Creatively Acting to Serve the world

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

CAS is about how we develop ourselves as altruistic social individuals who learn from their activities and spread their acquired knowledge for the benefit of others. While we are exploring these values under IB there have been many people who have made this philosophy their life. One of them has to be M. K. Gandhi whose multifaceted life

Sewagram is a small village located in the outskirts of Wardha. It was established by the crown of Indian Freedom Struggle M.K. Gandhi. The aim behind such an establishment was to popularize the concept of an ideal self-sustaining village so that the majority of rural India can be motivated to elevate their standard of living. Gandhi was a man who thought on a global level and acted on a local level. This was perhaps one of the greatest reasons for him being called ‘Mahatma’ (great soul). Nevertheless, Gandhi never really acknowledged this epithet, he was much happier with his rather modest, fatherly nickname – ‘Bapu’. This loving paternal nature of Gandhi is reflected in this ashram situated in Sevagram called Bapu Kuti meaning Bapu’s hut. For me it was really intriguing to think that a rural settlement was set up with the thoughts of a global level. The true challenge I think was to extrapolate this knowledge and process it.

 

We paid a visit to this ashram on 14 November 2014. The place is a complex of huts of varying sizes with huge trees surrounding them. The campus, full of verdure, creates an eternal peace bestowing atmosphere.  These huts belong to Gandhi, his wife and his followers. Despite being inside one of these huts, one never feels the disconnection with nature; which one usually does in modern houses. It was really jaw dropping for me to rediscover something of this sort. Limitation of resources and the inability of the governments to generate enough funds is a global issue. Organisation such as the United Nations discuss this issue every year. The Sevagram appeared to give such an economical and wise solution that it made me wonder why we didn’t look into this before. I decided that I will tell more people about this so that more and more people are walked into this epiphany.

 

Action is a very appealing part of CAS. It is all about getting physically involved in activities which demand muscle work or are associated with recreation. For some of us the mere act of walking bare feet on the pebbly pathway was a lot of work. But in general however, just visiting the place and physically engaging in the surroundings is something which refreshes our mind with all the action involved. We were 9 students in total namely: Drishti, Urja, Kiran, Jaidev, Shafqat, Kaustubh, Shradha, Rucha and me. I am sure each one of us had a wonderful experience in their own way. Many of us had never been to such a place and in the course of exploring the place all of us inevitably learned something new.

I learned how to cultivate locally global thought in myself and others and realised the true concept of Sewagram. In addition personally, I was mesmerized by the calm peaceful atmosphere and inspired by the hardships, determination, and dedication of Bapu towards himself, his followers and the world. It was my last CAS activity and truly it turned out to summarise the whole of CAS philosophy. I became more humble and altruistic after visiting this place and was really thrilled by all the action which it concealed within it. It was undoubtedly one of the most memorable errands of my life.

Rediscovering Independence

Celebrating independence of some or the other sort is our nature. We celebrate it because freedom is much liked by everyone. But there is a lot we must learn from independence, and certainly there is a lot to learn from independence. India’s Independence is celebrated throughout India. The tales if Indian Independence reverberates in every Indian’s heart. But there is another Independence act which is not only more inspiring but perhaps the most influential on the face earth. It was the independence act of the United Stated of America.

Along with my classmates and Ms Vijayalaxmi I planned to commemorate the Independence Day of USA on 4^th July. It was something unusual because we never celebrated some other country’s independence. We thought that it was worth doing so since it would be an activity which would serve the audience in a completely different way. I personally felt that all those countries who were once ruled by some other country celebrate their independence to express the joy of free will. USA got its Independence more than 200 years ago and is a country which has turned out to dominate the world.

It was really an amazing feeling. We collected information which required to share with the audience and ensured that out message was clear. The main motive behind undertaking this task was to tell others how a the sense of independence changes from culture to culture and how we can learn from the American beliefs in independence.  The main challenge however what to present this information is a manner with conserved the venerability of both the Indian and the American Independence Acts. I felt it was necessary to know about how the Americans think of their independence and how Indians do. Not that any of them is better than the other since everyone is entitled to their opinion but I thought that as IB students it was our ethical responsibility to encourage others to be unbiased and free of contaminated presumptions. This however needed to be done in a way which did not vent any unwanted controversy.

