KATalyst - Bringing Youth and Rural Development Together

7 weeks of work has produced what I like to call KATalyst. This is a project that will be headed by Kalyan Ashram Trust in order to spread awareness about the work that we do within the younger generations. I am really excited about the possibilities that this project can have and the goals that it can reach. Below is a link to the promotional video we have developed over the last 7 weeks which gives a small glimpse of what my project and what KATalyst has meant over the last 7 weeks.

As I said at the SIP samaroop on the 23rd August 2010:

I present to you... KATalyst...

http://vimeo.com/14553539

SIP - Stretching I__________ P__________

In the title, I have to be honest when I say, I was trying to be clever and change the name SIP to sum up what I have felt over the last 7 weeks. I knew stretching was the right word to start with but I couldn’t decide what should come after that. It’s not because my English is terrible, because I have access to a thesaurus, but the truth is that I could have put any word in there and it would have fit.

The last seven weeks have stretched me, not only psychologically, but physically and my personality has seen changes that I never would have dreamt of. We must all now know the incredible stories from our initial Abhyaas Varg and the programme has only gotten more intense, more inspiring and more integrated into my life.

I believe that the last seven weeks have seen me reach heights which I didn’t realise I was able to reach and have enabled me to bring all my skills and attributes to one project. What is more important, is that I have been able to bring these skills to something that I care about so deeply – Sangh and it is only over the last 7 weeks when I have truly lived as a swayamsevak. The quote “1 day shakha, 6 days Sangh work” has become my life. Working every minute of every day for Sangh has helped me to understand the philosophy of this organisation ten times better than I had in the past and I hope that I come out a better karyakarta for it.

From the very beginning I said that I wanted this is be a stepping stone, a starting point from which I am able to dedicate more time and more of my life for Sangh work but never did I realise the true potential of those words until now. In the space of weeks we have each been able to achieve so much, and if we were able to bring that same structure to our lives, we could do so much more.

This is the last week of SIP, but only the start of my life in Sangh and I hope that I can give as much towards our end goal as everybody has given to me over the last seven weeks. I will put everything towards this week’s work but I hope that others are thinking of apply next year, because SIP has changed my life forever and I hope that you find it does the same for you.

Making Your Shakhas Known

I continue to believe that we are where we are because we worked silently all these years. We aim to rid ourselves of ego, and hence we give ourselves the titles "swayemsevaks" - this is an ideal to aim for. However, recently, I have come to think that maybe some videos and press wouldn't be so bad - it would act as a counter to all the bad press Sangh has received over the years and we need the press to be on our side. The reason is that the press informs the society and we want the society to come to trust us so that we can work more efficiently within the society. Hence, I have attached a link for anyone who is interested and has access to After Effects to learn how to make a video. I have done this for my SIP project, and it has worked wonders. Just follow the online tutorials and you're away. Make sure you ask karyekartas in your region before you publish anything.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

Saying "No..."

The past 10 days, we from SIP came to SSV, the most intensive varg we at Sangh in the UK hold for the leadership training of our swayemsevaks. It was a very interesting experience… Over the last 4 weeks, we had been making plans of our own to reach our goal at the end of the 7 weeks, and to be suddenly thrust into a strict regime environment meant that we had to adapt our plans for SIP into the works of SSV.

Our Abhyaas Varg was one of the most intense weekends we have ever faced but we had been separated from the rest of SSV for the two whole days and in that time, we had become outsiders to the world of SSV 2010. We had to create a new platform, upon which we could regain the trust of the other shikshartis, shikshaks, prabandhaks and adhikaris at the varg so that we could become a more effective force at SSV. And so, our initial response was to say “yes” to everything and anything that was asked of us. Over the course of just one day, we had found that we had accumulated a number of responsibilities at SSV including doing prabandhak work, shikshak work and on top of that, responsibility for our own SIP project and mini-projects at SSV.

It wasn’t long before we found that we had overburdened ourselves. Even though we were in the SSV environment, we felt as though there weren’t enough hours in the day, there weren’t enough resources, there wasn’t time to stop and think, and all because of one sentence, “yes, I’ll do it.”

By Wednesday, we began to realise that we couldn’t keep it up and that we had to say “no.” But because of our nature at Sangh, we found it very difficult however, not saying “no” was impeding on the quality of our work. And so over the course of that day, we sat down and analysed what we were capable of and what were not, and from then on, we made a judgement call. Our work became far more efficient and our plans suddenly fell into play with those of SSV. However, saying "no" was still difficult because of what we have been taught.

The core message from this, is that even though we at Sangh believe that we should act on the behalf of society, we should not act blindly. We know what our capabilities are and so we have to act in according to those capabilities and what our intensions are. We must assess every situation in which we are asked to do something, and judge whether it will hinder or assist our progress towards our end goal. If you truly believe that you cannot do something, by simply saying “sorry, but I really can’t do it” you may have just driven you project towards its goal ten fold. Remember, saying “no” is not a bad thing so long as the intentions are good.

