Torrent Energy Ltd Supported CSR
Integrated Activities.
3-day retreat with
Kukarwada Village youth
In true pay-it-forward fashion,
Sureshbhai said that they could honor him for helping their village; however,
the village would be better off if they decided to do something for the entire
village community instead. This remark, created a challenge that triggered a chain
of thought about how they could themselves, serve their village. They also
realized that their style of living had so far had not equipped them, either in
knowledge or spirit, to serve the village. Therefore, the group of youth
decided they would visit ESI in Sughad to learn more about the people,
technology, and most of all, the spirit behind them; and to multiply it.
Eighteen of the youth, aged 15 to 30
years old got together, contributing Rs. 500 each for the trip, and traveled to
Sughad to begin their learning experience. Most of these youth were working at
the time as hired
Dec 27 to 29, 2013 saw the eighteen
village youth in Sughad. They were greeted at the main gate of ESI by a number
of volunteers such as Audrey, with brooms. This was a simple reminder of the
previous meeting, when ESI volunteers had cleaned up Kukarwada village using
brooms. Because the youth were primarily laborers who worked with their hands,
they needed to be exposed to a style of working that was primarily hand-based;
but which still allowed a balance of head, heart and hand.
Fasting and all other
forms of discipline are ineffective without the grace of God.- Gandhiji.
Day 1 focused on the head, or knowledge. The group was given a tour of Sughad and the
different sanitation facilities there. The overarching themes were sanitation,
environment and village development. Jayeshbhai, Suresh bhai and Kanchan mama
shared their thoughts with the youth and asked them to share their thoughts and
experiences. A highlight among the talks was Virenbhai’s journey. He spoke about
how we can use water and other natural resources to make the community better
together. He shared a number
Being used to working with their
hands, the youth were not habituated to sitting for five hours straight. When
it was time for dinner, they felt compelled to begin moving, however, the
dinner was planned as a silent dinner. This was a pure novelty for them, as
well as quite constraining in terms of the difference from their daily lives.
Amazingly, at the end of the dinner, most of them said that while the imposed
silence was initially difficult, they were able to eat mindfully. They felt
this was the first time they ate well. Usually they felt their stomachs were
full, but today, their hearts were full too.
The day concluded with a ‘Circle of
sharing’ to reflect on the day’s thoughts and knowledge gained. Each person
shared what they learned during the day, the highlight of the day; and how they
would like to translate their ideas into practice.
Day 2 focused on the hand. The theme was spirituality and service – the combination and
balance of both.
After breakfast, each member of the
group decided how to use their hand (act) in a good way, with
sadbhavana(positive intention) translating intosatkarya (positive action).They
discussed about the difference between helping the needy and praying to God;
and how they could view helping the needy as service to God. They used Gandhi
ashram as their practice area - by cleaning the ashram, playing and helping
with the kids at ManavSadhna, and conducting sarva dharma prarthana there. As
they toured the ashram, they listened more about Gandhiji’s practices and his
thoughts. In a matter of one day, they felt a sense of belonging with the folks
at ESI and Gandhi ashram; which increased their own self-confidence as well,
allowing them to walk up to people in the ashram, introduce themselves and ask
how they can serve.
They had lunch at Safai Vidyalaya’s
toilet café, a unique place where the chairs at meal tables are shaped like
toilet bowls to remove the stigma surrounding sanitation. As they were eating,
they were talking about sanitation and toilets, which is extremely unusual as
meal-time conversation. After lunch they also talked with
They group also visited Amiyapur, a
village that was a pilot program for Nandini’s activities, which is walking
distance from ESI in Sughad. There they met the village youth group at Amiyapur
that had organically come together to serve their village. They asked several
questions and learned how the group at Amiyapur puts in work for their village.
After coming back to Sughad, they met with Nipunbhai and discussed giftivism;
and how they can gift their skills to the community.
