Just had a conversation with Vikram, and as the rumours have been flying, we are indeed going to be having a two week event for the Mumbai Chapter in Septmember. We are calling it the Barkha 2008.

Week 1 will be from 17th September to 21st September and week 2 will be from 23rd September to 27th September.

The brochure is attached. I am so proud of the proceedings in our chapter!

Download Barkha Brochure

I have been an active member of the Mumbai Chapter of ISABS since my ALHP. Now, I have reached a stage where I need to attend an intern’s lab in a National Event to begin my internship, and thus, for the first time in a long time, I was free, but I didn’t attend an ISABS Mumbai region Event.

I missed the community. I have invested a lot of myself in ISABS, and I was aware that this was the second Umang Event, which is an outreach kind of thing for lower budgets. This time, the Umang Event was sponsored heavily by Chapter Funds and took place in the regular event location, instead of a cheap location like the first event. I was interested in seeing the impact on the community.

So, me being me, I invited myself to the last evening party just to touch base with the community. For the first time, I was in the community, but without the pressure of being a participant. I hadn’t even realized that there is a pressure in being a participant. But it was a new experience. I could stay up late without worrying about waking up in time for the morning lab, I could eat to my fill at lunch without worrying about falling asleep in the afternoon lab……

But I digress.

I traveled by train and miscalculated the required time horribly as it took me three and a half hours to reach Karjat, much of which was spent in absolutely mind-bogglingly crowded trains. Things got better after Dombivli (though I still didn’t have a seat) and I joined a group of women singing songs to pass the time. Now, I have a fairly good voice, and the enthusiasm with which one team accepted me helped allay some of my misery and got me into party mood in the unlikeliest of places - an overcrowded train.

Sang and chatted much of my way to Karjat, looking at the time and willing the train to go faster, but alas, it took as much time as it took. Being late was worth it, because a gorgeous hunk called Raka was concerned about me traveling to Modi at night alone, and came to pick me up from the station and thus I finally arrived.

What I found amazing about this event was that there were 3 BLHPs and 3 ALHPs. This ratio is amazing for me. Usually, the BLHPs are about 3-4 times as many as the ALHPs. On one level, I was excited to see the percentage of participants taking their journeys ahead in our Umang community. On the other, I was concerned that the higher budget of this time (as compared to the previous time) might have blocked new entrants from the low budget category. Indeed, much of the “low budget category” was in the ALHPs.

The party itself was an amazing experience for me. Having attended the previous Umang, most of the ALHP participants were known to me, and my entry into the party was one of great welcome and surprised excitement. The warmth overwhelmed me. This is perhaps the first event where I walked in knowing so many of the participants.

I spend almost the first hour of the party just seeing people and hugging the ones I was close to, meeting the others, asking about them…….. catching up. I met Kishore again, who was doing his co-facilitation (he’d done his internship lab with us when I did my Phase B), Ashish (we did Phase A together), Sowmya (ALHP), Dr Satish (he’s a total fun riot), Raka (my husband - and the good doctor’s partner in crime), Farida, Artee, Chandan, Kiran, Sunita, Sushma, Meghna…… and maaaany more from the previous Umang gang. I was amazed that people remembered me so much!

A couple of friends came to tell me things like “you made the party complete for me” and “I had missed you”. Others took me aside and we had heart-to-heart catching ups….. It was an incredible feeling of being welcomed, included and totally drenched in affection.

The facilitators seemed rather busy with Raji not feeling too well, but I did get to spend some time with Sanjeev who seemed more interested in my husband than me (alas, the woes of having attractive husbands and fickle friends ). I met Vikram, KK, Shridhar and Altaf at various points in the evening and the rest on the next day.

Met many new people as well. Many people who knew Raka from this event had this intense curiosity for who his wife could be, and I found people introducing themselves and sharing this curiosity and approval - we were pronounced “made for each other”, which makes me giddy with joy, but it was also strange - we were mostly doing our own things, and not really “couple stuff”. I’m so used to connecting with Raka as a friend and part of group in public, that this whole thing with “Raka’s wife” in ISABS - which is like my own home ground - was a different perspective, and quite nice in its own way.

