KK Jayan is at one of his regular hangouts — an organic restaurant in Kakkanad, with his mate E. Nandakumar. They are waiting to meet someone, who is half an hour late. But they don’t mind; time, for them has come to mean something different in the past few months. Giving time — a gift. Together with a few likeminded individuals, they started the Kochi Time Bank, which had a formal launch three months ago. Now they are 40-people strong and growing every month. There’s no money in it, for, as Nandakumar says, time is their currency. “It is part of a movement called gift culture, a concept of giving and receiving without money transaction. I have been part of several gift economy projects in the past six to seven years. One of the meetings was in Istanbul when we co-created a project called Giftival. Another project I then came across was the Zumbara Time Bank, founded by a woman called Aysegül Güzel. I was so fascinated by the idea that I brought her to Kochi and she offered to train some youngsters,’ says Jayan.
Stills of various events organised by Kochi Time Bank.
It was last year that Jayan could bring a team together and begin the work, informally. Nandakumar had then just got back to Kerala after a three-year stint in Vietnam. They were colleagues before that, at the Kochi Refinery. “He was in, as soon as I told him,” Jayan says. Now it is Nandakumar that talks about Time Bank to new people who wish to join them. “The idea is to give your time to someone who needs it, and then credit the number of hours you spent on your account. When you need that time, you will get it, ideally from someone else.” So Jayan spent hours just listening to a 94-year-old journalist talk. Three women members took children of other members out for a two day summer camp. A physiotherapist offered an hour of his service to another member. A young designer called Megha Chandrasekhar designed their logo. She says, “I got involved with the Time Bank when I was in India for vacation in November last year. My main contribution so far has been with respect to design. I worked on the logo, the website layout as well as the print media content required for the launch event. I liked the idea behind the initiative which is for a greater good for the community and the people involved. Bringing people together whether it is for recreational or educational purposes has a positive impact on the quality of life of the people in the community. This is exactly what drew me to be a part of this group.”
This is not entirely a new concept here, Jayan says. “In the old days when you build a house or have a wedding in the family, neighbours would come to help, giving quite a lot of their time without anyone asking them. It was just not called a time bank.” They decided to try out a public event, a lunch where people interested in cooking will cook, and those who loved eating would eat. “But we decided to try this within the team first, to see if it would work.” It did and public events soon happened. They put together, in May, the first Kerala Learning un-Convention in Kochi in association with ISTD (The Indian Society for Training & Development), with environmentalist Claude Alvares as the keynote speaker. Archana Magar, experimental educator, who was part of the event, wanted to take Time Bank to Mumbai, and the Kochi team has offered all support. “It should be more local, so if there should be one in Thiruvananthapuram, it is ideal it’s started by people there,” says Nandakumar. The time bank should come under the world body hour World which is a directory of all the time banks. To join the Kochi Time Bank, you need a couple of intros or be known to one of the members. “It is not a social service, it is a community service, and nothing comes free. You either give your talent or your passion, there is no compulsion.We give because we like giving. Giving is the gift,” he says.
