Indicorps Orientation

Written on 4th October

Pretty crazy… I spent a month at the Indicorps orientation… and really, there have been a few times that I’ve sat down and thought that I should write something about it in my blog, and I just can’t really think about what to write. Oddly enough, as much as personal reflection and journal writing/sharing, etc. are stressed at the orientation… I found it more difficult than ever to write in my journal as well. Why? I’m not quite sure. Oddly, I wan never fully comfortable during the entire month there.

I had a blast… and really thought that for an organization… Indicorps’ goal and orientation structure, etc.. are top-notch. What the fellows go through in a month – taking kids out for a day of fun, amazing race through ahmedabad, village stay, urban livelihood immersion (rag-picking, vegetable-selling, etc.), interactions with Jayesh-bhai and Manav Sadhna, gov’t school visits, etc… as well as getting an outline of Indian history, an outline of the Indian school system, an outline of the Indian gov’t. structure and politics…. intense language learning… it’s a pretty solid orientation for field-work in India. And the values that are stressed – integrity, personal responsibility, living simply, compassion, transparency, and self-reflection and self-growth… all good stuff.

I think one of the main reasons that I wasn’t ever fully comfortable.. is that Indicorps is an organization where people have their distinct roles. And, I didn’t really fit into any of those roles. Because I wasn't 'committed' to the organization nor to the support of the fellows over the course of the year, the role I could play felt quite limiting to me. To me, the hierarchy of the organization could definitely be felt… Over the course of the year, the “fellows” do come “up” to the level of the staff… but what does that really mean? For me, the evolution of an organization… that believes in the self-worth of each individual… is a network of individuals with a shared vision… where there are not predetermined roles that the individuals should fit into… but rather, the individuals create their own roles where they can blossom. In this way… no individual is stifled, everyone individual is working to reach their highest potential.. which also helps the group. There’s this feeling in orgs– “well, this is the grunt work that no one wants to do, but someone has to do it.” – Really, I think that if one was to REALLY explore that work, and that feeling “someone has to do it”… does someone really have to do it? What does that work really do? Is that work really as ‘valuable’ as we think it is? In this age of efficiency and divison of roles… I feel we spend much more time in the preparation of work, the planning of work, the discussion about the work, the review of the work, and the evaluation of the work than we do in actually doing the productive work that we want to do! And we have put so much value on all of this “mental activity”… and then, we also intellectually say “I believe in the dignity of labour and value physical work”… I don’t know.. I’m still figuring this out. Personally, I haven't stepped out of this framework either.

I had a long talk a couple nights ago with Pawan-ji… and one of the main things we talked about were “boundaries”. We CREATE boundaries… they aren’t there in existence. The rural-urban divide in India… are categories, and in many minds, boundaries have been created…. when in actuality… there is no boundary…. All are human beings that have the same needs and are going about various ways to fulfill those needs. Boundaries within an organization… this is your role, this is my role, just do your job…. created.. not there in existence. Political boundaries… personal property boundaries…. Just don’t exist. Boundaries are the source of so many conflicts.

That’s fine… categories and boundaries have been created to help us understand things, to help us do things more efficiently…. But when they are given precedence over the actual reality that links, that connects, that transcends ‘boundaries’…. That’s when there’s trouble. We are ignoring the reality and getting stuck in the constructs.

In the end… the fact that Indicorps has been able to facilitate so many young Indians from around the world to come back to India…. And has done with such responsibility… is awesome. They’ve really been ground-breakers in this realm… and hopefully things will just start exploding from here.