Abhyas Varg C: Day 2

After a tiring and immensely hot first day the four of us awoke to what would be the hottest day of the year. As the previous day we began with Safai where Sonal and I tidied the kitchen and with Janak and Avnish clearing out the cellar, followed by prathna and meditation. One particular instance which stuck a chord with me was the reading, which at first was difficult to digest but then Ramji gave an example which made it abundantly clearer. He stated that once mobile phones are charged they work very well but sooner or later the charge fizzles out and thus requires another charge. This was paralleled with ourselves and our drive to complete a project or sangh work. I remembered when I finished my first year of SSV and I was revitalised and raring to go, yet after a while the drive seemed to be overridden with other thoughts, hence this example exemplified the importance of re-energising oneself.

After breakfast and the introduction to a crazy invention which I renamed limarmalade (lime and marmalade) we started on our first activity of the day. The four of us walked along to a nearby park where we met Phil a member of the environmental branch of the council where we were given litter picks and bin bags. Our first impressions were that the park was relatively clean and we wouldn’t find much litter around yet after a few minutes we soon realised how mistaken we were. As soon as we started actively looking for litter we saw just how much rubbish there actually was and by the end of the session all of our bin bags had been full to the brim with waste. As a result of the session I felt gratified although with a tinge of disappointment I had not carried such a simple exercise before. The session apart from giving me sweaty hands also made me think about our society and our projects, that we weren’t to look just for the sofa in the middle of the street but to look deeper below the surface while also challenging the problem at its source such as a kids litter program.

When we came back to the Karyalay we discussed Community, with it being the unification of people through a commonality, yet there are many in our community who are in our blind spots i.e. those who we often ignore or forget such as the postman. We should attempt to engage as many people as possible in our community especially filling those blind spots.

We then went on to make the SIP rules, briefly they are as follows:

1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don’t take criticism personally
3. Don’t make assumptions
4. Always do your best
5. Active listening
6. Stay in contact to share ideas and progress
7. No inhibitions: say what’s on your mind but remember the situation you’re in

‘There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.’ From this quote the question was asked 'What is todays Salt?' which when put in context means what is the issue which faces the community today which shall bring the community together since generally people come together when there is something to fight for. Gandhi-ji’s salt march is an example of this where there was a tax imposed by the British on the production of salt which breached their human rights and thus brought together communities. This particular question seemed to be on my mind for the majority of the day with few answers appearing however this is an aspect which we Sipites shall no doubt consider in depth in our own towns.

We also discussed the concept of Active Listening which is essentially putting yourself in the shoes of the speaker to see the point they are trying to make from their perspective without any of your own personal bias.

After lunch from Hot ‘N’ Spicy which seemed to only have cob on the menu turned out to be rather tasty and fufilling before our next session which was about communication. Here we were put through what approach and what language to use when taking to different audiences about SIP, for example when taking to perspective employers to not use the terminology such as HSS but cut to the facts with the skills you have obtained and success of the project. Also the manner in which you speak is very important since an air of positivity about an experience reveals a lot more than simply speech.

We were then joined, unbeknown to us, by Sachin Nanda, Sudhir and Amritji Chandegra and we were put to the test and questioned about SIP and Sangh beliefs. If you had told us we would have faced such an onsaulght about beliefes we hold close to our heart then we wouldn't have believed how difficult this part of the session would be. Yet it turned out to be one of the most difficult points of SIP thus far but also revealing areas we must improve upon. We fell into a trap of using terminology they were not used to and also maybe reacting to hastily rather than pausing for a moment to think about what we really wanted to say and how it should have been presented to them. It seems sometimes things are felt better than they are articulated.

After this shock to the system we slightly more prepared for the second challenge when Vinod came in to talk to us about a scheme held in Leicester aimed towards youngsters with a political mindset. We then went about explaining Sangh and SIP better than previously yet still falling into some traps. From this session we learned to always be prepared and more importantly to simplyfy our arguments and beliefs and package them in a way which is easier to understand by others.

After all of this we would have been forgiven to think we would have had a nice simple dinner prepared by Dharmesh and Dipvandener but instead we were given the task of making dinner with a budget of £10 for 7 people and including a small aubergine. Such a task didn't seem that difficult to myself since I have been used to this through the experience of University. We ended up creating a feast which included brushetta as a starter with pasta bake as the main and a dessert of rasmala (which was left from saturday by NHSF's own Miten)

After such a hectic day we ended with Dharmesh not eating the food we had lovingly made for him, a recap of the day and looking forward to some well deserved rest.