Sustaining Chapters -Creating Volunteer Value

As I try (note the word) to distance myself from the day to day workings of the Bombay chapter, I spend some more time thinking about how the chapter can be taken forward and developed! Also helps me add some colour to the chapter like linkages with the mozilla foundation and enlightening them with download days of firefox - is this what someone meant by saying we should make the Bombay chapter more lively - maybe!.

This was something i never thought about in NSIT (my engineering college), which was my first association with SPIC MACAY. There, I assumed, being a college an organic growth was imminent and it was something that happened on its own. Consequently, I failed miserably at in MICA, due to never thinking about it then.

Experience is the best teacher and I learned that if I need to play an active role in Bombay (something i resisted till I felt there were more committed peopleplaying an active role!)

Priyank soon left and SPIC MACAY fest 2008 approaching and no one who would take the initiative to organise it, I decided this was the time to try and explore the old wine, but in a completely new bottle. So may be how I should savour it should also change.

I knew that there were a couple of people priyank had initiated into the scheme of things, and they could just be told what to do and they would achieve the desired effect of 15 concerts - in say 10 schools/ colleges. But could the same 15 concerts be achieved with a greater impact. I am not really talking about an impact in the city / media etc - but as priyadashan puts it rather nicely - the concerts adding more value to us - the spicmacayites, the volunteers!

A google group to which i kept posting almost felt like I was writing to the wall, making proclamations of revived saturday meetings, which at times evoked some valid cynicism and mockery,organising dinner parties to which practically no one would turn up!Many times I felt that I was trying to weave into a community wide project, a set of simple tasks which i could achieve by simple coordination skills - which SPIC MACAY had taught me in good measure by now!

However, the wall i felt I was talking to soon began to crumble as priyadarshan instantly bought into my ideas about how we work being equally ( I am tempted to say 'more') important than what we achieve!


It is impossible to quantify what we achieved by all this but if I was to put it vaguely, here is a small list -

1.We revived a feel good factor that fans and supporters of spic macay in mumbai had not felt in a long time!

2. We revived a certain volunteer curiosity > Anyone who came forward with an intention to volunteer at any scale, however big or small did not go back disappointed!

3. This interest did not stay limited to the fest series. but a similar exercise for planning and implementing the convention travel by priyadarshan - has had a certain impact on a few more people!

4. As Saturday meetings was not the most viable of things, google groups, documents and things like this blog attempt to replicate the saturday like effects with a greater regularity and with greater width

The key take home from all this being that if we begin with focussing on creating volunteer value, the likelihood of a chapter sustaining will be far greater!

And volunteer value will not come from the end product but the process, the means to achieve the end!

Let me end with a very simple and actionable example that highlights my point- by commenting on this post and hence engaging in an online discussion around it - you will add value to this volunteer's post - and make him count!

cheers
Harsh

The Transition

The convention happened from 11th Jun to 24th. Although in my mind, it had begun a long time ago, ever since me and Harsh started planning for it. For me, there was always an uncertainty as to whether I will be able to go because my project was officially to finish on 15th Jun. The convention was the only motivating factor which made it possible for me to finish my project much before time. It took a lot of effort and about 15 Good DDP Days to complete my DDP. The last two three months have been magical for me. Although there were few things lined up after I finished my IIT phase, to me life after IIT was the 'Kohima Convention'. Everthing else was to be thought about after coming back!

Travel Plans

The convention being in Kohima, it was a real effort planning the travel. We had four parameters to consider; travel time; travel cost; safety and comfort. May I take this opportunity to introduce you to http://erail.in/. This website is has done justice to the sheer size and complexity of Indian Railways. With its help we planned journeys via Calcutta, Mughal Sarai, Patna, Guwahati. Looking up for connecting trains, ensuring there is sufficient time between them to account for delays etc. is really easy on this website. To imagine using the Indian Railways website to plan such a complex journey gives me the blues :)

Finally we decided to take the direct train (52 hours) to Guwahati, halt for a day and then take the Brahmaputra Mail to Dimapur on which the Delhi Chapter was travelling. Considering that the journey was really long, we decided to travel 3A till Guwahati to ensure that everyone reaches without falling ill and with full enthusiasm. Another worry was the journey through Bihar. We had been warned about it. This brings me to another important learning.

