Imagine you are walking along a road in rural Central India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A place where infrastructure is sparse and people continue to live in poverty, many excluded by circumstance to fully participate in India’s heady economic development. It’s quiet, and then you hear the unmistakable low rumble of a Royal Enfield Bullet motorbike’s 4-stroke engine. Then you see it. It’s blue in color and astride it is a venerable European woman.
My guest, Ulrike Reinhard, grew up in Germany and discovered her gift as a basketball player early. Although her middle-class parents were not really happy about whom she chose to date, they did give her the freedom with sports and education. It seems that this freedom allowed her to live life on her own terms. In 2013, while on a trip to India, Ulrike was inspired to build a skatepark for children in a village in Central India. The thought was, that a skatepark could be instrumental in breaking down barriers of caste, class and gender. Be a positive disruptor in an otherwise stagnant setting. Seven years on, it seems the experiment is thriving to the benefit of the children of Janwaar, Madhya Pradesh and their families. Ulrike Reinhard spoke to me recently from Portugal.
Imagine you are walking along a road in rural Central India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A place where infrastructure is sparse and people continue to live in poverty, many excluded by circumstance to fully participate in India’s heady economic development. It’s quiet, and then you hear the unmistakable low rumble of a Royal Enfield Bullet motorbike’s 4-stroke engine. Then you see it. It’s blue in color and astride it is a venerable European woman.
My guest, Ulrike Reinhard, grew up in Germany and discovered her gift as a basketball player early. Although her middle-class parents were not really happy about whom she chose to date, they did give her the freedom with sports and education. It seems that this freedom allowed her to live life on her own terms. In 2013, while on a trip to India, Ulrike was inspired to build a skatepark for children in a village in Central India. The thought was, that a skatepark could be instrumental in breaking down barriers of caste, class and gender. Be a positive disruptor in an otherwise stagnant setting. Seven years on, it seems the experiment is thriving to the benefit of the children of Janwaar, Madhya Pradesh and their families. Ulrike Reinhard spoke to me recently from Portugal.
Where dreams come from, is a podcast featuring successful people from around the world who have pursued their dreams to arrive at a station in life. I'm your host, Sanjeev Chatterjee. I'm a professor of cinema and journalism. And in my creative life, I make documentary films. I started this podcast to explore what it takes for people to follow their dreams. Imagine you're walking along a road in rural central India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, a place where infrastructure is passed, and people continue to live in poverty, many excluded by circumstance to fully participate in India's heavy economic development. It's quiet. And then you hear the unmistakable low rumble of a Royal Enfield bullet motorbikes, four stroke engine. And then you see it. It's blue in color, and astride it is a venerable European woman. My guest will recur, Reinhardt grew up in Germany, and discovered a gift as a basketball player early. Although her middle class parents were not really happy about whom she chose today, they did give her the freedom with sports and education. It seems that this freedom allowed her to live life on our own terms. In 2013. One a trip to India will recur was inspired to build a skate bar for children in a village in central India. The thought was that a skate park could be instrumental in breaking down the barriers of caste, class and gender be a positive disrupter in an otherwise stagnant setting. Seven years on, it seems the experiment is thriving to the benefit of the children of Jaguar, mother Pradesh, and their families will recur. Reinhard spoke to me recently from Portugal or Rica, Reinhard, thank you so much for joining where dreams come from?
Unknown:
Thank you, Sanjay, for having me.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
Luca, can you tell me a little bit about where you grew up and what the circumstances of your childhood were?
Unknown:
Yeah, I'm born in Germany in Heidelberg, a small, well known student town in the suburbs. I was born into a middle class family, nothing, nothing special. I know I was the first one went into a gymnasium, and then also the first one who studied and the entire family. And so far, the only one as well. When I was like, 10 years old, maybe 11 years old, I started to play basketball. Game pretty good at this. I was playing for the German national team. So I could always split my time nicely between school and the sports, which gave me a lot of freedom.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
Do you remember having any kind of a desire to be something in life? early on?
