Gramya Manthan 2013 - Shortest EVER summary of those 10 best days of my life!

Gramya Manthan is about Rural Immersion and intends to give us a first hand experience of village life - people, resources, ecosystem, mindset, problems, and possible rays of hope!
It's entirely managed by youngsters, and the oldest person in the organizing team was 28 years old. Still the team did extraordinary work and the experience we 25 participants had was incredible beyond words can convey!

Initial days involved meeting up with role models-cum-mentors, which included Anshu Gupta and Ravi Gulati, along with networking amongst ourselves. This was the extraordinary part as all of us got to share so much about our lives. It was like the lifeline session exemplified multifold.

After being divided into three groups, each group was allotted a village according to their choice of interest - Education, Livelihood or Sanitation. Each member was to spend 1.5 days totally with a family in the village.
I was in Ganga Deen Nevada village for livelihood, where there is NO ELECTRICITY! Can't share how it feels to walk in total darkness amidst hefty buffaloes, gutter openings, mud and gobar everywhere! But the love and welcome by the family was incredible. Auntyji made me laugh and I felt like it's my second home.

Back to business, we spent the rest 5 days surveying for data, brainstorming on the possibilities, TALKING to people, sharing the possibilities with them, making them join hands and come together. It's one thing to WRITE all this here, and it's totally another to actually LIVE it out there. With villagers laughing at us, it was tough to stay strong and focused, but we became a part of the DEHAT and lived their pain with them.

I had tears in my eyes when I saw the photos on the last day. I had never been to a village, and when people asked me "Aap kis gaon ke hain?" I used to say that I've always lived in a city. But yesterday someone asked me the same question and I replied "Ganga Deen Nevada" :-)

07/07/2013 - Andreana to Klarke

"Klarke

I do believe in miracles, and it is pure destiny that we met. But falling in love with you was not destiny or by chance, it was not coincidence. It was a story, it was a process, something that was created. Something that grew in my heart - the love for you. Oh love! The Andreana that you meet everyday, the smile that you see on her face, her contradictory innocence and mischief is something even she is discovering for the first time.
Because you bring her closer, closer to herself, like removing layers from her, layers from her soul. Laughing with you stops time and gives a joy which stirs the soul. The sound of your laughter tickles her from inside and makes her feel - "Is he for real?"
I fell for you because I love your laughter. It makes me optimistic. The way you gently look at me, with such acceptance! I just want to sleep on your lap, while you look at me - under your gaze, curled up with your arms. You make me feel so safe. I want to be like a child walking behind you holding your shirt, walking into the dark, fearlessly. I would follow everything you say without asking any questions.
I fell for you because you make me feel protected. Not because you are Macho and muscular (Okay maybe a little :P) but because you are responsible, intelligent and GOOD!
I fell for you because you are GOOD. You bring goodness as you glow with the GOOD.
I fell for your principles and your values. Because you 'think' before doing something. You are sensitive and not just random. You are fearless and strong.
The way that you touch me. I would give anything to fell your hands around my waist right now. My heart skips a beat every time! When you clutch my hands tightly, I want to feel you so strong so that my existence diminishes. To feel your presence so strong that it stays, becomes a part of me, by eroding a little of me to keep you. Kissing you, tasting you is like solving a mystery. Maybe I will know you; know your soul better if I am involved. And yes, celebration, as you said!
Sweetheart, I have fallen in love in these days, and would still keep falling deeper and deeper with time.
I don't want to be scared and don't want you to be scared from our relationship - from us, from me! Because that is what we both are really afraid of. And obviously the uncertainty of the future.
But I know nothing can go wrong between us. Nothing negative can evolve out of pure, pure love. Just trust.
So don't be scared. :-)

Andreana"

Gramya Manthan - The Beginning

So my first Shatabdi ride, and I was supposed to be all excited about it.

I was. But the reason was not Shatabdi. It was the program I was going to be a part of for the next 10 days.

Gramya Manthan started with a ride in the Ambulance from the station to the RSS School were we were supposed to spend two days. Ambulance? So that they don't spend extra on hiring a cab. Interesting.

We meet up the volunteers, get a short interview recorded, have dinner and take rest for the day, which was quite a difficult task considering the level of anxiety in everyone around.

Day 2, we wake up to expectations of meeting mentors and beginning with the program right away. But the team had other plans. We start the day with dividing people in random groups, having activities which made the child come alive in all of us, pumped us up and gave us a push to open up and share, which was the first level of achievement for all of us.

Next to come was a 'timeline' exercise, called the LifeMap in Gramya Manthan. Give people 10 minutes to think about your life and draw a graph of ups and downs and you'll literally have sweat all over your forehead. It was yet another experience sharing about our lives, and as we sat in a group of 15 people each, a personal space was created and shared in such a pure way that everyone could reflect and be open about their own lives.

The best part about Gramya Manthan so far are the energizers! We're made to do crazy activities so that we don't sleep, and when we're in the peak of energy, the next activity begins.