In a way, we wanted to present a new perspective to look at freedom. As we discussed in our program I myself realised a lot of interesting things. We do celebrate freedom but since our thinking is at times enslaved by the geographical distribution of freedom. In addition we have become slaved to freedom itself.  It is happening in many other countries around the world and we can only eliminate it by acting locally by spreading awareness. This is what we did. I and my co-host Shradha were the main speakers of the event. We explained how independence in USA is celebrated and how they value their freedom. I tried to force the audience to think of freedom as something which doesn’t belong to USA or India but is something which every individual on earth must keep in mind and cherish. It is only when we stop being slaves to freedom will we achieve it in true sense.

Independence and freedom if believing that we are not controlled by anyone but ourselves. Leashing ourselves and unleashing our potential is what freedom should be. While conveying these thoughts to the audience I my when into and introspecting mode where I tried to analyse if I myself for the same. And after a little thought I realised where I was right and where I needed to work more. This service to others in turn served me by provoking thought and increasing my awareness about myself. 

Serving the Greetings_2

‘Joy to the world the lord is come,

Let earth receive her king

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing!’

Each face was overjoyed; every heart was pounding with excitement, if not for Christmas, at least for the vacations! The celebration had begun the carols were in the air. The atmosphere was full of colours and the pleasant aroma of confectioneries. The surroundings resembled those in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol; except of course, there were no Scrooges to yell, ‘Bah! Humbug!’ 

All were ready to play their parts in today’s event and so was I. The array of our Christmas cards awaited the guest of honour; and we waited outside the room with a pair of scissors arranged in floral tray. It sounds stereotypical, but it is actually a lot of fun to live a perfectly planned scene. You always know what would happen.  

The guests inaugurated our exhibition and were very happy to see our work. They appreciated our endeavour and promised to contribute to it.

After that our so-called customers started coming. In apparently no time, the place was full of enthusiastic buyers and we were working with an astounding verve. We sold almost all of our cards and it yielded us `2,000. This combined with the `3,000 we raised during candle making summed up to more than ` 5,000! That was a big amount! As we planned initially we made all those who bought the cards happy and at the same time the fund raised was quite handsome. We can now look forward to our next session with the little buds when we intend to devote this money.

By the end of the day everyone was happy, satisfied, and joyous and of course – tired. We all wished the season’s greetings and congratulated each other for yet another successful CAS activity. As the school closed down for the vacations and the buses departed, they left behind a cloud of dust which cleared to say – 

‘We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!’

Serving the Greetings_1

Since there wasn’t a single scratch in the room we were allotted, we had to – well – start from the scratch! It wasn’t long before I found myself as the chief of arrangements deciding each and everything and dividing work and supervising it. I was given that duty and it demanded quick planning and implementation. It was a pressure test; I had never worked such conditions before. People often think that it is easy to ‘boss around’ doing practically nothing. On the contrary however, if you understand your responsibilities, it is the most difficult task! You are responsible not just for your own performance but also for that of your fellow classmates! It is challenging, and to some extent scary.

Nevertheless I quickly figured out all the things we needed to do and assigned them to the most suitable people. I started off with preparing an accounting sheet for card sales, printed it, and gave it to Shafqat and Danish – commerce majors – so that they can further work their way out to systematically recording the sales. They also arranged the tables on which cards were to be displayed. I asked Rucha and Shradha to do the colouring and painting of the posters and advertisements. I provided them with everything they needed – from paintbrushes to cardboards – and assisted them from time to time. I made Jaidev, Tanmay and Kaustubh responsible for the cardboard cutting and decorating work, and I myself took up the task of editing and printing some vital information which we needed to display during our CAS activity.

Although I tried not to be rude to anyone and helped them with all my potential, I don’t know if I successfully carried out my task. I mean, I am quite certain of what I did, but when it comes to organizing people you just cannot make everyone happy. Excessive precaution and thorough-mindedness is required to keep things going smoothly without any unnecessary outrage. No matter how hard you try, you always feel you could have done better. I find such situations very awkward. I hope I managed things well.

That being done, just like everyone else I was under an impression that our work for today was done. But again, things were ready to astound me.  I realised that there was a part the display I had missed entirely hitherto – the title display board! No work had being done on it! I decided to stay back and complete that myself. It was difficult as it was a fairly big task. I quickly thought of an idea and started working on it. The school was going to end in a couple of hours and I still had a lot to complete. Fortunately, Asmita (DP Year 2), Stanis (DP Year 2) and my classmates Rucha and Shradha came to help me at that crucial hour. I don’t know how to express my gratitude towards them, especially Rucha who helped me despite her ill-health. I was moved by this noble act of theirs, somewhere I saw a different definition of teamwork in it. Such instances like these make me think that if we see everything we do as a team effort, as a consequence of the works done by many including us; wouldn’t it improve us as a social being? That’s because believe it not, there is nothing really independent in this world; it’s a massive web of interdependence. The things we do might appear to be our personal endeavour but they are really not! Everything we do is a team work in some or the other way.  That being said, why not consider us a part of an endless team while we work? Wouldn’t that be great?