Planning for the Worst: Many things we do in life, we plan too much for 'What if'. We live a very wasteful life because of that. Like what if many people get into the train in Bihar, what if I am robbed of all my cash, what if we all fall sick by eating the train food etc. Lets therefore travel by 3A so that we all reach safe and sound. Let us conveniently forget the 90% people who travel sleeper, general dabba, who sleep on roads and and as much human beings as we are. Cause we are just not one of them. There is an extreme sense of disconnection with the larger part of this world. Why is it so? Why can't I just sit on the platform, just like most people do. Why can't I just let 8 people sit on the birth which can easily accomodate even 10 people. Aren't they like me or may be like my uncle or grandmother or simply a friend?

Mumbai to Guwahati in 55 hours

The 3A travel was uneventful in the conventional sense. However the nine of us really bonded together very well. Cards, dumbsie, Mafia, singing with the electronic tanpura... (thanks to the electric connection in the compartment), making random stories, discussing about varied topics and having lots and lots of food; thanks to all those who came from home!! Not a moment in the journey was boring. We got to know each other very well.

Group Size: The size of the group was just right. Its possible to know everyone really well. I wonder how it would have been if we were 150 people!! It would have just been a crowd and I wonder whether one on one communication would have been possible. Besides this we were all college students at different stages and in different fields.

Not Just SPIC MACAY

One of the biggest realization to me was the transformation from SPIC MACAY to Not Just SPIC MACAY. Spic works at different levels. The first being the promotion aspect. This is how it is for students who attend concerts in schools and colleges, where they get to know about different art forms. At the second level, is that of a volunteer when you actually do things for organizing events etc. The third level is when it actually makes think about the depth and thought behind the art; the why of an art :)

I didn't have my cell phone, watch, computer, gmail, camera etc to give me intrusive company. Just the people around. It does give a lot of time to think. In fact after two days I had lost complete track of time and was living just on a daily basis. I had lost track of how many days we had been there and how many days would remain. Its quite an experience :) Also I had decided that I would not buy anything on the way so there was no need to think about shopping, sight seeing. These are the things Kiran Sir stresses on and they do seem extreme. But I feel that one should try them out because before you actually experience them its not possible to make a judgement about them. Same about the junk food that he strongly urged us not to have.

I had taken the Kudiattam intensive in the convention, and in the first session, Kapila Venu Ji put up for discussion a very interesting concept. She said people asked her why does she pursue Kudiattam. It got me thinking a lot. The most basic step of Kudiattam is really difficult. It takes months, maybe years to actually master this step. Besides there is nothing apparently big or flashy that one does when performing. No world wide fame and glamour. So neither is the fame aspect the driving force. So then why o why would or should someone pursue something like this. I feel one major human desire is that of want of fame and glamour. It seems so difficult to imagine a life of anonymity even if it is devoted for a meaningful pursuit such as growing and improving as a human being.

Is 'To be a better human being' not enough a reason to pursue something in life?

Rather; should that not be the sole reason to wake up every day and breathe all day long?

We are so scared of so many things that we digress from this path. I remember reading somewhere that 'Men go greater lengths to avoid what they fear than pursue what they desire'. How true it is.

The NORTH EAST and Indianness

What is all this talk about an INDIAN Identity? What all exactly do I include when I speak of this INDIAN Identity? Should I even have an Indian Identity? Is it necessary? We are all so different. Why should a 'political' truth govern my sense of identity? Just because we are politically a country is not enough a reason to make me feel one with all who are part of it and distinct from all who are outside of it. This is something that we all should seriously think about

So many thought processes have started in my mind because of this convention. Truly Convention is something that one has to experience. A sensitive and disturbance free mind can definitely add towards making it an even more enriching and fulfilling experience.

