Beginnings in ONUS, this New Year

Contributor: Shashank

In the city of Delhi, this little seed of community, of empathy, of oneness, of service was planted and is being planted. It roots are gradually growing, whether we know it or not. ONUS, time and again brings us back to Gandhi Ashram, Delhi. Amidst all hussle-bussle of a city wanting to run faster, of its people wanting more, there lies this pious place that seems to have have mastered the art of sauntering. Life inside the gate of Gandhi Ashram still exhibits more of nature, it still flows in a natural flow, birds can be heard chirping, toads can be heard calling, leaving can be heard dancing and if you listen keenly you can hear the wind and water and the tunes of maitri and compassion. At this sacred place, this new year we gathered again to embark on a deeper journey through ONUS.

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On the Ninth of January, it was chilly winters in North India and temperatures in Gandhi Ashram would have been a notch higher than the rest of Delhi. But it had more warmth. We began with playing Sitolia and Cricket. Sports gave expression to our feelings for the community that were lingering for 2 months. Since November 7th, it was time for exams followed by winter vacations, hence we waited to be together again. December was also the time for each one of us to do undertake an expedition that we feel called for. 

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At 6 pm, we sat down in our familiar circle. It was warm to begin with, it was soaked in compassion, it was something each one of us missed even when we enjoyed on our expeditions. Aditya journeyed with several other DU students into North-East India, he went to the farthest state of Tripura through Gyanodaya; Stanzin felt inspired as he attended Teach For India's InspirED conference even as he welcomed his parents at his home and felt depressed about exam results; Yash was moved by love at Ahmedabad in Hand, Head, Heart Retreat there; Ria rejoiced her favourite idli, dosa and sambhar after a long period of having puri, rajma, chawal. She took NJPC to her family, talked to her grandmother about the taboo around menstruation, she also worked on her idea of doing a festival for her Art & Architecture Society for T-3; Kritienjoyed a silent time in December meeting her friends; Ashita felt more connected with Nature and is loving her home making period thoroughly; Suraj missed ONUS too much, he went through old blogs, messages and whatsapps; Jushya was soaked in Birthday mood and danced a lot. Prachi retreated back to her alone time, read books and watched movies; Divas did a nation-wide 8000kms journey, Jagriti Yatra to ignite entrepreneurial spirit in him and around him; Rachit spent his holidays and his birthday in the remotest villages in Vishampur (Jharkhand); Ajay Sharma traveled in Maharashtra and MP villages assessing impact for TERI LaBL campaign; Vacations for Prakhar was time for realizations & falling back to fundamentals as he enjoyed his married life in Kanpur & Goa; Vaibhav spent time absorbing what happened in#5DaysofDignity and immersing in Yoga; Shashank has quite an interesting time in Vipassana (10-day meditation) at Jaipur; Sudha went for MovedbyLove retreat at Ahmedabad and deeply connected to the 'why' of our work. Vibhuti enjoyed a good lazy chutti at home and felt glad about her last 6 months because she lived the life she ever wanted; and Ambika spent qulaity time at home and felt relaxed and happy. 

The circle ended in exactly 2 hours and it was wished for, as if each member took responsibility of time and made it happen without friction or authority. Later, ONUS members owned up the circle a little more as the team let them take some responsibilities of Gadget Box, Food, Time, Technology and decoration. Later in the evening, we sat around a bonfire and spent some careless time to just be. The next morning started with the song, Uth Jaag Musaafir Bhor Hui at 6.30 am. We were to embark on an important journey of education and transformation. ONUS now is to become a space to support each intention that emerges in its members. To give it an academic touch, in Trimester-3 (Studentpreneurship) of ONUS, members shall realize their intentions of exploration, experiment and enterprise, translate into humble actions with values of inner transformation. This morning evokes excitement in some, inspiration in others. Later we together were introduced to the purpose and framework of ONUS Trimester-3 by Shashank. Paramjeet Ji again touched us with delicious food and Ajay S and Stanzin made sure they were there to add their touch of love. 