They later visited the Akshardham
temple to watch the famous water show there, which is a famous tourist
attraction. It was the first time they had visited such a place, as their
economic conditions prevented their visiting such places. They began to
practice their newly-learned skills at Akshardhamby cleaning the place of
litter. They also began talking to the various visitors about the water show,
and Suresh bhai felt blessed to see the confidence with which the group was
mingling with the crowd with ease – a sign that the trip to ESI had helped them
increase their own self-confidence as well. They had dinner at the temple and
returned to
The group itself volunteered to share
their experiences that night. From 10 – 11:30 pm, they shared the different
experiences, small and big, that had moved them and inspired them. They began
to feel that their work, which was earlier merely to earn bread, was now a way
to fulfillment as they could share the benefits with others through service. In
the two days, they had experienced a change of heart and seen divinity in
nature and in others in those days.
Day 3 brought head and
hand together through the heart. The day started with prabhatpheri and some labor of love.
After getting ready, they met at 9 am in the maitri (friendship) hall. After
the collective prayer, Panchoand Rev Heng sure talked to them about prem (love)
and karuna (compassion). Guri and Nimo talked to them about their own
experiences; including Guri’s walking pilgrimage when she found God in people’s
hearts, and Rev. Hengsure’s ‘3 steps and a bow pilgrimage’.
Ripples from the retreat began to
appear on the 3rd day itself. Watching the Kukarwada youth, others
began walking along the pathways performing ‘3 steps and bhaav’. 60 girls who
were visiting from PTC (primary teacher training center) they also began doing
‘3 steps and bhaav’ and began holding the intention to share wishingthe feeling
towards each person.
Deeply inspired, the Kukarwada
village youth offered to take 2 vows – one for themselves, and one for the
community.Each person began to come up with small acts of love they could share
with others. “I will sit with myself for 5 min.” “I will do prabhaatpheriin my
village two days of the week.” “Each day I wake up at 8 am and go to work and
my sister cooks for me. Now I will wake up early, at the same time as her, and
help her in cooking.” “Whenever I am free I will spend time with children.” “I
will bow to parents before going out of the house for work.”
The retreat ended with a lot of fun
and dancing on the theme of vasidhaivakutumbakam, which that finally ended in a
fun and chaotic way. This was followed by lunch, with sitting in silence.
Following this, the group began looking for opportunities to serve and began working
in the kitchen, on the ESI campus, etc. To keep
The grup left ESI at 4 pm on the
third day after arrival. Each of them had tears in their eyes as they left,
because they had made a connection within to ESI and with each other. They left
cheering, saying “Abkuch to karenge, kuch to karenge, kuchnakuch to
karengeyaar” (We will do something, we shall do something, we shall do
something or other, my friend).
Many ripples from this 3-day event
were seen almost immediately. The member who pledged to perform prabhatpheri
twice a week at his village, now does it every day, and wakes the village to
melodious chanting. The group went around their village meeting each and every
home to tell people about their experience. They celebrated New Year’s Eve by
setting up a large program at short notice and also invited Torrent, the
company that sponsored their visit to Sughad. For the New Year’s event, the
cleaned the entire village, including the old bus stand and the entry road to
the village. They decorated the village with colorful rangolis and fresh mango
leaves (an auspicious symbol in India). They invited the entire village to
their program, and made snacks and dinner for all the attendees. As part of the
program, they presented two prayers learned from ESI, and shared with the
villagers their motivation behind cleaning the village and organizing the
program. They earned the appreciation, support and unanimous cooperation of the
other villagers in their goal of transforming the village.
Since then, the youth group that
visited ESI strives to meet each evening. They sit together in a circle and
share their experiences of the day, and the acts of kindness the practiced, and
inspirations to change their village. They discuss the problems they think are
worth solving and try to apply the principles of head, hand and heart, to
these. Each person contributes at least half an hour for the village each day,
and finally shares their service activity with the group at the end of each
day. Thus, Nandini’s visit rippled out
into the Kukarwada youth’s visit and their learning experience over three days;
which further spread into an inspired offering that they make to their village
each day and become each other’s noble friends.
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Its so nice how CSR activities has been made mandatory, its a very good step on part of the Government. I was looking for a few articles on CSR activities in India and I came across yours inspiring read.
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