Hello, humans!

Arun lives in Bangalore and works as a panapictagraphist – a comics archivist and a collector of stories. "I don’t know why am I doing all this, spending a lot of time for this. At some point of time I sit and think: Where is it going and what am I doing, am I on the right path?"

Apurwa is 25 years old and comes originally from a small town in the northeastern state of Bihar. Currently she is based in Bangalore, in the south, and works for a media company. "I would rather want a life for myself, in this life, than something outliving me."

Kareena, 32, is from Mumbai and studied architecture. For three years she lived and studied in the Netherlands. Now she works for an urban action collective in her hometown.  "Beauty for me can be seen in all kinds of imperfections", she says. "Being from a city like Bombay you are really forced to seek and look for beauty in things that might seem mundane and profane almost."

19-year-old Hitish works as a tour guide in Dharavi, a part of Mumbai said to be the biggest slum in Asia. Reality Tours and Travels, the NGO Hitesh works for, aims to sharpen awareness about life in slums and raise funds for local community projects. “Success for me is being happy in your life", he says. “I’ve seen many people who have a lot of things but don’t have time to give it to their family or celebrate it for themselves.“

Mary founded, together with her husband and a friend of theirs, the Timbaktu Collective, an NGO in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Timbaktu focuses on the education of people in rural areas, with an emphasis on empowering women and children. 30 years ago, they bought an area of barren land the size of 18 football fields. Over the years, they turned it into fertile farmland and forest. „This social construct, the division, the animosity and the enmity between the sexes… I think this is one of the worst tragedies of humankind. We have this tremendous potential for being friends, for being human with each other.“

Nityanand is a writer and social activist based in Chennai.  He is part of the Chennai Solidarity Group, a collective that fights environmental injustice and discrimination. "I’m not a Mahatma", he says, "but I’m very interested in doing the right things.“

In the first episode you will hear Nayantara, 27, a writer and performer based in Chennai. Her passion for theatre shows in her engaging way of speaking and she was an inspiring first encounter for "Hello, humans!".