Nothing has ever changed my life more than the time I spent in McLeod Ganj. As the third partner in the service project known as the Dharamsala Earthville Institute (DEVI), the home of Khana Nirvana Community Café, I lived and worked in the cafe with a growing team of Tibetan young people in their early twenties, our generous Indian partners who made it all possible, and a constant stream of traveller/seeker patrons, volunteers and new friends from around the world.
The café operated as a gathering place for the community, and networking hub for connecting people and creating new ideas to benefit the local and global community. It was a safe and fun space for people from all walks of life to come together, and learn, share and participate through individual discussion, volunteer opportunities, and both small and large community events.
The café also functioned as a school for experiential learning, for visitors and staff members alike. Staff members could train in every area of restaurant operations and community organising that was an integral part of everyday operations. There were a number of areas that staff and community members could train in through DEVI as well, including radio production, web design, internet service, computer repair, and…desktop publishing: Contact magazine.
Although I was not a part of the Contact publishing team myself, I participated in some of the organisational meetings, and witnessed the benefits Contact brought to community activities, and to the town overall. People learned about events around town, connected with each other, found volunteer placements and discovered aspects of the Dharamshala experience that they would never have known of otherwise. Countless projects and partnerships came about this way. Some designed by the DEVI and Khana Nirvana teams, and many thought up spontaneously through conversations between new friends who met in the café.
There were Monday open mic nights, and a Sunday at Sunset series where Tibetan ex-political prisoners would share their experience, followed by ways to get involved. There were guest speaker events, featuring poets, authors, educators and luminaries of the Tibetan Buddist world, talks on happenings around town or across the planet, Friday night Shabbat dinners, interfaith dialogues, art gallery openings, holiday dinners, and so much more. It was as if the most amazing people on Planet Earth would walk through the door, all day long. And so many of them found their way up the long flight of stairs from learning about these activities in Contact magazine.
One of my favourite, unexpected projects to come about this way occurred at a time when there had been an outbreak of rabies among the street dogs in town. McLeod Ganj street dogs were not your average street dog. They were healthy, fluffy, friendly and strong. The Tibetan community treated them as their own, feeding and playing with them from the time they were puppies. Our own dog, Maynerd, adopted as a puppy, was part lap dog, part street dog herself. When the rabies outbreak threatened all of their lives, an amazing thing happened.
A guest at the café started doing some organising to help the street dogs, but soon she only had one day left in town. There must have been an article about the problem in Contact, because I remember another traveller coming into the DEVI office at the café that day, specifically looking for a way to help with the dogs. As it happened, the second one arrived on the scene exactly one hour before the first had to catch her bus out of town. We introduced them to each other, the two of them sat for an hour exchanging ideas, the first one transferred the leadership of the project to the other, and they hugged and said goodbye. The project moved forward under her leadership for a couple of weeks until she had to go, at which point a third traveller took over. Meanwhile, a dear friend on tour with monks from a local monastery in exile heard about the rabies problem, and started raising money to help in some way. She arrived back from tour just when we were wondering how to fund the purchase of rabies and distemper vaccines, and when she heard what we were planning, she donated all of the funds to our effort. With a team of staff members and volunteers, we vaccinated every street dog we could find in town. Starting with our beloved Maynerd.
Over the next two years, we vaccinated over 200 street dogs. That was back in 2000-2002. It has been 12 years since I have been back to India myself. I have heard that since then, well staffed organisations have been established that provide medical care for street dogs on an ongoing basis. Feeling grateful to have been a part of the early effort in such a magical way, that was greatly assisted by Contact.
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