Welcome to the Pluriverse
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
I am attempting to live into the answers through my writing, sensemaking, and dialogues. We are in a liminal space between stories. The old world has long ended although its remnants are still floating around; the new world is being birthed—painfully, collectively, in contradiction to the hegemonic narrative that has been running the show for centuries. I find myself in the role of a midwife to the new world—a ‘world that works for all’ as the Zapatista so beautifully put it.
The 2020s and the pandemic was a point of discontinuity that slashed through the final illusions and delusions holding the old world in place. The simultaneous collapse of global systems and the halt of the economic juggernaut heralded the Great Pause. And in this Pause lay immense potential for new stories to be born. The seeds of these stories had long been planted. And the time was ripe for them to take root. The unheard, unseen, unacknowledged and deliberately delegitimized voices of the Global South rang across the globe. The hegemony of the Eurocentric narrative of progress and development was shattered. In a diverse and pluriversal planet, the abundant and myriad possibilities of the emergent futures were being profoundly felt.
Even as the voices from the margins are moving forward, decentering and fragmenting the center, the global powers are merging as well—the nexus of corporate, governments, institutions, technologies, and ideologies make them a formidable opponent. Nonetheless, I believe that the time has come. The Great Turning is upon us. The new narratives are everywhere. Even as uber tech in the form of Big Data, AI, Robots, and whatnot strive to uproot us, disconnect us, and disorient us, there are many many voices rising in contradiction. The New Stories—yes, in plural—are on their way, and I believe they are gaining ground. They are myriad yet connected; they arise from diverse corners but are all founded in a belief in life’s inherent dignity, resilience, autonomy, and generative powers.
Am I an optimist? Yes! An Idealist? Absolutely! I left the corporate world to pursue the questions that were haunting me: What is my Work? What am I meant to do? How do I contribute to the co-creation of a life-affirming civilization?
The questions wouldn’t let go of me. And prodded me along this path of exploration, discovery, and finding networks of wonderful individuals dotted across the globe—all working towards co-creating possible futures using their own unique gifts and skills. While I do the writing, I am humbled by the contribution of ideas from across spaces that coalesce through many conversations, readings, and reflections. I truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
Let This Darkness be a Bell Tower
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
The Pluriverse is my way of inviting us to step into a world that is counter-hegemonic, abundant, diverse, and inter-related. A world that rests on our indelible interconnection with all sentient beings and this Planet. I write as radical from the heart, and can’t stop my heart beating faster every time I remember Mary Oliver asking:
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
I am inspired by the simple things, by the sacredness inherent in life, by music, poetry, nature. I don’t have any solutions. I am an explorer and invite you to join this pilgrimage. We’ll be traversing unmapped territories, encountering unknown dangers, and dark zones. All I have is my battered keyboard and my intuition.
The rest of my work, interviews, dialogues are available at my website: Pluriversal Planet
About Me
I am a writer, speaker, pattern seeker, and facilitator. I am also a certified Coach, Instructional Designer, Learning Design Architect, and Organization Development professional. I spent 18+ years in the corporate world across multinational organizations.
I am the Founder and Director of a boutique consulting firm Proteeti, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘wisdom that transforms.’ I have been a ‘solopreneur’ since 2016 speaking at conferences, conducting webinars, and facilitating dialogues on decolonizing our futures. I facilitate a series of dialogues with Garry Turner—Community Campfire (bit.ly/3WCiGGj) —where we explore ways to decolonize the imagination and co-create a pluriversal world. For more about me: https://linktr.ee/sahana2802
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You’ll see an option to become a paid subscriber at INR 350 per month or INR3,500 for a year. You will receive weekly articles and short musings, and fortnightly essays from me, mostly on these themes: Civilizational Transition, Decolonial Futures, Emergent Learning, Leading in Liminal Times, and New Narratives. You’ll also be supporting my work, by providing me with an income from my writing so that I can support my family, and retain my independence as a writer and thinker. If enough people subscribe, who knows what can ripple out. I believe in the Butterfly Effect on a deeply interconnected planet.
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