Power to Empower

[Music]

i would like to take you

on a journey of how a run-down

public park was turned into a glorious

food festival food forest

but before that there’s a voice that’s

calling

will you be set free

there’s a change of calming

let it start in me

let it start in me

let it start in me

there’s a change that’s coming

let it start in me

so i grew up in bangalore where we used

to experience

power cuts at night and so my siblings

and i would

gather around the piano and we’d start

singing songs one after the other

and john lennon was a favorite

you may say i’m a dreamer

but i’m not the only one

hope someday you will join us

and the world will be

so i knew i could hold a tune but

when i was given the chance in on the

school stage

in all the excitement i forgot the

lyrics

i did not even make it to the

semi-finals so

the next time the opportunity came in

college

i grabbed it with both hands and

voila i won the first place

so uh now that propelled me into the

music college

the music scene at college and i never

looked back

but winning competitions oh my god

i would cringe you know why because each

time they called my name

you see i have the weirdest surname it

was

baby yes b-a-b-y

so for keralites it’s a very common

surname and but

we grew up in bangalore and to top it

all

my parents thought it would be a novel

idea

to name their children lovely baby

fancy baby lucky baby

me i was sweetie baby and my

brother was happy baby

you know perhaps it was a stroke of

genius you know on my parents part

because

it made the baby girl stand out in

school

so the trauma of being teased

also built a certain resilience and then

you know you come out fully equipped to

take on the world

now my mother she was a huge influence

in my life

and she was the kind of person who

neighbors and friends would

call for help and support and she was a

community

organizer of sorts you know and she

would always use her network of

connections so i saw

many happy faces leaving our home and

the joy of giving was a huge part in our

lives

so she taught by example

and i guess you know those lived

examples naturally get ingrained

into your dna you know so years later

when i got married and came to live in

mumbai

it was so different from my sheltered

life in bangalore

i had to make new friends i had to

you know build a new life for myself

so since i loved singing i

uh joined a beautiful choir called the

stopgaps choir

and we went traveling to france and

germany and israel

it was a wonderful fire and singing with

the stock gaps

uh actually led me to coordinating you

know various performances at the ncpa so

as

time went by i built

a network of connections with other

musicians

and one opportunity leads to another

and you know i started singing at

non-profit fundraisers like the cripper

foundation

celebrate bandra and slowly built

my confidence you know and it also gave

me

name recognition in this field and soon

i was singing in a french opera

i was uh singing in a sufi program

and soon you know i even sang in

celebrity

weddings uh soon

i was out of my little pond and building

my

very own brand you know um

and then years went by and the journey

of

motherhood it taught me wonderful

life lessons you know so around that

time

i noticed several of my talented friends

who were homemakers housewives you know

with plenty of free time

on their hands so i came up with the

idea

what if we started a quartet of singing

housewives you know and this led me to

the group that we formed it was called

grace notes and it was a wedding

and a memorial quartet and

we became the go-to singing group

for weddings and funerals uh in bandra

outside we’ve even traveled to jaipur

for a celebrity wedding

so my uh you know

grace notes was taking off and uh one

day i was sitting with my father-in-law

and he says

you know you should have called your

group patch

and dispatch and

so but um one of our most

memorable signature tunes at memorials

was um

[Music]

yes lord

[Music]

like me

i was

[Music]

