Dal-Baati-Churma: Swaraj University Newsletter 2020
It was a bright sunny day on March 5, 2020. The LSUC (Learning Societies UnConference) was in its 3rd day. This year’s LSUC saw participation of more than 750 people from across the world. The venue this time was an idyllic desert-like setting in a small town named Sardarshahar in Rajasthan. Our hosts at Gandhi Vidya Mandir have created almost an oasis in this campus, as you can see in the picture below.
This place was just perfect in terms of creating a safe and playful intergenerational learning space for kids as well as adults. There were vast stretches of grass where not only kids but also adults were seen rolling, getting muddy, and just soaking in the sun.
There were whispers of a virus being spread rapidly in other parts of the world. At that time, it didn’t seem imminent to many of us that it would be our reality as well in the coming days.
On this bright sunny day, some khojis and facilitators were planning for the physical meet-up in Udaipur that was to start in the 3rd week of March. Little did we know that living with uncertainty, which we coincidentally talk a lot about during LSUCs, would become our life’s reality in the coming months.
Over the next few days, it became evident that all the plans of a physical meet-up needed to be put on the back burner, and we would be locked down in our homes wherever we were.
For a community that thrives on in-person heartfelt conversations, hugs, learning with and from each other, and sharing and experimenting with different things, it marked a transition to a world of breakout rooms — seeing 20 people on screen together, virtual hugs, and e-lunches.
It required us to make a lot of changes in the way we operate as a team, the way we interacted with people, and designing everything for online medium.
The last few months were also filled with sad times for the Swaraj family as a whole. It feels very unreal, sad and extremely painful to share that one of our khojis Tirth Bajwa, a young, talented soul from Punjab who joined us last year in the 10th cohort of Swaraj, untimely passed away due to an accident in mid-August.
He was a natural poet, turning words, feelings and observations into simple, relatable and rhythmic poems and couplets. He was passionate about re-imagining a youth movement and engagement in Punjab, proactively worked with some youth organizations in Punjab and was equally interested in sustainable architecture, writing and dancing. To honor his life and love for social transformation in his native town, a library is being set-up in his village Bajwa Kalan by his friends and a mentor.
We offer our humble prayers for Tirth, his family, his extended family in Punjab and at Swaraj and request you all to keep him and each one us in your prayers and blessings.
This year has indeed been a roller coaster ride, and we will share glimpses and interesting stories of unlocking learning in the locked-down phase and also some interesting bits from the pre lock-down era (yes, that’s how it will be referred to as at least by the new generation).
In this newsletter, you will read about:
- Updates from the 2 year program, stories from our two cohorts K9 and K10
- Exciting Initiatives by Alumni Aagazis
- Engagements with Our Larger Learning Ecosystem
- Upcoming Events and Future Plans
THE ADVENTURES WITH K9 (Canines) & K10 (Kittens)
In August 2020, K9 (fondly referred to as canines) completed their 2-year program at Swaraj University. The celebration and the initiation for the journey forward all happened online with a promise to meet physically again whenever things become normal.
What are the K9 khojis upto now?
Rahul is currently doing hands-on farming at Red Stone Organic Farm in Panchgani. He has plans of starting a maker space because of his interest in creating sustainable technologies and solutions. Rahul is also partnering with Rajat on the Alivelihood podcasts and with Sarumathi on Handwritten love letters.
Pravallika has been deeply involved in kitchen gardening and farming in Vijaywada. Apart from that, she started her own knitting and crochet business named Untangled Knots. Check out her amazing designs here: https://www.instagram.com/unwind_knots_knitshop/
Selva has found his interest in designing technology solutions for people. He already has done significant project work in eco-construction, farming, cooking, and managing a cafe. He can be currently traced in Auroville and is supporting Talam in building services and products for well being.
Muthok started his learning space named Pyrshang Da Lade (try on your own) in his indigenous village in Meghalaya. His intention is to build a learning community which also earns using their skills and hence to stop the migration of young people from the tribal village.
Aum has been supporting projects with his photography and videography skills. Right now he is learning graphic designing skills to create a portfolio of offerings for people. He is also working on some special projects with Indian Multiversities Alliance. Check his Instagram page for his work.
