Sixfold RAINBOW MEETS

What is life without sparks of love, an impossible dream, rainbow of colors, contrasts, contradictions, creativity, community, camaraderie, chaos, carnival…?

1. Meets will be an attempt to see through each other's eyes and strive for a common shared vision. Let us see what evolves thereafter in self-organising manner. If we are able to emerge with feeling of solidarity through common vision then we shall have achieved our aim. This common social aim will take its own time.
2. We are aware, in the short term these meets will be little more than Sunday picnics, but even that is worthwhile! At least it will save our time on individual round trips just to meet one friend.

1. Emphasis will be on expression through creativity with colours, drawing, craft, poem, story, theater, puppets, films, song, music, dance etc.
2. We will avoid direct one to one verbal discussions as they are almost always non-conclusive and lead to dead ends with hurt sentiments and win/lose situation. We need to experience harmony and peace in disagreement.

Lot of events are planned in these meets. Decision to hold an event is made spontaneously by choice tokens by participants.

Inspirational, educative, alternative, Non-commercial, legal. Examples: Story of Stuff (English/Hindi/Marathi) and many more such films, kindly shared by Mr. Arvind Gupta 'Toys' ([email protected], http://www.arvindguptatoys.com).

Individual performance: Vocal, Instrumental

Show and making workshop. Material: Paper Mache, old news papers, string, bamboo sticks etc.

This is a free event, so there are no organisers to lean on! Bring novelties as well as healthy food that can serve as example for others. Please bring 1.5 times your single diet meal with water. Example: If you eat 4 rotis then get 6. Try getting dry items. Fast foods are poison. Avoid biscuits/cakes/chocolates/soft drinks etc. Bring dates, ground-nuts, (dry) fruits if you must. Please be sure to carry back your waste with you!

Try getting useful ones like herbs. If possible display a paper with details of its use/benefits.

Avoid those with sensational, glamorous, film, sports material. Get inspirational, useful and educative ones.

Participants will read a book/article/chapter/paper chosen randomly from their choice set. Then they will present it to all others. This will inculcate the quick reading, comprehension, summarizing and presentation skills.

Avoid material that supports businesses and commerce. Avoid time wasting addictive games. In particular we will share 1200+ books and 2 DVDs provided by Mr. Arvind Gupta. No pirated material shall be shared, we have better alternatives than pirated (commercial) materials.

Some friends need them!

Talk, presentation, demo. Installations (Pen drives/Laptops) Puppy (puppylinux.org) and Mepis (mepis.org) etc.

Presentation of self composed stories.

Recital, presentation of self composed poems.

Sharing of own experience/skills to dispel myths and distribution of free medicines by experts. Origami workshop: For fun and education. Using old news paper and waste paper.

Inner circle for speakers, outer circle for audience. Topics: Society, environment, future etc.

People give their inputs in any creative/constructive manner by any medium. Then others give their response. This body of inputs is expected to evolve and self-organize itself, so as to make clear what is the collective decision. This is like mini version of http://www.wikipedia.org, that is being adapted for true democracy (of ideas based on their merit) on a community scale. But unlike wikipedia the outcomes of CDM are executables. CDM provides a laboratory to experiment with a horizontal (pro people) manner to run our affairs in place of vertical (anti people) governments that have enslaved us. Please see our live online CDM sample here. Community talks to itself. There is no burden on particular subset of individuals.

Tangrams (http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/tangram.pdf), Cards, Ludo, Snakes & ladders etc. All handmade using "waste" material!

In the spirit of "Ten Little Fingers" (http://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/tlf120.pdf) book by Mr. Arvind Gupta and more such inputs.

We all get great forwarded emails once in a while. This will be an opportunity to share such material with those who may have missed or non users of Internet. Most important useful websites like the following can be shared: http://www.arvindguptatoys.com and http://www.journeytoforever.org etc.

Contemplation, writing and presentation by chosen participants on their "birth, childhood, past, present, future, old age and death" (BCPPFOD). Only socially/environmentally worthy points to be spoken. One may speak about creative hobbies. Include your favorite inspiration and quotation. How one makes money, how much one damages environment, how many "degrees" one has from "higher education", what "powerful" position one occupies in hierarchy etc. are not socially worthy points. Similarly my favorite sports person(s), film star(s), favorite TV soap-opera, favorite politician/party, favorite car/bike/gadget/mobile/computer etc. are not socially worthy points. Duration is 15 minutes maximum. See an inspiring sample story here!

From News papers and magazines etc. This will give others a chance to read the material they may have missed. People may note by hand what they need.

On various topics. People may copy by hand what they need.

Surplus produce can be shared among friends.

Example: Flute from scrap PVC pipes from hardware shops.

This can then be refined upon passing through stages of mixture (graffiti), hand voting, selection, final.

Can be undertaken as group activity in the presence of composer. Example: Drawing to poem, poem to drawing.

Food, GM food, environment, health, gender, violence, consumerism, water, energy, market, money, government, weapons, religion, nationalism, classification of society, terror etc.

Will be group discussed during meets. Many more activities are possible. Volunteers always welcome! Some food for thought: Cleaning of public parks, planting of trees (with tree guard and care) etc.