We shifted our seating spaces to open air to have our bodies make some Vitamin D. Not only Vitamin D, our bodies and our beings would have had a good dose​ ofoxytocin too. We spend those 2 hours with Anshul and his inspiring story of YouthkiAwaaz. It brought out the significance of having pure intentions in our journey, ideas can be picked up on the way. Also the values of dissent and discourse in our society came out very well. At that moment, each one of us would have wanted to be a blogger, was it not?

After this, we were asked a simple but profound question, Who am I? The circle facilitated by Prakhar had a set of questions that moved us to reflect keenly about things that lie deep underneath our beings. Several sessions of small group sharing happened. We attempted to deepen our connection with our fellow mates and ourselves. It also connected to our intentions for Trimester-3. This video, In Journey concluded the circle with a feeling of being awed, of being confused, of feeling a little more complete. After a couple of hours of heavy work of digging inside, all we needed was some good food and chilling out time. So was it. Snacks, tea, coffee and cricket. 

When we came back to the circle we were to express our noble intentions, deepen it, be convinced about it and get closer to make them happen. For this every ONUS member has unconditional support and care of the support group that composes of YA core team members. if you looked at the intentions, they were all pervasive from working for environment, to culture/heritage to learning guitar, to getting into a good B-school, to facilitating travelling with a purpose, from quality of education to dance to writing. From then on, till late night, support groups sat to understand the intentions. And then we were on for a surprise! Through the Sky Lanterns we offered our humble intentions to the universe and we were grateful :)

Next morning began with expressing gratitude to people within and outside the circle. Gratitude make things alive, its like we keep living our lives or trudging along without noticing who is making small things happen, without seeing the beauty or gifts of nature, without telling people that we love them. And then one moment we decide to be grateful and express gratitude. And it adds magic to everyone/everything around. It adds love to a family, it adds faith to a few stones, it adds optimism to the world and suddenly the world becomes a more beautiful place to be in. After another delicious meal made with love, we sat down in our support groups to delve deeper about why we wish to do what we wish to do. That circle concluded with a song, Planting seeds. We repeated together the chorus and felt its power. 

Whatever grows will grow
Whatever dies will die
Whatever works will work
Whatever flies will fly
Whatever fails will fail
What's meant to soar will soar
I am planting seeds, nothing more.

Said the song and we repeated. And again. And again. And somewhere in the middle it came to us, yes! we are planting seeds, nothing more. Every action, experiment, initiative, in every way we are planting a seeds. And whether we know it or not, the roots are growing. With these thoughts, we welcomed Geetanjali Didi to be us in the circle. 3 years ago, through Kat-Katha took birth, with their they are transforming the brothels on GB Road in Delhi. For the next 2 hours as Geetanjali Didi spoke each one of us in the circle remained stunned. She kept reiterating that in her journey, she has expressed one or the other intention with pure heart and the universe has responded each time. Some thing has happened and it came true. She shared that once, she and Ritu thought that what if on one day the entire business on GB Road could come to a halt and they could just celebrate and live. Later they turned the idea down thinking that's impossible. A few months later, this intention manifested itself on August 15th in the form of Kat-kalrav, when hundreds of people celebrated life on the GB Road. Wow! With Geetanjali Didi, Divya and Isha two volunteers of Kat-katha also came, and it was also very touching to listen to them. 

And later we played cricket, sitolia, musical chair; Geetanjali Didi stayed back to spend time with us. And it was merry dance happening on that afternoon of January 11th, metaphorically. After this, the merry dance happened literally too. On South Indian beats and songs, a lot of us danced. And onlookers could well call us madsters. ;) It was also time to conclude the residential. It was time for the final circle of ONUS New Year Residential 2015. 

After working out a few timelines issues, we did final sharing circle, each one sharing what moved them during the past 2 days or so. Some wise men said, Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. This New Year we made a humble beginnings to pay attention to long dormant intentions and be generous to our own selves. For some of us at core team of YA, it was giving purest attention to our journey mates and being present with them, and with us. 

Some pictures from the residential, are linked here. We are grateful to you, who paid attention to our humble effort by reading this piece.