My experience of cycle yatra

Cycle yatra

I went for a six day cycle yatra, 17 of us went without money,food or gadgets on cycles

My intention was to Reconnect with myself,nature,swaraj community and outside community.

It was a beautiful, intense and amazing cycle yatra. I feel it is impossible for me to express what all i experienced in words. So many things happened, so many little things i saw which taught me ­something, which showed me something.

Two strong feelings I came back with

Have faith the universe will take care of you.

Have faith in destiny, what has to happen will happen.

I started with fears and worries, with lots of uncertainty. Yet i was excited and eager to do this journey.

My fears:-

• No money! how will we get food?
• Okay we will create relationships with people, What!!! what if that doesn't happen?
• Cycle yatra in winter. Oh my god, how will I manage
• I don't have that much physical stamina to do this yatra
• what if someone gets hurt, or someone harms us

and the list goes on...All the safety nets gone, i decided to surrender, to go with the flow...

My experience with different constraints

No money

I did not feel need for money in the entire journey.I also felt free of tension of  money, free from the fear that someone will take my money.

No Gadget.

I did not miss my phone even once. There is so much time do, talk, think and enjoy. I also loved the way as a group we co-ordinate with each other and stayed together without phone. When traveling(cycling) we waited for each other. In the village we visited each other to make sure everyone is okay. It was simply profound how these constraints brought out humanity and togetherness in our group.

No watch

I forgot to worry about “what time is it ? “.Even if i wanted to know the time , I let go. I also realized I am terrible at knowing time without watch. I have no connection with the sun, shadow,moon or stars in relation with time. I enjoyed slowness and going with the flow. Another thing is I was unable to estimate kilometers and distance, I also enjoyed not knowing how many kilometers we covered or how far we need to go or where we are going, where is our destination.

No food

As paba village was economically poor, we did not have the heart to ask for breakfast. So on the 6th day we all left without eating anything. By noon everyone were in a bad shape. Having cycled so much and having no food. I had almost no energy to move on. We reached Naya kheda bus stand and our destination Shikshantar was still 15-20 km away. Thirsty and hungry, few shopkeepers offered us tea and kachori. It was almost a life saving incident.

No food made me experience

The fact that food is in Abundance, there is no scarcity.

The feeling of extreme hunger and true hunger.

The love with which food was offered to us, it was a truly warm feeling. How wonderfully people supported us with food

The feeling of how blessed we are to get 3 meals a day without any effort

Somewhere the scarcity and greediness of food still exists but i know another side of it too, a different perspective.

I think the same goes for water. The abundance of water was amazing. How nowhere we ran out of water. How everyone offered us water and food. How not even on one day did we fall asleep hungry or without shelter.

Hunger is the best pickle

Every single meal and food i ate was extremely tasty. It was the fact that I was really hungry, I had earned that meal, I saw value in the food i was getting, i understood the amount of work gone behind the food and of course the food itself was so simple,tasty,organic,chula cooked and given to me with so much of love and with a pure heart.

Being the culture of rajasthan, the food was extremely spicy, yet I ate with no complains, i wasn’t not even complaining inside me even if it was a little challenging for me to eat. I saw how all the choosiness for food was gone from me and how i was able to value the food.

Even the food pattern was new, The villagers food schedule was different, they had only 2 meals a day morning and evening. This was a challenge for me, it was a different pattern and yet during the yatra I did not feel the need to complain about it, even though I used to get hungry at lunch time.

Of course the sweet and watery tea  is memorable and at the peak of hunger it tasted like nectar.

No cosmetics , personal care products.

I brushed only once in the whole cycle yatra( with neem stick). I did not have a bath or apply any sort of cosmetic.I did not use comb or soap.. For the six days it was fine not to brush/bath...by the way it was completely my choice not to do so.

But the journey gave me a insight on my dependability on these things and a boost to move ahead in my journey of natural alternatives to personal care products.

No using constructed toilet

Going to the toilet out in the open was out of comfort zone but i was fine. I got a new light on need for toilets...But i still find comfort in using toilets and closed bathrooms. I did not bath because i was uncomfortable to bath in the open.

Other constraints were, we had not taken any first aid kit with us, fortunately nothing serious happened and the minor injuries were taken care of easily.

We carried a basic cycle repair kit but we were not prepared for a tyre bursting or a pedal breaking..Anyway we had a lot of cycle problems and thanks to S.P,Norphel and Ajat bhaiya for religiously working on keeping our cycles in shape and for doing lots of jugadabilty to get things done. When the tyre bursted we requested a cycle shop for a new tyre,he said the tyre costed Rs 130 and he cannot help us, the neighbouring shopkeeper helped us by collecting little little money from different shopkeepers and getting us a new tyre. Many cycle bhaiyas and other people supported us in repairing our cycles and making sure our yatra doesn't stop anywhere.

