CREATING TOGETHER

Through these shared artistic experiences, participants often discover that joy does not belong only to the past or future, but can be experienced deeply in the present moment.
 

This is the spirit of Sadanand, not art as performance or product, but art as presence, companionship, and care, shared across generations. Each session leaves something behind that outlasts the artwork itself: a sense of belonging for elders who are too often left at the margins of community life, and the belief that connection needs no occasion, and that creativity belongs to every stage of life.

A note from the trustee

“Sadanand was born from an ancient value:

Vruddha Vyavahara — the understanding that our elders deserve not only care, but reverence, dignity, and meaningful connection.

​

India was once held together by the warmth of the joint family system, where elders were central to community life. Today, as the pace of life changes and families become more dispersed across cities and continents, many seniors find themselves living in unfamiliar silence and isolation.

The name Sadanand means ‘Joy in the Eternal Present.’ It reminds us that joy is not only a memory of the past or a reward after achievement, but something alive and accessible in this very moment — sometimes through something as simple as picking up a paintbrush.

Sadanand brings young artists into the quiet spaces where our elders live, not merely to engage them, but to create together. What unfolds is an exchange that is deeply organic and heartwarming.

The young artists bring freshness and enthusiasm; the elders offer something rarer — the unhurried wisdom of lives fully lived. Through these encounters, our artists leave transformed, carrying stories, perspectives, and a deeper quality of presence that only time can teach.

​

Our elders, in turn, rediscover something essential: that creative flow has no retirement age, and that the spark of joy never truly fades.

​

Over the past eleven years, through programs across Maharashtra, this quiet revolution of connection has touched hundreds of lives. As the journey continues into new communities, Sadanand remains a promise that no elder should feel unseen, unheard, or unloved.”

​

Through Sadanand, the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation continues to affirm the role of the arts in nurturing compassion, belonging, intergenerational dialogue, and emotional wellbeing within society.

Gauri Dahanukar Mehta

Trustee, PDAF