Daal-Baati-Churma: Swaraj University Newsletter | March — October 2019
A center piece created to welcome our new cohort (K10) to express through art
We entered our 10th year of existence and being in the world and yet it seems like a fresh beginning with a clean slate almost akin to new leaves, flowers and fruits on an old tree.
We welcomed our new cohort (drum-rolls!) — K10, whom we lovingly call the Kittens. 18 new khojis have joined us from different parts of India and this year with double the number of female learners than males. It is indeed a big transition from the first cohort when the female-male ratio was 1:6 respectively. Please shower your good wishes and blessings for these courageous souls and their journeys to unfold.
This year also saw addition of two new team members who co-incidentally are Aagazis (alumni) and have been part of the team earlier as well. Suyash Saboo, from K4 cohort, who has worked as a facilitator with Swaraj previously, joined us back in July. Along with him, Shraddha, from K7, stepped into a new role of a facilitator from her earlier role of an intern. Having both of them in the team brings in richness in terms of skills, experience and diversity. We welcome them and look forward to our learning together.
Last month brought us a sad and painful news of passing away of a dear friend Svargiya Vijay Ubale (K1), who was one of the first khojis to join Swaraj back in 2010. He was a dalit-rights’ activist, organic farming enthusiast and a hardcore adventurer who like an elder brother, played an integral part in breaking and transforming our notions and biases on caste and class and introducing us (K1 cohort) with realities we hardly knew about. He was also actively involved in Kisan Swaraj Yatra, travelling across rural & urban India listening to stories of farmers and actively spreading them. Our sincere prayers and condolences to his family and our own selves to help us acknowledge and come to terms with this sudden loss, and our heartfelt homage to the voice of dissent and playfulness in him. May he continue to spread joy, laughter, and peanuts (which he dearly loved) wherever he goes!
While the khoji program continues to be dynamic and emergent, this experiential year, we have three aspects at the centre of our action, to help us stay rooted. First is our strong intention of synthesizing Aagazi (alumnus) energy and one of the beautiful outcome has been the tremendous support we received for hosting admission orientations from 30 Aagazis (alumni) and Khojis. It was relentless backing and solidarity shown by these khojis for supporting in tasks like — hosting orientations, taking care of logistics on campus, designing and curating posters, handling emails and technical end, hosting mini-orientations in different cities, reaching out to people individually and sharing about Swaraj University on social media. We are celebrating this collective effort.
We also intend to introduce an Aagazi buddy system for current cohort that would support peer groups (Sangha) in mentorship ideation, navigate personal and community challenges, and ignite accountability towards their self-designed learning spirit.
Second aspect at the centre is to continue building and fostering support structures for khojis with emotional, mental and addiction challenges. Every year, as we witness the youth around, the numbers are on the rise, closing on to a subtle epidemic of sorts. We have, in past one year, collaborated with a de-addiction center in Pune which supports us in counselling and addiction concerns. Simultaneously, we have also been in touch with counselors and psychologists to support the khojis when needed. We have also built mechanisms and processes within the khoji meet that empowers khojis to be emotionally stable, strong and navigate the chaos within. A friend, dance movement practitioner and a counselor Arpita Bohra would be coming every meet this year to support us with the same. As we continue to build this system, we invite your ideas, support and network to strengthen it as it continues to be challenging and the level has been ever escalating.
And, the third aspect helping us rooted is team’s commitment towards engaging with waste generated on campus. Each team member has had varied inclinations towards campus based work and thus sometimes, the action reaches only a shallow level. Thus, as a team, we figured out that waste & its management can be an interesting avenue for team work, capacity building and harnessing our energies together.
Meanwhile, last few months have also presented us with challenging times as well, mostly on operational front. The campus which was once secluded and away from the hustle and bustle of the city is now vibrating with sounds of rollers, trucks and other heavy vehicles due to highway construction on an adjacent road. It presents us with a grave concern as silence and nature connect are two important facets to the beauty of Swaraj program and both of these are threatened by this. In addition to it, there was also a huge storm in April which led to heavy damage to some of our existing living spaces. We had a few aagazi (alumnus) volunteers for rebuilding these and also for raising funds to take care of the loss. However, there are several damaged and aged buildings that still needs repair.