I unleashed a super power, a stamina and courage in me, which i did not know i had. I was amazed with my own physical stamina, with the amount of work I did and the uphill climbing/cycling i did.

I am also amazed by my capacity to stretch myself and adapt to new situations and constraints.

What is cycle yatra and why

As a learning journey as part of the Swaraj program, The k6 batch along with 3 facilitators decided to go for a six day cycle yatra.

The cycle yatra is a journey you embark to reclaim your lives. The major concept is to journey through the villages without mobile,money or food. Stop at villages along the route and create relationships with people, find work to earn you boarding and lodging.

While each individual will learn and experience something unique from this journey. As a group we had some thoughts and objectives.

• To surrender ourselves to the universe, Have faith in the universe and its people. To gain back the trust in our people and the nature. Reconnect with gift culture
• To rediscover the concept of money and strong dependability on it.
• To connect with the rural India and take a peek in the village life and probably rediscover concepts we have lost by living in the “developed society”
• To appreciate the beauty of villages, local knowledge and nature.
• Do some physical exercise :)
• To experience slowness
• Spend some time with ourselves and reflect.
• Connect with the Swaraj community(K6 batch) on a different level.

Also as a group we agreed on our constraints for the journey.

• No money or monetary transactions
• No gadgets
• No food and we will earn our food. Avoid processed food.
• No watch and we will avoid asking “what time it is” and see if we can find out time in another way
• No using constructed toilets. Experience going in the open
• No first aid kit. How can we heal ourselves without conventional methods?
• No cosmetics or personal care products. Use natural things
• we will carry only basic cycle repair kit, rest we will see...
• We will be learners seeking to learn, not as teachers.
• and rest whatever the journey unfolds for us.

I carried only one extra pair of clothes, torch, water bottle, towel, sweater, socks,a warm cap and sleeping bag. I also carried sacks to spread and sleep on.

I found it amazing how smoothly my six days went with such minimum things.

Kitchen Gardening

"Plants are babies, if you give them nurture them well, they will
grow happily and with laughter(woh haste haste ugenge). If you neglect them and not give them enough care they will cry and droop".
This was told to me by Fatima Akka. Fatima akka comes from the village to work in campus. She is my mentor and team member in cultivating the vegetable garden at campus. She has so much of wisdom on how to grow plants and she is my teacher.

The last two weeks have been fabulous. Everyday in the morning I worked in the garden. How beautiful the garden looks now.

I learnt some basic techniques on how to cultivate any plant and how to nurture them well. I really enjoyed working in the garden. Sometimes I work along with akka, observed how she is doing and ask her questions. Sometimes I worked by myself, trying things and implementing my knowledge. The only bad thing was at times it was really sunny and it was seeping my energy.

We have grown lots of different vegetables in the garden and I am really excited and optimistic. We were able to reboot some previously planted plants which were crying for attention.

The heavens also seem to be happy, every alternate day it blesses the garden with rain. All the hard work is paying off and I am happy.  Every evening when I go to water the garden I feel nice and Its so good to see the plants growing. Some parts of the garden look like a mini farm or field.
To reach this stage after many rounds of failing in the past because for various reasons is very holistic. I am able to see why I failed in the past and what were the reasons for the vegetables not to grow.

When I look around in the garden I can see the plants laughing happily.

Summer

For the past four weeks we had a bustling life at campus with lots of new people to meet and lots of exciting things happening.

