought-after cotton fabrics from England themselves, instead of always being dependent on the import from England. That is why the Indians integrated a spinning wheel into their flag as a symbol.
Well, with this in mind, you might well see the great Ghandi as a forefather of Sina Trinkwalder who, quasi as his predecessor, carries the art of creating jeans and dresses back to the former textile town of Augsburg. She also wants to use it as one means to fight the exploitation of human beings.
Exploitation which definitely takes place in India and which is practiced basically by European and German enterprises. Quite a few big brands take their profits made in India and use them for improving the statistics for their not always great budgetary numbers.
However, the nice numbers of India are the result of structures that originated in colonial times, of a concept of humanity that considers people merely as labour resources, of a crippling external balance (and with this, I do not mean the damage to the environment that is considered acceptable) and of a violation of (all the) rules.
In India, too, there are massive movements fighting these developments. They are not even totally without success. Actually, I witnessed an extreme variety in society; my few days in Bombay truly moved me.
And the more I digest what I experienced, the more I come to the conclusion that there is basically no “right” or “wrong”. I cannot and must not judge what is “good” or “bad”. We are all part of an evolution we should under no circumstances condemn with an attitude of knowing better morally – which is something we all (and I in particular) have a tendency towards doing. When all is said and done, even the best causal and rational explanations and wise constructs will not help. On this world, things are happening that I just cannot rationally understand.
The only resort for me is to try and work constructively for myself and others in my small microcosm. That is hard enough and it means first and foremost that I must not do or decide anything that will apparently have destructive consequences. And in doing so, I also have an obligation towards myself. Because I can only have a constructive influence on others if I also manage to function well myself.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
I really look forward to a few highlights awaiting me in late May and early June. One of them is the Zürich PM Camp #PMCampZUR on June, 5th and 6th. It is going to be a great event and will also be what my next article – then back from Munich – will be about.
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