Ayushi is leading and running a natural farm named Maitri Farms on the outskirts of Bengaluru. She learned the Miyawaki forest regeneration technique last year which she applied on the farm. This is apart from the farming and pottery work which she has been doing regularly.
Basant is currently exploring Deer Park Institute, Bir, Himachal Pradesh. He is keen on massage therapy, physical healing, and Yoga. He is a Vipassana meditation practitioner and also has a keen interest in natural living.
Nikshit recently started his own technology-based e-commerce business. He has found interest in creating affordable technology-based solutions for specially-abled people. You can also find him mesmerizing people with his magic tricks or playing guitar.
Rajat is currently working on Alivelihoods project based in Auroville. You can watch him as the main lead in this video on the Aliveihood project. He has been learning Kalaripayattu for the last 9 months with full dedication and enjoys writing, acting, and storytelling especially Marwari folk tales. He also has started a podcast on different Alivelihoods careers. Listen and enjoy the conversations here.
Megha has been working on several projects related to ecological construction as an architect and designer. She recently started her initiative named Kalaiagam in which she is designing colorful hammocks, wall-hangers, macrame bags, etc. She enjoys creating these beautiful designs and would be more than happy to create customized ones for you.
Monish has been working at the intersection of food, yoga/exercise and farming. He has hosted numerous workshops and sessions on cooking and Yoga. He also enjoys farming along with his work on equity research. Check out more about him here.
Saptarishi is a known name in the field of vlogging. He can be mostly found traveling to the interiors of the country meeting people, spending time with them, and covering them on his youtube channel- Home Out Traveler.
Surinder is now officially a Doctor of Naturopathy. He has been teaching yoga, healthy cooking, and natural healing to many people across the world. He is currently leading the kitchen team and farming initiatives at Osho Ashram in Dharamshala.
Amrita was recently working with Bakarmax webcomic platform as a writer and illustrator. She wrote and designed a few web comics.
Manisha is an avid writer and illustrator currently working with Riyaaz Academy as an illustrator for children’s books and magazines. She is an artist and can be seen creating beautiful artworks during her work and free time.
The journey for them to reach this point has also been inspiring and adventurous. Let’s rewind a bit to know what all ensued in the last one year.
Let’s go a little back to November 2019…in the pre lock-down era
The K9 cohort had a learning journey-cum-meet in Indore for 15 days. This meet intended to look at Indore as a learning ecosystem. We explored what was happening there in terms of local experiments, enterprises, and inspiring people. Read more about it here: https://medium.com/p/bf3a11707f86/
And a few months back…in the lock-down era
The beginning of lock down-era resulted in shifting all our interactions, sharing and experiments online. Some interesting experiments that we tried:
- K9 and K10 connection games
At Swaraj, games form an essential part in helping bring learners into a space where they are ready to stretch themselves in different ways. A few of us have been playing authentic connection games and we felt why not play these connection games with the 2 cohorts. Authentic connection games are simple games and exercises played in groups of 2, 3 or more to initiate meaningful conversations and connections which fosters authenticity. And with zoom features of breakouts, video on/off, and chats, the connection games initiated the dialogue amongst the khojis of both the cohorts.
- Rapid Prototyping
This happened in August when the K9 cohort was almost a month away from their online transition. We did a process called Creative Cribbing to hear from khojis about things that didn’t work for them in their Swaraj experience. For more than 50% of the people, the need to do more money-related experiments came up.
We felt that since all of them have spent a decent amount of time learning a lot of skills, what was needed now was to share these with the aspect of money involved in it. Asking for money for your skills doesn’t come easily to begin with, and sometimes it’s a giant leap for many people.
Rapid prototyping was initiated with the spirit of try, fail, and then again try with relevant learnings/insights over a period of 3 weeks.
In just a week’s time, people took that first giant step and started offering their skills in the online medium. See some posters below to know about the diverse skill offerings which were done by the khojis.
- Use of online collaboration tools (Mind Maps, padlets, Zoom):
Lockdown time also resulted in making the best use of technology to enable collaboration and sharing among people. We tried that through multiple tools such as Mind Maps, Padlets, and Zoom meeting platform.
