Meeting Sudhir Risbud happened by chance. While researching food around Ratnagiri, Arjun stumbled upon geoglyphs in the district and ended up sitting down with Sudhir to talk about early modern humans and what these ancient carvings tell us.

It connects to the larger thread running through this series: people adapting to landscape, to climate, to what the land offers. Just stretched across thousands of years instead of decades. The Konkan was once a rainforest. Now it is grassland. This land has always been in conversation with the people who lived on it.

Hands of Transition started in 2025 with a straightforward idea — the people living through food insecurity and climate stress are also the ones best placed to fix it. It brings together communities across India who are already doing that work, connecting design, storytelling, and on-the-ground action in ways that feel organic rather than imposed. There's no top-down blueprint here. The initiative is built around making room for these communities to tell their stories and drive change from within.