Namita Kulkarni

The best part of trekking if you ask me. Lying on the warm rocks of a hilltop after a swim, exhausted to the bone yet so glad to be in this body, watching the sky change colours like an Indian politician, while hoping it doesn't get too dark on your way down where you *might* just run into wild elephants and electric fences, in no particular order. Glad I had a torch and great fellow trekkers. And a whole stash of local dark chocolate for fuel. Thank you for capturing this moment @_findmeintheforest_ @yahnaikaduh . . #kodaikanal #tamilnadu #southindia #indiatreks #yahnaikaduh #liedown

Nightlife. Oil pastels on black paper, with sprinkles of gold leaf pretending to be fireflies ✨ This poem by Chelan Harkin feels so right with this painting 🔮 🌙 The Feminine is here to pull you from the measured, surveyed land at the edge of the wild forest of your dreams and finally toss you into the mapless territory of your heart. The Feminine is here to lay your impressive certificates of learning at the feet of inner knowing to pluck you from the discipleship of an outward master and lay you at the altar of truth that has been waiting latent so eager to erupt from your soul. The Feminine is here to remind you that God can live in the earth, in the hips in the deepest shadows. That she is planted like a wild rose in the darkest furrows of your pain, to reteach you to mother your frailties rather than dominate them, bring the wound from exile into embrace. The Feminine is here to bring you home just as you are now to undo conditions around enoughness to undo every patriarchal corset cinched around your voice and spirit and return you to the full belly of your sacred breath. The Feminine is here to reunite tenderness with power to help you source this from the great hidden sea within for you to feel the intimacy of God pulsing her embodied song through the rivers of your blood and back to the holy ocean of your heart. The Feminine is here to tell us in no uncertain terms we are carrying new wisdom, a gestation of God in the womb of our consciousness and a great, never before seen beauty is soon due to be born." ~Chelan Harkin . #oilpastels #fireflies #nightlife #forest #thenightisyoung #forestpainting #goldleaf #chelanharkin #thefeminine #youwantitdarker

Not a bad view on your way to morning yoga ☀️ Some more peeks into life at @yahnaikaduh. Looking back on my week in this forest where talking to trees feels way more sane than staring into screens, the moon seems brighter than city skies would ever allow, and a big punching bag hangs from a silk cotton tree in case you need to vent (don’t we all). Singing around a bonfire at night (highly envious of the music skills out here), sometimes foraging entire meals from the forest (except for salt and oil, coz those could take a while to “forage”), and having bad enough internet to resist the attention economy while staying in selective contact with the mad world. My city brain had its fears of snakes, spiders and bugs, but you will agree that those creatures have way more to fear from humans than the other way around.  🦎  I’ve yet to find a way around my reasons for living in the city, but I’m really glad places like this exist for people like you and me to get a real taste of this whole other way of life. Places where sustainability and being earth-friendly are the way of life, making it impossible to forget that we are nature and all that we do to nature we do to ourselves.  #yahnaikaduh #kodaikanal #tamilnadu #southindia #earthfriendly #sustainability #greenstays #forestlife

In my element 💦 This river 5 minutes downhill from my room at @yahnaikaduh was one of my favorite experiences here. Who can resist biting cold water on hot sunny days ☀️ I love that this place meets it's own energy needs using solar power and hydroelectricity. Something I loved about @sholaischool 2 years ago when I volunteered there for a couple weeks. This place is 2 km from the school and about 18 km from kodaikanal. Swipe to see more of the water 💙 ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #offgrid #earthfriendly #kodaikanal #tamilnadu #yahnaikaduh #bewater

Saw these snakes mating on a walk with @yahnaikaduh last week. One of many wild experiences at their week-long sustainability and wellness retreat inside the forest. Back home now and feels surreal to look back on the week that just went by in a blink 😬 So many great memories and new friends ☀️ More posts coming up soon :) . . . #kodaikanal #tamilnadu #ecostay #snakesmating

Internal Matters. Watercolor on paper. 📍 Was fun painting this today. Making colored water behave on paper is just inexplicably soothing. Swipe to see some process pics 🍓 . . . #watercolorsunday #watercolorsketch #inaheartbeat #redblooded

Random criminal case generator @penpencildraw saying it like it is. #releaseallpoliticalprisoners #standwithdisharavi

