Gramya Manthan: There is a possibility in the backstage

Contributor: Nageshewar Panchal
Translated by: Anshika Nirajhan

Read the Original Reflection Here.

There is a couplet of shakeel badayun

“mujhe aa gaya yakeen sa ki yahi hai meri manzil

Sar-e-raah jab kisi ne mujhe dafatan pukara”

Which says “whenever someone called me repeatedly on a way, I got a belief that it is my destination?”

Gramya Manthan is that place which has been in my heart for some previous months and it was appealing me often. I wanted to nag “jhootha maai tharo baap,jhootha sakal parivaar,jhootha kaatat chhati” I wanted to sing in my unturned voice “kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisaar, kisi ka dard mil sake to le udhar, jeena isi ka naam hai.”which says that if I can sacrifice myself for someone’s smile, if I can borrow someone’s grief, this is something I address as a life. I wanted to be listened absorbingly without putting my hand on the Geeta. When I wish to see I want to see a change, when I wish to feel I want to feel empathy, when I wish to hear I want to hear without judging anything, there should be no place for hesitations even in my monotony.

Home away from Home

So dear, I have reached Kanpur Central at a distance of 748 km, by stepping up into a general bogie of Avadh express. Finding a house, far apart from our house, is a sign that possibility of “Basudhaiv Kutumbakam (the whole world is family)” is still there. The eleven people of a team, who have reached to Prakhar bhaiya’s room, converted his house into an office. Then the process, in which two dozen people were going to take a part, starts. It is like a practical laboratory where first the iron is heated and by using this iron a hammer is to be formed, so that jeweler can be aware of the heat of the furnace. I was there in search of some questions, as Ghalib has said

"Kya farz hai ki sab ko mile ek sa jawab

Aao na hum bhi sair karein koh-e-tur ki"

Which means” why people should have same answers, let us visit ‘koh-e-toor’ and have different answers.”

It is clear in the beginning that the promises are the biggest reason for betrayal and expectations are the real guilty of desires. So, it is a circle that has an aim to say that we are there where you are and everyone else is also there. If you are thinking that there will flow a Ganga from the Himalaya, it is not possible, you have to do efforts yourself. Until your nails are submerged into it, until your feet freeze in its water and until you like the smell of sweat, till then the difference between you and them is same as the difference between us and Bachhendri Pal who has reached to the Everest. It is not a formal journey rather it is continuous. So if no one is there then walk alone…walk alone.

How many times have we tried to see life as a whole by keeping isolation aside? The meaning of “100-gram life” has been changing and distorting among different levels and conditions. During Last three months, my eyes have left tangled into love, breakup, emotion, and job. Besides solving the problems, I kept on covering them, I ignored all the scenes which used to make me uncomfortable. I kept on denying the reality so that I can live by assuming that everything is fine. There were many good people in my life, but how many times I remembered them!! Life is like a mirror drawn on a page, we should go through it taking some time because generally, we are not aware of ourselves.

Circle of trust

Sometimes it happens that you wore a pair of shoes or slippers which does not fit you; it feels tight and leaves a wound there on your feet. How often we step into someone else’s shoes in such a way so that we can feel their pain!! It is empathy to feel someone else’s pain by keeping ourselves in their situation and it is beyond the term sympathy. Sympathy makes a person weak while empathy makes strong. Without understanding the seriousness of those situations and the feeling of those people it is almost impossible to understand them.

Welcoming and being welcomed

There is a village at a distance of 75 km from Kanpur and a ‘Barat Shala’ where host welcomes their guests. The biggest reality is that we don’t know how we are helping to them for a better chance but we are surely aware of the fact that their participation is helpful for our changes. Suppose one night, you are going to enter in a village for the first time and there is no one known to you, may be you are afraid somewhere inside of your heart, there is no faith in your eyes, stars are looking into your eyes and Firefly are blinking. Where during looking at stars Shashank think about the thing that one side there is no electricity in village, but on the other side there is open and beautiful sky stud with stars, where a girl from Mumbai hesitates to ask for food according to her diet and there is possibility that by avoiding ‘Gandhi ji’s spectacles of cleanliness mission’, you sit somewhere with mug for potty and have not been able to feel fresh completely. Anyway, its opposite is too possible. A morning after such night is a new morning for everyone.

