Exploration in Life Space, Life Roles & Identity

Introduction:
Navalveerayatan was inaugurated in 2000 near the city of Pune. Nestled amidst mountains overlooking a lake, Navalveerayatan is guided by the belief that individual change leads to societal change. By focusing on inner and personal development, Navalveerayatan seeks to advance Veerayatans overall global visions by starting with each individual. Amidst rolling green hills and open countryside, Veerayatan has established a site near Pune, Maharashtra, called Navalveerayatan. Located on a plateau overlooking a lake, Navalveerayatan provides a serene location for spiritual learning, inner development and team building. Veerayatan runs residential courses of various durations, from one day to three months. There are also special courses for young women, families and business executives. Through modern techniques of instruction, workshops and discussion, Navalveerayatan focuses on self-understanding and inner peace. Examples of courses run are Setu- where participants learn about stress management, presentation giving, positive attitude towards work and ways to make it more enjoyable and how to create a better work life balance. Other courses teach meditation, yoga, new age health therapies and studies of Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. Tea/milk and a light food item are provided for breakfast. Two nutritious, filling vegetarian meals are provided daily on campus free of charge. They are composed of the Indian staple foods of rotli (chapatis), shaak (curried vegetables), bhaat (rice), daar (lentil soup), and chaas (buttermilk). During free time, volunteers may go on hikes in the countryside and can enjoy boating in the lake at the base of the hill. Volunteers are also free to partake in many of the classes offered by Navalveerayatan, including yoga, meditation, and classes on various religions and languages. They provide us with really good food.

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The Exploring Life Space, Role and Identity (ELRI) Lab was an experience which changed the way I used to think, feel about others and myself. This lab was designed to help us understand the true image of ourselves. It was a 6-day workshop, which was structured by the co-ordinators of the lab. Only basic amenities where given to us, there was no modern equipments like T.V., Internet. We were almost disconnected from the outside world. Naval Veerayatan was a place at the top surrounded by water from three sides. ELRI is an experience based learning lab. It is designed on the assumptions that a student requires time, space and a person with whom the student can reflect on the journey of his life; the critical and impactful events of his life which have shaped his life so far; the social, cultural and family codlings of role taking and the pulls of the student's own identity to give shape to his life. The lab facilitates to explore students' life experiences from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to the present and discover that there are multiple meanings to each of the experiences. The aim is to discover freedom from these meanings which are anchored in residues of past experiences and to find relevant and wished for ways of relating to the world. As such, the ELRI focuses on the acculturation processes, societal values of role taking, family socialization process of desirable roles and the individual's own experiences and meanings of growing up. We left from FLAME campus in two buses at around 7:30am on the 30th of November and reached Naval Veerayatan at around twelve, as soon as we arrived, we were allotted rooms and were asked to move with our respective luggage to the allotted rooms, we did not get enough time to rest and freshen up. We all gathered for lunch, all of us were busy discussing about the lab sessions that would be beginning in a few minutes from then. We wondered how the experience would turn out to be and what was awaiting us in those sessions. The ELRI creates a space, a setting and a time for the student to ask some basic philosophical questions as to Who am I? What is the purpose and meaning of life? How do I relate to the world and people? How do I give shape to my own life and what do I offer to the world? The focus is on relating to the self and relating to the world. There are role plays, social and cultural psycho-dramas, story creation and storytelling. The learning takes place under the trees. Students from FSB2 & FSC1 were divided into eight small groups of thirteen to fourteen students in each group. Each group had a facilitator assigned, who gave direction to the sessions conducted by them. Each day had four sessions in a day of the small group and at nights, there was community session, where all the students took part in an activity that was designed for each day.

My group was headed by Prof. Indira Parikh and consisted of Mohammed Oovais, Aditya Ponnapa, Kinnari Thakker, Siddharth Vyas, Vipin Bhansel, Ankita Das,
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Riddhee Gosar, Deepika Ranade , Aayush Narsaria, Meghna Agarwal and Apurv Doshi

There was an introduction period where we all introduced ourselves. Then by 5:30pm, we were done with all the members of the group our facilitator told us that we did not have a community session that day so we were all happy as we were all tired after the early morning journey and then we dispersed. Rest of the day was spent in meeting up with friends, who were part of other groups and exploring the place around Aayush joined in late because he had to go for a interview but we all filled him in with the details. From the next day we started our sessions in our small groups, at the beginning we were doing nothing but looking at each other and trying to figure out what next. After lunch the session started and this time I think almost everyone was clear what the objective of the lab was. The session progressed, all the members started sharing their problems, and experiences in life, the entire group actively participated. We discussed similar issues if we had experienced any, the facilitator also help the members to identify why they were the way they were and what instances in their lives has caused the change. The entire environment around was filled with heavy emotions, personally I did not have much to share as most of the things in my life was simple. There were many people who has heavy baggage from the past and that was reflecting very visibly in their present. They were all suggested different exercises to overcome those baggage. I was surprised to see how these activities actually helped the people, they felt the change and I personally could see the change in many people, or more so I could see them making an effort to move on. I started thinking had and wondering if I had any such instances in my life which has had a huge impact on me or if there was anything that I have not been able to let go of, and I could recollect nothing I could not even remember any one instance in which I was hurt very deeply. I began to feel that either something was wrong with me or it could be that I was just fine. Initially I used to think that everyone did the same but after listening to what the others were saying I realized that people carry a lot of bitterness from the past with them and these instances actually answer the question to the why they behave in the way they behave. Some people have the problem of trusting others or some people always detest authority etc. In the community session we were dived into groups again and given a sentence by Prof. Parikh who had bought along her sisters. We had to fill in this sentence and make a poem out of it. This was the most hilarious task because everyone was having fun writing some stupid one liner.

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The session was ending and all of us were leaving the room for the last time with the feeling that there was a change that each one of us had experienced or at least I had experienced. We had a last community session before we left. Two students from each group were asked to participate in the last community session. A magic pot in which the students had to sacrifice the feelings and attitudes that they wanted to get rid of. The pot accepted those feelings and gave back positivity and gifts that they could carry back with them. I was honoured to be part of it. I feel proud that Prof. Indira Parikh chose me and Riddhee. Finally, the lab had ended and we all left the place and started for campus. I made lot of friends and got to know them better. Our group of friends sat for a session at late night. We shared our experience with each other. We shared what we thought of the other person. The bond in our group has increased than before. I left with lot of burden in my head. There were many things to say that I still wanted to share in the group sessions. I feel really blessed that what issues I was going through were miniature than the rest of the group. I hope my friends from the group have a happy life ahead of them.

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