My TISS experience

“He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

I learnt and learnt and learnt through reflections, observations and conversations during my journey from 25th June to 30th June...

I have put down my experience with timeline and events. In parts i have explored miscellaneous stuff too.

 25th June

I had to reach TISS Rural Campus at Tuljapur, for my entrance exam on 27th, Sunday. We decided to take Udyan Express as it would reach Solapur in the evening and allow us to catch up with visiting places.

I found this very peculiar about our Indian societies... the more you travel in lower fare modes of transport, the better you become as human, greater are the chances that you learn more...(relate it with work place, train travel, cities, social circle.. you name it!!!) 

I met a lady(Pawar kaki if i m not wrong), who came down to Mumbai to see her grandson and daughter-in-law... and was sobbing like a kid...I couldn't resist, but just to pep her up asked her about the language she was speaking (which is a Banjara dialect with no script..obviously) and inquired if she's travelling alone...

Now the great thing is she told me her entire family story and I wondered how easy it is to live stress free..

She asked me if she could use my phone.. to call her husband.. and invited me to her home...

She wished me goodluck and asked me to visit Tuljapur Temple to seek blessings...

We reached Solapur and decided to go to Akalkot to visit a famous temple which belongs to one of the early 19th century saint Shri Swami Samarth. The place is relatively ruralish but I found it very clean and comparatively less occupied by fake sadhus. We visited the temple and I felt really blissful.

After a long time, I could allow my thoughts to get more organised, and plan things that I want to do... I could for the first time think about things that I want to do irrespective of the outcomes that generally are assumed to encourage(read help) on way... 

We rented a lodge and visited my mom's friend's home and the 'travel in lower fare' thingy I mentioned holds true here as well. We were treated to a very heavenly meal and I had to resist staying in their farm for my TISS exam.

We left the next day for TISS at Tuljapur

26th June

We reached Tuljapur TISS campus next day. To my surprise I saw many people from North-east. Chatty as I am I made some wonderful connections very easily and they'll stay with me for the rest of my life.. Here I am making an attempt to highlight few.

All those who came from North-east belonged to tribes (Bodo, Naga, Mizos, Gugis) I had read about them as a kid through the movements they carried...never fully understanding from their perspective.

Rebecca

Rebecca is a Gugi.. and was a wonderful person..I met. It was a rare meeting and I must mention that she had very mellow heart and since I come from a professional course background, it was a very unique experience to relate to a person from moral science background.. I wish all our curriculum adopt a moral science hands-on compulsory non-gradeable but highly recommended and sought after course. We could relate to the growing insensitivity among engineers, doctors, technologists, professionals and could relate to how a course in moral science could be life-changing experience.

Namita

Namita is a Bodo. I had read about Bodo movement, and wondered why they wanted a separate state. For the fist time I had a Bodo talking about it and she narrated the hard times that her community folks had to go through before the bodo council was formed. I met few others who also belonged to bodo community.

Soso

Soso is a Naga. The revelations about Naga and their fight for identity was touching. There is beautiful identity of nagas that is still being preserved. He told me how Nagas are very different from India, and how they were annexed after Independence though there is a shocking mention (Gandhiji stated "Nagas have every right to be independent"). He also revealed Nagaland has Hornbill as it bird and that even today Nagaland celebrates it independence on 14th August,.. shocking isnt it!!!

I could for the first time grasp India's diversity and it's resilience...Jai ho!

I made some wonderful connections through Pravalika, Devisha Sasidevan, Lallen, Hitesh, Umashankar, Balaji, Rahul, Deep, Alice, Biplaw,Tuhin, Manohar, Subhankar, Jaivesh, Shankar, Kelsang and many more...

The thing that blew me was that each one of them were passionate and had come with the intent to go back and serve their societies... I felt very good being amongst sure-shot change makers... They wanted to go back and create orphanages, sensitize communities and wanted to really make sustainable changes to this world.

The next day was exam which was followed by GD/PI which was a very easy thing for me. I knew the reason why I had gone there and hence I had played it in my mind first. There were no surprises!

The entire TISS experience was one of the most wonderful, beautiful experiences that i ever had

Now for the miscellany

First, It was difficult for me to digest when at Akalkot bus station, I saw a female making living out of picking lice..eew!! Isn't that a failure of the society to provide a meaningful way to earn livelihood...I'll leave it at that.

Second, I found Tuljapur temple dirty. so much so that I felt I would come out as a mutant if I stayed there for more time. It is a mass failure of community in general to create an eco-system for continuous revenue generating tourist destination.

Third, I found tremendous opportunity in the Northern Maharsahtra for rural tourism, water and food security through community collaboration..

All in all I enjoyed the entire stay and have backpacked myself with loads of learnings....:) Travel indeed makes one wise...I think it makes me ready to learn more.. each day..