Swadeshi Vichar Sheel Foundation

Our place is at F-42/1, over in Mansarovar Park in the Shahdara area. The address has those long khasra numbers, 1096/322 and 1097/322, which makes it sound more complicated than it is. We are the Swadeshi Vichar Sheel Foundation. We’ve been here in this part of Delhi for quite a while. It’s a busy neighborhood, always something going on outside our door. We focus a lot on local ideas and ways of doing things. We think there’s a lot of value in how people used to do things around here. It’s not about being old-fashioned, it’s just about what works for us in our daily lives. Our office is pretty simple. We have some old fans that make a bit of noise and stacks of books and papers on the tables. It’s a bit messy, but we know where everything is. We spend a lot of time just talking to people who live nearby. They tell us their stories and what they’re worried about. We try to listen and see if we can help out. We aren't a big organization with lots of money or a fancy office. We just do what we can with what we have. It’s a lot of small efforts that hopefully add up to something over time. We’re just regular people trying to keep these ideas alive in Shahdara. It’s what we do every day and we plan to keep at it.