Samanvaya was started as a newsletter! Way back in 1998, Ram and Rama decided to announce that they
were available with certain skills to be hired as consultants in the development sector through a newsletter
rather than a card or a brochure, this news letter was titled, ‘Samanvaya’. Thus, when later on it
was decided to start functioning as a consulting firm, the name remained. Initially the name was taken
from a book published by Bharata Vidya Bhavan by the same title. This book was a lecture by Swami Ranganathananda,
former President of the Ramakrishna Math & Mission. In this lecture (copy available for reference at
Samanvaya library now), he talks of Samanvaya as being a harmonious order of things / society and how
this harmonizing was the vision of the ancient seers of India. In fact the sub-title of the book was, ‘vision
of India’. Having concluded that neither of them were Seers, it was decided that it be better to at
least have an idealistic name. Since then, it has been learnt that Samanvaya is an ancient Sanskrit
word, that it appears in one of the early stanzas of the Bhrama Sutra itself, etc. However, at that
point in time this was just a beginning and the larger the vision for the beginning the better, so
the name was good enough.
A few years before that Ram had been initiated into the Zen Buddhist meditation technique by the Master Thay Thich Nhat Hanh with the title of ‘Harmony of the Heart’. At the end of this beautiful ceremony of being initiated (Ram still practices meditation), Ram was presented with a sun-dried preserved bo-leaf or pipal leaf from a tree close to the place where Gautama, the Buddha got enlightened. This beautiful leaf structure became the logo of Samanvaya adding a Buddhist connotation to the word, ‘harmony’. The leaf from the tree ficcus religiousa, available all over the Indian subcontinent added a pan-Indian flavour to the organization and was easily recognizable by anyone. Since the beginning the name and the leaf logo have been variously interpreted by different people and we are thankful to all of them, they have enlarged our understanding of both and we have been the most benefited in the process.
Priya, walked out of college as she decided that her college had more regimentation and less of learning
space for her ideas and thoughts. While wandering around trying to figure out what to do next and warding
off friendly suggestions ranging from mild rebuke to suggestions to visit the shrink, she hit upon
a great idea. Why not design her own curriculum and pursue it? So her exploration for a self-made curriculum
and her need to pursue it brought her to the door of Samanvaya. With the co-founders encouraging her
to go ahead and pursue her studies any which way she wanted, she decided that here is the place she will
plant herself until she finishes her education. But, as time progressed, like every passionate learner,
she kept raising the scope and depth of what she wanted to learn and without realizing started to work
for Samanvaya.
Today Samanvaya is largely a three cornered organization with Ram, Rama and Priya defining the three corners. Others have worked part time, part part time, half time, project time, in-between time, etc. and as long as the three are comfortable with this, it continues.
The Samanvaya Story will continue…
Office
The first Samanvaya office functioned from Rama & Ram’s house. Just like anyone who liked working
from home, they started and did their work from their home which is in the northern suburbs of the Chennai
city. When Priya joined the team initially for learning, she had to trek to the office in a phut-phut
two wheeler which she still sustains. All this changed with the arrival of Maithreyi,
Ram & Rama’s
daughter. As the new born entered the house, out went Samanvaya, which like any other predator had by
then started to occupy the third room starting from the humble one half of a room initially. So, a small
single bedroom apartment was hired in a location about 8 kms away from the original office; this place
was easy to access by bus and train, so, visitors started to come finally to the office. The temptation
of finding a large office reasonably empty prompts people to fill it up with material. So, material was
filled up, first papers, then files and folders and finally furniture. After being in this location
for over a year, Samanvaya again moved, this time a rather bold move, investing in itself and hiring
a large office in the centre of the city. In early 2010, Samanvaya moved to a more serene neighbourhood where the current office functions from at Tiruvanmaiyur.
In the process, the initial single table shared by two has grown into separate work stations for each one. The two shelf personal library of Ram has since then grown into a full fledged library of the organization. The first computer led to the second and then the third…now the office has independent systems for each one, with network, broadband internet connectivity, wi-fi enabled for wireless connectivity to laptops.The current office also has guest accomodation facility (conditions apply)with a functional kitchen.