Unknown:
As I said, I was playing basketball. And I was pretty good. I was someone. So there was no you know what, there was no desire, no issue to become anything else than what I was at school. I wasn't always, how shall I say? brightest is probably the wrong word. I was kind of lazy. And when I knew what I was going to study, or what I wanted to do, then I just, you know, slowed down.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
When did you leave home? And where did you go?
Unknown:
I left home. In my last two years of studies, I was studying in Mannheim, which is like 20 kilometers away from Heidelberg. That was a good place to study economics. And I actually I had from very early on, I had a boyfriend, which was a big fight with my parents these days, because I was quite young. And he was, like, nine years older than me. So when I brought him back home, it was like, you know, who was the big chaos and disaster. But then, by the time when I left him, it was a disaster again, because everyone was expecting me to marry him. And I said, No, so and that was the time when I also you know, like, quit with him. And I also then decided to spend the last year and a half, two years in a student hostel. in Mannheim,
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
as you're speaking, I hear that you were very independent minded right from the beginning.
Unknown:
I have to say I was really allowed To do anything when I was a kid regarding the sports, I didn't have so much freedom regarding the boyfriend. But regarding the sports, and you know, when I was really little with all the other kids in the, in the courtyard behind the house, it was almost like, you know, the kids now running around in time bar, we were just there, the older ones taking care of the little one. So I really, really had my
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
freedom. After college after studying economics.
Unknown:
After my studies, I was working with sliders, torches, fencing, which is Germany's biggest public television station. And they actually offered me to do a PhD. So I had no intentions, I was also not a very best student, but I was fine enough. So they could give me a special admission to do a PhD. And they also allowed me to work together with a public broadcaster.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
I grew up in India, and, you know, our path was, of course, guided by our parents, to a large extent, education was essential. We came from middle class, upper middle class, families, education was essential. And that job was important, and you just did your job, and you be a company, man, and you rose in the ranks. And that was the way to success. But what you're suggesting is different. What you're suggesting is figure it out as you go along.
Unknown:
Absolutely, this is what I always did. And I always, you know, I don't know why it was the way it is. But I always had this freedom, or I took the freedom, it's kind of a central to my life, you know, that, that I just feel free to do things. And usually, you know, you can make it if you want it, you can make it and it's then as you become older, it's like sometimes, you know, connecting the dots. And this is something no theory can tell you, you have to live through. And if you take life, like if chosen, you know, then it's, it actually becomes quite easy to connect the dots and to make things happen.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
I have seen video of your riding through the Indian countryside on a blue bullet. Royal Enfield. Yeah, what was the path to that particular circumstance?
Unknown:
I was in Madhya Pradesh, and this is a part of the world where there is simply no public transportation right to either buy a car and get a driver or, you know, you go on a motorbike, and I always had a motor scooter. And I love to ride a motor scooter. So I decided to buy a motorbike.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
Tell me the path to getting to India.
Unknown:
So I came back to Europe after California, my husband died. My kid was like, three years old, four years old. So I was thinking what to do, I had the option to go to New York or back home to Europe. So I decided, I go back home. And then I started to work as a freelancer. I raised my kid I was an I thought, you know, Heidelberg is a pretty good place to raise a kid. So I took this responsibility. And you know, I was
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
while you were in Germany, just before you moved to India, the professional was freelance, I understand what were you doing different kinds of jobs, when I was a specific,
Unknown:
I was working as a consultant always engaged in change processes. So my clients were for example, NATO, or I was also working for German government, I had bangs, you know, all kinds of organizations who wanted to drive change. And always my, my specific thing was to explain how important it is if you try to change to be transparent and open regarding the outcome. So I do not believe that, you know, when you are let's start this way. If you want to drive change, you have to create some kind of movement, right? Without movement, there is no change if something is stuck, no change. So you Need to disrupt, to make the system move? And any kind of disruption, you know, can go
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
either way. Why did you choose to build at that time? What was you were you thinking when you said, Let's build the skatepark.