Self-Leadership

When we think of the word “leadership”, we automatically picture the scene of a shakha, with a shikshak conducting the shakha with utmost efficiency. However, this weekend, we at SIP discovered a new form of leadership; self-leadership. This form of leadership ensures that you as an individual continue to thrive in any situation by bearing the consequences of your mistakes so that you can improve from them.

We found in Abhyaas Varg 2, that in order to be an effective “self-leader”, you have to put the shields down when you are bombarded with criticism and allow yourself to feel emotions such as disappointment and anger at yourself. At this moment, you will have two choices

1) To give up

2) To step up

If you choose to step up, this will lead to self-improvement and a thirst to strive towards a goal. If we look at any of the great leaders history shows us, we will clearly see a point where they were forced to put down these “shields” and this was, what may be seen as, a realisation point in their lives. The great leaders always went with the second option. And this weekend, I feel as though I have had, tiny although it may be, a realisation point.

This weekend’s Abhyaas Varg was a real eye opener to us all. We realised that in order to protect our pride and ego, we put up barriers such as intellectualisation (where you try to rationalise mistakes you made) when we are criticised. We were regularly bombarded with questions about why we had not delivered on certain parts of our project and why we were unable to perform at a presentation given to adhikaris of the varg. And soon enough we learnt (the hard way) that accepting your mistakes is much better than hiding from them behind reasoning. I was 100% sure that I would not give up, and so I could only step up. If we are able to accept the mistakes we make, then we will be able to learn from them and thus better ourselves to prevent those mistakes from occurring again.

It is in this manner that we can become great karyekartas. For we want to change the society, we must change ourselves to become the ideals to which a benchmark can be set.

Handing Down the Torch

How do we ensure that any work that we do does not go to waste? How do we ensure that we do not become so attached to our work, that we cannot let it go and grow? The answer is to have an exit strategy to whatever work we do with a time frame in which we will exit from that work. This will have two benefits:

1) The karyekarta then has a time period in which he must be as productive as he possibly can be!

2) The karyekarta does not have the opportunity to build an ego (and this will naturally happen if the karyekarta is left in one position for long enough).

However, it is not called an exit strategy if it does not allow somebody else to carry on the work – then it is only an annihilation strategy as all the work done previously will be undone without somebody to look after it. I have noticed that recently, our karyekartas look to uplift their shakhas for the time period they are there but then do not plan for what happens next. Our shakhas may have a glorious two years with incredible sankhyas and bauddhiks under one Mukhya Shikshak and then a lousy 4 years because we forgot to train up new karyekartas in those first two years and in that we forget our aim in shakha.

In SIP one thing I have understood is that unless I plan for the “what happens next?” question then all my work from these 7 weeks will be worthless. And so, I have simply allocated the last week and half of SIP to ensure that my project has a sustainable future.

I believe that this is something that should be emphasised to all karyekartas, because unless we plan far enough into the future, that future will be on our doorstep and we will be left caught of guard and unprepared. As soon as we are appointed to any position within Sangh, we should create an exit strategy in which we try to contemplate how that work will carry on working after we have left, so that throughout that time period we are able to focus on two things:

1) Maximising the time that we have to do the most work for the organisation

2) Finding and training people and deriving methods through which the work can become sustainable so that in the long term, we can carry on going from strength to strength.

I truly believe that those of us that are good organisers set goals for the time period that we are there, but the best organisers look to answer the question “What happens after I’ve done by bit?”

The best laptop just isn't good enough anymore...

Recently, I read the Amar Bharati book on Bahubali, and its immediate impact lead me to realise that the desire to obtain material possessions (Kama) can never be satisfied. I look my past and think, “was I ever entirely happy with whatever I got?” The truth is no.

I remember, at the age of about 6, my pitaji gave me a remote control car and I was ecstatic; over the moon. However, then a week or two passed by and I had forgotten about it. The enthusiasm to play with my toy car had faded and then I wanted the new “Playstation” that had come out! I had a new desire.

And people may say, “Well I’m older now. I have no need to buy all these toys and spoil myself because I am careful with my money.” However, I want to ask you this. How many of you know about the new iphone 4 and how it has a high-resolution screen? How many of you look at the ipad and think, “I need that,” but have no reason to need one.

We all desire something in this world and I do not blame you. We live in a commercial driven market and the producers are literally telling us what we need and we do not. And once we have bought that product, our desires will grow, and soon the best laptop in the world just isn’t good enough anymore.

However, through SIP, I have felt happiness. It was actually on the very first day of the Abhyaas Varg. I’m sure many of you may already know this, but we were thrown into the deep end with SIP. After getting picked up from the station, I was immediately dropped off at somebody’s house, only to find out that this person has a severe learning difficulty. And yet, through those 5 hours, I was able to connect with him, and help him on his way to finding a job, and when he realised his potential, I felt incredible, and not because I have gotten praise for any of it, but because he felt as though he has a place in this world, and I was truly happy for him.

Service to the samaj and the world, is actually what has made me happy over the last two weeks because I feel as though I have a purpose in life, and that isn’t just to go to university, get a job and sit behind a desk all my life.

I encourage all of you readers, to get away from the material possessions you have and give service to those around you, because that is what will truly give you happiness.