Activity - based Learning

Lock down has literally shown us that “History repeats itself!” While we go back in time with Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shaktiman on TV and some good family time like we had in summer vacations, I thought why not go back in time and revise some mindful lessons learnt.

In my article - A Step towards a Goal (Click here), I had mentioned about Blue-Ribbon Movement and its purpose.

 Being a volunteer with them for two & a half year, I have surely met some great people, spoken about civic issues which every Mumbaikar faces everyday but refuses to acknowledge and learnt some valuable lessons which have helped me daily.

With a beautiful format of activity-based learning, NSS – Community Connect Fellowship (CCF) involved us into the actual theme of connecting with and helping the community.

Some activities involved learnings while doing our civic duties like below:

1. Finding civic problems and raising complaints to the BMC/NMMC/TMC/KDMC:

This activity included finding some civic problems around us like bad roads, uncleaned garbage lying on the road, broken water pipelines, etc. I am sure everyone of us have come across these issues, blamed the government and walked away. But have you ever thought of taking an action to solve this? In this activity, we did act and lodged such unreported issues to BMC, NMMC, TMC and KDMC as per our locations. The response was amazing - 4000+ complaints were filed with 60% resolution rate.

Learning: It is important to find a problem, but it is more important to find a way to solve the problem. Always remember, every step count!

COMPLAINTS LODGED BY ME

2. Connecting with people in locality to understand their concerns:

In this activity, we were asked to communicate with residents around our colleges, houses, etc. And get some idea about how good they think the government is doing for the civic issues in the locality. We surely had lot many complaints in our bucket but what amused all of us was that few residents had amazing ideas to overcome these issues by helping the government. Some had already taken a step to write to local leaders about their concerns and got responses.

Learning: This was my favourite activity. I am a believer of the statement – Listen before you speak! And this activity just fulfilled the purpose. It helped us to get ideas on how we can implement our civic activities in the program.

While others were through fun like below:

1. Random act of kindness:

This was the very first task that we did as an NSS-CCF volunteer during our induction. We were asked to walk around the area for an hour and do some random good deeds. Whatever you feel like and for anyone you wanted to. I did the following:

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

a.       Thanked the on-duty lady police inside Siddhivinayak temple for their service day-in and day-out and handed them some flowers.

b.       Thanked a man who sold coconut water for making sure the place is clean. He made sure the waste coconuts are not lying around but are kept in a baggage under his haathgaadi.

c.       Left a thank you and appreciation note on a BMC garbage bin. I used my little creativity here by writing the note in Marathi and making some emojis around.

After this we were asked to pen down the experience. And honestly, I never felt that happy ever!

Learning: Do some random act of kindness every day! It not just makes the other person happy, but it makes you happy too!

2. Stand to court:

This activity involved a group. 1 person would stand in middle of the group and the rest would surround that person in a circle. The person in the middle of the lot symbolized the doer and the surrounding people symbolized audience. Turn by turn 1 person from the audience would tap the doer and would perform the task that the doer tells him. These generally included civic activities. With this activity the task showed that it is easy to sit, observe and comment on someone’s task but comparatively difficult to do the same.

Learning: We should always put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and then judge a situation. It's all about perspective. By doing this, we understand our problems and situations better and instead of complaining we start working collaboratively.

INDOOR ACTIVITIES

3. Build the tower:

This activity started with fun and carelessness around everyone but ended up hitting us the most. We were divided into groups and told that we have some limited newspapers and other stationary items and we had to build a paper tower which could stand still. We were told that initially 1 min would be given to gather the resources, but all these resources are shared. So, people started grabbing as much as possible for their group and started building the tower. Time went by and the activity was done with some teams winning and others struggling. In the end the struggling teams were asked the reason for not being able to complete the task and the common answer was, “We did not get enough newspapers otherwise we would have built a great tower like others”. And then the question followed, “Why did we not think of sharing the resources equally?” This struck hard!

Learning: We need to use our resources carefully and efficiently. I am sure everyone can relate to this amid the lock down where the grocery, masks and sanitizer stocks are running out!

BRM FAMILY - OUR BATCH! MY BATCH!

All these activities and lessons were a great learning for me. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see”, this Fellowship surely made me believe that it all starts with us, the change that we bring in ourselves helps us to become a better individual in our society. 

I would like to know if you could relate to any learning mentioned!