Gramya Manthan Experience

Contributor: Akshita, Participant - Gramya Manthan 2013

There was a way of being that I had heard of but wanted to see for myself. Where people did that hat made them truly happy, where they were free to be themselves, where they toiled all day to clean roads and minds and stayed up nights by soothing guitars and mosquitoes planning out the next day. Where there hearts cried with pain for all they saw but their lives were aglow with laughter that stemmed from a deeper understanding. And where no electricity was never an issue because the day tired you so much that all the night required was air to breathe and a place to rest your head. Gramya Manthan brought me to that life. Eating aaloo for 11 days straight never felt better.  

A very peculiar remark I once chanced upon was that as city children surrounded by the privileges and opportunities that we are surrounded with, we tend to feel a greater connect with far off lands like the US than with our own rural heartland. This seemed odd at the moment for how could we, the informed, awakened youth of India, seeking change, be disconnected from our own object of change? But even a cursory reflection and research proved this to be a naive presumption. For even if we want to do something we are ignorant as to the how, where, when and for whom? For change presupposes an understanding of that what requires change.  It is this unwarranted disconnect with their own country that a lot of my charged, motivated immediate habitat is crippled by and it is this disconnect that I believe Youth Alliance attempts to modify through the Gramya Manthan Program. Suffice to say, in my case at least, their attempts have proven successful. 

Structured thoughtfully, the program does help you develop a basic understanding of what our nation is and what it needs to become that what it ought to be. Functionally, it accomplishes this through tools such as self- exploration, empathy and relearning to create a more long lasting effect. I believe, the core lies in the understanding that there is a basic humanity that resides within each one of us and through proper guidance, that humanity can appealed to to arrive at solutions from within. Since these solutions are not imposed upon any participants, the effects are varied for each one of them and prove to be automatically more long lasting. 

As I am essentially an abstract writer, I shall attempt to be less generic now. According to my limited understanding, there are four simultaneous aspects to the program. Since change essentially begins from within the self, the program starts by building a deeper connect with and understanding of the self. This includes spending time within yourself and being comfortable enough to share part of that self, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ with the other participants. It also helps you accept your current circumstances for as any recovering junkie will attest, acceptance is an essential step. It is through this understanding that emotions like empathy are touched upon to truly prepare one for what’s to come. the second part takes you to the reality of the country. Here you are merely an observer. You must try and absorb as much of your surroundings as you can. To whatever extent possible, you must become part of this reality. Spend a day with a family, cook food with them, draw water from the hand pump, spend hours lazing around in the midday sun chatting about the neighbour’s new chaarpaai, wash the floors and the clothes and the dishes, take a dump in the fields, eat some more and sleep at 9 because it’s too dark and humid to do much else. And do all this as an equal for it is by living as them that you’ll understand what about ‘them’, if anything at all, you wish to modify. And if you have successfully done this, then no doubt your mind is boggled by questions of all kinds like, ‘I feel for them, I really do. But what now? Where do we go from here?’ It is here that the third aspect comes in, You are introduced to experienced thinkers and actors of the field who have gone somewhere and achieved something. I cannot over exaggerate the impact a good mentor can have on your life. And meeting many such mentors helps provide clarity and reason to the ongoing cyclone of ‘listless lostness’ in your brain. For practicality brings your feet to the ground and experience points them in the right direction. Be it reformists who take up ‘non-issues’ and do wonders with them, artists that bring ‘smiles’ to faces through their vocation and allow each one of us to be the change or rational practitioners that shake our foundations regarding the importance of social work, all these mentors have something to offer. And if eventually you are able to think think ‘green’ even for a day then the fourth part becomes slightly easier. This is where you actually think about developing solutions. Where you chalk out a short term and long term plan and start thinking about implementing it. And it is in the last few days that you do that what you were expecting to do on the first day itself. And it is on these last few days that you realize the importance of the first three aspects in shaping this final essential step.

There is a spark in each one of us. This program helps you light fire to it. How long you sustain that fire is up to you.

In 30 seconds, if I may, it (Gramya Manthan) helped me connect to myself and my country, got me to pace myself, brought slightly more clarity of thought to my still extremely blurry vision, taught me the importance of basic communication, forced me to think more practically and less emotionally (still working on that) and taught me that every little bit truly counts.

Oh also, I met great people and made great friends and had moments i’ll keep with me for as long as memory assists. Moments like kofte.

Akshita Singhal

Akshita is pursuing her graduation from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She wants to travel and further her social objective. Post that she wants to give law a shot.