Unknown:
So for me, and now I'm coming back to my profession, what I was doing earlier is when you have such closed systems like Indian villages, and changbai is a small village, there are like 12 1400 people there, and nothing much is happening, right? No one comes in, no one goes out. It's just they're a very, very stiff, very closed entity. So I'm very traditional, something needs to happen. So my basic question was coming from skateboarding, which is actually the complete opposite of what such a closed village stands for. Skateboarding is all about, you know, finding your own way. It's like counterculture, it's a little bit rebellious. It basically has everything what an Indian village does not have. So my basic assumption, or my question was, if I put a skatepark as an open space there, meaning no fences, no nothing. Will the skate park has the power to disrupt this village and create movement? That was my question. It was basically a social experiment. And so we built the skatepark. The villagers didn't know what we were building. Some of them thought we were building a swimming pool. Other swords, you know, they had no idea. We had a couple of skateboarders with us who were helping us to build the space. They are, of course, brought their skateboards. So when the first ones were put in concrete, you know, they put out their skateboards, and showed the kids what they can do. And once the skate park was finished, I got from a German NGO, they gave me 20 skateboards, I gave them to the kids. And I said, This is yours. We had these two rules. Now school now skateboarding, because I didn't want to get in trouble with the local school, that the kids, you know, would rather spend their time at the skate park and not at school. So we made the rule, no school, no skateboarding. And we made the rule goals first, just to assure that go, girls would get a skate board as well. But otherwise, the kids were completely free. We had a couple of couple of tablets, I downloaded YouTube videos, because I myself, I cannot skateboard, so I needed to show them. So I gave them the tablets. And then they were sitting there, you know, they were watching on the videos, what these guys were doing. And then they went on the skatepark. And, you know, we're trying to do the same thing
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
they saw on the video, you are saying that the skatepark apart from actually achieving harmony between gender and between caste was also really the starting point of some amount of economic prosperity.
Unknown:
Absolutely. I mean, harmony is a big word. There is still you know, change is never a tea party. There are always obstacles, ups and downs, but slowly but steadily, we are climbing up the hills. So we move more forward and we move backwards, but there are obstacles and we tackle them and work them out. So the skatepark has not only given the kids self confidence, it has brought social change in between the carts, they're really talking to each other, the kids are eating, they're traveling, they're sleeping together. It has given the village an identity. So whenever the villagers are coming to Panda, you know, and there is another article in the newspaper all day. Now with this Netflix movie, you know, everyone is like, Oh, it's us, you know, and they are proud. They're really proud of the village no matter where they come from. So it has really given the village some kind of identity. It has brought in many, many people. So we have a couple of homestays, this brings money to the families because they handle everything. So they have the homestays. We put in half Ces, which really have a room where you can close the doors. But not every house has a room where you can close those. So we have four or five of these homestays, and they have the names of the kids. It's called ovens homes. They asked us homestay. And so people come and they pay their families directly.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
Tell us a little bit more about Asha. You know, where did she come into the picture? She was and what happened.