- Online celebration and transition:
We never imagined that celebrations and rituals could happen over zoom. And surprisingly, we did it. Many of us, even though initially not in favour of the online medium, surprisingly enjoyed the process. We had a whole celebration week planned for K9 transition and had surprise calls with the founders, a dance and music evening, a ritual-based ceremony, and an after ritual party.
Some reflections by K9 Khojis on their 2 year journey
K10’s JOURNEY
Like every cohort, K10 has had an unique element to its own journey of Swaraj — six months of online interaction!
The program for K10 was paused at the end of year 1. However this wasn’t intended. In fact, initially we saw possibilities in this time of crisis of khojis starting local projects. The spirit of local action is also close to the idea of ‘swaraj’ and it seemed like the most suitable time to do deepen this. And this did happen. Several khojis initiated a small experiment/prototype with their skills.
Shruti was helping out her father to host sessions online on political analysis, agricultural processes and success stories. Osher did many experiments with cooking and was handling kitchen at Sadhana Forest (also her home) for 70–80 people every meal. Mahima co-hosted with her friends several online workshops and experiences and she was also a part of a group that studied and conversed about “Hind Swaraj” by Mahatma Gandhi. Sarumathi started Handwritten Love Project. Swara made rakhees at home and sold in the local market. And more …
Apart from this, what also worked was to have a community to fall back on. Many found it helpful to merely come back to this place where they could talk and be heard. What worked more was having individual or small group interactions. In large groups, we often found people missing and it was taxing to call and remind each one to come for the call.
Hence, we felt the program in itself was not able to deliver in its full capacity; there was no experience of community living together and khojis did not have the presence of their peers which is one of the greatest strengths of the program. In addition to that, the needs of khojis have been diverse and scattered; and it often kept changing with their emotional well-being getting affected. These were certainly strong repercussions of the Covid-times and we saw it everywhere, not just with khojis.
Flashing-back in time a little, K10 had an energizing start to the program last year. This group of young people again brought in so much richness and liveliness to each other and, especially, to us. We are filled with hope and optimism to have met and co-travelled with them this year.
The second meet started in early December and went on till mid-January. Some highlights of these were Navedita’s (K7) workshop on art and resistance — her presence in itself was very strong and powerful in many ways and it brought in the energy of resistance resonating with that of the country. Many khojis also got inspired to perform a flash mob and one even did a peaceful protest at a local annual fair — Shilpgram Mela. It’s an interesting tale to tell.
Kiran Gulrajani held a short retreat on Unschool of Love, which was a very powerful and moving experience for most people. The mood that the retreat set brought out liveliness in the cohort, more conversations happened with a lot more authenticity, trust and love.
Reva, co-founder at Swaraj, joined us for a week and many questions emerging for khojis around Swaraj, education and what it means to self-design our learning were touched with Reva’s sharings and sessions. One memorable and serene experience that she brought in was phone fasting. Her presence brought in much understanding and with that a lot of action and hope for khojis.
Other than these, one-on-one interactions of khojis with Arpita (an old friend of Swaraj and a psychotherapist), among themselves and with facilitators and mitras were very helpful. Some of them got an opportunity of attending a powerful Wisdom Weekend— real life stories accompanied with earnest and lively conversations with Kamla Bhasin, who is a feminist, activist, writer and a beautiful woman.
Several khojis had powerful learning experiences during their self-designed learning (SDL) time. Mahima was interested in understanding about revolution, sustainability and how to use her skills for these. She took part in two yatras (journeys) in her first SDL time itself — Nila Yatra and Jai Jagat Yatra. Nila Yatra, a river journey, was about how societies have been sustainable environmentally and how, because of capitalism and industrialization, it is difficult for communities to sustain in the same way now. This helped her learn more and see the pollution and damage we are causing now as we are going global. Jai Jagat Yatra was a foot march which attempted at creating a more peaceful and harmonious world. She participated in that for 15 days and learnt about local revolutions that several people are trying to create in different village, cities and countries even. She also got to participate in various capacities in the yatra and made significant contributions.
