Series
Re:link news and insights
Series
Re:link news and insights
I came to the UK in the early 1970s from Kenya as part of the Indian diaspora. My older brothers and sisters had not pursued further education which was still an unknown in our family. I was fortunate in that I had a lot of encouragement from my teachers in secondary school, which pushed me to pursue the path of higher education. For this I am very grateful. Being part of the Indian community, the careers which were expected of me were - unsurprisingly - either accountancy or medicine, but I was not attracted by either! At the time there was a spate of programs on television about lawyers, and one in particular LA Law, showed a glamorous side of being a lawyer. It seems a liitle shallow now, but it was probably LA Law that attracted me to becoming a lawyer together with an interest in problem solving - and then the path was pretty much set!
After that, I was offered a training contract at Slaughter & May and, upon qualification, moved to Linklaters where I worked in the real estate department for the next 37 years. I have really enjoyed my time working at Linklaters and have had the privilege of working with excellent lawyers, both partners and non-partners. Working at Linklaters gave me the opportunity to manage people, and I enjoyed the constant interaction with people and having trainees. Then, a few years ago, my wife Rita and I decided it was time for a lifestyle change.
Rita and I had been doing volunteering work in India for the past 20 years or so, spending a good part of our annual leave each year doing this. We decided we now wanted to spend even more time volunteering in India as we found that so fulfilling.
I decided to become a Re:link consultant as part of this decision to increase our volunteering work. Taking time off and sabbaticals was not going to be the long-term answer. So, the Relink platform was ideal to be able to make that decision to stop working and yet not stop! I could take the time to continue my voluntary work, but also make sure I did not lose my skills as a lawyer. The ability to control when you work and even turn down work (though not sure that part is so easy because of the loyalty you have built up to the firm and the people you have worked with) sounded attractive.
The Re:link team have been great, really supportive and made the transition very easy. Being part of Linklaters previously has also made the transition seamless, and I love that I still feel part of Linklaters. So far so good, I have not felt overwhelmed by the challenges of deadlines and keeping my knowledge up to date!
The volunteering journey started about twenty years ago when I took a sabbatical - just after my father had passed away - so that Rita and I could go to India to further our spiritual development. We were both practising Jains but at times it felt as if there was too much ritual involved. We knew of a dynamic Jain nun who came to this country periodically to give talks and that she was part of a large non-governmental Jain organisation called Veerayatan which did an immense amount of good work for underprivileged children and adults in rural India. The plan was that we would spend a couple of weeks there and then find other opportunities. As it was we loved it the moment we arrived and ended up spending the whole three months there, barely leaving the front door of the campus. It became a really immersive experience. We were able to fully live in the moment and focus on the work of giving back. The charity has an international presence too, responding to humanitarian crises. When the Nepal Earthquake happened in 2015, we went there as part of our volunteering to help - in my case it was for three weeks, however Rita stayed for a couple of months. While the charity has this international presence, the primary focus of their work is helping the underprivileged in rural India without discrimination to race, caste, or creed.
In terms of what the volunteering involved day-to-day, we spent a lot of time teaching English to children in the rural schools, and trying to improve their conversational English. We also helped generally with any work that needed doing, organising events too and also gained greater spiritual knowledge of Jain texts from the resident nuns.
The volunteering did not stop when we came back to the UK after this first experience. We were introduced to some people who worked for Veerayatan and discovered that they ran a Jain school here in London. We started to volunteer once a week on a Friday evening. As this school is directed more to children and young adults we teach for an hour or so, with the focus on the philosophy and good values, also teaching prayers in the original language. We also help organise various fundraising events throughout the year which raise donations for good causes – both back in India and here in the UK. Over the Christmas period we take children to local care homes and give presents to all of the residents and sing Christmas carols, we organise tree planting events as well as working with homeless charities to help the homeless generally. One of the main ways I believe to be happy and at peace is to help others and give back – I have been blessed to have so much in my life and not had to face hardships like most people in the world so – so giving back really brings joy the receiver and the giver and that’s what our focus has been for some time now – both here in the UK and in India.
Yes, we do! This has been something which we have been running for about 10 years or so now – apart from a gap of a couple of years during COVID. We have focused this at young people between the ages of 15 and early 20s to enable them to experience the concept of giving back. We take between 15 and 35 children for two weeks to a Veerayatan centre in India, where they get the opportunity to go into mainstream schools in rural parts of India and teach the children there and bond with them and form relationships. They also undertake other activities such helping with medical work like testing the eyesight of children and educating them on dental and general hygiene.
For many of these children it is their first trip to India, and at a young age. Generally, at that age young people can be hard to get out of their shell, but we have found that when they do volunteer, their eyes are opened because it helps them to realise just how fortunate they are. While they do spend a large part of their day volunteering, we also like to include downtime for activities such as yoga, meditation, and a little bit of sightseeing, thought it is not meant to be a holiday! When the youngsters come back from their volunteering, we have had parents comment on how it has made an impression on their child, and how their children are more appreciative. So, this trip really helps them broaden their horizons and experience living in the moment and make new friendships. In fact, they get back more than they give because they see how children over there are so happy despite having limited possessions and also how resilient they are. So much so, we have had instances where the volunteers have come back and then have wanted to do more for the charity. We had one 17-year old girl who was so inspired that she decided to fundraise at her school and she raised £9000!
One of the nuns at Veerayatan, who writes very eloquently, has written a book in Hindi called Pages of a Radiant Life. It tells the story, through the eyes of the narrator, of the life and teachings of our last great teacher, Mahavir, who lived about two and a half thousand years ago and was a contemporary of Lord Buddha. The book eloquently narrates episodes from his life and speaks about the values we need to cultivate to make ourselves happy and to make society as a whole happy – through the message of cultivating non-violence in thought speech and action, through limiting our wants and desires and also having a non- judgemental approach The nun has written this book in Hindi, and when we were in India this year towards the end of September she asked if we would have a go at translating it into English.
Rita and I had originally set ourselves a deadline of 4-5 weeks, not quite realising the size of the task! It feels like you’re writing a thesis because you keep going back to it, trying to make it better each time. The task was to translate it into English, but to also ensure that we did not lose her eloquence. I can understand Hindi, but I can’t speak it or read it particularly well. Rita is a much better speaker and reader of Hindi, so she is able to pick up on all of the nuances, and the philosophy within the writing. I have been helping with trying to get the English right. It has taken about 6-7 weeks in total. We have submitted it back to the publisher in India for them to progress, and take it to publication stage.
It has been a wonderful learning experience, getting to read the work and understand some of the original Sanskrit phrases has really enhanced my own knowledge.
We are hoping to have it published by January. Our head nun, the author, turns 90 in January so we will be going back to India to celebrate her birthday and if time permits and they have managed to sort everything out, we could have it available then which would be fantastic. If not January, then it should be available later in the year.