Unknown:
So Asha is when we started with the skatepark, she was like 16 years old. She's an Adivasi goal comes from a really, really poor family. So below the poverty line, they have all kinds of arrays of carts, you can have, and she came to the skate park. When it was finished. She wasn't there when we were building. But when the skate park was finished, it was there. And we had a summer camp, we did a summer camp for six weeks. The same here at the skate park was built. So we ran a program in the early morning hours. And in the afternoon hours, I had a couple of people from Delhi, they are like English teachers. I have also musicians from kucherov, from the music and dance festival, some people from Panama, and we made the program just you know, to get to know the kids, the people there and how the vibes in this village would work. That was an important point for me to learn better. So the kids kept coming. In the beginning, we had like 10 kids at the end, we had like 80 kids every day. And Asha was one of them. And a friend of mine from the UK, she was there. She's a very good English teacher. So she did English sessions with the kids. And Asha really did well, during these English sessions, she was really engaged. So at the very last day of the summer camp, we made little certificates, you know, and those who really did well, in one way or the other, they got a little extra. And for some reason, when I gave Asha her certificate, I said, you know, you really did well in English. So she was very, very happy. And I said, you know, would you like to go to England and learn better English? This was just, again, no plan. I was just, and she said, Yes. So Asha and me, we were really happy, you know, we were proud. And we went home to Ashley's house and told the parents and the parents said, No, no way. So this was a process of like, eight months, to convince them to let her go. And then you know, it was back and forth. The entire village was up on its feet, trying to have some kind of impact on the parents. But then finally, our first mother said, Yeah, let her go. And then it was our shot, the first go, and then Adivasi on top, who got a passport, in this entire village. And this was, I mean, the deaf community, they went nuts behind the scenes, you know, they came up with the wildest ideas why Ashoka should not go.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
On the one hand there is this interaction that brings about cultural change. The second aspect of it is connections to the outside world. So what has that been like? That reidman like and what are the advantages pros and cons of such broad exposure to the world?
Unknown:
I would say it's mainly flows. The cons are certainly that, you know, once in a while, I mean, when Ashok came back from UK, for a while, she had the nickname Queen of Chung Ba, because, you know, she just acted like the queen of jumbo. But over conversations over and over again, we really made her understand that whatever we do, even though if we work with single families, single kids, it always needs to serve the community. And this is something they have understood. And in general, I would say that the village kids even though they've been traveling all over India, now some of them have been traveling abroad. They love their village, and they are happy if they can make decent life in the village.
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
You know, the connected world and a vision of peace and prosperity in a networked world is certainly the ideal. But it has also allowed for decentralization for profit, for example, the mining industry, you know, you can't really tell where the headquarters are. And they are exploiting the earth resources. And if there's a protest in one part of the world, they just move their headquarters somewhere else without having to deal with the problem at that face. So was that something you were thinking about at that time, or did that just come as a surprise,
Unknown:
this suddenly did not come as a surprise. But the thing is what became really very, very clear to me in these days, that all these decentralized structures do not function, if there is no transparency, if there is no collaboration or co creation, if there is no participation of the people at all. So I believe until today, if we are transparent, if we trust the network, things will balance out. Things will balance out, yes, there are dark holes, so to speak on the internet, but we have them in real life as well. So yes, I also have to admit that with these tech giants, like Google or Facebook, there is some kind of commercialization of the entire thing. But still, you know, this, this concept of resonance, if someone puts something into the network, and it creates resonance, it pops up. So there is this, this simple possibility that any voice can be heard. And we see this over and over and over again. So if you practice this, right, I think you're on a very, very safe path through
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
life. Given the title of this podcast where dreams come from, I must ask you, when are you living a dream? I
Unknown:
if I talk about myself, no, I just do what I want to do. I hear from others. Yeah, you have a good life. I will happy with what I do. And that that's the most important thing. You know, I've never done anything, which I did not like. So it's a nice way of living. It's I can say
Sanjeev Chatterjee:
right now, thank you so much for taking this hour with me. Thank you was a pleasure. After speaking with Erica Reinhart, in some ways, I'm reminded of EF Schumacher in 1973 books small is beautiful. No doubt will again has chosen to make an impact in a small village in India. However, upon closer examination, it is not hard to see that her work is not devoid of the world at large at all. As a matter of fact, it is an effort to provide a community in the margins the opportunity to be connected to live lives within the context of this world here and now. Auriga is journey letter to a remote village in India, where she discovered purpose in disrupting outdated practices, and opening up possibilities for rural youth through skateboarding, who would have most probably continued on the path of a domestic village life and poverty now competes in national and international arenas. Her story is seen in screens big and small, and she is not the only one or door has opened. This episode was edited by Scott album for media for change. I'm Sanjeev Chatterjee