The village of life lessons
Deepak Ramola

Project FUEL, an organization that documents human wisdom, has been passing on life lessons of people from all walks of life. From survivors of the Nepal earthquake to children studying under the Taliban in Afghanistan to Syrian refugees seeking integration in Europe, team FUEL celebrates wisdom from across the globe. But there is one project that takes them to the most remote villages on India and allows them to experience the simplistic life of the hills.

The Founder and Artistic Director of Project FUEL, Deepak Ramola, shares “The Wise Wall Project was born with the intent of documenting rural wisdom from communities long-forgotten or migrating from their roots to urban landscapes for better livelihood opportunities. In an attempt to bring social visibility to the village we collect and paint life lessons of the villagers on the walls of their houses. Through personal interviews, conversations and community meet-upsone is able to unearth personal stories along with life experiences, folk tales and stories of the village.”



In 2017, under the first Wise Wall Project, the team painted a 600 years old village called ‘Saur’ that has been declared as a ‘ghost village’ affected by the excessive migration. Only 12 families were left behind in the village. Most houses lie in a dilapidated and abandoned state. This Tehri village now is the first village in the world to have a documented database of life lessons from an entire community exhibited on the exterior of every house wall including the abandoned ones.

After a heart-warming success in Saur, Project FUEL recently executed its second Wise Wall Project in collaboration with The Hans Foundation. Set on the foothills of the Pindari Glacier, Khati is a remote village in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. The village witnesses significant footfall of trekkers on their way to the Pindari, Kafni, and Sunderdunga glaciers. Despite its rich history and culture, the residents of this century-old village often face hardships due to lack of roads, healthcare, education, and electricity.

Deepak teamed up with Poornima Sukumar, wall-artist and founder of the Aravani Art Project – a project that ‘aims to embrace the Transgender community by creating consciousness, well being through art, awareness and social participation’, and some talented artists and spent a month and a half collecting life lessons and painting the walls of the houses in Khati.