To me its been a transition from SPIC MACAY to Not Just SPIC MACAY!!

-priyadarshan

The Convention for me...!

When I read what shalaka had so beautifully written, I too had an instant urge to share what I had experienced. And then I stopped. Did I have something more to say? I was not very sure. At least, I was not sure I could really express it as well. But, hell, you are going to have to read it anyways!

Well, for me, this convention was something exotic, and that was one of the major reasons why I wanted to go there. Another reason was that I was getting the opportunity to see what 'spicmacay' was really about! I wanted to see how the rest of the people look like, the way they think, the way they function... and I can't say I didn't learn all these things. I gathered that many of the people are more organised than what our chapter is, but I also came to realise that we, as a chapter, contain very many thinking heads. Together, if we are motivated enough, (And I think we are, after the convention) we could be a great success.

But this convention worked out much more than just that. It really gave me very good friends. What shalaka said is quite true, we only make friends with people who are like us. And, strangely enough, although we come from totally different backgrounds, in the core we were just the same, and I'm infinitely glad that we were. We gelled like we knew each other since childhood. I guess it's also about how much you share with the person. I've always believed that when you eat, sleep, drink, do everything with a person for a period of time, you get to know that person so well, that you either repel each other very strongly, or you discover that you are very compatible. A third option does not exist.

I mean, there were people around who made u think, and the fact was that every one of us was open to another's opinion. We were not the ones to hold fastidious beliefs. That's what really gave us the capability of understanding the other person, and what a joy it was to find people who think exactly the way you do! Especially, these days, it's very hard (at least for me) to find people who think like me, or who I am extremely compatible with, and here I found them, and in bulk! Not one, not two, but six! We were all peculiar, some were timid, some were very vocal and outgoing, some funny, some would just be there, without expressing outwardly, but I don't know how, or why, but I guess we all understood and appreciated each other and that's what really bonded us so well. And every one in the group had something of their own to add to it. That was really good. It wasn't like any one person was the heart and soul of the discussion, or of the group.

All in all, it was a truly enriching experience. I wouldn't say musically enriching, but overall, culturally. I hope and pray that all of us have found our golden bird... I certainly did!

- niranjani

Kohi Wah !!

Like most great experiences, this one too was unanticipated. I had no idea that the exclamation mark in that email entitled ‘Kohima!’ would translate to walking in the clouds heady with melody, learning Assamese folk songs and laughing so much that your dentures threatened autonomy. As a new addition to the SPICMACAY Mumbai chapter I had attended meetings with somewhat trepidation at my lack of a definite reason to do so. At the Kohima convention I found that reason. But that is only one entry in my endless inventory of finds such as love for the dextrous dhol dancers, my capacity to drink steaming cups of chai at any hour of the day, lilting voices of the genteel Naga community and fabulous friends (including my good friend Rice who stood by me through dal and taal), not necessarily in that order!

The North-east is one of the most beautiful parts of India. Its natural beauty is largely preserved, perhaps because most trains take 52 hours to reach there. It is only if you brave through a long and arduous journey that you truly begin to deserve and appreciate the magnificence of this undulated terrain.

At 7:15, LTT (where our train began its feat) saw a scurry of young people and their assorted family members make a beeline for the B-3 compartment. From a list of 20 confirmed we were down to 9. PD (Priyadarshan), Nirubhai Anjani (Niranjani), Bachpan (Yash), Sanganmaili (Saili), Dhanu (Dhanashree), Prof Anand Rao, Laxman and I. Abhishek joined us at Nashik. I barely knew anybody. Some people I had met for the first time in my life. Little did I know that in just a few hours I’d be sharing more than a bed-spread, a balti and endless bak bak with them. They say that you only get along if you have things in common with other people. Ironically enough in this trip I got along with a lot of people because their life experiences were most uncommon and removed from my own. When chatter or classical music didn’t unite us, ‘Mafia’ the great leveller did. While each one of us took turns at making spirited pleas as ‘innocent citizens’, the game was also an effective revelation of the infinitude of human stupidity. While my vociferous ‘lawyer’ tone got most of the compartment running for the mute switch others like Maijo (a fellow traveller from Arunachal Pradesh who joined in the revelry) unwittingly publicized their identity by declaring, ‘haan healer’ to whoever cared to listen :) It is fitting here to mention that this seemingly endless flow of energy came to us by rapidly consuming large quantities of delicious food that our collective parents had wisely thrust upon us. I reached out to the window to gaze at the scenic wonder that is Assam and before I knew it my 52 hours had melted into Guwahati station.