We are also dearly looking for a stable logistics manager for the campus to help us take care of campus logistics, maintenance and workshops.
This compilation is a collective work by many khojis, Aagazis (alumni) and the team. We invite you to join in and experience following themes of our reflections & offerings more closely.
In this compilation of articles, you will find -
• Stories & Updates from current khoji cohorts
• Interesting new initiatives, interventions and collaborations
• Personal reflections by Aagazis (Alumni)
• Events & Alliances updates @ Swaraj
Happy reading!
STORIES & UPDATES FROM CURRENT KHOJI COHORTS
K10 khojis are in their first mentorships or self-designed learning time. They are all in their initial phase and some of them are exploring quite interesting avenues. Mahima has joined a phase of Ekta Praishad’s Jai Jagat 2020 march for Peace, travelling rural Madhya Pradesh as of now and meeting locals with an intention to exploring the possibilities of ground-level change making. The foot-march intends to reach Geneva next year. Kabir is mentoring under Timarpur (Delhi) constituency’s MLA Pankaj Pushkar learning navigation of policy-making, political lobbying and volunteering for pre-election background work. Sanchita is working at Terrassen Cafe, Hyderabad co-handling the kitchen, managing the cafe, and learning the intricacies involved in running a cafe.
Where’s my money, Honey? — Insights from a money experiment
Written by Anurup Gulabani
Khojis at Nashik meet involved in an activity.
Inspired by the experimental energy at 2069: Youth Fest and LSuC, Year 2 facilitator Rahul Hasija designed an elaborate game for K8 (8th cohort) to help demystify relationship with money. It was a money-exchange exercise to open up conscious and sub-conscious fears, desires and inhibitions associated with money. It involved participants to use 7 currency notes of different denominations from their own pockets and transact as per rules and regulations defined by a ‘dummy’ bank and a ‘regulatory body for currency’. The games of the rule were simple, two participants would come face to face to acquire the opponent’s currency note. This could be done, if the selected denomination (out of the 7) is greater than the one selected by the opponent (both, doing so discretely). Each acquisition resulted in one transaction. The idea was to transact at least 12 times and maximize the total amount at hand and to subtly observe intricacies behind our negotiations
The game became more interesting as participants started to adopt strategies and the regulatory body introduced new rules to the game. The experiment invited real conflict among participants, making some unusual behaviour shifts in Khojis as they reflected back on their actions. Akash started like a ‘king’ with a higher denomination note, only to be left in surprise by Pragya who after having innocently lost a small sum of money took over one of his big currency note strategically. Snehal, in spite of owing bank a huge chunk of money was only concerned with money he lost from his personal pocket. Ankit, in spite on a losing spree, risked money like no one else. Bhupender, who partially knew the intricacies of the game, played it very safely.
Anita Borkar, our host at Abhivyakti summarized it as a Sociological experiment with socio-political, economic and psychological aspects to it affecting our behaviors in unforeseen ways. We also discussed subtleties of our behaviors and emotions that arose during the game
Camaraderie at Café Meal Tree
Written by Anurup Gulabani
Café Meal Tree is a step towards a dream to create awareness around health, food and building community taken by Snehal, the devoted chef from K8 cohort.
Snehal, who hails from Gujarat always dreamt of his own food business and his dream manifested in reality in the year 2 of the program when, after three different cuisines & cafe related mentorships, he started cafe Meal Tree in his home town Anand. The cafe, in last 6 months has turned out to be an exciting learning and experimental hub not just for Snehal, but for a lot of other khojis who have volunteered and participated in this live learning project. In their last khoji meet, all of K8 took some time and spent a few days setting-up the kitchen and the seating area. Soon enough, Mut-hok, Selva and Surinder (from K9) designed the interiors of the space, keeping in mind the principles of sustainability. This was done by re-purposing used plywood. Ayushi (from K9) beautified the space by putting up signboards using the same wood. They also rearranged the furniture, made lamp-shades from refurbished material and extended the décor outside the cafe to attract more people to the café from the main street.
