‘Play of possibilities’, at the ‘lab for emergence in chaos’ — The rollercoaster ride that was #LSuC2017
by Sandeep Anirudhan
I was one of those who had registered but missed attending the Learning Societies unConference (LSuC) at Sardarshahr, in Rajasthan in 2016. Afterwards, looking at pictures and hearing reports of the goings on, I had nursed a hope in my heart, that LSuC would be hosted in Bengaluru some day! Little did I realise then that it would happen soon, and I would have a hand in it…
One saturday, at the ‘Earth Friendly Choices’ event by Aikyam Community for Sustainable Living, at Atta Galatta, couple of attendees, Vidhya and Ridhima, stayed back after the talks and chatted. In the course of the discussions, they expressed that they were missing the crazies they met at the LSuC2016 at Sardar Shehr, the LSuC family. And they were very saddened that no LSuC was planned for 2017. They wanted to know if we could help organise a mini LSuC in Bangalore; at least to gather the crowd from Bangalore and the neighboring cities in South India.
I wondered, why a mini-LSuC, why not bring LSuC, the main event itself to Bengaluru? Why not bring the world to LSUC at Bengaluru? And thus began the journey. A short discussion with Adil at Bhoomi College, to ascertain if Bhoomi College could host the event, and then a discussion with Manish Jain of Shikshantar Andolan… and the rest is history! The dates were finalised for the last week of the year…. and Learning Societies UnConference (LSUC) 2017 was announced for the 26th of December 2017.
But not having attended the LSUC before, and still to comprehend the idea of what LSuC is, facilitating the process of collaboration was like shooting in the dark! We formed various groups for collaboration, to plan and organise the event. But not much help was forthcoming… no guidance, no outline, no processes….. No learnings from past years… Was it a test, we wondered… Manish kept saying, there was no need to prepare. Whatever happens at LSuC would be “emergence”, he comforted us… There is no need for any system, or process, there is no need for preparation in advance, he chided… Our minds, used to being prepared, and planning everything in advance, couldn’t make much sense of it…
As we grappled with the uncertainty, Bhoomi College took on the major initiative of organizing all the logistics. There were worries of budgets and payments. Manish would say “Gift Economy would take care of everything” … have patience, we were told!
Registrations opened……… and started building up…… To see this happen with barely any marketing, was quite amazing. And with the numbers growing, our apprehensions grew. And soon, we were worrying if the venue could hold the numbers that were burgeoning; Bhoomi College scampered to find additional venue capacity (ACTS Academy), and expanded the capacity. Soon, we closed registrations, and put people on waiting lists!
As the date arrived, participants landed up from around the world, and set up camp, and started helping with the setting up, and volunteering for tasks. Teams self-organised, volunteers donned various roles and responsibilities. The LSuC just unfolded…
And what an emergence it was… Of people from different corners of the world… Of shared ownership of the space… More than a thousand people showed up… of all age groups…. toddlers to grandparents… souls seeking their truths, souls sharing their truths… some here to be inspired, some inspiring the rest… of camaraderie, of team work, of initiative, of support… of ‘co-creation’ of a world… that was safe space for all, where children could play and bond all day and night, and parents weren’t the least bit worried, young and old mingled to learn from each other… or just participate in the time spent together… volunteer together, take ownership… spread joy and happiness…
the wall of possibilities listing the workshops offered by lsuc-ers to fellow lsuc-ers
The Wall of Possibilities saw listings of almost 60–70 workshops a day, that is a total of more than 250 workshops offered… shared in the spirit of Gift Culture! Such immense love!
A deep bonding that grew out of co-creating the space for 5 days, made it difficult to say good bye, when it ended. With heavy hearts, but with hope of a brighter future, we went our different ways… vowing to gather again… soon, to re-create the magic again!
“Let’s capture the learnings from this event, it will help us organise better next time”, I offered to Manish, and he retorted… let’s not capture anything… The next time’s LSuC will be a fresh emergence… We have to constantly challenge ourselves to higher chaos and quicker emergence… This time’s LSuC was set up in 5 days, next time’s LSuC ought to be set up in 3 days… It is not about being prepared or about being organised… It is about our ability to respond to a crisis and self-organise, co-creating the solutions…
Post event, as we were waiting to leave the beautiful Bhoomi campus, I had the wonderful opportunity to wander into a discussion with Philip Frances of Schumaker College, Minni Jain of the Flow Partnership, Seetha Ananthashivan of Bhoomi College, Manish Jain of Shikshanthar Andolan, on play of possibilities, about order and chaos, and how human resilience will depend on how adept we are at self organizing in the coming chaos… And it hit me then…. that, this is what LSuC is about…. about preparing for the oncoming chaos… a lab for chaos.. a lab for simulating a need for emergence, a taste of systems-breakdown… of complex situations we cannot imagine… when we would need tremendous resilience, creativity, love and camaraderie to see us survive and triumph as a planet!
And I wondered, why hadn’t I seen this before? Maybe it was meant to be this way! If there’s anything this entire ride has taught me, it is a lot of tolerance… and to drop barriers and to drop my preconceived notions on everything… very consciously!
:) I have dropped quite a few judgments, and expectations. It has shown me that everything one comes across is OK. There will be situations and people one likes, and one dislikes; there will be situations that work to a plan, and do not work to a plan; there will be creations that appeal to one, and do not appeal to one… But its all OK. And, very often, many of the assumptions and judgments we make are not even real, they are imagined… The diversity innate in nature, also shows up as diversity in one’s own experiences; and our capacity for love, acceptance and forbearance will see us through it all…
wall mural painted by lsuc-ers using natural colors…
Manish’s words sum up some aspects of LSUC: “It is a practice ground for practical experiments”… “not just sharing our work but going deeper to try out some new experiments with each other at a higher level of depth and diversity”… “it is a very different experience to play, experiment and jam with folks who kind of ‘get it’; we can go much deeper into things with them”.
Now with fresh insights, I am hoping the next LSuC that would be created, would be of a higher level of chaos and emergence. Maybe we should just arrive at an open ground with only basic tents and supplies, and the participants could self-organize and build a working village from scratch!
:) How does it get any better? What else is possible?
Let’s embrace chaos! Let’s dive in the play of possibilities!
