Love loves Love?

Contributor: Divyangna Sharma

Imagine waking up into a world where you are loved,
unconditionally. You are loved irrespective of how you
look, how you talk, earn, make friends, see, hear,
walk, sit, stand. Irrespective of how you choose to
love. I woke up in that world for 20 days. And not just
woke up; lived, laughed, cried, smiled, played and loved.
That place? Sri Ram Ashram.

I heard about Sri Ram Ashram for the very first time at
a conversational platform, Samvaad, organized by Youth
Alliance. Located in Haridwar, the Ashram supports an
orphanage for 68 orphaned children, a
school for 500 children, and a charitable medical
clinic. And that was that.


After Samvaad, I went back to school and to be true,
forgot about the Ashram. I have been working with an
NGO, Teach For India, for the past one year now,
teaching and learning with students from grades 7 and
8. It was in May when the sun planned to turn its heat
knob up and I had nothing planned for the big summer
event called the Summer Vacation. I had been advised
by people to intern in places which had fancy names,
some had beautiful causes while others were known for
their work across cities. I wanted to apply for two
places to intern when Shrutika, a Fellow at Teach For
India told me about the opportunity to manage a summer
camp for the kids at Sri Ram Ashram, Haridwar. And I
just held hands with it.

The planning for the structures, check-in with
volunteers, conversations with the kids at the Ashram,
the entire schedule was planned but one thing wasn't. I
had my inhibitions and suppositions which I held close
to my chest and bones. While traveling to the Ashram
on the 8th of June, I had a lot of questions scrambling,
scratching, jumping up and down the anxiety slide. How
should I be? What all will my limits be when asking a
question? Or what if I say something which might hurt
someone at the Ashram? All the what to dos and
especially, what I should not do?

But once I reached the gates of the Ashram, it just
took two minutes to feel home. I was there. From the
gravel path starting at the main gate where Tau ji
greets you, the Jamun tree laden pathways, the
fragrance of the numerable mango trees mixed with the
breeze from the river Ganga flowing near the Ashram to
the end of the gravel road where I met the first kid at
the Ashram, I was happy.


And from there started a bullet train which I guess
moved a little too fast for me. All the children at the
Ashram, except the ones from ages 0-3, were divided
into different teams, each led by two counselors which
were usually the grade 11 and 12 kids. The children at
the Ashram brainstormed on the name for their
respective teams, designed and painted their own t-
shirts and participated in the various challenges with
all their beautiful spirit and grit.

Different volunteers had signed up for the camp and
hence, the children at the Ashram got the exposure to
doodling, art, and crafts, expressive Mathematics, on-
hands learning with recycled materials, dance sessions,
theatre sessions, stone painting, personality
development sessions and critical thinking sessions.

Apart from what sounds to be a little in the box
schedule, we planned surprise challenges for the kids.
These included Sports Day (where every child was no
less than an athlete), Project Runway, Masterchef
Junior Challenge, Dance championship, theatre projects
with a mix of movie nights and swimming day. From day 1, 
I saw the kids creating actions plans, making
budgets for various challenges, standing up for their
teammates, collaborating with other teams to create
their masterpieces, taking care of the younger ones in
hand while they attended their sessions and love. I saw love.


And while this took the broader, outer frame, each day
was a challenge for me too. From planning the schedule
for each day to the planning of the challenge and sessions
with the volunteers, I didn't know if I was doing
enough, I could not validate myself and I knew at the
end of each day what could have been done better, with
more planning, with just more of something. But
whenever these doubts did come in, the people at the
Ashram would just make them vanish, literally. From
Rashmi Di, who manages the Ashram to Seema Didi,
warden, none would let you feel any less than what you
deserve or I would say more. I take my time knowing and
opening up to people, but the space made me shed one
layer of inhibition after another through their
compassion, empathy and most importantly, by just being.

One of the best places in the Ashram? The kitchen where
we ate the food prepared by the family every day
including fruits, a tall glass of milk and smiles
(there were lots of those  ). There were also times
when Seema didi would sneak me in a different kitchen
and served me with a twist in the kitchen made food!
The kids at the Ashram would openly share their stories
and their Pandora box of ideas, without the hesitation
which I have felt for most of my life, they would feel and
say what they felt without filters and that got me
thinking of how I have let go of many of those things
for a certain fear and how can I welcome it all back
into my summer camp, life, if at all.

The Ashram personifies love for me, where I saw
children not competing but participating together in
teams, where I saw or rather felt empathy and
compassion in actions of each person there, where the
love can be felt just by being around the children, by
seeing them play and also, learning how to actually
play from them.


On the last day, while everyone danced to the tunes of
the DJ, I was in the kitchen, cutting vegetables and
applying ghee to the chappatis, because from inside the
kitchen, I could see them, all at once, the ashram, the
kids laughing and dancing, the people in the kitchen
preparing the meal and I wanted it to last and not be the last.
I cannot express enough gratitude either through words
or an action as to what the Ashram has given me in
terms of space, in terms of love or in terms of each
minute spent there. I am grateful that I could let go
of assumptions which I could let go of and the love
which I could accept.

I know, for now, LOVE LOVES LOVE.

Comments

  1. LOVE Loves Love is such a true statement.But the Love with the preconceived mind has disturbed the quality of Love in the World.I am so happy that ,you experienced Love as Love.

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