Rajni Bakshi Is a Mumbai-based Freelance Journalist and Storyteller Who Writes About Social and Political Movements in Contemporary India. Two of Her well-known Books Include ‘Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi’, Chroni

curation, not asset management. He's trying to find ways for you to be able to invest in your local bakery, for example. Why should you only invest anonymously in forms of businesses where you have no say over how they run the business, what they do to make the profit that they give you? So we have a little group going now in Bombay, which includes Siddharth, where we are discussing the possibility of how the digital revolution makes it easier to create complementary currency. 

Amit: I'm curious, because I'm not sure what you mean by complementary currency?

Rajni: It’s an idea that actually has been tried during the Great Depression. You see, in many situations, there is scope for economic dynamism (exchange of goods and services) but the medium of exchange, money, is lacking. So what people did during the Depression is, this happened on a large scale in the US and in many parts of Europe, they created local currencies. It is really like a mutual credit system or a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS). It disappeared as soon as the New Deal came because the government outlawed them, since if these kinds of currencies become prolific they are a threat to the national currency. 

But now a lot of the work that is happening is not posing a threat to the national currency, since it is for local exchange. And it's not in opposition to the national currency, but a local complement. So for example, if I'm a baker and one of you has a hair-cutting salon and another person has a car mechanic shop -- we have a token of exchange that circulates among us. An example in the U.S., at least some years ago, is the ‘Ithaca hour’ that used to operate in the town of Ithaca. But much more has happened over the last 5-6 years because of the Internet, and the possibility of digital technology called blockchain technology has made it much easier to have such systems. They don't even have to be geographically local anymore because people could be anywhere in the world and they could have this kind of system of exchange.

Amit:  Yeah, we’ve come across some of those sites where they believe that life is more than cash or traditional monetary systems and you receive credit for doing various acts such as teaching someone some kind of a course etc., which can then be used for something else. Almost like a bartering system of sorts.

Rajni: Yeah, except that it's not quite barter, because in barter you're limited by the specific thing that you have. This exchange can be multidimensional. It's not that you have to roam around with loaves of bread, so you can exchange them with onions or potatoes or a bottle of beer or whatever. There is one in Berkeley called Berkeley Bread, but I don't know if it's still around. And I just want to add that it doesn't matter how raw, incomplete and unworkable many of these things are today. Let's look at this idea of complementary currency like where the Wright brothers were on the day their plane first took off at Kitty Hawk.  Do you know how long it lasted or how long it was in the air?  Barely a minute. But it was enough to show them that they were on the right track, so let’s keep some faith in radical experimentation.

Amit: We have another caller, Joseph from Seattle, and he says, “I'm a novelist and I like what you said about bowing to evil and seeing the divine in the other. Can you suggest some techniques for really stepping into the worldview of a character, especially for characters that have very uncomfortable perspectives?

Rajni: Yeah, that's a really tough one. I don't really have a very satisfactory answer because your question is very deep, but I will share with you something that we attempted in a group that I'm part of -- Citizens for Peace, where we have been working with this core commitment of learning to listen -- we listen for the hurt or the concern that lies behind the complaint. Now the complaint here can mean anything -- something that we may find at a very visceral level, to be deeply offensive and hurtful. As you said, the other may be really doing and saying something that is utterly unbearable, but if we can somehow get behind that…and we cannot always -- I can tell you from my experience, that it's very difficult to overcome a sense of aversion.

But we did do a workshop. Of course, it's not a very good test case, because when you do a workshop like that, only people who share this commitment to deep listening attend. But still, this one had people from very different and opposing points of view and we listened deeply to each other, only to try and open some sense of understanding for what is the hurt, what is the concern that manifests as that complaint or that aggression. And it was very enriching for everyone who was present. I don't have a method for how we can do this at the societal level. I think we all know that we can do it in smaller, controlled or contained, group situations. I don't know if that is helpful. 

Amit: Perhaps, that's what it takes to have you start somewhere, and the only way that it's going to reach that societal level, is it starts at the individual level. When you take a look at this idea of personal transformation, how would you describe your journey over the last few decades? 

Rajni: Struggling on a slippery slow! Mostly two steps backward, one step forward. Actually, on the whole, I feel very blessed. I’ve been gifted with such wonderful inspirations and company, guides, mentors, so really I feel very privileged. I have a long way to go personally, and I have a tendency to get irritated very easily.  I'm struggling with that a lot, because I know that's a form of violence. I have impatience still in spades. And so just learning every day to recommit to diligent watching, without judgment, is what I'm called to do and as long as I stay the course, I feel like I'm justifying the carbon I’m holding. 

Amit:  Have you picked up any tricks of the trade to overcome some of these personal challenges?

 Rajni: I think maybe just one thing -- to slow down. I know that all of my challenges actually are in some way connected to a kind of haste and wanting things to move at a speed that may or may not be natural, which is very strange, because I actually love the slow life. But I have a side of me that wants things to be done faster. So it's a strange paradox. I must confess, I haven't gotten to the bottom of that one yet. But in terms of tricks of the trade, at any moment, no matter what you are doing, the ability to just watch your breath.  I’m not able to do this all the time. I do have friends who have done it quite successfully though. 

Amit:  I find that to be a very helpful exercise myself, so it’s great that it is one form of practice for you. So Rajni, we're getting close to the end of our call and I’d like to know what's at the center of your focus these days? 

Rajni:  I'm just sort of commencing a pilgrimage to try and understand the many diverse efforts that are being made across the world toward non-violence. I'm fascinated and humbled to see how much has been done over the last 70 years since Gandhi has left us. I'm very keen to understand that more deeply, particularly in the sense that after so much disappointment, how come there are people who are still diligently working for nonviolence in very concrete, actionable ways. So I am trying to learn from them and understand their story. That's my current mission. 

Amit:  It sounds like a very large mission, to be honest. How are you doing this - are you actually visiting around the world?

Rajni:  At the moment, I’m meeting them through the written word. Because fortunately many of them have been writing. And there are some, where I need to travel and meet. I haven't figured out how that's going to happen yet. I'm working on it and it will come, it will happen. 

Amit: Wonderful. One final question is how can we, the larger ServiceSpace community, support the work that you're doing?

Rajni:  Oh, you are already doing that just by existing. I’ll be tapping into your diverse and wonderful network to learn, because I think that the whole ServiceSpace phenomenon is a big manifestation of how ahimsa/ nonviolence is not just kept alive in some token, theoretical, ivory-tower sense but as a living, breathing, everyday practice. So I'm going to be learning from all of you. I feel like I have the network of fellow travelers in this pilgrimage.

Amit:  Well, thank you for that and thank you for spending time with us today!