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Laila Tyabji is the founder and Chair of Dastkar, a society aiming at improving the economic status of craftspeople, thereby promoting the survival of traditional crafts.

What does spirituality mean to you?
I never really think about it. I am a very practical person, very involved in the day-to-day aspects of life, without too much introspection. I used to introspect a lot when I was young, but now I feel it is a waste of time.
If I had to think about it though, I would say spirituality is about the awareness that however strong I am, there is something --- both within and outside --- stronger than me and without which I cannot function.
I am not at all conventionally religious. I do not practice most rituals, mainly because I find the way they have been distorted and interpreted so depressing. Too often they have become more important than the essence of religion. So even things I used to find beautiful as part of my culture, I now do not feel like practicing because they have become a sort of statement, a way of saying ‘I am different from you, my way is better than yours’ etc.
At the same time, I could not manage without a sense of something bigger than me, and being held by it in a way. I suppose this is spirituality to me. And I have a great sense that there is a larger pattern to life. Life is like a carpet being weaved, while we only are a little dot within it. We do not see ourselves in the overall pattern because we are too near it. So we question. For instance, ‘’such a good person suffered so much ---why?’’, or ‘’she was just a child and died --- why?’’ etc. In the carpet sometimes, a knot has to be sniffed off and nobody analyses why, was it an innocent or a wicked knot. Or it gets worn out because people are walking all over it all the time. The same goes with life.

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