My 21 Exciting Days of Community Immersion!

Community Immersion is a process for Gandhi Fellows, wherein they search for a family in the community to stay and immerse themselves in its daily routine. Why? It was an opportunity to experience village life, culture, innovations, food, farming, and especially to know oneself.

I experienced all of this during the exciting 21 days of my community immersion journey.

Finding a Family (Before December 15, 2023) was not easy. Why would someone give you space to live in their house for 21 days? Really, why? There were a lot of questions like this in my mind. Who would provide for the stay, and how would I find it? Was it safe? Would I survive? There were a lot more, some were silly, like "??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???" "???? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???" and many more, and also justifying my own question, "??! ??? ???? ???? ????".

It wasn't that tough; you just had to communicate, explain the purpose, get rejected, and try again with another family. But trust me, that was one of the most exciting times of the journey. You got frustrated, you laughed at yourself, but after all this, you tried.

My base location was Simdega, Jharkhand. I communicated with more than 20 people, and 4 families agreed to give me space to live, but ultimately, they denied it."I almost gave up because I thought I wouldn't be able to find a house." But on the last day, my hard work paid off. Chandra Singh, a Batch 15 fellow, suggested the village where he did his CI. I visited one of the houses in the village, met a farmer's family, and interacted with him. He agreed. The next day, I shifted to the CI house. It all happened in just 24 hours. I don't know how this happened, but I got the house.

Now I know how it happened. The answer is how we fellows make relations!

Shifted to CI House (On 15th December 2023), the day I was going to shift to the CI House was exciting! The bag was packed with the necessary goods, a medical kit, and a blanket. After an hour, I reached the CI House, which was approximately 35 km from my fellow House. When I arrived, no one was at home. I called Bhaiya to inform him that I had reached their home, and after calling, he came back from the farm. We put the bag in the room that was arranged for me. After that, I went to the farm with Bhaiya to help him. Now I was happy that I got the CI House and also settled in!

The village where I got the house was a tribal village, and the people followed Christianity as a religion. When I was searching for the CI House, my first preference was that the CI family should practice different religions and different cultures from mine, and I got the same. The village's name was Kargidar. It was one of the interior villages of the Pakartanr Block and It was one of the 10 Blocks of Simdega District. In my family, there were only four people, including me: Dada-Dadi, who was about 70 years old, Bhaiya, and me. I was surprised to know that Dada had two daughters: one was a doctor, and the other was working with the District office. The son had not even passed Class 10th, This was not a single case in that place. Everywhere the government had tried to promote girls' education through different schemes, but here I thought that these schemes were needed for boys. I had been working for 7 months in Simdega and visited more than 40/50 schools, and this place always surprised me that rarely did I find a class where boys outnumbered girls. Of course, there were lots of reasons for it; I didn't know whether it said something positive or negative.

Moving forward, I got the room just after the piggery. I am not able to explain how I spent the first night at CI House. More than 20 pigs roared the whole night. The home was made of soil, a bed that was not enough for a single person, and the floor was smeared with buffalo dung. The temperature was like I had never felt that much cold before. It was tough to sleep, but there was no option. The morning was not like any other morning. The person who rarely woke up before 8 AM today woke up at 5 AM and saw a 70-year-old woman washing the dishes and a more than 70-year-old man cooking food. Together, they were way cuter than you think. During the whole CI Journey, I never saw that they were not making food together

My every day started with, "Good morning Dadi, good morning Dada." They both replied, "Good morning Anshu," with such a pure and beautiful smile, that made your morning more beautiful. After that, I would sit with them in the same place near the hearth. We would together make food, and afterward, I go to the washroom in the open ground near the bank of the river. After brushing (the brush was made up of bamboo sticks), I got breakfast: "Chilka Roti" (the fluffy chapati made with rice flour) and milk. What a dish! As a sweet lover, I loved it. It was my favorite food throughout the CI journey. In the CI journey, I got the opportunity to eat different types of tribal cuisine, some of which were awesome. Every time they gave me food, one common question I had to ask was, "Dadi! ???? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ????" And every time she replied with a smile, "???? ?? ?? ????".

In this journey, I saw both the bright and dark sides of that place and culture. My family was a Christian family who belonged to the Munda tribe a century ago and converted their religion to Christianity. I also got the opportunity to be a part of the prayer held in the church on Sunday. When I went to church for the first time, I never expected that they would welcome me that warmly and accept me so easily. Every member of the church shook hands with a wish, "??? ????!" I didn't even know what the reply to it was. The father of the church read a prayer for me, yes, for an unknown person that he met for the first time in his life. The people of the village invited me for Christmas. Literally! Here, I was treated like a celebrity. For the first time, I was a part of Christmas celebrations. The dance, the food, their songs, and prayers—everything was new to me, but I enjoyed it a lot. I visited almost every home in the CI village on Christmas day. They never made me feel like I was a stranger to them; they included me in each part of the celebration. I will never forget these moments.

I also saw the dark side of that society; I got to know that one of the girls, who was a class 7 student, had been raped by a neighbor boy, and the society did not even complain to the police. The reason was that the boy's family knew "Jadu-tona," which was devastating for me. They even compromised with it in exchange for a goat and some amount of grain. Another major problem was alcohol consumption. I had never seen that much number of drunk people, even women. I'm not saying women cannot drink. They can, but I had never seen women who drink and just lie on the road with scattered clothes. There were also some basic problems like road connectivity, electricity, the distance to the high school, hospitals, etc.

Here, I also did some labor work to help the family I lived with. I helped them in agriculture-related work like harvesting, threshing, vegetable plugging, watering the fields, herding animals, and many more. I also sold the vegetables in the market. I tried to do everything they did, but many times I was not able to do it. I also taught students through community classes, but here, a very small number of students were interested in studying.

In school and the community, I ran a SEL campaign for almost 12 days with the help of the HM and teachers of that school. Here, I took more than 20 sessions and taught key components of SEL. I also tried it on the community level, but because most of the people in the village went to work in the morning and returned after 7/8 PM, I was not able to engage with a large chunk of the people.

I did many exciting things like swimming in the river, farming, hunting, etc. I also did resource mapping of the village. When I completed the CI and left home after 21 days, I felt like I was going to a hostel from home. Yes, I only lived there for 21 days, but their love and care made this place feel like home. Now, whenever I have the time, I talk with them and meet them. This journey will always be memorable and close to my heart.

At last, we participated in CI consolidations where we got a chance to relive our entire journey.