Nikshit (from K9) also volunteered later and looked after accounts, invited and engaged new customers. He also performed magic for the customers and this skill of his didn’t just help to entertain customers, but also helped to build everlasting relationships with many. A team-member Suyash hosted a Flow-Game to have intimate and important conversations. ‘Patang Open Mic’, an event-organizing initiative has partnered with the café to be an event partner for several events and there are some events coming up soon.
“It is a book-chai café, where everyone feels welcomed. They come as a friend and leave as a family,” says Snehal. To further this experiment, Snehal is more than happy to invite volunteers and co-creators who can come with a friendly mindset, engage, collaborate and become a member of the community for life. If this sounds fun and something you or someone you know would want to engage, feel free to contact Snehal at 9662501038.
Learning Journey to Coimbatore
Written by Sarumathi & Shraddha
K10 khojis embarked on a learning journey to Coimbatore, the Southernmost ever in the history of Swaraj for a learning journey. It was designed and facilitated by Samyuktha (K6), Shraddha (K7) and Selva (K9).
For many of them, it was the longest they have ever traveled. In Coimbatore, khojis explored the city and its surrounding in various ways — There were group visits/ explorations to Mango Education (experience based education centre), Isha (a well-known spiritual centre), Yellow Train (an alternative school), Community Library by Udhaya, Kokila’s Farmhouse, Gaia Grid (a food forest) and Perur temple.
There were also individual/smaller group explorations to Nature Cure Sadhana Farm, Thangavelu Ayya Farm, Vidhyarpana Montessori School and Bio Basics. There were dedicated two days of self-designed learning period when Khojis connected with some local mentors to learn hands-on with stippling art, experienced an Open Mic for the first time, had in-depth conversations on education and the effect of screen timing on kids, and other exciting subjects like parenting, educating through theatre, eco-architecture, psychology, photography, gender, Gift Culture, mapping and history of Coimbatore.
Some of the other exciting parts of learning journey were learning to utter names of places in a new language, to figure out routes to new places, understanding a part of history of Coimbatore from Udhaya (who runs a community library), learning about food forest and how Harsh raised Gaia Grid (a food forest) with only volunteers and no other team members; focusing on our breath and its importance with Kokila, thoughtful and mindful architecture of almost 1500 year old perur temple hosted by Samyuktha, and relation of food, hunger and health at Sadhna Farms.
They also took part in a Pride Parade that was happening after a decade in Coimbatore. Witnessing the solidarity, celebrating the love and new friendships that were formed during the parade gave one of a kind experience and created new opportunities for Khojis to add value through their gifts to some current projects happening in the city.
Milan-Aagaz Ceremony Week — Highlights from our initiation gathering
Written by Rahul Hasija, Suyash Saboo
Khojis from K8 with some team members right after the completion of initiation ceremony.
K8 celebrated their initiation ceremony Naya Aagaz in September amidst their family members and Aagazi (alumni) family. Following two videos share a glimpse into their two years journey at Swaraj.
Here’s what some of them are up to:
Pragya continues to host self-health programs and fellowships at Sehatvan, Bhopal supporting patients as well as keen medicine-free life learners.
Akash meanwhile has taken a 6-months break from his family business of infrastructure buildingcontracts to learn practices and processes of mindfulness, health and healing. He is also looking at alternative to infrastructural procedures that can support Earth-friendly constructions.
Ankit was selected for Dream-a-Dream Fellowship that involves him inhosting capacity building workshops for Government school teachers. Simultaneously, he is also involved in hosting Play for Peace events, planning of 2nd Youth Fest 2069 and also taking care of Swapathgami events at Swaraj University’s campus.
