Gandhifellowship "Community Immersion"

One of the best parts of being a Gandhi fellow is that you get lots of opportunities to go through several self-building processes. One of them is Community Immersion. This is the process that is exhilarating and life-changing. This process can bring you stories that you would tell throughout your life. Now, Imagine a place(a slum or village) which is totally unknown to you a while back and where you will get a chance to stay for a month. Not only, do you have to be there but also engage school, community and community heads so that they can work on the loophole identified in the community, and school and this will happen because you were there. Sometimes, you don't even understand the language people around you speak. I am sure some of you are getting very excited about it and most of you became anxious to some extent and thinking how could I be useful if I don't know their language and can't speak with them, How would I communicate with people around. It's not an easy task! Is It? Ask yourself. Your answer will decide how much you need this fellowship.

निष्पक्ष चुनाव ऐसे !

Till then let's clarify a bit more. You (a fellow) had to be in a community. This community may be a slum or a village depending on your location. If you are in a location like Thane or Maharastra, of course, there is no village around and you have to live in a slum for one month.  Now, for you to stay in a totally new place without any resources could look like a tough task if you are sitting in your home and reading this and eager to join the fellowship. But trust me after joining this fellowship and being a part of the Community Immersion process you will feel the confidence and the change within you. How and what things work in a village and with the villagers. What they wanted and how welcoming they are if you open up yourself for them. They accept you with whole hearts. Trust me, it is totally fair to have a slight discomfort in the warmth of the people who are looking at you and the children who started dreaming after listening to your stories and seeing the dream competing with you.


Now let me tell you my stories of community Immersion bit by bit. It's not possible to write all of my stories in a single piece of a blog but I will try to write as much as it would be ok for you to read.

I want to start my journey with a quote that I came across reading on the wall of the school which says and I quote " Take risks in your life. If you win, you can lead If you lose, you will guide" My journey begins with this quote. I was also quite nervous and anxious as everybody else because it was the first time in the whole 22 years that I was staying somewhere totally new and without the comfort of known people like friends and family.

A clear objective of this process is to understand the problem closely that common villagers had to face just because they do not have the privileges or opportunities that urban people have. This process could also help us understand the perspective of the community and people about the government schools and teachers and vice-versa. It is said usually that when you come back from this process, many of you could already develop grit and resilience. The reason for this is that you keep trying and you achieve what you set for yourself and that no one else has done for you. Your goals, Your grit and your achievements. 

ELECTION KA RESULT AAYA!

One thing I was very clear that I would use storytelling and story listening sessions to develop reading and listening habits in the kids and could also improve the vocabulary and elocution of Hindi words in them. I have experimented this with children in my earlier endeavours and this technique made the learning joyful for both of us. I picked up almost 30 books from the school library on the very first day with the help of the principal of the school. I also had a 30-minute discussion with the principal Shri Vijendra ji and jotted down the to-do list for 30 days. With the help of teachers, I made a class-wise list of the irregular students of the school because my plan was to visit the houses of these students. However, I was not able to do it because of the 20-day school vacation that came in between.

कहानियाँ आमने-सामने 

I went to the houses of some of the school kids and talked to their parents about them. I was facing immense problems understanding the accent of Marwari. It made me more vulnerable in that situation. But responses which I was able to understand are satisfying. Most parents didn't know which of their children were in which class. Though the responses of their mother are sufficiently satisfactory. I also asked what are the things that interest their children, and what are the one or two good habits or behaviour of their children that they wanted to mention. The response that I got from their mother socked me, one said my daughter is 'Sudhha'. explaining the same she said she wouldn't respond even if she gets beaten by me, teachers or someone else.

हमलोग 

There are plenty of good things about community immersion. First, I got to eat delicious mid-day meal. Simple Daal and Roti were so delicious to eat that I can't compare this with anything. The government senior secondary school Sonasar had a really awesome Bhojanmata. She made food for all the teachers and children. Rajendra ji and all the MDM staff were very kind to me. In a whole month, not a single day they forgot to ask me if I had the food or not.

MID-DAY-MEAL(NAMKEEN RICE)

In the evening, after school, we (me and the children of class 4-8) planned a storytelling and activity session. It continued for almost a month and we started with storytelling and eventually performed Nukkad Natak. We read many stories sitting in a circle side by side and also listened to everyone. We learned together how to give respect to a reader and what happens when we listen to things carefully. Do we enjoy more if we involve ourselves in the story and start analysing the situation? We also talked about the story and tried to empathise with the character. That's how we were able to shift easily from the stories to performing in Nukkad Natak.

कहनियों मे  हैं आप!

The house, or should I say the home where I stayed for a month became a home from the house within two days. Chandra Bhai was the person who on the very first interaction, won my heart. He was very generous to me. We had talked for around two and a half hours on the very first interaction. There was a teacher Sujit ji who came in while we were talking about my reason for staying in the village for a month. 

After listening to my big and bigger ideas of change in a village, Sujit ji started having doubts on me. He asked why you had come from a city like Kolkata to serve here (I told him that I am from Asansol clearly but Any city in Bengal is Kolkata for him). He started being suspicious of me. He said to Chandra bhai that these days Villages are also not safe, People from outside come here and get involved in suspicious things. Sooner, He became more rude and aggressive and started saying you may be a liar.

 Nothing like that happens, nobody who is from a good family and from a city would come and stay in a village. Tell me frankly, what is the true reason for you to come to this village and why you wanted to stay in this house. I am sure he was trying to test me that time and that was absolutely fine. If I was there, I would have done the same. But at that time, Iwas scared when Chandra bhai started being protective of me and defended me in front of Sujit ji for saying such harsh words to me.

 I pondered that people like Chandra bhai, who trusted me and was open to welcoming me in his home are the citizen of Village. A person staying in cities would need a lot of courage and security to welcome someone like this. In the night when I was just to hit the hay, I started thinking, have I done the same being in the place of Chandra bhai? Do I have that kind of heart, courage and acceptance for people? Could we expect this kind of generosity from a people at this time? I learnt a lesson, I learnt what is the trueness of truth. I decided the same night that I would also try to be generous to the people, Whatever I would do, I would see Chandra bhai in people.

HOME SWEET HOME

In the home, there were 10 people including me two bhabhi ( Though I call them Didi from the day first), Two Bhaiya, Dadi and four kids Subham, Saurabh, Samar and Goluda. In-home most of my time goes with the kids. Especially with Goluda, as he was the only non-school-going child. I can't forget his constant call for me by GUJI( GURUJI). I took a deep breath as I remembered his sweet memories. A picture of him came across. I felt for him when it was my last day in the village. I know He would miss me and want me for a walk birdwatching early morning.

BAL SANSAD ELECTION

I think, first week remains the test of your grit and then you start liking the people around you, the kids and ambience of the village. After that nothing seems impossible and you will start feeling empowered.

गुजी तोतो ! (Guruji Parrot)

That is it. I had written this small memoir to reverberate my memories of the very first Community Immersion. I had a great respect for what I did for myself through this process. The idea for writing this short bits and pieces of memory is also to reserve it as a digital album and reading this you might get inspired to join the fellowship or visit your or any village.