Soon, with their help, I was able to make an adequate title board. After arranging the things properly, the place was ready for tomorrow – the grand Christmas celebration. 

The Greeting Service_5

Today, I finally finished my target of 10 cards.  I never thought I would ever be able to do it. I would have given a ‘phew’ expression if I hadn’t become more aware of my abilities and realised something which left me grinning. Since I had worked all this time with a single thought of charity in mind, I could not only feel my indefatigable spirit but also experience immense satisfaction and euphoria! It was a wonderful feeling, but of course not the only one. The other was surprise. Today since most of us had completed making cards, we were supposed to get them ready for selling, label them and price them. With a multitude of cards lying in front of us, it seemed like and endless task, but as soon as we got ourselves doing it, we found ourselves done in apparently no time. There are times like these, when the most unlikely source teaches something so important that you question if there is really other way you could have learned it. We often have preconceptions about different tasks and to comply with them we usually act in a pre-decided manner restricting the possible novelties. I had worked this time without any prior assumptions and it yielded me such interesting results. I think therefore that we must treat every task with a fresh mind and without prior suppositions as to its nature. That way we can unlock the secret doors of creativity, and experience uniqueness.

The packing was done and our stock was ready but where was our shop? That was our task for tomorrow, and the surprise I was speaking of. Ms. Vijayalaxmi informed us about the room were allotted for our display, and to our amazement it was a blank room with no arrangement or decoration whatsoever! Dressing the place appropriately, hence, will be our priority for the next session. Things are going to be more fun I anticipated; I already started feeling it.

The Greeting Service_4

9 December 2013

Although I had planned to make more cads at home, I could hardly comply with. In fact I couldn’t even make one! It is annoying sometimes when things don’t work out the way you want them to; by anyways I thought I would at least be able to make them at school today. But seriously sometimes things just don’t work out! As Bill Watterson said, creativity is not a faucet, which can the turned on and off. I sat with a blank card in my hand the entire session, struggling to get an idea. I scribbled here and there and cut out different things but I just couldn’t get my mind into making a card. I had studied a lot of mathematics and physics recently and so it was all cos (ωt+ф) and sinϴ in my mind. I was feeling annoyed because I couldn’t get my target completed yesterday and was not able to get it done still! I knew I was demonstrating inadequate perseverance; nevertheless I decided to stay committe

d to the task and asked Mrs. Deepshri for help. Since our 1 hour session was about to end, she only asked me to cut some Christmas tree figures she was going to put on the cards. She said that, she along with the students of IGCSE, was also willing to contribute to our CAS activity. Mrs. Vijayalaxmi and we all were very happy to hear that. We would now have more cards to sell and a greater charitable potential. I finished my work and hoped that next time, I’ll be able to do it more properly.

12 December 2013

Today when I went to the art room, Mrs. Deepshri had something which was going to help me a lot – paper quilling! She taught me how strips of coloured papers were coiled using needle-like equipment, and made into beautiful 3D designs. It was something new and it was easy too! I learned some more techniques from her and then made 4 cards today. It was a wonderful experience. It is always fun developing new skills. I realised that creativity especially in the field of arts is something which only strikes when the mind is fresh and agile. This made me think if the way arts were taught in schools was correct. I mean if one cannot force creativity then why are children expected to draw or paint on specific topics? Isn’t it unethical? Well, as far as I am concerned I never liked my teachers telling me what to draw – or in other words limiting my imagination – so I do think that teaching a creative subject through a topic oriented methodology is immoral.  When I discussed it with some of my friends, most of them agreed. That being the case I reached an impasse wherein I couldn’t understand why, if most people agreed with the notion was arts taught in such a restricted way!

Well, I am not sure where what conclusion that discussion led to, but what I am sure of is that I was enjoying making cards finally!  I took up some stereotypical Christian symbols and made them appear in my cards with novelty. I have to get 4 more cards done before 18^th and am trying to input my best efforts.