Kabir has been interested in politics and how systems function; and in both his SDL times he either partly or fully joined in campaigns and movements. First time he was supporting a campaign for Delhi elections for an MLA of Aam Aadmi Party — Mr. Pankaj Pushkar. And in the second time, he joined a group called Art for People, who create art for social change, for a week and protested at Shaheen Bagh for a week with them.
And a few more diverse powerful SDL experiences that happened included: Shubham joined in Tirth in organizing Saanjh Mela in Punjab. Moksha and Gurneet had their own individual art work explorations in Goa and Auroville respectively. Shruti was mentored by an K4 Aagazi, Neema, who works as a government school principal in a village near Gandhinagar, Gujarat. And Aradhana interned at Snehal’s cafe (K8 Aagazi) in Anand, Gujarat.
Most khojis from K10 were part of LSUC this year that happened at Sardarshahar. Certainly, it makes for a great opportunity because they are directly experiencing and accessing the wider network of Shikshantar and Swaraj University. Sarumathi shared that LSUC is reminder that how intergenerational learning is possible in our families, communities and societies. And knowing this gives her hope and brings in a lot of possibilities.
K10 had their first online experience in April during the lockdown with focus on sharing reflections from their SDL-time and exchanging their learning and skill sets with each other and as open sessions for anyone. The sharing of reflections was the interesting part because everyone sent their sharing via video or photo stories. On the go, khojis got to learn basics of video and photo editing.
A lot of online learning community experiences followed thereby –
• Having open spaces for hosting sessions and learning new things
• Having regular one-on-one and small group interactions
• Sense-making together during the uncertain times and recognizing individual and collective needs through that
• Playing Flow Games online — a process that helps have conversations that matter and create clarity on questions that are important burning
• Hanging out together, playing games, dancing and having plain simple fun
• Starting projects and finding avenues for alivelihoods (livelihood opportunities that make one feel come alive and live fully)
• Initiating and mobilising support for emotional stability and wellbeing
• Creating support to continue learning in these times and staying accountable and motivated
We heard several stories of how people went through traumas and emotional ups and downs during the lockdown as they felt lonely, shut down unheard and unseen. Shruti wrote an article on the same and what in her view could be done. Read here.
Three online learning experiences that we as a team hosted as open workshops primarily focused at khoji needs were –
• Creating support systems for self by learning tools that help in identifying the kind of support needed.
• Reflecting on last couple of years and taking my learnings forward from that.
• Creating unique portfolios for your work and self by providing relevant examples and easy-to-use tools.
As life moved on, we gathered a sense from K10 about what’s needed at this time. For many pausing or marking a completion to the program made sense. A few who would have wanted to continue with the program, found it unfruitful to do so with most people opting to leave the online offering. In the end of September, we held a closing celebration for K10 and we agreed that we would meet again on campus at least once to celebrate our journeys and to see what would be their needs then.
STORIES OF SELF-DESIGNED LEARNING AND LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD
Here are some updates on lives and works of Khojis who have finished their Swaraj’s program a.k.a. Aagazis.
Integrating diverse interests while on the job
Yash (from 7th cohort) has always been curious and open to learn about diversity of subjects. This is what had led him to Swaraj’s program also. But that’s another exciting story for another bright day.
One of his many explorations has been to work with the land i.e. farming, gardening, afforesting, etc. Currently, he is doing a lot of that and much more while working at Sajeevan Organics in Rajkot (his hometown).
One of the main projects he is working on is in collaboration with Gujarat Medicinal Plants Board. Using inspiration from ‘Amrit Krishi’ techniques (developed by Lt. Shri Deepak Sachde) this project intends to create 40 herbal gardens in the Primary Health Care (PHC) centres in Rajkot, Morbi and Junagad districts. Each gardens will have more than 30 different varieties of herbs and around 344 plants in each one. Through the project they intend to conserve several herbs that are found locally and otherwise, heal several minor illness by providing herbs locally, and make doctors and locals aware of the medicinal properties of these plants.
He is happy to find many opportunities of getting his hands dirty (or ‘dhirty’) while coordinating the herbal garden project. He also works on Sajeevan Organic’s farm to learn and practice farming. And very soon will be practicing organic framing on his own farm.
