Arnaz thinks of herself as an early starter and late bloomer, like the Chinese bamboo. With almost a decade in the social change space (since 2015), she has not limited herself in her quest to explore ways of contribution.
Her zest for learning has opened her up to interesting journeys and experiences. She loves being a jack of all and enjoys the versatility that it brings to her being.
With a mass media degree, she did professional documentation work with Centre for Education and Documentation (CED), Bombay before shifting to Pune in 2021 to work with Kalpavriksh as Vikalp Sangam's website curator and editor. Apart from curating and editing the VS website, she also actively supports the facilitation of the VS process as a member of the Vikalp Sangam Facilitation Team.
Her involvement with the Blue Ribbon Movement (BRM) since 2015 has been something that has shaped her journey significantly. It started her off on a hardcore deep dive into systemic critique, non-conformism and finding alternative ways of living. She learnt facilitation, youth community building, creating collective processes including deep democracy, and focused on building her niche around alternative media. For two years, in collaboration with CED and BRM, she led a media fellowship for young people.
As someone trying to align her work and personal life as one seamlessly woven thread, you can find her curating a website for stories of hope, documenting initiatives, writing reflective pieces, facilitating group processes, nurturing meaningful connections, setting up a home that becomes a safe space for her community, singing, learning languages, watching birds-snakes-creepy crawlies, laughing maniacally at cringe Instagram reels and marvelling at the absurdity of life.
“I am passionate about making the interconnections of our socio-political landscape visible. I take merriment in being a generalist (who does have a specialisation, too) and enjoy doing the invisible work like nurturing relationships, weaving connections, conflict-resolution, facilitation, documentation (written and audio-visual), and in general just showing up and making myself of use,” says, Arnaz.