My Experience at Gramya Manthan: Noel Grewal

Contributor: Noel Grewal

As I write my reflection for Gramya Manthan 2016 I fully realise that I am still recovering from the overwhelming experience of a lifetime that I have just had,I am still recovering from the sudden hits of nostalgia I keep getting at any possible hour of the day.People say don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.I am thrilled that GM happened to me and the ones who were around me for the nine days but,I am sad that it ended,probably ended too soon.It ended right at the moment when it all started to make sense to me,at the very moment when I started to piece all the fragments of the journey together it came to an end.But just when I was sad about the end there came an E-mail inviting the alumina for a residential programme,I must tell you it felt great to read it.

My soul purpose for GM was to have a lot of fun and have experiences that I may not have otherwise,that is how it started at least.By the end the purpose was quite different,not that having fun was not a part of it anymore.

The team during Icebreaker activity.

"One thing that I take back from GM is it’s sharing circles.We are all human and we are social beings, we always have the urge to speak about how we feel but quite often we do not get the right circle to share it in.GM’s sharing circles are the most inclusive and subsume every bit that is showered at it,it has all the variety of emotions there ever can be in one space."

One thing that I repeatedly shared in these circles was a fact that I had realised way too soon into the programme which was,that self-discovery can only be possible with the discovery of the community that one is a part of, therefore,the self and the community goes hand in hand.An ideal that I always believed in was that of teamwork and shared goals which were deeply strengthened through the nine-day rural immersion programme.The way each one of us worked together,I would not say as a team because we all together were much more,we were a family,functioning together at various occasions.Be it the night of the feast,the medical camp,putting up a street play or just putting one’s hand on the back when someone fell apart.Gramya Manthan,rather Youth Alliance is family now,a family in which falling back with no hesitation is the motto.

Friendships for life - Nishi, Noel and Vabhravi

The idea of the programme is ideally understanding the village first hand but,it ends up giving so much more than just that.It firstly gives you friends who become family in just a jiffy secondly,brings together like-minded people of course with their own differences thirdly,it gives you a peak within yourself and lastly,connects you to yourself and the larger network of people located in different geographical locations than you but,have the same human instincts as your very own self and makes you realise “ki sab moh maya hai”I would not say that I have found my purpose in life but,I know for sure that one day I will,we all will and will be proud of it.GM has not made me a saint but,it for sure has put forth very clearly the value and worth of things around me.

There is a lot that I have taken back from this journey the sessions,the guests and friends of youth alliance,the people of the organisation as well as the ones in the village,the tears and the laughter,all this has taught me things that I would not have been able to teach myself and I am sure that this journey with the family of youth alliance has just started and is going to take all of us to places with a lot of adventure and discovery.

May the spirit,light and energy of GRAMYA MANTHAN 2016 be ever present in us all to guide us through this thing called life.