Siddharth has moved his base from Rajkot to Auroville where he along with some friends are building and strengthening Contact Improvisation Indian edition. He has been actively hosting Contact Improvisation gatherings across India and he shared how immersing in this art helped him heal his chronic constipation and sinus issues.
Pratik is taking forward his interest of wildlife photography through independent photo-shoots. Check some of his beautiful creations at https://theinsta-stalker.com/instagram/pratik_zurmure. His last mentorship with a self-trained naturalist Vikram at Life Meets the Lens, Himachal Pradesh, really inspired him to learn and practice the art of organizing wildlife collectibles.
This year at Milan, we also experimented with an idea of bringing playfulness to conversations on Love and Relationships, both of which are facets of life youth grapple with the most. A lot of energy is restrained, blocked and drained if there isn’t a flow in these two. We took this Milan as an opportunity to open a safe space to dialogue, experiment and explore dimensions of love and relationships for two days. Nitin, co-founder of Swaraj University and someone whom we lovingly call as a ‘Love Guru’, led this space on day one by initiating a small group dialogue using a picture-image tool. It acted as a thread to bring people into conversations. Next day, it was followed by three parallel sessions to engage in different aspects of love. First was a dialogue on ‘Romantic love and risks we take’. Second was a dialogue on ‘Dynamics of love and hate within a family’. Third was an exploration of love and sexuality through dance and movement. It brought immense ease for a lot of participants to openly talk about love and its challenges. For some, who found it challenging to communicate reached out to Nitin quite informally to seek navigation. However, at the end, I also feel we played it safe. Some more risks could have been taken to reach out to our edges of uncertainty and deep vulnerabilities.
Dungarpur Meet
Written by Selva Vinayagam
Under a huge Mahua tree, Megha (khoji from Tamil Nadu) sharing her experiences of learning permaculture, fundraising and her time with family and friends.
In September, a part of K9’s meet was hosted at Hunarshala’s campus in Dungarpur. Hunarshala (also know as Creativity Adda) is an initiative that runs after-school sessions for children at a government school in a tribal village called Surata in Dungarpur to develop and refine their skills. We stayed at their beautiful abode on a hillock that had a serene view of the village. ‘Dungar’ in local language means ‘hills’. The purpose was to engage with tribal community, interact with kids and experience a different lifestyle. Additionally, khojis also took time to share their learning and experiences of mentorships with each other and cooked meals together.
As the week unfolded, we got involved with the village mainly in three ways. Initially, we all engaged with children in their regular activities. Later, khojis shared their skills of telling stories, singing, yoga, knitting, making a hammock, building a bamboo bench and painting a wall. We also skated, played Frisbee and did free-style painting with them.
Second, most of the khojis went for a home-stay which turned out to be a beautiful experience. Everyone received generous and warm hosting by locals which were accompanied by conversations with them about their lives and culture. People were touched by their simplicity and hospitality. At some places, an entire family was staying in just one single room (with their cattle) and yet khojis were welcomed and served well.
And the last was hosting a musical event with a local folk band on the last night of our stay. They brought locally-made musical instruments and sang songs sung by ascetics and saints of that region. Khojis also joined in singing spiritual songs of Kabir and other Sufi saints. After every couple of songs a conversation on the meanings of the song emerged which was as beautiful to understand as it was to cherish the music. The event started around 10 PM with their traditional rituals and continued till 3 AM.
Who said long train journeys are boring?
Train journeys and situations have never been so actively engaged with in the history of Swaraj as they were this year by two different cohorts. Khojis from two different cohorts travelled for their respective learning journeys, they playfully embraced the emergence and something beautiful was created.
Surinder from K9, who was travelling to Orissa with his cohort tells, “After a day’s travel, I was not very happy about the food we got served in the train. So I walked till the pantry car and asked them if there was something to eat. I made good friends with the chef and he cooked something special for me impromptu.” Surinder told the chef that he wasn’t very happy with the food served otherwise and checked if it was possible to cook their own food. It indeed was possible. When other khojis heard that they could cook their own food on the train, there was excitement in the air. They decided that they would cook Pulaav (a type of fried rice) and started collecting orders and money from co-passengers in their train coach. They had a great time cooking and made delightful connections with the pantry staff. The chef was very happy and offered some extra food to them. The chef also mentioned that they could have done this earlier also for all the other meals.