We hauled our luggage and made our way to the youth hostel (we still haven’t figured out why Netaji’s statue mounted a horse right outside the hostel) guided ably by our new found train mates Maijo, Tracy and Romero. Then we made our good selves habitable less by soap and water and more by reassessing the definition of ‘clean’ in our mental dictionary and sat down to a staple diet of dal and rice. That evening we hopped from the bazaar to the Brahmaputra and from tomato sauce soup to sound sleep. Next morning Kalakshetra and an unusually rainy Guwahati greeted our happy lot. I loved the museum and its green environs and in the blink of an eye it was 1 A.M. and I was standing at the platform waiting for the Brahmaputra mail to transport me to Dimapur which it did.

Dimapur’s blazing blue sky reminded me of Bombay and little green buses entitled ‘Nagaland State Transport’ took us to our destination-Kohima. When we reached the gates of Nagaland University (or Naghalendyunivercidi as the locals like to pronounce it) I felt like a Haj pilgrim meeting her Mecca. All of us armed ourselves with brooms and swept everything in the vicinity including an indignant looking wall spider and put down mattresses with a ready list for each dorm. But it is only when a thousand strong crowd made a meal of passion fruit and pickle that my heart leaped to the tune of Kohima convention, Kohima convention, Kohima convention! But I had to wait until evening to give names to the faces in this crowd as we had an introductory session of every Chapter in the country. As the Mumbai chapter we sang ‘Jayostutey’ and naturally Sanganmaili and Dhanu sent a few hearts aflutter with their magical voices :)

On 16th June 2008 for the first time in my life something other than Company Law woke me up at 3: 30 in the morning. Yog. Dr. Kiran Seth eased the grip of sleep from our eyelids as he taught us various asans until seven that morning. The sun in Nagaland holds its belly and laughs at you if you sleep for a minute more than 6. At four in the morning it is shining at you so matter of factly that you feel guilty even for thinking about sleeping.

After breakfast we went to a superbly constructed hanger and watched a musical of Naga folk dances which to me was the best dance ballet I had ever seen, until I watched Kapila Venu of course. The Chief Minister and the University Chancellor (Mr. Kannan) had come and so had Manishankar Iyer and they threw in speeches from a secretary and undersecretary as well for what reason I couldn’t quite figure except perhaps visual symmetry on the dais.

I quite enjoyed the fast paced violin rendition by the Mysore brothers that afternoon though the highlight of the day was Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar’s vocal which got over much too quickly. In the evening we saw a repeat of the morning’s Naga dances but even this time they were equally enthralling if not better. Later a whole lot of confusion followed as we all hopped from one intensive (a workshop where for 5 days you learn an art form of choice) to another until finally exhausted we headed ‘home’ for bed.

On day 2 (17th June) I had decided to learn Assamese folk music and the rest of the gang headed for their respective intensives such as Kalamkari, Koddiattam and Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan’s vocal. My intensive introduced me to an art form (folk music) I’d never ordinarily have learnt. But my esteemed friends were a step further. Some of them learnt how to find novel ways to escape from the grind of a three hour session and run off to the stadium to play cards and chomp on ‘chida’ making someone very much upset! Despite this we all managed a decent performance of what we had learnt, on the last day.

