It’s been six months since I went to India. Now, am back home
in Lebanon, sitting in the living room of my home, listening to my music and writing down
what’s on my mind. I really miss it big time, India was so gentle and kind to
me, it offered me the best of its people, taught me a lot of lessons, and literally changed the course of my life. I have decided to write down all the highlights of my
experience and share it with everyone, to keep this memory alive in my heart
and in the hearts of others. It changed me drastically, I learned what it meant to truly love and I felt it like I had never loved that way before, it taught me how to
step out of my personal needs and care genuinely for others, teaching me the pure
and rare feeling of Joy and happiness. My heart is filled with nothing but
gratefulness and love. But still, I truly miss it all. But as my brother, my
second half used to say learn to breath it in and it’ll vibrate to the hearts
of others.
How I got to know about initiatives of change? Well it all started with a Facebook link that was
on my professor’s page, IofC internship
on leadership and communication skills in Switzerland. Initiatives of change,
Change starts from oneself. Sounded very interesting and an amazing
opportunity to seize. I applied along with four of my friends including my
friend Fatima. We didn't have high hopes but we felt positively about it. We
received our emails about the interview dates, went to Beirut to the main
office there, and gave our interviews. Coming out we all felt so challenged, intimidated by the participants there. The bars were raised really high,
most of them graduate students with strong references. But still I had some
hope. Couple of weeks later I received an email that I was accepted. I kneeled
down laughing not knowing how to react, filled with joy. But I
had to call my friends and check-up on them, only one got accepted and it wasn't Fatima. I felt really bad and so upset, because we were in it together. A few days later, Fatima texted me saying that there’s an internship in
India as well, and oh boy, I felt strongly about it, a stronger feeling than
Swiss, because since I was a kid I always had these dreams about India as if I had this call, as if I knew something must be waiting for me there. So both
me and Fatima applied. Not knowing what’s waiting for us but I fully trusted it
from the deepest corner of my heart. And trusted what’s going to happen.
Am going to share about my journey in India. So we had our
Skype interviews both me and Fatima, got accepted, applied for our visas,
booked our tickets, and hopped on the plane. An almost 16 hours journey in the
plane, from Lebanon to Sharjah airport,a waiting time of 8 hours, and then from
Sharjah airport to Mumbai. We reached Mumbai, and first thing that caught my
attention were the people there and I was really amazed I don’t know but I
really had this strong feeling, I fell in love with the people and had a
positive feeling about the whole thing. Took our luggage and went outside and
saw the taxi driver with a small placard saying MRA Center IofC. This was our guy
we followed him to the car and placed our luggage and started our engines, it
was 4:30am. Our destination was Panchgani, where the center is, 6 hours away from Mumbai. We were exhausted and so sleepy. After a couple of hours of
driving we started moving into the hilly areas with the sun slowly rising up,
and the rain drizzling since it was the September the final month of the
monsoons. I was amazed with scenery, a pitch greenery everywhere and lots of
hills. It was beautiful, but I was so sleepy I tried to sleep but good lord the
driver was insane didn't stop peeping his horn up and down, and moving left and
right dogging and crossing cars. After almost five hours of driving and between
sleeping and waking up, the scenery started changing, we were heading towards a
more mountain like area, so green-the view was breath taking! And finally an
hour later we reached Panchgani, and a billboard saying MRA Center. We reached
there safely. The driver called informing them of our arrival. And there in
front of a building the reception area stood, a guy who’s the receptionist
turning out to be Sunjay, and our coordinator Aunty Leena. A warm welcoming
they both gave, especially aunty Leena. The center was huge and so beautiful, looked so green and so fresh. Gardens were well maintained and everything was
labeled. Then Aunty Leena took us to our buildings, and called on a person
called Deng to help me with the bag to get to my room. I thought he used to
work there, but it turned out to been intern from South Sudan. I went up to my
room, took a shower, got myself refreshed and had a deep sleep. I opened my eyes
slowly and I saw a guy standing at the end of my bed smiling, he creeped me out
to be honest. Then he started apologizing for waking me up and he introduced
himself as Tenzin from Tibet, my roommate, and said "sorry
for waking you but I was just checking on you." He was one of the most gentle, warm hearted person I ever met in a longtime and I was glad to have him as
my roommate. Then Achieh came, my other roommate from Tiawan, introducing
himself. Then we went all together to our first meeting as interns. We gathered
in a room called the northeast room, Fatima was there, I, Achieh, Tenzin, and Deng.
And sitting oN the carpet were Aris from Australia, and Riathaung from
Nagaland, which is the northern east part of India. And also Mike from Kenya, he’s not an intern but part of the internship program supporting in
many ways, along with Rufus from India, finally Kim from Kenya who was a
participant at that time. She greeted us with different flowers and leaves. (I still kept mine preserved in my book). She welcomed us
with great warmth wishing us a great journey and debriefing us about the center and what happens here generally.
That was the beginning of an unexpected and an unplanned
journey… At that time sitting on the
carpet my mind was vague and empty, having no idea what’s coming and what was
going to happen. Looking back then and looking at it now, I realize the beauty that lies
in confusion and living the uncertainty, giving hope for the future, that
you’ll never ever know what’s happening or what’s coming, just live it with an
open heart, a will to explore, wear on those curios eyes, and shaky heart and
they’ll lead you to wonders… Oh boy! Wonders indeed… To be continued…
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