The K10 cohort, on the other hand, took the opportunity to spread awareness and their understanding on the plastic waste issue. In their first khoji meet on Swaraj’s campus, they had prepared a street play on the issue. While they were on their way to Coimbatore, they heard their train was going to halt for 40 minutes at Chittaurgarh station. Somebody simply said that they should do the street play at the station and, on the spur of the moment, everybody got ready to do it.
At 11 PM in the night, there was quite an audience that got surrounded and watched the play attentively. In fact, as the play progressed the audience joined the performance through dialogue. The performers were thrilled because this was their first performance in front of an unknown audience and they were barely prepared for it. Some of them were even acting for the first time.
SOME INTERESTING NEW INITIATIVES, INTERVENTIONS & COLLABORATIONS BY AAGAZIS (ALUMNI)
Dhanak
Dhanak, an entrepreneurial initiative by Asawari from K6, provides sustainable ideas, recipes, and products such as tooth powder, herbal soaps, bath powder, dish powder, natural lip balm etc. that tap into age-old practices, using natural ingredients, that are good for us as well as are in harmony with nature. It is now around 6 months into this journey, the basic business has taken shape and has found its rhythm. She’s currently into researching online about Aromatherapy, learning and experimenting with the creation of new products which she enjoys the most. With this current Ikigai, she feels anchored and a sense of content by the end of everyday.
To see Dhanak’s product offerings and to place your order please visit their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/DhanakNaturals.
Conscious Connections
Arti, from K5, along with her friend Sonal initiated Conscious Connections. The initiative helps people celebrate ceremonies and every milestone of their lives in a manner that’s meaningful to everyone involved. In the course of 9 months and after 3 projects, they involved themselves in finding the significance of every ceremony, rite and ritual performed across different regions and cultures to understand the sacredness in the moments of togetherness.
They created experiences for people in the name of large gatherings to help them live and experience what they call, the sacred moments of Conscious Connections. These gatherings happened in cities like Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi and have been a great hit. Both of them are now excited about the projects they got through these gatherings and will be working on them for the next 3 months.
Home of Heroes Course by Sanjeev
Through his new initiative Combat Heroes India or CHI, Sanjeev (K7 khoji) hosted his first 45-days residential course called “Home of Heroes” which ended in October. The course was about experiencing expression through various kinds of arts, activities and practices — like — visual arts, Filipino martial arts, Tai Chi, nature cure, yoga, meditation, games, etc. Sanjeev and six other facilitators led the course and teachings.
The interesting part is that four other Aagaazis (alumni) — Madhav, Sangita, Navedita and Anurag were also part of the course, all in different ways. Madhav (K6 khoji) who was a participant in the course, said that he found all that he wanted packaged in one single course. Sangita (K6 khoji) joined in to lead the kitchen and cooking. This was her first ever experience of handling a kitchen by herself and participants appreciated her for the work she did. She made some mistakes but was keen on learning. Navedita (K7 khoji) joined the course as a facilitator and led an expressive arts session. She has also supported a lot in bringing clarity on Sanjeev’s ‘CHI’ project. Anurag (K8 khoji) came to help Sanjeev with operations and logistics during the course, he also participated in the course whenever he could. He was a great support for Sanjeev during the course.
Sanjeev conceptualized CHI when he was in the program at Swaraj. “The vague idea of CHI started coming when I was in the 1st year at Swaraj and it was all about mixing my two passions — martial arts and arts,” says Sanjeev. He also expresses his gratitude for his experience at Swaraj, “I would like to acknowledge and appreciate Swaraj and all of Swaraj team for giving us life values, perspective and lenses to see the world and inner self. After this course my respect for Swaraj has increased because of so many reasons and one of them is that it makes the process effortless and healthy.”