He is also a tech enthusiast. He is much sound with the updates of the tech world, is an eco-conscious consumer and also (unofficially) helps office-mates find products that best suit their needs. He has self-taught and developed basic video making and editing skills. At Sajeevan, Yash also helps out with video documentations and marketing materials for different products of Sajeevan. He himself is VJ-ing in these videos, how cool is that!
If this is not enough already — he is forest sitting whenever he has an opportunity, photo documenting seeds of various herbal plants and trees and intends to document the uses of these plants by actually growing, cultivating and using them. Eventually, they will also have a seed bank for these.
Meanwhile, he is doing a course on Ayurveda and co-designing workshops on emotional and mental wellness with a friend. Phew!
His parents are supportive and are understanding his interests in this. Yash is planning to take them to a medicine-free life retreat soon to live a healthier lifestyle together.
Forest & other wonders of the desert
About two years back, Gaurav along with Shubhendu Sharma from Afforestt started a deeply personal and highly ambitious project of growing a forest in a desert-like habitat a little outside of Jodhpur (Gaurav’s hometown). Gaurav’s been working with Afforestt since a while now and they wanted to do a more rooted work of their own and hence — Maruvan.
Maruvan, which means forest of the desert, is a project to bring back the native forests of Marwar region by developing native tree species, local seed bank, a functional nursery and making patches of forest using Miyawaki method. Their work was recently featured in this documentary.
This is one of the dreams Gaurav had since long — to be living a slow life leisurely and to be settled in a place that’s close to plants, trees, insects, animals and other beings of the world. Now, his favourite pass time is also part of his work, which is to observe signs of and from ‘nature’ by observing behaviours and movements of beings around, like trees, birds, ants, etc. Their approach, though, to this work is quite thorough as their teachers / guides are nature, the local people and the study or research they do.
They are also studying, documenting their observations and making all of their knowledge available (again) to the people both locally and virtually. They have been growing small experimental patches of tiny forests and learning and improving methodology by seeing their response in these habitats. The team has observed massive changes in biodiversity by removing non-native invasive species and allowing native grasses and shrubs to come back. Thereby, revived and restored much biodiversity in and around Maruvan in just the last two years, when all they started with was “a bucket full of seed balls of native grasses”. Perhaps that’s all we need, isn’t it?
The wonders of Maruvan don’t only include the forest, but also a traditionally hand-dug well, a hand-dug pond which fills up seasonally, experiments in natural building, and the wisdom of village elders of Thar desert.
Pond dug using traditional ‘naadi system’ of Rajasthan. Catches run-off rainwater and holds a good amount of water with an abundance of fishes and aquatic bird population which came naturally to it. In the photo, demoiselle cranes / khurja making a halt at Maruvan in their super long journey between various countries.
A Hero Indeed
On July 18th, 2020, Tushar Kelkar (from K3) sent the below message in the WhatsApp group of Swaraj alumni — which is an incredible support system.
“A few days ago my house collapsed and today my foundation is ready for new wall with new shape. I learned from nature, nature gives you trouble but gives you support also. So if any problems come in your life don’t stop keep walking, every problem has solution if you keep your mind open.”
The hut collapsed at Tushar’s farm because of heavy rainfall in the region which was caused by cyclone Nisarga that hit western coast of India in early June.
In 2014, Tushar started his farm space in his village — Atmatrupti (between Pune and Bombay) — where he has built eco-friendly houses and does farming with the intention of promoting eco-tourism, eco-construction, organic farming practices like permaculture, and create local market for farm produce.
The message, when I read it, made me feel uplifted and hopeful. Lately, I reached out to him as I wanted to write about it here. And, well, life is funny! I learned that he is facing an even bigger challenge right now. Soon after building the foundation for the new house, his wife got diagnosed with TB of the uterus. Tushar had put a lot of his savings in to building the house again and he soon ran out of money for wife’s treatment. Some of his friends, khojis from his cohort and team members stepped in to support him.