Of course, the music was on, and when there’s music, there’s me, moving to it. I’m not much of a dancer, but what I lack in skill, I make up in enthusiasm, and it was great fun.

This party was edgier and faster paced in terms of intoxication than my previous ISABS parties and while puking was right up there on my “ick” factor, thankfully it didn’t happen much, and the whole “unplugged feeling” was amazing in a very “dil se” way.

Some of the night passed in confusion and back up with some participants drunk (hey, which party is complete without that?), Raji falling ill from something she ate (or didn’t), an extremely dedicated doctor Shiela ensuring her comfort, Vikram hunting for medicines in the middle of the night at local hospitals…..

The surprising bit is that while the party atmosphere gets to me always, this time I was jhooming after having drunk very little (which no one believed, but I really had only two glasses). Must be the fumes in the air. I was swaying, but my head was clear - strange. Might also be tiredness - I hadn’t slept much the last whole week.

I was crashing in Asha and Anisha’s room. Hey that’s interesting - Asha-Anisha….. and we had loads of girly time walking on that eternal Modi road and then in our room……. until we finally….. slept.

PS: Spent some fabulous girl time with Raji under the heading of “taking care of her” the next morning until she felt better enough to attend the second lab of the day onwards. We had met on earlier events in the community and had liked each other on sight, but rarely spoken more than “hello, how are things going?” I had nothing to do, and she wasn’t feeling well, so she had taken the first session off. We chatted, gossiped and did all the catching up that we had been unable to do by virtue of being busy with something or the other on earlier events. In short, we ignored her illness in favour of having fun and starved of all the attention, it reluctantly slunk away.

Hi,

I know its a lot of posts in one day after a long drought. What do I say, once I get started, I keep remembering things I need to share.

I just realized that not many people know about the Mumbai Chapter’s initiative to translate the reading material provided in the BLHP and ALHP into Hindi. Many people who attend our events are not able to utilize the material provided in English effectively. We are trying to bridge that gap.

At the moment, there are a couple of people working on translations, but its very scattered, and not easy to structure. We are looking for volunteers who have good Hindi and translation skills to help us with this, so that we can make it available at the soonest - ideally, on this Umang Event itself, but failing that, in our regular monsoon event taking place a month or so later.

Really, we need big time help on this. Please comment on this post using your correct email ID, so that I can get in touch with you if you are able and willing to volunteer.

I realize that there are some people who have done a little work here and there - if you guys could step up and share what you have done, perhaps we can collaborate and get this show running faster - we will be able to ensure that effort is not wasted with people working on the same articles and ensure that all articles are covered, etc. Basically, the idea is this, that even if one person translates an article or so each, with enough volunteers, its going to mean two entire books getting translated mighty quickly.

Pleeeeeease! It will be fantastic if the Mumbai Chapter can develop this to contribute to the growth of ISABS.

Hi folks,

The monthly meeting for June 2008 has been decided for the 14th of June 2008 at Vignesh’s office. Those of you who attended the National Event may know this already. Those who don’t…. well you know now

This is the first meeting since the Summer National Event, and I am hoping to have contacted everyone new in this chapter, but I would appreciate it if you spread the word around so that if there is anyone who has missed this announcement, they will know. I know how important it is for participants who have been on an event to have support with their “ISABS withdrawal symptoms”

Time: 4:30pm
Coordinators: Altaf and Vidyut

Kamino International
Address: 301, The Sangeet Plaza, Marol, Andheri East, Mumbai 400059

Please let us know your attendance status.  You may call Altaf or Vidyut (if you have the numbers or they will be in the newsletter) or you can post a comment on this post so that we can read and know you are coming. Also, if you say you can come, and something happens to change that, please let us know that as well. Currently, we recognize three kinds of attendance status - “YES” “NO” and “MAYBE”. It helps to know how many people to expect.

It is short notice, so please let us know as early as you can.

Vidyut

Got this email from Anuradha Prasad. Its about a Group Relations Conference. Not exactly ISABS, but an opportunity for all the ISABSians who wish to experience the Tavistock Model to grab and run with. From my experience of the “extra session” requests, there are quite a few of us who want that, so here is the brochure.