What Is It Like To “Really” Celebrate Ganpati? — Karishma’s efforts to ignite consciousness in Festivals
“You are the hero, you are looking for,” remembers Karishma from K7 cohort, something she once heard from Manish (co-founder, Swaraj University).
Karishma lives in Nagpur in a colony that collectively celebrates 10 days of Ganpati (a festival in India). Every year during this festival, she would crib about living in a colony that was NOT conscious about the environment and wished to spread awareness in the surroundings. This time since she was home and had time on her hands, she grabbed the opportunity to step-up!
What followed was a heartfelt time spent together. They laughed, cried, enjoyed, connected, spoke about their latent feelings and desires, listened to each other and understood each other and environmental issues a little more.
Karishma led everyone to create an eco-friendly decoration of the pandal and the stage. 35 to 40 people came together to decorate the space alone. She directed small plays on issues that women and children were going through in the colony. The issues were related to women and gender, body shaming, money and sexual abuse. They also did a ramp walk for people from different age groups and made sure that whatever people wear or sport is coming from their own wardrobes. Nothing was bought from outside.
Karishma says, “Why Lokmanya Tilak ji started it (celebrating Ganpati) was to bring people together, to address things and to raise awareness. I think that intention was met and I feel fulfilled.”
Mut-hok (K9) is from a Khasi tribal village in Shillong. Before coming to Swaraj he has served in big hotels in Chattisgarh and Daman. He wished to go back to his life back in his village, understand deeply the culture and wisdom of their tribe, engage with young people and live there alongside his family and friends.
Earlier this year, Mut-hok shared his dream of building and running a learning space in his village. The dream stayed with him as he explored his interest of eco-buildings in his mentorships. Selva (K9), from Tamil Nadu, saw Mut-hok’s sincerity towards his dream and joined him to bring more clarity on what he wants to do.
In September, Mut-hok and Selva presented for the first time about the learning space and what they are going to do. For now, both of them have started working on building a structure in the village for running the center. They have also hosted a workshop for young people to help them understand what they are wishing to do with the center and have spread the about the learning center. The villagers have given a very appreciative and supportive response. For those wanting to support financially or by volunteering Mut-hok is willing and happy to host.
Pravallika from K9 cohort started her own knitting and crochet initiative and has started taking orders for beanies, headbands and mufflers. Before starting this initiative, she used to knit as a leisure activity. With growing urge to spread love and joy through crafting things with hands, earn using her skills and do something that makes her come alive, she started this small alivelihood project of hers. She has more than 10 orders from different people which is currently fulfilling. This path of alivelihood though is not as rosy as it seemed to her. Finding the right source of raw materials, providing quality end product and yet keeping it inexpensive, continue working when the mental and emotional energies are low and balancing other passions of dance and music have been some of the challenging aspects of her work she has faced.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS FROM AAGAZIS (ALUMNI)
Aakash’s (from K8) Tale of Two Years
Compiled by Monish Vora
I had just started my infrastructure building contract business when I felt there’s more to life than just this. And that’s when I found out about Swaraj University. The entire idea of re-imagining education, peer-supported learning, and community living practice at Swaraj fascinated me. The three days at the orientation were something I wanted to experience since long. I could feel gratitude, love, and a sense of community everywhere. So, I convinced my parents and told myself to at least see and engage in the program for some months if not two years. And I ended up staying throughout.
One of the approaches that helped me the most was the self-designed learning (SDL) approach. It is not bounded by what the schools and institutions want me to study. Rather, it is what I am interested in learning and how that can serve the most urgent needs of the society. I also saw how it is such an engaging and two-way learning process to learn from some mentor who knows the art. In all, I experienced learning with my head, heart, and hands.
All my explorations in Swaraj were mostly around wellness — mental, emotional, and physical. I tried many practices and through these explorations, I got what I aligns with me the most.
