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