Bangalore SHG meeting: January 10, 2016

WELL WELL WELL the most happening day of the week had begun. I was right on time, very energetic to attend the today's SHG meeting, with a firm intuition that something good is going to happen today J

Well i am going to use first person narration, since the same page would go into my daily journal (OOOHHHH yes, i am trying to make amends with my past and have started writing, yay!)

So when i reached Cubbon Park, it was 09:50 am and surprisingly i could see 7-8 people sitting under the big hut. We didn't realize that till 10 am, 90% of the crowd had gathered at the hut. If i go down the memory lane, it was the first "on the time" meeting!

So 18 people attended the meeting: Me (Mansi), Swarnalatha, Prathibha, Janani, Jonali, Dinesh (Sir!), Teja (SuperTeja!), Nishil, Anshuman, Mohit, Sidharth, Hari Krishna, Rajesh, Pramod, Bharat, Anita, Faruque and Sudhanshu. It was good to see a lot of new faces and a few familiar faces after a long time. It was kinda grand one. 

The first round was an erratic styled introduction round. All of us voluntarily came up and introduced ourselves. Most of us talked about what we did in last week or about our new year celebrations/resolutions. I learned that a lot of people apart from me are crazy about Sherlock (no doubt Benedict Cumberbatch makes us that way!).  Few of us discussed about the books we read or movies we watched. The session ended well with Dinesh's inspiration: Chota Bheem. So far so good!

Nextly, we discussed about the most brutal "Monkey Man" in our lives- Stammering. The topic was- what all we lost because of stammering. So most of us discussed about our school memories, facing rejections in job interviews, failures in personal relationships and marriage, loss of self-esteem and loss of confidence. Well according to me, we all are in a same boat when it comes to stammering. We all have lost too much because of stammering. I myself cleared all the 15 entrances i gave and failed 14 interviews before i actually stepped into PhD. We all have painful memories, rejections both on personal and professional front, which have made us the way we are. But the truth always remain hidden, which is: WE ARE MUCH STRONGER THAN WE ACTUALLY THINK WE ARE, WE JUST NEED TO THINK FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. Dinesh illustrated it in a way that motivated all of us - " We should focus on what all barriers of success we need to cross apart from fluency- these barriers include the following these traits- confidence, knowledge, attitude towards failure and so on." We concluded well by having a poll: Is stammering "one of the cause" or "the cause" of our failures? Most of us voted for: Stammering is one of the cause of our failures. Dinesh summarized by stating that if we focus on the other causes of our failures then things might get a little easy. 

Moving ahead with the meeting, we helped Anshuman prepare for this US visa interview and wished him good luck: "Ja, jee le apni zindagi".

Nextly, Mohit gave his life's first ever speech on EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. The talk started with questions about defining EI. Few of us explained it in a clear manner. Mohit then focussed on the components of EI, i.e. self awareness, Motivation, empathy, self-regulation and social skills. Every sentence of his talk lead towards a step deeper into self realization. I feel everyone of us registered a lot into our accounts while listening. One interesting question was raised: how to handle over emotional people or people who cry too much? The answers varied according to varying scenarios such as- if a person is genuinely hurt or just seeking attention. On a lighter note, i would like to mention that crying is purely a biochemical process, and noone can do anything about it. For me, the talk ended with N number of questions- which i hope to answer in a long run. Is it for real that a person with high Emotional Quotient (EQ) does not go into depression? Can a person actually have an EQ high enough to help others/solve other's problems but still be really emotional to solve his/her problems? Is it possible that a person who seems to have a good EQ take people's demerits into account while judging them? Intense questions to think upon.

To end the session, Dinesh talked about orphan kids and how they battle with their emotions throughout their lives with noone to talk to.  Oh it was an "emotional gyan" which i cant even remember as of now. Later, we discussed about our plans to visit RUVA foundation, an orphanage and gift them "SMILES". We terminated the meeting with Teja's hometown sweets: sugar coated Gulab Jamun and a groupie.

For people who are part of Bangalore SHG group who missed today's meeting, we are planning to visit RUVA foundation as an activity in next SHG i.e. on Jan 17, 2016 from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm. Those of you (apart from today's members) who wants to accompany us can contact: Teja (9966345829) or Pramod (8880306060). Suggestions about activity planning are most welcome.

Here is the pic: