A Symposium of the Fireflies: Youth Alliance Alumni Gathering 2022

In 2022, Youth Alliance celebrates 11 years of practice - an idea that envisions redefining leadership for youth. It’s a coming-of-age moment. The decade-long journey saw several crossroads and several more moments of hope. Over 750+ young individuals offered their time and trust to become part of what is now called the Youth Alliance Community.  The community over the years has gone through various trials and tribulations ( the pandemic being the most recent), reconvening and withdrawing. There could not have been a more opportune time for this community - which includes - students, professionals, teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, homemakers, health care practitioners, and many many more identities - to ask, what do they want to become as a collective force.

If one studies the sample size of the Youth Alliance community one may find an interesting mix of doers, dreamers, and disruptors, what is more interesting is that there is tolerance and almost child-like curiosity to know the ways and path of the other. If one has to choose a single thing that Youth Alliance could serve in its decade-long journey, consistently, it has to be the offering of a dialogue-based space to youth. The content and approach of these dialogues, their scope, and their range have transformed over the years - and they must - but the commitment to them has remained unshaken.

Another interesting aspect of this dynamic community is the newly recognized age difference - individuals who joined at the beginning of Youth Alliance’s journey at a young age of 18/19 have now had had a decade-long run themselves, of trials and errors, of changing the world and starting with oneself - when these senior alumni interact with the newly joined ones, and of course, there is a wide range in between, the space gets richer. “My intention to be part of the alumni gathering was to interact with people, understand how they’ve built their outer life-how it is aligned with their inner life and how they reconcile the two if it is unaligned,” says Manasi from Pune who recently attended one of Youth Alliance’s flagship programs, Earth-Shastra. In a field such as this, there is space for both - audacious dreaminess and practicality. Some of the softer boundaries of age, knowledge, experience, etc., get smudged. Some find friends, some mentors, some co-travelers, everyone - a connection.

The most recent alumni gathering cum 11-year celebration, called The Fireflies Field, was critical in more ways than one. It took place physically after a hiatus of three years due to the pandemic. Everyone experienced loss at some level, and several got time to reflect on aspects thus far kept at a distance. “I revisited some parts of myself that I had forgotten during the chaos and confusion. The ‘Sewa’ bhawna in me came to the core again and so did the empathy, the space was a reminder” says Geetika from New Delhi. The gathering was a space to process that loss, to feel belonged again, and to crack open questions and enquiries about various systemic threads like - finding one’s north star in the system, understanding electoral politics through a young individual’s eyes, non-violence and its powerful legacy, among others. Collectively, we reflected upon the pain of the various crisis in India and the world while holding the enthusiasm to find creative ways to respond to them. 

Over 80+ individuals from more than 14 states, working across diverse causes, and institutions were part of the gathering. The three-day event saw interactions with leaders like Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, Prakhar Bhartiya, Co-founder of Indian School of Democracy, Apoorva Jalan Gupta, Yoga therapist, and Founder, In.Breath and Rajni Bakshi, journalist, and author. Besides these vigorous sessions avenues for co-learning were created in the form of The Ministry of Disruptive Learning. Several alumni hosted sessions on themes like - health and well-being, experiences of an Indian Muslim girl, Trauma and toxic masculinity, deadlihood and alivelihood, Beyond binaries, Intimate relationships, etc. 

 

At Youth Alliance, a persistent attempt has been to interact with the context of the person as well since no individual lives in a silo. Thus it was important for us when on the third day of the gathering, we were joined by several parents, well-wishers, mentors, and supporters. Joy and festivity of such togetherness were also significant to mark, for which we were joined by the acclaimed singer Shruthi Vishwanath, whose music celebrates the magical intersection of classical, folk, bhakti, and nirguni music. The gathering slowly rose into a crescendo. The three-day gathering of the fireflies that sow seeds of newer connections, enquires, and collaborations has not ended - the churn is on. And the ripples wide. 

 

Amongst many other things - The Fireflies Field created an honest space for youth to claim right on dialogue, on solidarity and a promise to lead an examined and enquiry based life.