Phase Five conducted its biggest camp yet with 106 students of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management at the Blue Country Resort, Panchgani. The participants were an enthusiastic and exploring bunch, fresh entrants to the business management programme. The group was accompanied by Prof. Saji Thomas and later Prof. Seema Singh joined us.

The Phase Five team included, Vinod Sreedhar, Ayesha Ganguly and Leslie Nazareth; our guest faculty, Iris Madeira, Sugandhi Baliga and Lavanya Ganti; and energetic volunteers, Aarti Shrivastava and Zenobia Mistry.

Ivory Towers and Jhopadpattis

- where small groups of 20 had to build shelters with given material as part of a competitive situation and got to know each other and work together.

Participants discover the nuts and bolts of the "culture" of democracy through their own behaviour with representation, decision-making and negotiation through a conflict situation.

 

Games People Play, a small group session, had participants playing roles in a series of situations. The rounds were playful but the observations they drew later showed how many found it very helpful in understanding the various roles of an individual in a group.

The theme of the day was ‘enabling yourself and the living in a community'. The creative extension of this was expressed as part of the cultural night with musical talents, dramatics, poetry and instrumental sound. Everyone had a great time and music flowed till wee hours of the morning.

 

The third day of the camp was the highlight in terms of participation. The whole group played Staying Alive, a simulation on growth and development.

The game involved team competition and a scramble for resources. There was fighting, cheating, stealing, strategizing and team work. But on a more serious note there was an obvious trend that emerged and questioned fundamentals about population growth, food supply, resources and possible future scenarios of the world.

 

 

An eagerly anticipated trip to Mahabaleshwar took place in spite of the rains. It punctuated the pace of the programme, giving everyone their own space to shop, eat and socialize.

That night we congregated again with a view to churn up ideas that can turn into active projects and personal and group initiatives as part of the ‘ Ideas to Action' session.

 

An eagerly anticipated trip to Mahabaleshwar took place in spite of the rains. It punctuated the pace of the programme, giving everyone their own space to shop, eat and socialize.

That night we congregated again with a view to churn up ideas that can turn into active projects and personal and group initiatives as part of the ‘ Ideas to Action' session.

 

Extracts from the Graffiti Wall:

I have learnt how to understand other people, how to take into consideration everybody's opinion and then make a decision. It has strengthened my decision making process. I would further propose an individual evaluation and rating system to be implemented for the sessions and help or suggest to plug loopholes. The screenings have had a good effect on my perceptions about “wars”. …

 

From the game “Living Democracy” I think the least citizens can do is to individually register our complaints with the authorities. Maybe with increased numbers the citizens and citizen's groups can negotiate hard and make the authorities bend over backwards…so don't keep your problems to yourselves, speak out and protest

Issues related to communal harmony and the population problem interest me. Don't know exactly what to do about it… inviting suggestions…

...Helped me broaden my outlook at least about Pakistani people. Maybe would go to Kashmir one day. Overall had a blast…

Project on Communal Harmony. It will probably involve groups visiting slums, middle class colonies, talking to different religious groups, understanding minds, stereotypes and devise a strategy in a way which helps them to live in peace with each other. Bring about reconciliation...

I think that in order to make some change in people we have to take the first step ourselves for you as an individual it's your duty to become what you are . Academics  will go on, stress will always be there but take out time to do what you love most. …

I suggest that we as a group decide on a weekly day and all of us meet on that day and have discussions on issues that we would normally not think about we could have the screenings of movies and discuss them. It would be like an open forum for us to express ourselves...

People talk a lot about ethics, duties of government but do nothing themselves. They lack awareness. I would like to work on a group that creates awareness among people about very basic things that matter a lot like voting, your role in society, cleanliness etc.

...How about getting out of the private sector we are in and volunteering into our government to make the administration of India work…

…challenged a lot of beliefs, ideas I formerly had, and which I thought were  right, which I thought needed no modification…