 Every Sunday we go swimming. It has been a lot of fun. I know swimming but i know only the basic. My stroke is not completely smooth and i am still perfecting the breathing and the stroke. I just practice, take tips from my parents and freaked out in the pool. I can feel and see a significant improvement in my stroke. Also with my brother I play in the pool. Swimming was one highlight of the summer and of course the ice cream after the swim.
I did Madhubani painting. It was a very peaceful experience. I enjoyed composing the painting and working with focus on one thing.
I explored making natural paints. I did some research and then tried. I tried making with flowers,berries and earth. I was successful in making brown but failed to make colours with flowers. I felt disappointed but it was an interesting experience and i want to learn more on how to make natural colours.
Fatima akka has a lot of knowledge on plants, along her side i did kitchen gardening and i learned a lot of techniques to make my garden more efficient. I am very satisfied with the work i did and am very excited for the days to come.
I took responsibility of the kitchen for the all the four weeks. At first I took the whole responsibility on my shoulders. For the first two weeks i was always worried for the food. Most of my day I spent in the kitchen looking over things. Then I realized what I am doing. For the next two weeks things went unruffled. Also I was able to give space to my other team members and share the work equally. Things went much smoother and i was able to do lot more things. Overall i enjoyed doing the responsibility and got the hang of it.
As part of campus training I did First Aid Training. I really enjoyed cause it was a completely new topic and I learned lots of things. I took care of the first aid of the community for one week resulting me to get a practical training of all the theory i read
I did glass paining for the first time. It was a new technique and paint for me. I relished painting.
I learned how to find a tree's height. I learned the math from my father. I spend time with trees, I measures the height,age and identified the tree. I researched about the tree. Then I sat under a tree and drew a tree. I liked associating with the tree.
One very nice thing was I met lots of new people, made new friends and learned from them. I felt nice to connect with different people. I braided some of my friends hair and we had a jolly time together doing hairstyles. I learned to make artifacts from coconut leaves, it was an interesting craft. I learned about dog breeding. I did embroidery and learned some new stitches. I did land art, I made Yin Yang out of stones and did many other things with others and learned small things from others which i will always keep with me. One fun thing was playing badminton, cricket,frisbee and other games in the evening. Also the thought clubs were very fruitful for me.
I got bitten by pepper, our dog while handling him, it was a mistake from my side. I was a little overconfident while handling him and got paid for that. It was a practical test for my first aid training. Finally everything is fine.
Every Friday I went to Sandesh, I had lot of fun there. I started opening more and doing more things there.

I had a magnificent summer and i really freaked out.

Increasing my vocabulary

If I mix water and mud vigorously, it would take time for the mud to settle down. I was the mud this week. Slowly settling but within myself bustling with life.

After a astonishing and interesting trip to Lucknow, I thought I will relax and continue exploring what the trip had ignited. Inevitably that's not what happened. I did some other stuff.

Vocabulary : I decided to work on my English vocabulary this week. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the ample number of languages in the world. Also how each one are exclusive in themselves. I get this strange desire to grasp many languages. I feel poor to know only 2 languages. After reflection I came to the realization that before wanting to learn more languages, let me go deep into English. Let me embrace English and Hindi. Right now I am swimming the surface. I am astonished with the ample number of words in English. How for every little thing there is a word.

What is more fun for me is to play around with the new words I am learning. To use the words randomly and just embrace the words.,

Also to increase my vocabulary, I am trying to read different kind of books,pushing myself to go beyond the novels I read, to get  exposure of a different vocabulary.

Internet Usage: I have used Internet since my existence but if I take a pause and think – What is Internet? I don't know the answer. I realized how illiterately I am benefiting from the Internet. I don't know about Internet, how it comes to me and how can I utilize it.

Internet safety - I don't know what is a virus but I have been ignorant about it. Will I only wake up when my device is crashed? I wrote down some questions regarding Internet, Its usage and Internet safety. I am going to research about it. I am going to push myself and research not only through books and net but I am going to be talking to people, people who have experience in this field. I think that things like cyber bullying and hacking is somewhere far in the outside world, There is less chance of it happening to me. If I notice, in my day to day life, the teasing,making fun of other and gossiping is equally tormenting. How can I first make my own environment safe? If I am emotionally safe and i am keeping people around me safe then I can face Internet bullying. Again I have been very ignorant towards Internet safety. Will I wait for a drastic event inhibit me to understand about Internet safety?

 I had a peaceful week, I just started climbing the ladder of vocabulary and Understanding Internet.

Kaa trip to Lucknow

Earth Science is a gargantuan topic. I went for a week-long trip to Lucknow to delve into Earth science, primarily go to a rock factory and explore rocks and soil.

The Train journey 

I have traveled in train before but always in A/C compartment. This trip we traveled in 2nd class. It was an authentic experience for me. There was galore of people in the train, something I am not used to of. People with tickets, without tickets and so on. At times the intense heat or the people got on my nerves, I reflected on myself and realized how privileged I am.The beggars that came in the compartment left a sinking feeling in my heart. One beggar even probed me to give him money. He was holding my feet and poking my knees. I felt very conscious and embarrassed. The train journey let me see the authentic India. The scenery outside the window was the prime part. 

Earth Science

This trip we had the constrain of no yapping about anything else except earth science. I for 75% of the time resided with the topic. Due to the constrain I was more aware of myself and I felt good about myself.

I explored Earth science in multiple ways and I embraced the topic. During the trip 70% of the time I was thinking/talking about Earth Science. I read books, saw some very engrossing videos, talked and discussed about it, played games related to it, asked questions and wondered about Earth science. I played memory game, Chinese whisper, dumb charades and word chain game on Earth Science.I really enjoyed delving into something extraordinary

I learnt about the Rocks, soil, earth's core, Plate tectonics, atmosphere, volcanoes, earthquakes and other things. I learnt plenty in the trip but it has lelt me with an ample number of questions. 

