Gramya Manthan: Day1 (Samarth, GM'13)
It’s 11.30 at night. With a pleasant playlist on, at corner of a dark room, with over dozen other mates sleeping aside, I’m blogging. I’m in Kanpur. But surprisingly, for the very first time, not at IIT campus. I’m on-board a rural immersion programme, Gramya Manthan, conducted by Youth Alliance of India, which spans three villages in Kanpur Dehat. Day 1 just came to an end, and I had so much to learn from fellow change-agents, that I thought to put down key highlights of the day out here.
I can label the day as a certain kind of orientation session, before embarking on an exciting and mysterious journey. Mysterious, for I have never been to rural India. Apart from getting to know some really interesting set of people, coming from various parts of the country(Kerala, Gujarat, Assam, Delhi, UP, MP and so), which adds value to oneself, the organizing team held some activities for us:
1. Life Mapping Session : So, we’re supposed to map our life on a sheet of paper, after reflecting as to who we are today, and what shaped us so. Consequently, we were to share the same with others. It was quite an interesting reflective exercise to think deep. It was not an ordinary self-introspection thing that one performs in a hostel dorm, at crunch times. It was something more. And so we did. Telling my life story to in front of strangers, with a few hours of know-how, is not Samarth. But it happened. I really don’ know if that made sense to others, thanks to my poor art of storytelling. But as a listener, I was actually inspired by stories of fellow mates. I could find a small part of me in every other story, hence bridging the stranger gap, as had been the purpose. Post that session, I could feel a better connect with others. Amazing. If you happen to be in such a group, whatever might be the purpose, I seriously recommend you to give this activity a shot.
2. I’ll call the second one as IKEA Effect in Action. The Ikea effect is a cognitive bias where labor enhances affection for its results. Wow, they just demonstrated it live. Basically, it was interpreting this Doha of Kabir :
“Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye Jo Munn Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye”
So, everyone was supposed to takes sides if they agreed with these two lines of poetry, disagreed, or were not so sure(Confused set! That included me). The task was for the people who were in favor or against, to convince the confused guys to take their side. Both parties conveyed their perspective. Lets really not get into the details of what it means, and various interpretations that people came up with, but rather, understand the purpose of the same. While the arguments were on, everyone had an option to switch, or stay where the had been. Just a handful shifted upon listening to arguments of others. And there it laid, a set of change-agents, who are going to stay together for over a week, with a common objective, having drifted polarities. Though its good to have people with varying opinions, but as IKEA effect says, we tend to give a significant weight to our own ideas, and have a tendency to stick to it. We, in a way, are really not ready to accept a different thought frame. Sad, but true. This gets utter scary when you got to work in a group, and is not the right approach to ponder over solutions to societal problems.
There had been loads of action throughout the day, but I think I’ll stop here. The real journey starts the day after. Excitement levels high. You may wish me luck! :)
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