Swaraj gave me beautiful and genuine relationships. The support and love from people I have experienced here and the friendships that have bloomed will stay with me for life and this sense of community has made me feel complete. The intention I had come with was learn to live life holistically and know myself better rather than chasing goals. If not all, I have found most of my answers and have a more loving relationship with myself. I feel richer and grateful for everything.
A Letter from Harshita, a first cohort Khoji
We receive heartwarming emails/ messages from Aagazis (alumni) every now and then. Heartwarming to hear how they are growing, learning and enjoying the gifts they have received from life. One such mail was of Harshita (K1).
She writes, “ I have been wanting to share my life with you all. I have somehow come across as very distant, but the truth is, I carry ‘Swaraj University’ with me wherever I am. I have grown a lot as an individual, mostly by living the role of a mother and by continuing to work in the same place where I started my journey post Swaraj. My daughter turned 5 this year and I feel much more settled these days as a mother. The first few years were a roller coaster ride. She is my friend, my companion, my teacher, who teaches me new lessons in love and life, every day.”
Harshita is working with NIRMAN, the place where she interned in her second year of Swaraj program.
“I have played different roles in this place,” writes Harshita, “The current role is that of a preschool facilitator and the manager for study abroad programs. We are constantly encouraging individuals to work to their fullest potentials and that is also one of my roles as in-charge of Teacher and Staff welfare. In the last few years, I have been doing a lot of choreography here on different themes. I get to work with parents of toddlers to inspire them to understand their child’s needs through the medium of parenting workshops. My director is my mentor in all this.”
Last year, she initiated farming at this place and now all their students are involved in farming.
“In short, I am doing many different things. These are all creative and challenging, and I enjoy them. It helps me use all my gifts and discover new ones.”
EVENTS & ALLIANCES UPDATES @ SWARAJ
One of the exciting opportunities for Swaraj community is sensing and tapping into connections and possibilities of learning that have been fostered with Indian Multiversity Alliance (I.M.A.)and Ecoversities Alliance.
Indian Multiversities Alliance Gathering, Bir
Chetan, Rahul, Mohit, Harsh and Manish were actively involved in hosting the fourth edition of I.M.A. gathering at Deer Park Institute in Bir, Himachal Pradesh this May, that had more than 50 people running alternative universities, people’s universities, learning programs, etc. for youth (between 18–35+ years of age) all over the country. The gathering was instrumental in integrating many new initiatives working or intending to work with youth on higher education. I.M.A. is now a 65 member strong alliance. It involved supporting new and upcoming initiatives to brainstorm and strengthen their ideas, share about their programs through an open Mela (fair), a brief sharing of updates by I.M.A. supported projects and engaging with Buddhist philosophy and learning ideas practiced at monasteries in Bir.
In October 2018, we also hosted Ecoversities Alliance (the global alliance of alternative education universities, institutes or learning programs) gathering at Swaraj University’s campus in Udaipur.
One of the important takeaways and decisions for the steering committee was to concentrate on engaging new learners and reaching out to as many as possible in the coming year. The reason being, that in spite of many alternatives of higher education coming up, the outreach is not enough to turn it into an active learning movement. One of the ideas we are toying with is to host road shows in different cities to bring awareness to these learning opportunities that people look out for but hardly know about.
One of the new projects that Swaraj team is engaging intimately with is the Mensversity. It emerged with an intent to have engaging conversations within men community. Two short circles were held at the gathering itself and we have had 4 online circles then on. More about this can be read here.
Vimukt Shiksha Yatra
Vimukt Shiksha Yatra 3.0 was a 7-day learning journey focused upon exploring, questioning and expanding perceptions related to education. It was facilitated by Harsh (a khoji-alumnus) and Kejal from Blue Ribbon Movement.
37 participants of all ages and walks of life came together from May 14th to 20th, in Himachal to co-create this experience as a collective.
