A peek into the inner landscapes

"What is life when you are walking in the garden?" is what a teacher from Sunbeam School, Balia, and I were talking about in our recent Wisdom Mandli session on Saturday, when she used the word 'sukoon' in her response. When some cards kept appearing and disappearing on the screen, with questions that are felt but mostly not asked of each other in everyday conversation, I was asking myself: What interests me in the world now? What am I curious to find out- the chaos, the harmony and the functioning of everything around me. 

Sometimes, there is an assumption that learning sessions are online, and they seem slightly disorienting until you attend them with the intention of meeting and hearing the voices of educators and people sharing their conundrums in life and school. Take what speaks to you, and don't beat yourself up for everything that's beyond your head. 

Wisdom Mandli was a session that opened my curiosity about the mundane around me! I was aware of what I feel in the kitchen, in the garden, or under the stars (they are hardly visible now), but can I speak about just that to a fellow teacher? We live in different realities, but these are such universal feelings and experiences. We were just coming to a point in the discussion where we were brainstorming how we could bring wisdom to our children and still be able to teach our curriculum when it struck me- Isn't talking about it already a large part of why we would want our children to learn in the first place? We are surrounded by ecology and nature all the time, but we sometimes just bypass it and do not pause to wonder. These sessions with Wisdom Mandli by project Fuel are my gateway for this month to something larger than me, me, me. I'd like my students to tell me how they feel when they walk barefoot on the ground. I am curious about their observations. It is a peek into their inner landscapes, and these questions seem like a torch to go with. 

Neelashi Mangal is the Head of Training and Development at the Learning Forward India Foundation. You may wish to email her at NM@LearningForward.org.in

When I Die - Reveda Bhatt

So, God gave me a new life to live, but, you know, let’s face it, I am not immortal, so I have to die one day. I know I’ll be walking toward the cliff one day and disappearing into the grieving, shallow darkness.

To those who think -Thinking about death is depressing, or maybe I am depressed. Ahh, that’s a straight-away no because thinking about what’s going to come one day is absolutely normal, be it a new start to life or a jump to death. In fact, thinking about it gives me a unique perspective on how to look at life - it’s just the beginning of the end. That may sound weird, but personally, it inspires me not to hold on to a moment looking for the lost one but to move on to see what the next brings. Plus, it’s all about perspective -if we hold on to one side, we might miss out on the fun on the other.

Plus, one thing I read recently- “Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break.” So, you see, this end called death exists because if it didn’t, either way, nobody wants to leave, keeping aside the matter of suic*de because something in them forces them to end this suffering once and for all, maybe because they never saw the brighter side of things. Don’t take any of it personally, please.

Now, about me - I want to serve humanity for a good reason, a good cause. And believe me when I say
that, “It will never change!”

Not going for materialistic things in excess. I want to give them away to the needy. In fact, a part of what we earn, we should give away because nothing is ours. Once we leave, it’ll just be the things belonging here-they don’t go with us.

I am sure, doing all that, after a moment, I’ll find myself walking toward the cliff I know has an end - Free falling.

“That’s why when I die, I want people to remember me for life I lived, not for the money I made.”

Then, vision widening lights off!

Reveda Bhatt
Grade 9
The Aryan School