JOURNEY TO A MAHILA MANDAL

Morning Swadhyaya Session

Rusheel Nayak

            Our discussion during Swadhyaya, from the text We Must… by Swami Chinmayanda, discussed the importance of living a just life.  The book stated that we cannot control anything but our own thoughts and actions to live a good life.

            Today was our first visit to the Mahila Mandal!  Although we will participate in other sectors of CORD, our main project is to interact with the village women and adolescent girls.  We brought various laminated posters from America explaining sanitation, hygiene, the earth, body parts in English, and the five senses.  Our job is to interact with the local people and teach them basic skills such as English, geography, and the information we have on our posters.

            The women from the village of Jamanabad were very hospitable.  Although all of the villagers speak a dialect of Punjabi and Hindi called Pahadi, they all understand and speak Hindi fluently.  All the women came to the Mahila Mandal dressed in their finest clothes and whatever jewelry they could afford.  They began by singing bhajans (religious songs), and we began to discuss our planned topics with them.  They were fascinated by the American dollar we showed them and everyone loved having their picture taken. 

             Next, we went to the Adolescent Girls Group (Yuvti Samuh) where we taught them basic American words.  Because of CORD, the girls have learned to assert themselves, value education, and marry at an older age than before.  They also loved having their pictures taken! The day was awesome because we loved interacting with the local women!

Meera Parat

In the Mahila Mandal meeting, we witnessed their agenda for meetings. They sing bhajans first, and then discuss some social topics, and then break up into their Self-Help groups and eventually take roll and mark down who has given the 10 rupees donation. We also met with the Yuvti Samuh that day for the first time. Around 15 girls came in and all introduced themselves. They were extremely shy! A main topic they stress in their meetings is women empowerment, and with that comes confidence. We tried to encourage them to talk, but that is still a huge issue among the girls and women of this part of India.

Krishna Narra

Something interesting that I noticed from the adolescent girls is how they all planned to be either teachers or doctors. I later realized it was due to their mindset of believing that those were the only two high professions for women. I also realized that this community also encouraged women to study and not marry until they were 25. Through this, I understood the influence CORD has played in improving lives of the people.

Sonali Nayak

I was nervous but excited because I did not know what to expect in the field. However, there was no need for my anxiety because the villagers from Jamanabhad were extremely generous and amiable. Because the women were working in the field until noon, we waited for about an hour. The leader of the Mahila Mandal graciously offered us her home to rest in, and she politely offered us cold Fanta. Though I really wanted to drink the delicious, refreshing soda, I had to decline because the cleanliness of the water was questionable. In the meeting, the women began to sing bhajans, including the Chinmaya Aarti. It was nice to sing with them because, though we lived in two separate worlds, we still had a common bond in CORD and Chinmaya Mission. Soon after, we went to the Adolescent Girls Group meeting. The girls were all very shy, but with encouragement, they began to open up a little bit. All the little girls were very cute. Muskaan, a small girl dressed in purple, smiled, so she was accurately depicting her name. Muskaan means smile in Hindi. As we were leaving, an older girl called out in English, “Bye Didi,” and it made me want to spend more time with them because I really wanted to help the girls support themselves.

Gowtham Raja

Due to the dilemma concerning my health, I took bed rest and opted out of the first day of work. When the group got back they told me about the great time that they had with all of the new people they met.