The next three days for me passed in a blur. I remember being in a musical daze. But then this convention was about so much more. Among the lecture demonstrations I particularly enjoyed the one conducted by Dadi Pudumjee on puppetry. In those three hours as he showed us a power point presentation of his various shows and demonstrated the work of his life-size puppets, he brought their cardboard noses and piquant expressions to life. Through Anjolie Ela Menon’s intensive on painting I realised that the paint was but a medium for the phantasmagorical imagery her pictures created in my mind. Even photography (Raghu Rai) was so much more than a click in time.

Among the vocal performances the one I enjoyed the best was that of Ashwini tai (Ashwini Bhide-Despande) simply because it was just that, no frills attached. Of course the fact that two of my friends were performing on the stage alongside added to the glee. While most people seemed to have enjoyed Hari Prasad Chaurasia’s performance to me it was a little too shrill and a little too still. But of course I am a novice. There was a great debate brewing among my friends as to whether the crowd was or was not aware of what Rajan, Sajan Mishra were doing, but I’ll leave that for another day. Everyone forgot that I had the opportunity of compeering (after pacifying an angry contender) for Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s performance but no one will forget the magic of his Mohan veena for a long time. While Madhuranjani was just about okay, the last piece from his Grammy award winning album more than made up for the lull. And you thought a guitar was used only for rock!

I will not describe the trip to the cemetery or the museum in Kohima for lets leave some lines in the schedule intact.

For the finale, we all awaited the grand overnight. As the clock struck 9 we trudged to the hanger looking like bandits covered with blankets. The night began with Ustad Dagar’s Dhrupad which ended by one in the night. I grandly declared that I was not sleepy at all even as I watched PD, Dhanu, an open mouthed Bachpan and Sanganmaili blissfully snoring. Abhishek had already left for the room on the pretext that he needed tea until Ustad Dagar fished for his dha! To her credit Nirubhai didn’t sleep a wink throughout the night. A superb Karnatic vocal rendition by Bombay Jayashree followed. I watched enchanted. I was not sleepy. Then between 2 and 4 Kapila Venu mesmerised the stage with her graceful hands and her fiercely agile face to the rhythmic beat of an instrument that looked like a pot but roared like a lion. PD, Dhanu, Sangan, Bachpan, Niru sat up, wide-eyed. I fell asleep. I slept through what was the best performance of the convention. Stupid forty winks. As dawn approached we decided to call it a day (forgive the pun) and catch a couple of hours of what else, forty winks. But PD armed with his Kodiattam moves intervened and we agreed to listen to ‘mat jao na’. No one regretted it. A hundred year old man , with no fingers, a running temperature and an upset stomach sat up and sang to the heavens above for two whole hours. Could we have asked for more? Kiran Seth had told us that there is one point in the night when one begins to see everything clearly and that’s when you catch the ‘golden bird’. Unfortunately for me, my glasses were cracked that night. But like Sharukh Khan says, ‘picture abhi khatam nahi hui hai bhai’.

The journey back home was as eventful. It began with a broken jam bottle was interspersed with rescuing harried friends from the general compartment and dashing into running trains and ended with a slightly more warmed globe, thanks to a heated discussion on carbon credits. Despite all this the train was on time.

The best way to teach a child a task is to do it yourself first. To me this logic was the central theme of the convention. It began to dawn upon me that there was really nothing I couldn’t give up. And no one told me this in so many words. I just slowly saw the pattern unravel. Often I argued over questions only so that I could convince myself how thoroughly unnecessary some of the assumptions I was holding on to were. For the first few days I battled against what I viewed as restrictions over my time and space when I was asked to wake up at a certain time or for example refrain from eating kurkure. But slowly, unknown to me, as I watched others live the motto of ‘simple living, high thinking’ with such ease, I found myself picking up litter and readily accepting the fact that I didn’t really need Maggi from the tapri. Dal, rice would do just as well. Cracked glasses notwithstanding it is here that I caught sight of the golden bird. Soar!

-Shalaka