I believe some of you must be aware about Art of Living foundation setup by Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji. Back in 2007 I had enrolled for one of their course YES!+ all because of Pushkar. He wanted to do it again and thought I would be good company. I had nothing much to do except waiting for my CET results so decided to pass my time by enrolling in this course. Back then, I was not at all aware about the course, what's in it for me, why should I do it. It was more like, "kee farak painda hai yaar, kar lete hai".
As per my guesstimate, the batch was about 100+ members. It was a mix of college going guys and girls, working people, and slightly older gentlemen and ladies. Introduction session which happened on the 1st day was a bit awkward in the beginning; I mean how do you expect to be normal saying "I am [Your name], I belong to you!" to anyone you are talking to the very first time! It was an ice breaker session as later on most of us were OK with it. Orientation session began and rules were summoned to us. We were expected to be punctual, avoid tea/coffee/aerated beverages for the entire duration of the course and strictly keep away from non veg food. Thankfully it was just a 7 day course so I could give it a shot, otherwise keeping away from tea and non veg food would have made me think if I should continue the course or not :P
The course was going good. It was a good mix of exercise, yoga, activities and discussions. Sudarshan kriya was ofcourse the highlight of this course. It's a breathing exercise which rejuvenates your mind and body, you feel fresh and active upon doing it. We were told that this exercise provides much better results if done in a group, and most of my batchmates did meet once a week for several weeks after the course to jointly do this kriya. Last day of the course was very good. We had the best sudarshan kriya that day. We were also told about the reasons behind keeping away from hot/cold beverages and non veg food, that they take almost 2-3 days to digest in our body thus creating imbalance. Before we all parted, we were given paper plates and markers and asked to write testimonials for everyone. All of us preferred some guys/girls among everyone, so made sure to be the first ones to write on their plates. That way we had maximum space to write something cheeky for that person ;) That paper plate is a nice memento.
2 weeks after the course culminated we all were asked to meet up at one of our instructors' house in Campacola Compound, Worli. A memorable activity was coming up for all of us. We were asked to form teams of 5-6 people in each. All of us were asked to keep away our cellphones and carry just Rs 10 per person. Our task for the day was to go out and earn as much money as we can and come back by 5 pm. The team which earns maximum wins the competition. The only condition was not to tell the real reason behind doing that activity. This came as a disbelief to all of us. How are you supposed to go out with just Rs 10 in your wallet and earn money? But that was the task and we had to do it somehow!
Our team, we were 5 of us, 2 girls and 3 guys - Anul, Divyata, Manish, Rutwij and I. We came down and started discussing what to do. Rutwij saw a bunch of guys playing cricket. He came up with the idea of betting with them, which seemed good, I mean we believed he could do what he was gonna bet for. We approached those fellows and Rutwij tells them that he will hit 2 sixes in an over and if he does that we get Rs 20, else we pay them Rs 20. They agreed and our guy took guard, while they decided who would bowling. All of us started to cheer for our team mate as their bowler was ready with his medium pace bowling. That free hit over read 0, 4, 6, 0, 4, 0; and we lost Rs 20.
With Rs 30 left we decided not to take up any further betting and instead find hard work which would pay us. We split in 2 groups and decided to meet again at a particular spot at around 2 pm. Anul joined me and we left in search for some work, so did our team mates. We approached manager of a restaurant called Viva Paschim at Worli naka. Anul told him that we needed some money for which we could take up some work in the restaurant. He agreed and gave us work, I was made to wash dishes and cutlery, while Anul had to set up tables! Each of us did our task for the next 30 odd minutes when the manager came back and asked us to stop. He gave us Rs 50 for the task and also gave us some food to eat. We asked him if we could carry some of it for our team mates, upon which he gave us extra food. He was really benevolent to us :)
With our tummies full we set out for the next task. We wanted to meet up our team mates and share food with them, but no cellphones! Anyways, so our next stop was a Honda showroom. We approached the manager there and asked for some work. But we were not lucky this time around. Dejected, we came out and kept walking until we reached a petrol pump. I approached cars which were there and asked them for some money in return of wiping car windows. Some of them agreed and one guy paid us as much as Rs 50. We collected around Rs 120 with this task. By that time it was almost 2 pm so we set out to meet our team mates. They were happy to see us, but more happy to see that we have some food for them :) It was fun to see them finish all of it in no time! Then all of us went to a nearby temple and spoke to someone about giving us some work. He said we can take care of footwear of devotees in return of few bucks. We did that for almost an hour and had earned peanuts. So we quit, looking for something else.
We reached a nearby colony and thought of asking there for some work. We approached few people there and realized that it was a colony of lower middle class people. While speaking to us they thought that we are doing this as a part of a MTV Roadies kind of a show. They were all super excited but were feeling awkward to give us any work. We did some odd jobs for them like cleaning up their courtyard, cutting vegetables, etc but did not accept any money in return. They were willing to give us, but we just couldn't accept it :) Feeling happy about ourselves we left that colony, realizing that it was almost 5 pm. Time to return.
All teams gathered by around 5:15 pm and everyone of us was exhausted, yet had a pleasant face. All of us were discussing among each other what all we did and how was the experience. One team had came back with zero money; they bought some lemons, sugar & water to sell lemonade. They invested their entire corpus in it but did not get a single customer. Other team went to Dadar Parsi colony and asked for money as donation and as we generally expect from benevolent Parsis, they did receive quite some money. Another team went and worked at Copper Chimney restaurant at Haji Ali, where they not only got paid well but also had a good lunch. That team was the winner, with an earning of Rs 2000 odd.
That was the day I realized the worth of hard earned money. My parents kept telling us about spending wisely, until you understand what goes into earning it. And I did understand it truly that day. Alas, all the money earned by all teams was collected and given away for some NGO. All that is left is the experience and that lovely paper plate :)
All teams gathered by around 5:15 pm and everyone of us was exhausted, yet had a pleasant face. All of us were discussing among each other what all we did and how was the experience. One team had came back with zero money; they bought some lemons, sugar & water to sell lemonade. They invested their entire corpus in it but did not get a single customer. Other team went to Dadar Parsi colony and asked for money as donation and as we generally expect from benevolent Parsis, they did receive quite some money. Another team went and worked at Copper Chimney restaurant at Haji Ali, where they not only got paid well but also had a good lunch. That team was the winner, with an earning of Rs 2000 odd.
That was the day I realized the worth of hard earned money. My parents kept telling us about spending wisely, until you understand what goes into earning it. And I did understand it truly that day. Alas, all the money earned by all teams was collected and given away for some NGO. All that is left is the experience and that lovely paper plate :)