Yatris met and interacted with Nav Gurukula and Tong Len School in Dharmashala, Aavishkaar Learning Center, Life Meets The Lenses, Sambhaavnaa Institute and Udaan Learning Center in Palampur, Deer Park Institute, Shoonya Farms and Sahaj Foundation in Bir, Founders of Travellers’ University and Shikshantar Andolan, and three couples who are un-schooling their children.
The intention of this journey was to make a shift from the current system that appears to favor machines over human relationships and conformity over innovation. To interact with multiple organizations/ initiatives/foundations and understand the state of our current mainstream education system, and through that lens, the state of the world and the future that is being created for the coming generations.
Engagements with Ecoversities Alliance
This year, some of the Swaraj team members engaged with members of different Ecoversities from around the world. Mohit travelled to Mexico to attend Global Ecoversities Gathering and a Learning Journey to different initiatives. Chetan went for a month-long residency at YIP, Sweden and participated in their program both as a learner and team-member. More about their reflections and learning in next newsletter. Rahul engaged with members of five different Ecoversities — Aloha Ecoversity (Hawaii), Bhoomi College(India), UMA(Mexico), Social Innovation Academy (SINA, Uganda) and Navgurukul (India) to compile two articles for Ecoversities. One was about the founding and guiding stories behind the Ecoversity and second related to ecological sustainability practices and processes held by some of these Ecoversities.
Events at Swaraj University Campus
In the past few months, we hosted six different workshops on the campus:
1. Earth-shastra: Aimed at harmonizing Economics, Ecology and Human Self, it was a 8-day gathering facilitated by Vibhuti Agarwal, Rahul Hasija and Isha Sheth. A total of 30 people attended this gathering which also included khojis from K9 cohort.
2. Re-imagining Education: To inspire experimentation with possibilities for alternatives in education, It was facilitated by Manish Jain and Mohit Trivedi and had around 30 participants.
3. Jeevan Vidya: A learning experience that seeks to bring one’s attention to the facets of life holistically. It was facilitated by Vinish Gupta and was attended by 24 participants.
4. Convers-Actions 2.0: A workshop on learning tools and frameworks to host conversations that matter and to create more inclusive spaces in organizations, families, schools and colleges. It was a 7 day workshop which was facilitated by Deepankar Raina, Chetan Kanoongo and Dharmik Trivedi and around 21 participants attended it.
5. Self-Managed Leadership: A powerful framework for effectively aligning people and culture with purpose and strategy. This workshop was facilitated by Frederic Labarthe and had 23 participants.
6. Families Learning Together: A gathering of families to live, learn and unlearn our understandings of learning and living together. Around 30 families (80 people) were part of this gathering which happened in November.
And the upcoming workshops and events we are hosting –
1. Swaraj Wisdom Weekend with Mrs. Kamla Bhasin: Kamla Bhasin is a visionary activist, feminist and poet. Through this, we intend to create a space to engage in intimate, free flowing dialogues with our elders and heroes / sheroes.
2. Youth Fest 2069: We are co-hosting the second edition of Youth Fest 2069 in Sardarshahar in 2020. Harsh (K5) Ankit (K8), Mohit and Rahul are part of the steering committee planning and organizing this fest.
Edition 2020: Youth Fest 2069 & Learning Societies unConference
3. Learning Societies unConference: An inter-generational gathering which brings together leading “thinker-doers” who are active in challenging and reestablishing systems and culture. It would be hosted at Sardarshahar from March 4th — March 8th 2020.
Lastly and very importantly, we can’t imagine all of this happening without YOU, without so many people and beings from all around. We’ve received help and support from known / unknown sources throughout this time as always. We have cherished these gifts and tried our best to make the best of them.
We feel humbled and grateful towards our mentors, khojis, parents of khojis, well-wishers, our sister-organization Shikshantar, Naya Kheda village, founders of Tapovan Ashram, members of alliances we are part of, campus staff and our own team. Thankful cheers to the Aravalli hills, plants and animal beings around us, and to all that has helped us grow!
A gentle bow!
With love, possibilities & gratitude,
Swaraj University team