One topic that everything kept going back to was Atoms. I have skimmed the surface of atoms before but after exploring earth science I want to revisit atoms and understand it better. Earlier I had just learnt about atoms not really connected it anywhere but now it makes more sense and I have more unanswered questions.

Factory 

We went to a factory. We worked along with the workers. 

My time in the factory was mind - blowing. I saw rocks under the microscope and I was left awe-struck on how gorgeous and perfect the rocks are. When I read about rocks from a text-book, I don't feel connected or practical but when there were so many types of rocks around me I felt connected to them. I experienced first hand the differences between rocks, difference between an igneous rock and a sedimentary rock.

I worked in the factory. I cut a rock and polished it. It was nice working first hand with the rock and understanding its properties and applications. I cut a hard rock(Quartz) and then a soft rock(coal), I actually felt the difference between the two and realized what is hardness of a rock. The hands on work help me to connect my knowledge of rocks to reality. Indubitably I was left with a ton of questions and a quest to apprehend rocks more. 

Visits to few Science Institutes

Paleontology  and Fossil was a completely new topic for me. I know what a fossil is but never went beyond that. The visit to the Paleontology institute was eye-opening. I felt mesmerized with fossils and found it a preposterous thought. 

We saw a film on Antarctica, It was a great film and I got insights of a place I have never touched upon.

Basically all the different visits during the trip left me with a galore of questions and thoughts. They opened ample of doors to topics I have not delved upon before.

Lucknow city 

We visited Bara Imambara in Lucknow. I found the building fascinating and it was an interesting place. I got some exposures to the culture of Lucknow. The finest was the food, kaabas and chats:).

One thing that left me smiling was the altruism of the people we met there. They hosted us with so much of care and love that I felt special. The gift economy left me perplexed.

I am so small, so tiny, so immature and so illiterate as a human compared to all the great things in science. I am a humble and limited part of a galore cosmos. 

One conclusion I have come to after knowing a little about earth is that all the things I am doing in my day-to-day life to slowly harm the planet is actually harming me... The release of carbon in the air, the depletion of the ozone layer and many other things leading to human extinction and global warming is not destroying the planet it is destroying me. The planet has gone through even tougher times in the history. The planet is not going to be destroyed, I am being destroyed.  This no where means I don't care for the planet but this thought gives me comfort for whatever reason.

I had a very memorable trip. 

Festival

Festival is a celebration, a time for sharing, love and happiness.

I don't believe in or follow any religion. Whether gods exists or not that I don't know and I cannot say. Though I enjoy understanding and knowing about different cultures.

When I look at any festival and keep aside the whole god part, the pooja or prayer part. I see a lot of meaning in the festivals. Each festival has a relevant reason connected to our lives. Each festival represents happiness and togetherness. Each festival bring lots of sweets and other yummy food items. There also a lot of music, dance and story telling.

I believe that festivals and celebration are completely unrelated to god but to the people around me, me as a individual and the nature around. At the same time I respect and accept others customs. I even perform some if needed but I don't believe in it nor will I take initiative to perform them.

This week at campus we had Festival Week. We celebrated various festival. Most importantly we celebrated togetherness. There was no barrier of age,gender and religion.

Holi : Holi is a loved festival for it's fun and joy of play with colours. We together made natural colours. We played holi together, the air was filled laughter and joy.

I think the meaning of Holi is to have fun and spread love and play with all.

Pongal : Boys and girls alike decorated the place with rangoli and flowers. We cooked pongal on fire.

I think pongal is a festival to celebrate the harvest, to pay homage to all that helped us to get the crop. One can celebrate the happiness whatever they achieved in their work.

Christmas : One tradition is that all get together and have a Christmas dinner and exchange gifts. Again Christmas is for celebrating life, love and in the cold weather spreading warmth to one another.

New year : A new year is a new beginning and new start. A time to embrace your mistakes and move ahead. We made a old man (scarecrow) and burned it. I put all my past in the old man and burned it.

The tradition is to burn away all you mistakes, regrets and choices. Start new and fresh. I think it not about forgetting your past but accepting and embracing it.

We all Cooked together. ate together, sang together and had fun together.

I realized this is the true essence of festival. Maybe this is the reasons why festivals originated. From time to time in the year we have festivals to remind us of our existence.

Another important part is that after all fun and celebration we together clean up. Having fun is also hard work.

I think I experienced the true essence of festival, I experience togetherness in its pure form.