now i

see

so 15 years ago we moved into our

lovely neighborhood in bandra and there

was a rundown

bmc park right outside my window and i

found that

the bmc had a scheme in which the

citizens groups were allowed to adopt a

park

and use it for the best interest of the

local community

and i thought come on let’s make a

difference you know

now i needed a partner and you may have

the idea

but to bring it to fruition you need

that one

person to believe in your madness you

know

and for me that was my dear friend

arlene fernandez

she was a homemaker like me but

she had the negotiating skills

man she could sell ice to an eskimo

okay so we went day after day to the bmc

office

it was such fun okay we would both

not know how to get permissions but we

would build on each other’s strengths

and we soon learnt on the job you know

like how do you use marathi

where to use marathi um how to walk in

confidently and tell

we’ve got the backing of the local

operator you know so we’re all sorted

so back and forth with various forms and

signature campaigns and

you know just to get the attention of

the bmc and finally with the help of all

the neighbors

we got to adopt the park

but this but through this exercise

we slowly built a bond with the people

on the road

it was such a beautiful feeling you know

uh and one day

while we were meeting in the park uh a

certain mr rama ayar who was also in the

neighborhood but had never heard of us

happened to pass by that way and he

stopped to ask what the meeting was

about

and it turned out that his wife

who was an ardent lover of gardens

she had recently passed away and so mr

iyer said

that he would help us with the funds i’m

telling you it was

a miracle you know and now

we had to look around for talent

resources within our community

so we got help with the design of the

park

from an architect who lived down the

road

you know and uh we got the permissions

you know to get

permissions from the bmc one of our

neighbors who had a little bit of uh

connection with them

he said i’ll help you with the you know

the permissions

and you know this experience

taught me that uh when you make the

effort

to get to know the hidden talents in

your neighborhood you know and its

people

magical things are possible i swear

so during this time uh i happen to take

um the famous self-awareness

course called landmark forum

and part of that program we all had to

start

some social service initiative you know

and that led me to my

next adventure you could say my next

miracle

you know i’m a firm believer that

serendipity is everywhere

i tell you because at that time

i met premila martis she had recently

moved into

our neighborhood and so when i told her

about our little piece of paradise

she jumped at the idea and explained

the importance of simple fallen leaves

you know it had inspired her to start

the

save a leaf campaign and the best way

is to collect leaves from the

neighborhood bungalows societies

you know to start building soil

so we would all go off in my yellow

maruti car with bed sheets and

shovel shovels and you know to load up

the car with dead leaves

and bring it back to the park and we

realized

that the local marlies and all the parks

they were sweeping up the beds

and disposing of the leaves and you know

it had to remain in the soil and to you

know

allow its creatures to creep back into

the soil

and for us that is black gold leaves

black gold for us

and as tremolo drills in you know the

message she drills into all of us

is just imitate the forest flow

because whatever falls down

must remain there in a forest no one’s

going and sweeping it up you see

so volunteers were finally mobilized you

know to donate

a little time every sunday just to us

in the evening and it was so

heartwarming to see

how people would come all the way like

from

dicer just to give off their time on

sunday

you know and it brought about other

volunteers who have the same passion

and diphthyani she taught us the

importance of seed saving and you know

using

all the so-called waste material that

everyone says

you know tree cuttings coconut jellies

you know we just line the beds

and it’ll soon turn into soil you know

and soon

birds and butterflies they’ve all just

started revisiting the park

and for two years i remember we

just concentrated on building the munch

and nourishing the soil that’s

all just bring leaves put it into the

park you know

and then soon the bmc heard about

us and they said why don’t you do a

pilot project

you know we could see if there are

neighborhood parks that

could be more than just a park you know

and thus was born the idea

of dreamgrove so

in a span of three years

we grew a volunteer base of nearly 200

people yeah

now we’ve already successfully grown

beans pineapples bananas

elephant bindi i mean have you seen

elephant bindis

red bindis um gouty

purple wind bean

bitter god i mean so much more you know

and

it’s all heritage seeds and uh premila

and dipty

bring the and everyone just shares you

know from what they’ve got and it’s

beautiful but we’ve also

learned that the other very important

thing is to maintain a catalogue

of you know the progress so a pictures

videos

and you know how to do things so that we

can you know just put out on social

media

and someone will just take it up you

know hoping someone will take it up yeah

so if you ever want to look us up uh we

are on facebook

under dream grove bandra

in fact a young writer was so inspired

by the park when she visited it

she wrote about us in her children’s

book and it’s called

the miracle of sunderbach’s treat

how wonderful is that we are really

touched

uh but i think that one of the

most significant cultivations

has been the well-being of the people

that have formed

this dream grow family as premier often

says

when we come to work in nature

we become neutral in every way

no no hierarchy

it’s amazing how we’ve attracted all

kinds of people you know

some come to discover the pleasure of

gardening

some others come for the joy of meeting

other people

and we found children with learning

disabilities

they are fascinated by the creatures you

know under the soil under the

mulch and together

we bring our own learnings

to contribute and harvest a sense of

self-worth

so that’s our story and so

from being a singer to the concert of

leaves

that create a forest of well-being

and self-worth

and so i end with this beautiful song

what the world needs now

is love so we love

no not just for someone but for

everyone no

not just for some but

everyone