Footprints on the Mountainside

I am currently involved with an organization - Satark Nagrik Sangathan that works with awareness of social issues and rights in the eyes of the law. My role is that of a facilitator and working with the people rather than the content of the issues they work with. The idea is to empower the people to believe in themselves and their right to have things well in their world and ask for attention as they need it.

Vinita, who leads this effort is a strong and passionate lady with a strong belief in all people having a platform for their concerns to be heard. She has invested a great deal of herself into this effort to make things possible for these groups.

The first meeting I went to was at Siddh Nagar on the 28th of June 2008. This group is mostly women who have come together to collectively figure out ways of dealing with the difficulties they face in their lives.

This meeting was unlike their earlier meetings what with me and a friend Shridhar, from the Navnirman Samaj Vikas Kendra bringing in elements of personal sharing and experiences and emotions. Our objective was for the women to relate with each other and experience their co-members as people with concerns live in them, like themselves. To see that each of them had her own strenghts and talents and that collectively, they held powerful resources that they could choose to merge in the interests of the well being of the entire group.

The meeting began informally with members trickling in, and curiosity about Shridhar and myself as new people Vinita had brought in. We simply went ahead with it and it led to a group sharing of the one time each member in the group had done something that was very difficult for them which led them to recognize unnoticed strengths in them. The instances varied from challenges in personal objectives to standing in front of a rioting mob attacking the family and brought into stark recognition the kind of courage and values that were alive in the group and the tremendous amount of commitment we were capable of as a group toward something we believed in.

To talk of statistics…. Vinita had some legal information she wanted to share with the group, but the impact of the sharing was so intense that she went with the flow and simply allowed it the time it needed, including overshooting the time of the meeting.

I felt an instant connection with the group and I feel committed to it. I will be working more with them in the future and will share here our journey toward empowerment as a group as it unfolds.

APJ Kalam never fails to amaze me with the depth of his understanding, insights, and the caring that comes through so clearly in his words. This article from him is something I truly respect and hold close to my heart, rather than in high esteem. Esteem is cerebral, this truly touches me, and inspires me to see things in a more meaningful way.

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This is an interesting life I have. Just as I begin to believe things are sorted and settled, a new twist comes up. Just as I begin thinking of myself as average, I see how I am exceptional. This time is no different.

I had gone to attend the Phase B of my professional development programme as a T-Group facilitator with the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science, and expected to have a steep learning curve full of struggle and difficulties and discovering things that are not nice about myself to have to deal with and work through to emerge victorious and was prepared for all the melodrama. I was surprised to find myself flowing with the learning, discovering new horizons of learning and awareness.

I am now in the internship that precedes the acceptance by the board members into the professional membership and faculty at ISABS.

Isabs is an important part of my life now. I find that I believe in the process of development through T-Groups and the ISABS methodology more than any individual facilitator there, and I would like to become a certified trainer with them.

I have finally taken my first step in that direction when I completed my “Phase A” which is the first part of their professional development programme which leads to the certification of behavioural trainers through the T-Group methodology. This is the only kind of certification available for T-Groups in India.

The programme was full of insights and shifts in myself, as well as the way I see things. Strangely, the more I accept that my emotions and experiences are the property of the group and a part of our learning, the more I can acknowledge them and look at them freely and learn from them.

This Phase A comprises of two labs of the usual length and was far more eventful for me than all my previous labs. Part of this is also because I was far more ready to understand my behaviours and experiment with shifts that could lead to changes I desired. This readiness and acceptance of what I was, as I was led to me flowing and changing freely with very little stress.

I may or may not eventually write about my learnings, but they are an inseparable part of me now. I am living by them.