This world is same as the story of soup narrated by Tejal di. Soup is being prepared and interesting thing is that ball is always on your side. Now the question is that what you can do for the betterment of this soup. You have the challenge to choose one among red and blue, which finger will you hold? If soup gets burned completely and you keep watching like a dumb person, then what’s your responsibility? What is there in your eyes? Leave onion and boreholes, I will rush to help even with salt.

The thin line among service, fixing and help have occupied a large blank space. Serving people is different from helping people. When you get involved in service, not only your strengths but your weaknesses also gets involved in service. Rechal adds further that the core belief of service makes all of us connected, even our happiness and sorrows too. Service makes us feel complete and makes us able to realize its power.

The human rail in the village

It is about a small village Paliya, where a nine years old kid can question your energy. Between seven of the morning and five of the evening, you will find him running before yourself. When after getting tired you take your food, and now loaded with dullness you are not even thinking about standing up, meanwhile he will ask that let us go for eating unripe mangoes? Besides of going to that mango tree which is somehow far from the place you are, you try to take some rest, after some time he comes with his friends and puts four or five unripe mangoes in your hand. Welcomeness of Priya and Priyanka in that village will surprise you. There is a place like a hut; you will find masterji talking to people. Pots of villagers, food of chhotu bhaiya and that water of hand pump near the temple!!!

Sudha and Eshwar, young of such kind, that you cannot remain without getting affected by them. Living by following theory of zero waste, having a dream of reviving a pond, they reach a village Gangadeen Nevada of Kanpur district from Chennai. Their eyes got wet for water. There is simplicity as well as seriousness in their talks. Their voice will take you towards construction and their silence will take you in the direction of salvation. Looking the pond in two different conditions and dropping the waste bomb into different water resources, was not possible without them.

Pond Restoration with Sudha and Eshwar

How much unaware are we all from our actions? Do we know that it consumes 140 liters water in making a cup of coffee and 8000 liters in making a pair of shoes? We are very comfortable in accepting ourselves at the point where we are wrong. Can we see our weaknesses in the same way, as we see our strengths? It’s the time to think about questions except thinking about answers only. There is a couplet of Jaun Elia

“koi mujh tak pahuch nahi pata

Itna aasan hai pata mera”

Which says “my address is so simple, why no one reaches to me!!”

Team at the backstage

Prakhar bhaiya with his mouth organ and love, Tejal di who plays jambe very well and have a good sense of understanding, voice coming out from Kalinga when Shashank plays it and his different good thoughts, Tafari played by Mallika, puzzled movie maker, dancing hands of Raksha, smile of Sudha, stories of Ishwar, Rangoli of Akanksha and talks of Sandhya, sleep and food and efforts of Anisha have put a foundation, where the 26 participants can see themselves as more sprouted or in a better way than before. It is a lengthy process to convert sprouts into a tree, but the beginning is necessary.

Personally, I feel “GRAMYA MANTHAN same as writing a poem because for composing a poem it is necessary to go through it and it suits well for Gramya Manthan too.Its impact is so deep that you cannot make them flow like a liquid. It is that happiness which is same as I felt first time when I was able to make a “perfect roti”. It is that drop of tear which I wanted to shed years ago”

Anyway there is a song in background while I am writing this, you too can listen

“utho kabaddi kabaddi khele sarhadon par

Jo aaye ab ke to lautkar phir na jaaye koi

In lakeero ko zameen par hi rahne do

Dilon me na utaro”

Which says” let us play kabaddi on borders, and this time if someone comes, don’t let them go, leave these boundaries on ground, don’t take those to our hearts”