My Journey with Tea Garden Tribe in Assam

When I started doubting myself..

After Dehradun, Assam was going to be Anubhūti's second destination. Technically, it was going to be a first 30 days workshop which I was going to conduct (in collaboration with Jeevan Shiksha, a local NGO of that area) with the kids of Tea Garden Labour Tribe in Dibrugarh District of Assam. To be very honest, the more I was excited about taking the workshop and meeting new people over there, at the same time there were butterflies in my stomach and lots of questions and doubts on myself like how it will go ? Whether I would be able to complete it successfully or not ? Kids will take interest or not ? Whether I would be able to achieve Anubhūti's objectives or not ? ..and so on. And as I was travelling alone for the first time for such a long distance with 2 big luggage filled with 18KG of Ghunghroos and other necessary things, it was little challenging for me to hold myself and fight with my fears. But the enthusiasm and the happiness of following my heart and making my life more meaningful was much bigger than the fears and difficulties that were arising time to time during the whole journey.

But I found myself so calm and relaxed when I reached to Dibrugarh Airport and met 'Jeevan Shiksha' Team who welcomed me with a great warmth. Next day, I was shifted with a local Assamese family in a remote village, Bihlongoni, where I was going to stay for a month. Bihlongoni and Balijaan, these were the two interior villages in Chabua surrounded by beautiful dense Tea Gardens where I was going to work with 40 kids of TGL (Tea Garden Labour) community.

My first conversation with the kids..

It was my first day with the kids and their parents for a formal introduction and an orientation of the program. The energy of that place and the environment around us including the kids and their parents was filled with so much calmness, regards and humility that I felt so contented within. During the conversation with the kids, I asked kids that why they want to learn Kathak Dance and Abhishek, one of the participant replied, "Didi, so that I can become like you." Ah, I was started receiving 'their' love that in just a short span of a conversation.

Workshop started with so much enthusiasm and joy in our hearts..

..which could be seen and experienced easily as kids used to decorate the room with flowers everyday and clean it themselves to create a positive atmosphere of dance practices. We had a morning batch at 6am but kids used to come by 5.30am with self-motivation. In May-June, it was a time for monsoon there and the whole months it was a heavy rainfall and in spite of that, kids hardly took an off from the class.

In both the villages, kids were so sincere that whatever task I used to gave them, they do it wholeheartedly. As our workshop was moving forward, kids were becoming more confident, open and comfortable in terms of expressing themselves in our sharing circles. They started conducting Yoga and Dance Sessions themselves, taking initiatives for leadership in different activities and even started writing and choreographing their own dance pieces which were helping in developing self-discipline, leadership, team work and other soft skills in them. And beyond all this, they were becoming more polite and started encouraging each other to be more confident in what they do.

There was a girl in the group named Deepika..

..She used to indulge in arguments with other kids and got irritated very easily. Also she was little impatient and having an attitude of giving up. Once I observed that during a group activity, she was sitting alone in a corner and not participating in the activity. After asking her, it was found that her group members had kept her out from the group and now she had nothing to do. When I enquired in her group, her group members said that she wasn't practising properly, also creating trouble for them too. After listening to both the parties, I felt that Deepika may needed a lil bit of motivation to continue the practice and to merge with other kids. I had observed that she wasn't good in learning or picking up anything new as her mind was so distracted, she kept on looking to other kids than to focus on her dance. Therefore, most of the time, she used to follow the steps in the class instead of remembering them. I caught this thing of her and consciously started appreciating her in front of all the kids that she follows very well, and she would be able to do good in synchronisation of group dance and so on. Sometimes a small dose of appreciation works like a cherry on the cake which plays an important role to boost the desire and enthusiasm for learning in the kids. That happened with Deepika too.

That day onwards I could clearly see the changes in her attitude. It wasn't that after that she started contributing in the group activities but now she at least had started cooperating with her group, not creating any trouble for other kids. Also the major change which I noticed in her attitude that before she used to argue with other kids but now instead of indulging in an argument, she came to me and shared her problem with a particular kid.

Our enthusiasm was reaching on high level.. 

..as we reached to the mid of the workshop. In both the villages, kids used to come and practised on their own. Where on one side, the Balijaan Kids used to come on Sundays as well to practice, on the other side, Bihlongoni Kids was also filled with so much enthusiasm. I used to see kids practicing hard in the evening around 7pm while coming back from Balijaan Village after completing the sessions there.

Receiving their Love in many forms..

One day I did not went for the class and told the Balijaan Girls to conduct the sessions on their own. Next day, when we met, the girls shared, "Didi, when you did not come yesterday, we were feeling like our mother is not here, we felt like orphans." On that day onwards, some girls started calling me maa (mother). Although it was little awkward for me to listen or consider myself maa, but I could clearly see their love and feelings for me hiding behind this word. These girls used to bring a bunch of flowers everyday and decorate my 'choti' (hairs) with their hands. They also used to bring rotis for me as I was having rice everyday as my three time meal and got bore of it. They taught me their local folk dances, Bihu and Jhumor too, with so much love and patience.

Finally, we reached on the concluding day of our workshop..

..where all the kids performed on stage so well while showing beautiful synchronisation in their dance and give the presentations of their work (which they did in a month) very confidently in front of local audience and some special guests. The last concluding day is tough to express as other than completing a workshop with great success, it was filled with lots of emotions and sentiments. As during our 'experience sharing round' on the stage, every kid burst into tears and hugged me so tightly. I was feeling so overwhelmed when the Bihlongoni Kids presented a poem on me which was composed and choreographed by them only. It was so heartwarming to see them singing, dancing and crying at the same time while presenting the poem. I have never thought that I would share such bond of love and affection with kids. It seemed like we hadn't met for the first time, but we knew each other from years.

But, this did not end here..

..after coming back to home in Bihlongoni village where I was staying, I got the news from one of the volunteer that they have planned a farewell for me in the evening. I thought it would be a general farewell, and reached to the hall. I stunned to see that the whole hall was overloaded by people and children. There were people on the outside windows of the hall and also on the doors. The whole Bihlongoni village was gathered. It was so surprising for me to see the parents (of those kids who weren't part of the workshop) giving me gifts, thanking me, respecting me. Everybody was crying and requesting me to not to go back and stay there with them for few more days. It is very difficult for me to describe the emotions I was feeling at that time surrounded with such people filled with humility and respect. Some of the parents were giving me some money by saying that they did not get time from their work to go to city and buy something for me, so they are offering it as their love but when I refused to take the money and asked to give me their local tea instead, then one of the mother ran towards her home and brought a lots of tea for me. The farewell ended up with a group dance 'Jhumor' which is used to do in a circle holding each others back. 

When strangers becomes a family..

I also got a very strong bond and connection with the family I was staying with in Bihlongoni. They treated me like their own daughter and took care of my every small requirement. Although, in the beginning, it was lil difficult for me to adjust and accept such environment as it was my first time when I was staying in a proper village type surroundings. But at the same time, it was quite overwhelming to experience the purity and love those people have in their hearts for everyone.

In nutshell,

I should say it was a journey of sharing and receiving love, kindness, humility and warmth from everyone (in different forms) present there during my stay which I have never expected or experienced before. We all danced together, laughed together, cried together, learnt together and more than that, we all shared and spend a beautiful space and time together which was filled with a feeling of gratitude for each other.

The actual learnings starts happening when you allow yourself to come out of your comfort zone and expand your horizons. This journey of Anubhūti gave me an opportunity to face my fears and overcome them which ended up making me more courageous, confident and kind towards the people and for myself too.