After preparing for a couple days before all the students arrived, the South Asian students presented on their cultures for the international students. You can read more here, and see a few student interviews here, beginning with Olga!
Monica
Mohammad
Rohini
Kultwisiso
Shilpi
If I could describe today’s session with just one word it would be EMOTIONAL! But I have to reach a certain word count in order for this to be a proper blog so I suppose I should elaborate a little. Today’s session was about mental health and its first half was concentrating on how people in India perceive it. Turns out that there are a lot of myths about mental health and mental illnesses that Indian families actually believe in – for example, the most common and spread belief is that mental illnesses are not real at all – they are just an excuse for improper behaviour and laziness. It is also thought that mental illness is a sign for a character flaw and is viewed as a weakness rather as a condition that should be treated.
A major problem is that Indians do not think about their mental health as something that they should take care of – it is just a factor that is needed tp keep them at work and earning money, why should they spend those money on “useless sessions” in which you just talk about your day? Well, apparently those sessions are needed for almost every individual in India, because it is currently one of the countries with the greatest rate of depression. People have to change their mindset and realise the importance of maintaining their mental health – the problem is that first, there are very few universities in India that have psychology as a specialty, second, few universities lead to very few professionals in that field – about two psychologists per city with a population of millions, and third – not many people seek professional help for keeping their mental balance because they do not view mental illness as a problem that can be solved if they only ask for help.
A pretty upsetting situation, but Ms. Yesha – the wonderful woman who lead our session, said that she and other psychologists across India work together in order to raise awareness about mental health and its significance for society. They are not many, but they are determined and very good at what they do (I was convinced for that today) and I believe they have the power to bring hope for a happier India in the future!
After talking about the situation with mental health in India, it was time to talk about our own mental health. This part of the session I will not share with you guys in much detail since it was a very intimate experience and we promised each other to keep all what happened to ourselves. For a moment, we put down our masks and exposed our true vulnerable selves, sharing, hugging and at some point – crying. Whet we did was hard, but at the same time relieving and bonding – we did not leave this session the same… After we ran out of emotions and tears, we just lied down and did an awesome relaxing meditation for 20 minutes which had a miraculous effect on my entire body – we had to close our eyes and follow the commands of Yesha’s soothing voice which was telling us where to concentrate our energy – on different parts of our surroundings such as sounds and airflow, or our body (we had to tighten and then relax the muscles of each sector of our body). That was a very effective and calming exercise that clears your mind and strenghtens your senses.
At the end of the session, we did an activity that Yesha called “Active Kindness”. We were given pebbles which we had to decorate and write a positive message on – those pebbles we then put on different places outside, hoping that whoever finds a pebble and reads it gets the motivation they need to continue fighting for their dreams.
I will conclude this blog by saying that today’s session was not only informative, but very much needed by all of us to release our bottled up emotions and be reminded how important it is to take care of our mental health for being productive individuals as well as citizens in our communities. I would also like to tell you what I wrote on my pebble – however complicated and hard things may seem at the moment, always remember to reflect on the little things around you and “take some time to look at the colors” of life – spectacular and wonderful!
ATISH: HELLO POLICE COULD I PLEASE GET A POLICE VAN TO COME DOWN AND ASSIST!!!
112 DISPATCHER : WELL SIR COULD YOU PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND TELL ME WHAT IS HAPPENING.
ATISH: I AM IN THE CHARRANAGER COMMUNITY AND WE HAVE JUST BEEN ATTACKED BY OVER 500 POLICEMEN AND , MANY PEOPLE ARE HURT AND THEY NEED SERIOUS MEDICAL ATTENTION.
112 DISPATCHER : SIR COULD YOU STAY ON THE LINE WITH ME, I’M SENDING A POLICE CAR AND AN AMBULANCE OVER, IS THAT OKAY?
ATISH : PERFECT. THANK YOU. COULD IT PLEASE HURRY.
Well you might think that the above phone call is an extract from a scene in a popular 1942 TV drama series probably called trouble in the city. Well actually it’s not an extract from any TV series but it is my imagination of the call between a brave theater activist named Atish and the police made on the 26th of July 2018. On this uneventful day something horrific happened. 500 police officials stormed into the Charranager community in the early morning and without questioning anyone they started to destroy buildings, cars, houses, stalls and even brutally beat up people.
Well let me give you a quick overview of who are these people being beaten and why is such atrocities happening to them. The people being tortured here are the members of the Charra community, this is one of the 192 denotified tribes you can find in India but here’s something you might have not known, These respective tribes are labeled as criminals from birth and not only are they labeled as criminals but are also treated as criminals, they are constantly tortured and denied of their rights by the society and the government because of a false perception of being born a criminal, The Charras are denied jobs, housing and many other basic needs because they are labeled “born criminals” this has forced them to live off alcohol brewing and selling which in Amdavad is actually illegal to do so as Amdavad is known as a dry state. Now you may ask how do the Charras then sell the alcohol without being imprisoned, here’s how, the Charras are not only beaten and tortured by the police but are also forced to give large sums of money as a bribe to corrupt police officials. Now the Charra find it hard to escape from these living conditions because of zero government help and zero awareness in India of their sufferings, the Charra community ends up finding itself in a continuous cycle of poverty and illegal work, without no where else to escape to.
Now that you know a bit more about the tribe and their lives don’t you find it a bit ironic that the same people who are known as the protectors of India are the same people who fail to protect the Charra community but not only that they fail, they are the very thing the Charra community needs protection from.
You may wonder where I learned all this, All this I learned from two brave and intelligent members of the Charranager community, Atish and Nakxin during a small walk through the Charra community and a session on the Charra community both these amazing real life heros theater activists in the Charranger community, they believe in using Budhan theater and the only library in Charranger as a instrument to raise awareness in the community.
Looking at the lives of these two amazing people I am not only inspired but I am also humbled because these men have literally taken it upon themselves to change the perspective of the world on the Charra community using their skills of literature and the arts. Their lives have made me want to look deeply into my own life and my toolkit and see how I can help discriminated people and communities in my home country. Their life work is one that takes courage and for that I thank heaven for them and also to them I tip my hat for their courageous work.
This is a quick shot taken during the walk in the Charranager community.
After six days of being separated from the rest of the team, my group of thirteen moved back to the President hotel this morning to join the other two groups. Last week we were separated and sent off on individual adventures. Each day, each team had learnt about something new and different. I personally thought it was a brilliant idea, because it then gave us a platform to experience more, share our opinions and thoughts and generally be more comfortable.
I must admit I had mixed feelings about being re-united. The short time spent with the small group was good. We got time to build connections, share past experiences and emotions, and learn together. It felt personal. While the idea of now having all the other students constantly around me again gave me anxiety, everyone else was extremely excited.
Hugs, laughs, screams and jumping took place once we all saw each other. It was as if we hadn’t seen each other for weeks. The excitement had the entire hotel in uproar. I must say, I did miss the energy of the big group.
It’s truly amazing how looking back, we’ve only known each other for sixteen days, yet we’ve become like family. Thirty nine completely different students, from different continents, countries and states, different backgrounds and different values brought together to make a difference.
Personally, I am both excited and anxious to be a part of the big group again. Here’s to the next chapter.