Refreshing breaks from daily grind. Being together is destination.

As a "multi sentence": Society = (synergy, symphony, sparks) of (clarity, consciousness, conscience, colors, contrasts, chaos, creativity, creation) in (expansion, expression) through you.

That the so called "establishment" does not want you to experience or even see! "Zee lo 1 din" (Hindi) means "Live for 1 day": Then may be whole life later…

In silence we speak through colors.

To discourage verbal talk, let ideas speak for themselves.

Commit to maintain peaceful meets, even in face of violent provocations, resistance and barriers.

Strength lies in connected diversity. Gene pool is the example.

With no one in power, no one is out of power.

When we achieve peace within ourselves individually and with our surroundings together we will reach world peace.

Politics and spirituality pull family in opposite directions.

Wealthiest is the one who gives most away.

Property is theft. Property is pollution.

Money represents share in environment plunder.

Work is love made visible. If you can not work with love, then sit at gates of those who do and beg alms.

Open (heart, mind, source, space…).

Free (dom, mixing, energy, life…).

Zero budget meet. It is worthwhile to compare with zero bacteria water purifying system. In zero budget meet there is no "money infection".

These meets must provide memorable experience for all!

Is a radical, romantic, refreshing and revolutionary view about the gender issues.

Think of it as refreshing, inspiration, educative, natural alternative to our life that is based on equal importance of every one. Horizontal means every one is equally important in theory and action.

Single ready to mingle!

Glimpse of future ideal world.

Utopia here and now!

Real, romantic, radical, refreshing, revolution, rainbow…. Clinging to objects is weakness Sharing is Strength. Dare to share!

Every one can share.

Utopia is the imaginary society in which humankind's deepest yearnings, noblest dreams and highest aspirations come to fulfilment, where all physical, social and spiritual forces work together, in harmony, to permit the attainment of everything people find necessary and desirable. In the imagined utopia, people work and live together closely and cooperatively, in a social order that is self-created and self-chosen rather than externally imposed, yet one that also operates according to a higher law of natural and spiritual laws.

Is a possible plan to achieve utopia in our life time or foreseeable future.

To move on with life, let us work on agreements and give colorful expressions to issues pending agreements.

Omnipotent love flows horizontally.

My life should be in my control. Is it so?

Do I own my self?

Silence can be sin.

Weakness is the only sin.

It is still possible for the trapped pigeons to collectively rescue each other.

Another world is possible.

Rainbow meets are "real" social networking.

Spirit alone matters. Spirit is above every thing, even beyond mind!

Principles instead of person. See what is being said, not who is saying.

The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. It upholds respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.

Power, unless justified, is inherently illegitimate. The burden of proof is on those in authority to demonstrate why their elevated position is justified. If this burden can't be met, the authority in question should be dismantled. Authority for its own sake is inherently unjustified. An example of a legitimate authority is that exerted by an adult to prevent a young child from wandering into traffic.

That there isn't much difference between slavery, and renting one's self to an owner, or "wage slavery." He feels that it is an attack on personal integrity that destroys and undermines our freedoms.

Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.

What we can share, instead of what I can get from meets.

"When you sell your product, you retain your person. But when you sell your labour, you sell yourself, losing the rights of free men and becoming vassals of mammoth establishments of a monied aristocracy that threatens annihilation to anyone who questions their right to enslave and oppress.

"Those who work in the mills ought to own them, not have the status of machines ruled by private despots who are entrenching monarchic principles on democratic soil as they drive downwards freedom and rights, civilization, health, morals and intellectuality in the new commercial feudalism."

It is proposed to let the meets be managed preferably by females and children.

There will be a separate space called M-Camp for people to talk to each other about 'how they make money', 'career talk', 'exchanging visiting cards' etc. But this will be done via random pooling a pair of roll numbers from a box containing roll number chits of each participants who wish to do so. Let us strive to remain away from this money/career compulsive addiction for just 6 hours! It is like A-Camp (for addicts) at Rainbow gatherings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Gathering).

Some people will like to think of these meets as mini Rainbow gatherings (hence the name! SRM = "Sparks of love Rainbow Meets") and even as mini "World Social Forum" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum) meets. See (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Family, http://welcomehome.org, http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/info/Niman-Quotes.html).

People can decide to prefer meeting people only on these social occasions rather than at home in person, so as to encourage social mixing and opening up. It will also save their time from being eaten by "drainbows" those who waste time of others for their selfish gains. This mutual exploitation is not leading us anywhere, it is a zero sum game.

Even a "failure" of these meets will be a success as it will tell us a lot about our own social worthiness as people.

This was the first ever such meet for us. SMS: "We invite you for free monthly open picnic/films of Sparks of love Rainbow family 11am-5pm Sun 31 Jan 2010, Venue. Bring art, craft, poem, story, colors, papers, cameras, musical instruments and packed lunch for mutual sharing."

Will be arranged at houses of nearby volunteer friends. Tokens will be kept in a box. Each token will contain the location of toilet. Token will be taken by person desiring to visit toilet, then upon return the token will be placed back in box.