So Day 2 Activity 2 was dedicated to a Kabir doha which states that he went into the world for searching the bad there, and he could not find any bad in others. Then he searched the bad inside, and he realized his bad was the biggest among everyone else.
The activity was to distribute people in three groups - one group with people who agree to the Doha, second with people who disagree and a third 'confused' group. The 'Yes' group stands on a side, the 'No' on the other with the confused people in between them. Now the 'Yes' and 'No' groups were asked to win over the confused people and the group who convinces most confused people would win. It was shocking to see that in a group of such intellectuals, such differences in opinion could exist. This was the learning that we got - each and everyone of us have different perspectives and opinions, and everyone thinks his is the right opinion, but then it's just a matter of perspective.

We also played Volleyboll, which was quite fun-filled. It rained briefly which was a big bonus as the weather became beautiful and cold enough to calm down our 'roasted' nerves!

Gramya Manthan has been an interesting journey so far and I'm sure with so much more to see, I would have a lot to share with you :-)

Elishia

Elishia looks at you innocently and smiles, and suddenly life glows bright as the sparkle in her eyes infects you deep inside, and you’re too moved in that instant to absorb the intensity of her vibrations all at once, so you smile back a silly smile and you know how impossible it is to look away. But then she looks away herself, and the painful pleasure that dawns upon you makes you realize the fallacy of conceptual beauty you’ve known till that point of time. That how a delicate smile could disillusion age-old concepts of love and compassion established by the wise and the old, and establish forth a new meaning behind the youthfulness of the beauty in those eyes, thus imparting a beautiful meaning to beauty itself.

She looks back at you, and amidst deep silence you say so much of the unspoken love, of how badly you could give up anything just for her to keep looking in your eyes like that. But just in that moment, she would look away, close her eyes and smile, and you ask yourself if your thoughts were too loud, for the redness of her lips and the pink of her cheeks say much more than the richest of literature could ever even dream to convey. You want to believe that she feels you, that she loves the way you hold her hand and tell her how beautifully carved her fingers are, and how every entity of His creation could envy the softness of her skin, and much more, of the softness within.

And while you’re sitting down looking at her, wishing you could freeze that moment and make it stay like that forever and maybe even more, the hard unemotional reality strikes you painfully and you know she would have to leave you now, leave you alone on those steps where every moment would make you look up at Him and wish you lived that lifetime again and again just to be with her for that one single moment. And so you’d promise yourself to live every remaining quantum of time with her to the fullest, to softly caress her, to envelop her in your love compassionate and intense. But she would suddenly feel it and run so away far, hiding her spectacular aura behind the frame of her colourful spectacles, unintentionally softening more against you, in a way touching you strongly inside in a strangely painful manner which makes you smile on the outside but burn deep down. The lips would bid goodbye, but impossible it would be for the spirit to detach. But just then, a realization dawns upon you as you embrace her for the last time - a part of your stays with her and a part of her stays with you. Forever.

Surrender. Let it Go. Give it up.

Passport - April 1st 2013
GMAT - April 4th 2013
HBS 2+2 - April 8th 2013

Rejected - April 22nd 2013 9:34 PM

"He can dream a bigger dream for me, for you, than you can ever dream for yourself. When you've worked as hard, done as much, and tried, and strived, and given, and plead, and bargained, and hoped.
Surrender.
When there is all that you can do, and there is nothing left for you to do.
Give it up.
Give it up to that thing that is greater than yourself. And let it then become a  part of the flow."

29-03-2013

HE
Living that moment of purest contradiction, she stood there looking deep into my eyes. Her soft hair traced the untouched curve of her face, her smile revealed the tempting softness of her lips. Impossible it is to stay away, to not look at her, to lock that temptation, which makes me wish I could touch those lips, feel her as she was my sketch - a part of me.

SHE
There he stood in front of me as we mounted the skies and beheld the serene the enamoring stillness of the spectacle that welcomed us.
The breeze playing with my disheveled hair as I stared in the depth of his eyes and felt the rhythm of life that filled his entire being with a subtle touch...In that moment the absolute seemed close!

The Child Inside Me

Growing up is tough. But then who has a choice?
I still remember how excited I used to be as a kid, watching young men all suited up, returning from their jobs, meanwhile I fantasized about the day when I would have my own job, and could buy my own Video games, chocolates and Watch movies without bugging Mum and Papa.
Guess what. The time has come!

But something is wrong. Yes, I don't want to buy Video games, chocolates or movie tickets. I'm concerned about GPA, about Recommendations, about 10, 15, 20 LPA jobs, about the dreaded Office coffee, the Boss' grim expressions, and blah blah...but that's not what this blog is about.

This blog is about keeping the kid inside you alive. Learning to be crazy, carefree, silly and idiotic at times! Yes, it won't hurt at all! Follow your instinct, maybe help someone in need, fall in love, fall out of love, and do that over and over again till you know the real meaning of being loved - just like you learnt how to ride a cycle after multiple cycles of 'drive-then-fall-then-drive-then-fall'.

I know I loved being a kid. Being pampered by Mum and Papa. And then beaten up too :D
And I know I cannot bring those times back. But at times, I can travel non-existent wormholes and shed those layers and layers of sophistication and maturity. I can keep myself alive :)

It's lovely being a kid. To discover the little Superman, or the Barbie doll inside you. And to keep it alive. Forever.

Photographs - With my little cousin in Bareilly - 2011 :)

- K