Local Wisdom Quotes

One of India's major blessings is the rich store of experience and knowledge available in the rural and tribal areas.

I've been impressed, over the last 15 years, with how often the somewhat conspiratorial comments of Haitian villagers have been proven to be correct when the historical record is probed carefully.

One the most reliable resources we have in Africa are grandmothers. Yes, grandmothers. And I thought, grandmothers are in every community. There are hundreds of them. And they don't leave their communities in search of greener pastures... the only time they leave is when they go to a greener pasture called heaven.

In my father's language: "To create something out of nothing." That possibility exists in India even in old-world sectors like agriculture.

When I read about how 200 people died on a polar expedition, I wonder why they didn't get to know the Inuit people who were around and presumably know something about surviving in the Arctic after living there for thousands of years. Talking to people is a survival mechanism.

If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is good.

The books that I'm writing, you can write them only when you're amongst your people. You're not going to find it on the Internet. You're not going to hear it there.

Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.

All wisdom does not reside in Delhi.