In Maheswarpur village, in a semi urban area on the fringes
of the Barasat municipality in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, there
exists a community of 37 people who set up an alternative family in the early
1990s. We are not related by blood. The youngest member of our family is 7
years old and the oldest is 77. There are people of different castes, religions
and ethnicity - Brahmins, Adivasis, Scheduled Castes, Hindus, Muslims,
Bengalis, Punjabis. In a family that cuts
across all the social barriers of religion, caste, region and class,we all live together, eat out of the same kitchen and share all our resources.
This blog is a platform for the second generation of Collective members
to share with the rest of the world our collective lives. This is our way of
talking about our little collective island in the midst of a stormy sea of
individualism that is always trying to engulf us. We are the kids who grew up
with a multitude of aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandmothers and
grandfathers in this huge alternative family. The 3 oldest members of the
second generation (Aahana, Jamir and Bitul) run this blog but we hope to hear
from the younger children and our parents, who founded the collective, from time to time.
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