Be the light you wish to see in the world 🤣 Found this pic of a pretty challenging (for me anyway) hike into Elephant cave in Vietnam exactly a year ago. Our guide captured this moment while I had my headlamp on despite being in a fairly well-lit part of the cave. Listen to him talk about the world's largest cave Hang Son Doong in the next slide. Someday I hope to explore that one 🤞 Three British divers claim to have discovered that cave but then that's a very british thing to claim 🙄 Son Doong was first discovered in 1990 by Ho Khanh, a Vietnamese man. I just thought we should know 🤗 . . . #elephantcave #hangsondoong #phongnha #vietnam #missyouvietnam #spelunking

Went trekking after a whole year 2 weeks ago in Coorg. And some hot black coffee on this hilltop thanks to a thoughtful trek guide who offers this to everyone he brings up here. The edge of this cliff might not be the best place to get hopped up on caffeine but no one's died yet and coffee does hit different up here. This hill is called Kunda Betta and it's one of the easier treks in Coorg. There's also a small temple here said to have been built by the pandavas, which makes it seriously old, if you're into that kind of thing. Gets quite steep in most parts of this trek, but if you're not in a tearing rush to get to the top there's a lot to stop and notice on the way 🌺 . #coorg #kundabetta #kundatrek #coorgtreks #karnataka #whatgetsyououtdoors

#Repost @clayvours #freenodeepkaur You don’t need to be an activist. You don’t need to be Indian. You don’t need to be Sikh or Punjabi to understand her struggle. You just need to be human. I don’t know why it took me so long to understand Nodeep’s unfortunate situation. It should be easy right? She is a humanitarian, an activist, a working professional who has stood for the rights of the people within the Dalit community. Then why has she been wrongfully “arrested?” Fine she should be punished for standing up for human rights. Arrest her. Why torture her? Why sexually abuse her? I don’t want to say much more. I just request that like so many more, you also take a stand for Nodeep, because directly or indirectly, she took a stand for you. 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋 #freenodeepkaur #nodeepkaur #freenodeep #istandwithfarmers #istandwithindianfarmers #kissanektajindabad #kissan #kisaan #kissanmajdoorektazindabadh #sikhexpo @humanrightswatch @sikhexpo @justinpjtrudeau #meenaharris @meena @flotus @potus @joebiden @narendramodi

And how are you today? ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣Now that I have your attention, go look at my previous post?

#Repost @taranamol • • • • • • we are calling on YOU to demand the release of our sister, nodeep kaur. a 24-year-old dalit labor activist who has been bravely speaking up about the #farmersprotest. Nodeep, along with hundreds of protesters, have been abducted, harassed, and sexually assaulted. for call to action: freenodeepkaur.com / link in bio 📷 : @vibhugroverr #freenodeepkaur

Not to alarm you, but these words from the heretical Gospel of Thomas are an evergreen PSA:⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.⁣⁣⁣" ⁣⁣⁣ A whole sermon on the necessity of creativity, if you ask me. ⁣⁣⁣ Join me in this online Yoga for Creativity workshop on Jan 17 with @wildgingerherbalcenter where we will explore the many ways creativity & Yoga intersect and how they fuel each other. How we can let the practice be an exploration of creativity instead of another imposition of patterns. So much of yoga today is taught as replication of movement patterns to make our bodies comply with culturally programmed ideas of health/wellness. With the breath as an afterthought and rest an omission. How fun (not). What I’m suggesting here – as I do in my regular classes – is that our practice be led by our breath, we move no faster than we can feel, and we stay present with our bodies. And have fun while we’re at it.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ As you might have noticed, we spend a lot of our lives at the whims of oppressive systems that have a stake in pretty much every area of our lives.⁣⁣⁣ As a liberation-oriented yoga enthusiast, one has to wonder:⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ☀️ Can we let our yoga practice be a space where we return to our sense of sovereignty and autonomy? Where we begin to set aside the pervasive programming and create for ourselves the yoga practice that meets us where we are, as subjects of our own presence. Not objects for others’ approval.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ☀️ Can we orient our practice around the fundamental responsibility of looking after our hearts and rejecting the tyranny of entire industries/economies/algorithms that thrive on us being convinced of our inadequacies? ⁣⁣⁣ 🌻 For more details and to sign up, head over to the link in bio or DM me ⁣⁣⁣ This workshop is being offered as part of a monthly subscription at @wildgingerherbalcenter. Subscribing before Dec. 31 2020, USD 11.11 a month gets you 6-8 classes led by various teachers each month. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ #yogaforcreativity #creativityforlife #yogaworkshop #yogaforeveryone #creativityisabirthright

Be here meow⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #rsvpnotrequired #zenmasters #spiritualteachers #smittenkitten #restinpeacewhileliving