But this is not where challenges stop, his mother is due for an eye operation because she’s losing her eye sight. Now, all of the responsibilities of the farm, of the house, of his 4-year old son, of finances and of travelling to Pune for treatments have all come onto him now. He’s running out of finances soon again and he needs help.
I asked him how he’s doing amidst all this. He shares, “I’m strong still. But somewhere within I’m also beginning to feel weak as I think about how will things get managed.” He also shared, “I feel grateful to the Swaraj experience though, because I’m so patient amidst all this chaos. I am able to see my mother and wife become cranky and irritable. I can listen to them in such situations and not react.”
While writing this newsletter, we fundraised about Rs.72,000 for Tushar’s wife and mother’s medical treatment. Several reached out to him personally and the medical finances were generously taken care of by many human beings from all over the world. His mother got the surgery done and is doing very well. His wife’s treatment is ongoing.
He is now back in his spirits. Some days back he wrote again in the WhatsApp group inviting people to come and stay at his farm. And if you need some peaceful time from your normal routine, share knowledge, please visit his farm (Atmatrupti) spend some time with nature and also support him in his work or even building a new house.
Chaitanya Kul
Chaitanya Kul (CK) is an alternative learning space in a village named Adari in East Uttar Pradesh, which was initiated by Satyam (from K7) in 2018. It intends to provide quality education to children from rural backgrounds beyond any social, economical and religious obligation, and beyond constraints of age, gender and class. They are doing this by running an after school program that helps children develop mindfulness, compassion and competence by engaging them in activities and dialogues.
Children learning to make macramé bands.
This space started with Satyam’s observations of schools in his native place. He “saw that kids are forced to follow the age-old principles of rote learning and are subjected to physical abuse.” It has also been a pain point in his own journey of education. That’s why, CK means a lot more than just a learning space for children. It is an opportunity for him to undo, transform and reclaim learning spaces so that these can actually support in nourishing lives.
In the recent (Covid) times, as with schools and other learning spaces, CK was also not operational and there was also little or no resource for children to meet on a virtual medium. Consequently, Satyam encouraged children to be curious and be open to learning skills at home from their parents and others around. He also finally found time with parents, who are important stakeholders in children’s education. He could counsel them to make aware about mental health and about matters related to child’s growth and development.
This initiative has provided a space for several other khojis to offer their time, skills, resources and networks here — Satyavrat and Ritik (from K8) are in fact team members of CK. As the unlock is in progress, CK gets ready to host children in a new building which is being constructed, start a DIY space and begin their fellowship program.
By 2021, they aim to handover operations of the space to community leaders. Education of, by and for the people!?
Intentions Manifesting
“We can only pass on, whatever we carry with us, inside us. What are you carrying with you, inside you?”
Perhaps, with a question like that Niom started out as an Aagazi as he moved to Bangalore a few months after K7’s Nayaa Aagaz (The program completion ceremony) in 2018. Bangalore seemed like a place of opportunities and possibilities.
Niom had designed a workshop for children to de-condition their thinking patterns by the medium of play. He wanted children to design their own games and used three-sided football to initiate the process of de-conditioning patterns.
Children in his neighbourhood took notice of his expertise in football — Niom used to train with Pune FC earlier — and asked him to coach them. And so he did, but in his own style. Niom instilled leadership qualities and conflict management skills in them while coaching them for football.
Around the same time, Niom heard about an opportunity at The Atelier, an experimental learning space or school for children with a very unique approach to education. The values on which this school operated on were much in sync with what he wanted to do and that’s how he joined them. As an intern initially, he was invited to share all the interests he had with the children. “One day I was singing a song, I don’t remember why I started singing,” says 21 years old Niom. “And the children really took to it. So then, I started doing that, introducing songs from different languages.”
Emergently, Niom became a music and movement mentor at the school. It has been two years now and his main job with children is to co-create new games, activities and play with them. What fun! It’s ironic that growing up Niom and his family chose to un-school him and now he works with this school, but that’s also a benefit to the school. When parents ask questions like how children are going to learn reading, writing, maths, science, etc. Niom’s story comes in handy. He is passionate about a variety of subjects — sports and games, music, maths and science, languages, education, etc. And he’s quite sound in his knowledge and proficient in his skills, which is helpful for the school and reassuring for parents.
