Loosely translated, a Sangha is a group of virtuous people walking on the path of inner transformation. Again, loosely translated, a ‘Kalyan Mitra’ is a ‘Virtuous Friend’ who supports us while walking on this path of inner purification. As me and my team were planning a session for the staff at Dongri, we were thinking about the intention of doing it and somewhere within me, I felt a clear intention of creating a ‘Sangha’ within Dongri and attempting to become a Kalyan Mitra for the others. With this in mind, we planned our first staff session with the name ‘SanghaMitra – Me to We to Us’. ‘Me to We to Us’ was our theme for the first session, a concept borrowed from ServiceSpace.
Xavier Sir and Harsh, both were an integral part of this session, including the planning. For our first session, we decided to keep some fun group games which would bring joy to the participants as well as boost their motivation, while imbibing the spirit of teamwork and togetherness. But more importantly, we decided to create a welcoming atmosphere and a strong context as they entered our room. Our room by itself is a big open room, with a lot of artwork done by the kids showcased on the walls. Further, we had arranged the cushions (made by the kids) in a rectangular circle with a centerpiece which said “Oneness / Ekta”. For their welcome, we greeted each participant with a ‘Tika’ and tied a Me-We tag on their hands. An instrumental version of Vaishnav Vajanto was playing in the background, and the setting was very serene and calming, with a subtle sense of spirituality in the air. This was a very new setting for the staff too and they all felt very moved. It allowed us to open a window to their minds and hearts.
With such a beautiful start, I set the intention of these staff sessions, our purpose of starting this series and also the theme of this particular session. It was well received by all the participants and we could convey our point across with simplicity and genuineness.
For the icebreaker, we played the ‘Step In Step Out’ game, where we asked them various yes / no questions and asked them to either step in or step out depending on their answer. This was a fun activity to get them oriented and see the similarities and differences among themselves. Some of these questions were a little reflective and sensitive too, since we wanted it to start off with some depth and not just have superficial questions.
From there, we went on to play the two main games that we had planned – Traffic Jam and Minefield! Before we started these games, Sheetal took the participants through a mental journey, back to their childhoods and asked them to become children again for the upcoming games, and they really responded to this mental experiment. Both the games were intellectual and needed high levels of teamwork. We divided everyone into two groups, while trying to ensure that people from the same units are in different teams. The first game was quite frustrating for both times since it was actually a little difficult. At the end, neither of the teams could crack it, but they were still very persistent until they were shown the solution.
The last game was a lot of fun! Everyone from both teams had to complete this game and it brought out lots of fun elements and emotions! The participants simply enjoyed looking at each other, applying their minds, laughing at their silly mistakes and becoming children again! At the same time, we saw some inspiring traits from unexpected participants. One such example came from a participant, who is a sweeper and janitor at the girl’s section and is very reserved and generally doesn’t speak up much because of hierarchy. She was the first one in her team to complete the second game (Minefield) despite having trouble at the beginning. Over the course of the session, her confidence went up and she felt that she had a place in the room, that she belonged and she could also be good at various things. At the end, she shared her thoughts during the reflection round, which itself was a big step in her journey. She shared that during the event, they forgot about everything else and were completely present in the now, including work, seniority, roles, tensions, and more. This observation gave us a sense of joy and we were happy that we could be an instrument towards creating this space where everyone can participate, feel belonged and feel confident. In the group, we also observed various other characteristics, like some were persistent, some were dominating, some were observant, some were shy, and some were simply having fun! Some of the emotions and expressions are captured in the pictures below. 🙂
Finally, after the game ended, we again came back to our cushions in the circle and sat for a little while, unpacking what had just happened over the last hour and a half. There were some interesting reflections and thoughts that came from the staff. They shared learnings like; “if you keep trying consistently, you can achieve your goal”, “supporting each other and being a team is very important”, “what initially seems impossible starts to become possible with patience, persistence and oneness”, and many more! One striking reflection was, “I was initially cursing my teammates who were doing badly, but over time I realized that I need all of them to do well for my team to win, and so I started encouraging them!” From these sharings itself, I drew some learnings and conclusions and tied it back to our theme for the day – ‘Me to We to Us’. Overall, the session went very well and everyone had a wonderful time, individually and collectively! There was a sense of togetherness irrespective of positional hierarchy or roles. Many layers of resistance had been shedded among themselves and towards us
Within our team, there was a deep sense of contentment and joy. This event was preceded by the first episode of ‘Safar Zindagi Ka’, just on the previous day, and both these events went extremely well and had a wonderful response from everyone.
After these two events, I got a message from Sheetal, “Mai aise sessions ho is ke bare me sochati thi…such me koi aisi team milegi aur kam hoga kya aise sawal aata tha… Par yeh ho raha hai… thank you once again” (“I used to think about such sessions but always questioned if I would ever get a team with whom this would be possible… but now it is happening… thank you once again”)… And I simply echo this thought and feel blessed to be a part of a team that is able to do such work. 🙌🏻🙏🏻
Love Joy Peace
