In Save Soil: 100 Days That Moved the World, Radhe Jaggi pulls readers into the exhilarating, sleep-deprived, wildly unpredictable reality behind Sadhguru’s 30,000 km journey to spark a global conversation on soil health.
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Eddie Reynolds
Europe PR team
‘Hold this sign, pass it to me, and then I’ll turn and blow a kiss.’ This was the first time I’d ever received an instruction like this. But by now, fifty-nine days into the Save Soil journey, unpredictable tasks were the norm.
We were in Sadhguru’s green room—a large, square space, beautifully decorated with a series of ornate sofas and tables placed next to each other along the walls. The guests who were due to have one-on-one conversations with Sadhguru were now, thankfully, in the room with us, interacting with members of the Save Soil PR team. To our left, CNBC was setting up in the corner for an interview with Sadhguru. Wires, lights and cameras were beginning to spread themselves into the space like mangroves. With so many moving parts and personalities to keep happy in the same space, we were walking a tightrope.
This was a common format following a Save Soil public event. Every moment that Sadhguru was stationary became a potential opportunity for an engagement. After all, the Save Soil movement was attempting to reach a target of 3.5 billion people—that’s not a small number.
‘You need to pass it to me slower, and don’t look at the camera,’ the instructions continued.
This particular guest was making a video of herself holding a Save Soil placard and then blowing a kiss, which ended with a shot of Sadhguru sitting in the background, mid-conversation with somebody else.
Take one, take two . . . take three . . . Looking around the room at the steadily increasing complexity of the situation, there was something comforting in repeating this simple exercise.
Radhe
Bharatanatyam dancer & performer
Meanwhile, me and a few of the Samskriti performers were on the other side of the venue, about to be interviewed about Project Samskriti2, by Janam TV, a local station. As they set up I noticed the audience was a little larger than I had anticipated. Until then, my main role on the journey had been performing at events and coordinating the other performances. The unfortunate passing of the UAE President (Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) a few days earlier meant that, out of respect, the music and dance performances from Sounds of Isha3 and Project Samskriti had been taken off the schedule. So instead, today we were in ‘interview mode’.
With Janam TV’s audience predominantly Indian diaspora, I had a rough idea of the scale of the viewership, which was a digestible size. But as I was miking up, a large group of invited guests standing to my right began to pull out their phones.
Uh oh.
This group was going to be led in to meet Sadhguru after he had f inished the one-on-one interactions. The plan was for them to also watch his CNBC interview and later share their experience with their followers. I wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan!
As each one started to record me, the audience became international and then global.
I felt comfortable speaking about Project Samskriti, but what if they asked me about the movement? Did I have all the right statistics in my head? Who could end up watching this?
I really hoped that no one would ask me how many microorganisms were in a handful of soil.
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