Niom also is a part of a group called Project Ishq, who primarily intend to reduce the amount of unnecessary pain in the world by providing spaces of connecting, collaborating, listening and, more importantly, of belonging. He is quite actively involved in many events of the project. Recent one started in the Covid times is the Uncoolers — where they are interviewing artists and change-makers to share their inspiring stories of expression and passion for their work.
Perhaps being curious and open is one of the qualities that he has always pertained. Inside him That’s seemingly how his initial intentions on his Aagazi journey has manifested through various ways, be it, neighbourhood coaching, mentoring children at The Atelier, or finding and getting involved with Project Ishq. That brings back the question — “What are you carrying with you, inside you?”
ENGAGEMENTS WITH OUR LARGER LEARNING ECOSYSTEM
Interactions with Trans-local Learning Projects
Two of our team members, Mohit Trivedi and Chetan Kanoongo, received a grant to travel internationally and work with other alternative universities as part of the global Ecoversities Alliance. Chetan went to YIP, Sweden and Mohit went to Mexico. Read more about their experiences here: https://medium.com/p/6a5d1873447f/
As part of the Ecoversities Alliance, we also hosted the Masters of the Kebradas, a group of Brazilian social leaders, who are developing an ecoversity for the favelas (slums). They made this beautiful film about their visit to India, Swaraj University and Shikshantar projects.
Pre-Lockdown Era Youth Fest
Basant (from K9 cohort), Tirth and Mahima (from K10) attended the event “2069?: The Youth Fest” this year. This is an annual event co-hosted by a few youth organizations in the spirit of bringing together young people who are working in social change to strengthen leadership, to learn from each other and elders; and to build deep connections across ecosystems around the country.
Basant attended this event last year as well. For him the experience has been valuable both the years. He enjoyed interacting with and knowing youth from different parts of the country who are working on different issues like climate change, violence and conflicts in communities, etc. He sees that otherwise he doesn’t find such friendships otherwise. He says people are usually self-absorbed and don’t care about real issues anymore. At the same time, he wishes and expects to see the spirit of co-creation more at such an event. He says, “Young people have come from all over, this is a good opportunity to collaborate and work on projects together. This is what lacked for me structurally both the times.”
Mahima also had a beautiful experience and resonates with Basant on enjoying connections with new people. She got and seized opportunity to discuss a lot of new ideas with people, thereby, also learnt the kind of projects being led for social change. She was also one of the ‘family hosts’ (small groups formed in the fest were called ‘families’) which helped her learn how to better facilitate groups and foster natural connections within a group.
Tirth made heartfelt connections with several in the fest. It is evident because in his memory many young people connected on a Zoom meeting to grieve about his passing away and sang prayers of peace for him and his family.
Rahul and Suyash (from the team) were also present there. Rahul is one of the initiators of the youth fest.
Lockdown Bridge Karo Na Campaign
Shared by Sonika Gupta (Core team member and facilitator)
India was hit not only by the Covid 19 crisis but also by a lockdown that did not provide for millions to reach home, to have dignified access to food, water, shelter and sanitation. We were left with brothers and sisters, children and elderly who had no way to fend for themselves amidst the lockdowns. At this time, a simple call to spend an hour brainstorming on ‘how can we be of service’ led to the creation of Bridge-Karo-Na (Let’s Bridge It!).
It started out as a crowd funding campaign for on-the ground Covid relief work being done by Neighbourhood Heroes we knew and completely trusted. The idea was to help people contribute without the apprehension of whether their donations will be used with care, integrity and honesty. We raised about Rs. 4.5 lakhs and hosted 4 events as a part of the campaign. We also created some beautiful, funky art work to inspire action. All of this was done by a self organized team of 10 — all team members, alumni or learners of Swaraj University, strung together by a simple sense of family and the desire to be of service. Some of us were talking to each other for the first time and yet it took us no time to kick into action, create the campaign material, make it go live and start raising funds.
