A Brief Look at the Tensions, Questions & Sensations Explored
Reflections that have stayed from Agamishaala in 2023
It has been a year of many experimentations and opportunities of pushing the boundaries of what we know. Agamishaala United - our annual convening of members across cohorts - bookended this bit of our learning journey perfectly, leaving us with many new questions and a fresh perspective. With the opportunity of so many present across cohorts, led by Manish Srivastava, we used the time to learn about an inquiry each of us identified with through 4D mapping i.e. what is our highest possibility as a collective in responding to our times.
Stakeholders here included changemakers, people without access, politicians, youth and capitalists/industrialists along with the highest possibility being the field of future which each of us imagined as a just world from our lens. By tuning into the wisdom of our body and its response to space, levels and proximity to other individuals part of the map, the exercise led to interesting insights. For instance, changemakers felt the closest proximity with capitalists as folks invested in stepping into the future; capitalists themselves felt that they were inclined to work with others and willing to offer resources should someone reach out to them; there was a deep discussion on dropping our own internal baggage with regard to the role we ascribe to capitalists and politicians and seeing the potential in them as stakeholders we should engage; youth’s connection to people without access was interestingly blocked by storytellers in the middle who saw themselves as bridges - much to deconstruct here as you can tell.
The tension, questions and sensations we were left with after the 4D Map found expression in the liberating expanse of a blank canvas, yet another medium for the body to communicate. The discovery and exploration of different media to both story-tell and facilitate has been a thread that has been unravelling over the past year. Beginning with the Scribe Documentation of the Ranikhet Shaala with Samarth, the role of art in its many forms and art-based exercises in the work that we do has been an area of excitement, interest and one that holds many possibilities. Samarth guided the group during Shaala United as we dove into the wonderfully messy world of crayons, charcoal, sketchpens, paint - taking us back to a childlike state of play and abandon.
Prof. Ajay Pandey (ED Clinical Programmes, OP Jindal University) described it as “a great way to unwind, while discovering the creative self in drawing and colours without the inhibitions of being judged. The session was especially unique for me as I never used this medium of expression after my school days. It also gave a sense of being pampered and cared for. Drawing and painting together was about bonding and creating something special that has the entire group in it – in colours, creativity, and expressions.”
The state of play and joy of discovery carried over to Anshul Tewari’s (Founder - Youth Ki Awaaz) workshop on building terrariums - a practice and interest that has taught him patience, gratefulness and understanding that change takes nurturing and nourishing. Through the exercise we were beckoned to see and create a self-sustaining ecosystem as we touched and felt each component that made it whole.
“I think it’s important for us to actually build something together (as small and light hearted as a terrarium) before we can activate the collective agency of a group to start initiatives together….on an individual level also I think it went a long way in showing that if you really care about something and nurture it - how attached you get to it!!!” - Smita Gupta, Co-Lead OpenNyAI
Participating collectively did more than create a shared memory of aspirational structures we all are seeking to build, it was a window into our peer's internal and personal processes of connecting dots and grounding - making this exercise particularly special. The terrarium was also evocative to many of the resilience and ingenuity of natural systems, as Ajay Pandey shares -
“In addition to being a fun filled engagement, it also provided an exposure to necessities of a forest and how to sustain it. Symbolically, our terrarium reminds us to invest small individual efforts in securing and sustaining our natural forests.”
Over the Shaalas this year and by the presence of members who bring the voice and voicelessness of the environment to our immediate awareness, there has gradually been a heightened sensitivity to the Earth, the largest soft container that holds our experiences. At the Baevu Agamishaala, adjoining the Bananthimari Reserve Forest in Bangalore, the sounds of the forest with birds and insects identified by Dr. Anish Andheria (CEO, Wildlife Conservation Trust) through the day, we felt the wild truly knock on our door. While at the Ranikhet Agamishaala, many of us felt in unforgettable ways the emotive qualities of the topography and geography of the place. The capaciousness of the mountains, the landscape unfolding around us, corners in the wilderness that beckoned one to come, sit, absorb, contemplate and reflect. There was a feeling of amplification of our thoughts, a protracted sense of pause and eventually a sinking in and oneness with all around.
In one of our later conversations, Lubhyathi Rangarajan (Researcher/Editor - Databases, Article 14) mentioned how post Shaala, her metaphors for the work she does has changed from a warship to now a garden - more gentle and nurturing.
The year had many moments when Community members took up pieces to hold, from bringing in experiences from their past or alternate lives to shoot and document the group's experience of Shaala, to extending their expertise at facilitating Circles to our convenings among many others - each moment offered us a glimpse into their relationship with this learning space and one another.
An important process we began was to frame our shared values as a group (one of our first endeavours as the community crossed 100) - during one of our calls was a round of articulating metaphors that each one of us associated with Shaala. The communal Aangan of a Haveli, an anthill, a large banyan tree, bhoot ke bache (dandelion), an animated college canteen, a patchwork quilt, a rainbow, water and its stillness and movement - these were some of the images and interpretations that emerged. This exchange revealed not just how we see Shaala now but our desires for where it could go and how we could navigate the onward journey.
Metaphors strengthen our connection with what is being analogously described, they are sensory - often accompanied by personal memories. We step into yet another year with this deepened connection and a deepened conviction towards our collective and individual journeys of change.