I have no connections with the organization, and please contact them directly if interested.

Dear Colleagues,

Here is an exciting opportunity to participate in a Group Relations Conference! I request you to also forward it to others who might be ineterested.

Do call me if you need any more information to help you decide.

Best regards,

Anuradha Prasad

Brochures:

• gender-grc-brochure-2008
• application-form-gender-grc-2008
• schedule-gender-grc-20082

Hi Folks,

I’m back from the National Event in Goa and in flying gear. It was a warm, exciting place to be in (physically and emotionally). I learned to swim…… but this is avoidance. I enjoyed being myself thoroughly this time. I was able to BE consistently and my usual enthusiasm and curiosity led me to experiment on planes I had never thought of before. Put simply, a steep and thrilling learning curve that leaves me feeling rewarded. Or wait! It doesn’t look like it plans to leave me.

Coming to the purpose of this post:

The Umang Event for June 2008 has been announced. The dates are from the 2nd of July to the 6th of July 2008 and it will take place at the Modi Resort Karjat.

I’m attaching the brochure for it and you can quickly download it, fill in the forms and send them off so that you are able to be there. Looking forward to meeting you all.

Vidyut

umang-july2008

Title: Summer national Event
Location: Goa
Description: The summer National Event
Start Date: 2008-05-18
End Date: 2008-05-31

Some important changes to note:

LOCATION OF EVENT HAS CHANGED

Got this email from Rajkumar:

In this regard we wish to inform you of an important
change - the change in Venue. Please note the same as follows - NEW
VENUERESORT DONA SYLVIA

Cavelossim Beach, Goa - 403731

Phone: (0832) 2871888 (7 Lines)

Fax: (0832) 2871320

Email:info@donasylvia.com
Website: www.donasylvia.com

This change has happened due to unforeseen circumstances of our earlier
booked Venue having shut down operations suddenly. We at ISABS are committed
to honouring your trust and aspirations from the unique learning experience
and process as facilitated in our events. In this spirit we have been
successful in organizing an alternate venue (RESORT DONA SYLVIA) at very
short notice, so as to make the event happen and ensure your comfortable and
enjoyable learning experience, given the fact that you have chosen to invest
a week for your personal growth.

The other change is as Gauri commented under the announcement - the special lab has been cancelled. I guess everyone planning to attend it has been informed, so it is not as critical as this one.

Download: Avyudaya: Festival of Learning brochure

The 1st meeting of the study group will be held on 4th May 2008 in Sushma’s office in the afternoon. I will confirm the time and the address to you in a follow-up mail. This is an advance notice, for you to block your time.

• Share our individual PDP journey , so far
• Consolidate the ideas that have been received
• Plan a structure and way forward for the study group.
• We can keep some time in the end for any other things that we may want to take up as PDP group.

For more information, login to the PDP Study area.

Hi folks, this is to let you know that we now have a special study area for PDP members and professional members. This is to facilitate the learnings and study for the professional journeys. This area once developed will have reading materials, the ability to discuss each article as a forum, .pdf downloads, study group meetings announcements, and other learning related support.

This area is strictly a members only area and logins and passwords will be issued on request.

What do you need to do if you want a login?

• If you know me personally and I know that you are a PDP/professional member, all it will take is a message to me to create a login.
• If you don’t know me, or I may not know about your status as a PDP member, message me with information about when you did your Phase A and the facilitators in your lab or your mentor so that I can confirm.
• If you are a professional member I don’t know, I assume your name will be in the ISABS professional members list. If it is not, I would appreciate a confirmation by a facilitator on that list.
• If you are not a PDP or professional member but want to join in for purposes of study (and no - curiosity is not a valid reason), find yourself a mentor or a professional member who will recommend you and ask that member to contact me to create a login for you.

I think this covers all the options of being able to enter that area. For the others…… we can meet here

When I say contact me, I mean any kind of contact with me - Vidyut.

1. Tell me when you meet me
2. Call me up if you have my number
3. Send an SMS if you have my number
4. Send an email if you have my email ID
5. Use the contact form