What has struck me most in this coming together is how organic and simple it was — everybody pitched in spontaneously. No great role definitions or Gantt charts were required. If one of us was a little inactive at one point, someone else would suddenly be full of energy, if something needed to be done- it would get done. People wore different hats with ease at different times and let them go too.
I hope that our neighborhood heroes and the people they served also felt some of the love and ease I experienced in this community.
Lockdown Online Vimukt Shiksha Yatra
The Vimukt Shiksha Yatra was a week-long online learning journey to explore alternative learning spaces who are re-imagining education and to interact with amazing visionaries who are doing great work in the field of alternative education. Swaraj University was featured in the Yatra in collaboration with Indian Multiversities Alliance.
Lockdown Online Gap Year Summit
Unlock Your Year — Gap Year Summit 2020 was a 6-day long programme that invited youth, families, or people who were mid-career, to consider the possibility of taking time out of their regular education, job or routine to explore something different. It could be to travel, learn something new, meet different kinds of people, be exposed to different perspectives, try directing one’s own life and giving time and attention to one’s own inner questions.
The programme took the form of 17 online sessions. Youth, family, professionals, educators and employers who had taken gap years themselves and saw the importance and value of doing so were invited to several plenary sessions to share their journeys and insights. Other sessions took the form of workshops, and there were 3 coaching sessions too. There was a daily tea-time hangouts space where participants played games, chatted informally or discussed their reflection and some questions in smaller groups.
There were 188 registrations for the event, with over 120 of them under the age of 30. There were also quite a few parents and facilitators working with children and youth participating. We had about 60 people regularly attending sessions. Also there were over 2000 views for videos of the plenaries. We also had over 10,000 views for trailer videos on facebook and instagram before the event which promoted the idea of a gap year.
Participant Reflections
“Was good meeting some exemplary souls who are full of life and helpful. The effort put forth by the team which made me cherish this 6 Day workshop as my first step towards connecting and building a healthy and supportive community.”
“How interestingly it was facilitated even though virtual connections we were able to make with the co participants a safe space, listening to so many beautiful experiences and learning from them and get motivated.”
Lockdown Online Alivelihood Mela
Alivelihoods Career Mela 2020 was a 5-day long programme that invited youth and mid-career professionals, to explore and gain deeper knowledge about career opportunities for a regenerative future.
We had more than 350 registrations with an average of 120 people attending sessions daily. Also there were over 7000 views for videos that were streamed live on facebook.
Participant Reflections
“What a brilliant journey of 5 days- immense revelations and learnings for life. Feeling rewired and energised. should stay connected to get the energy going! love to all :)” — Aanchal Singh
“Lots of appreciation and gratitude to the organising team for putting together such a fantastic virtual space, warm and inspiring speakers, well divided themes and sessions, and so many participants from all across india.. it has been absolutely lovely :) we need more of such alivelihood melas.. kudos to the team once again :)” — Krupa
Here is the link of the video on Alivelihoods that was created by Gijs Spoor and khoji Rajat Bafna.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND FUTURE PLANS
- Swaraj University will be co-hosting the Roobaroo Online Youth Harmony Festival in collaboration with the Indian Multiversities Alliance and 20 other organizations working with youth in India from December 18–20, 2020. The 3-day event will feature amazing performances, inspiring youth talks and powerful workshops. Check out the event brochure. We invite you to register for it here.
- The Swaraj University Campus got a beautiful face-lift during the past few months thanks to the leadership efforts of aagazi, Akash Karemore, who oversaw several construction and maintenance projects. We are planning to open the campus for short workshops in January 2021 and restart the khoji program in July 2021. We are in the process of inviting 4–5 homeschooling/unschooling families to live with us on campus to help build a little ecovillage there.
- The Swaraj Jail University project in Udaipur has been able to operate during the past 4 months. Lockdown saw 30 new wall murals come up in the Udaipur Central Jail. We have recently launched a music recording studio in the jail as well. Check out updates on the new website.
- We have also recenrly launched the Tribal Youth Leadership Academy of Swaraj University in the beautiful tribal village of Surata, Dungarpur. We invite you to visit us.
We thank you again for your support to the Swaraj University family in 2020 and look forward to seeing you in 2021.
