The purpose of the Charkha Yoga Trust Foundation is to generate artisan work, bringing together cooperatives, private companies, family businesses and individuals who live in the places furthest from what we call civilization.

Today, thanks to phones and the possibility of seeing different realities, people born in the mountains or forests can see that those who live in the city seem to be happier and more fortunate.

Apparently, that is true.

In reality, despite all the difficulties faced by people living in the most remote places on the planet, from the lack of electricity and heating to water, gas and everything else that civilization offers, to me they live in Paradise, and perhaps those who live in the city do not always.

Even though, as a friend of mine says, the whole planet is a Paradise.

It is not easy to think that someone living in harder conditions could be better off, but sometimes that is exactly the case.

During our trip to Nepal, while filming a documentary to introduce our Foundation, we visited a cooperative made up of about 3,300 people, including 2,700 women, in Uttarakhand, at 2,250 meters above sea level and 26 hours by car from New Delhi, among the mountains of the Himalayas.

This cooperative, founded by wonderful people, creates work for the local population. At the same time, with the profits, they have built a small school for the whole village, a botanical garden and various high altitude crops, including turmeric, rice, many vegetables and dye plants. To me, they seemed almost self sufficient.

We were guests in a production workshop, a two story house with the ground floor used as a workshop, home to nine very old handmade wooden looms, and an upper floor with a small kitchen, a large room used to store jute sacks, carried on people's backs for several kilometers, containing raw materials, and four bedrooms.

The young women of the village work from morning to evening producing merino wool fabrics, others spin the thread, and further up the mountain, other people prepare the fibers. A master weaver visits the villages where the looms are every day, teaching the women small tricks to make the fabric even better.

Close your eyes and imagine the mountains of the Himalayas, with their green terraces. On one of them stands a handmade wooden house of about 300 square meters, spread over two floors, surrounded by green terraces planted with rice and vegetables. On one side, terraces climbing upward, on the other, terraces descending, and in front, sky and Himalayan peaks.

Many young women work right on the edge of the slope with a naturalness that makes you smile.

One woman, knowing that a crew was filming a documentary, came to meet us. She began asking me a series of questions, and after a while I told her that, in my opinion, they lived in Paradise without realizing it. She nearly cursed at me and looked away. Then she said, "You talk like that because you are rich."

I answered, "Don't think about me. Think about yourself. For me, this is Paradise." She stayed a while longer talking with other people from the village, and when she left, she began saying goodbye to everyone. I watched her, thinking she wouldn't say goodbye to me, but in the end she did, last of all.

We thought about it and laughed for two weeks, because, deep down, she was right. Me, well off and comfortable, telling her that she lived in Paradise.

In the end, together with Markus and Bhargav, we agreed on one thing: Paradise is not free.

Our goal is to help people, especially women, become independent, while giving those who live in cities the chance to enjoy products made by hand, with the least possible use of electricity, chemicals and petrochemicals, and the smallest possible impact on the environment.

We have brought together cooperatives that follow Gandhi's teachings and produce merino wool, cotton, silk and linen, a cooperative of less fortunate young people who make boxes from banana fiber and cotton scraps left over from the company that sews our yoga clothing, and companies that produce cotton, very often woven by hand, which they use to make our cotton yoga mats.

Another small cooperative makes colors for children using beeswax and natural pigments.

We buy tea from the highest tea plantation in the world, created twenty five years ago by a Danish man. He founded a cooperative of three hundred families that produces high altitude green tea grown at 2,650 meters. It is wonderful, only needs three minutes to infuse, is not fermented, contains no theine and is rich in antioxidants.

We also buy musical instruments made entirely by hand and, above all, paper, produced at 2,950 meters near Mount Everest by a family run business that also employs a few workers from the area.

When we were shown this reality, we decided to buy most of our paper directly from them, and we designed new boxes using old printing methods. Natural handmade paper cannot be printed with modern printing machines. Every sheet has to be printed by hand, one at a time, without automation.

Some women at the Temple of Shiva, in Vellore, weave cotton to make fashionable bags.

Our incense, my great passion, is made in our factory in Mandya. Twenty five women have worked with us for fifteen years, and today they run the factory on their own. For this occasion, we created a new blend, the best we know how to make, prepared by two women who work in perfect rhythm on the very same stick.

All of this has meaning for us: living together, helping one another, sharing positivity. Opening a path, building a bridge, creating a connection between cities and the people who live far away.

Is change possible? Yes.

It only takes deciding how and when.

Is it a utopia? I don't think so. Our group is made up of about 4,000 people, mostly women, attentive, skilled, respectful and full of good intentions and hope.

Is change possible? Yes. It is possible, with patience and respect.

Managing all of this is still difficult. Everyone needs to be paid: taxes, wages, couriers, accountants, flights, customs agents, and everything else it takes. We created a company in India, Charkha Yoga LTD, through which we export around the world, with the help of trusted partners who guarantee a fair margin.

Even though we are talking about the best possible quality, a fabric woven by hand, one hundred percent natural, is priceless. We are doing our best to make it accessible to everyone.

Is change possible? Yes, and it is possible even without investing huge amounts of capital.

A dream? That every person could stay and live in their own home, without being forced to leave their loved ones and their land just to survive. To create work without speculation or pollution.

Are we going against the current? Yes, if by current we mean making money at any cost, polluting, and pushing past everything and everyone.

Moving naturally, toward a healthy, sustainable and honest future, is better.

The only thing we ask is this: order calmly, we will take your order and contact you when your piece is ready.

Our products come from far away, made entirely by hand.

Riccardo