First term ended in Soil ended on a sorrow note and dark
clouds of hopelessness had spread its wings in hearts of Soilites. Two of my
brothers from Soil family had left us with deep wound in our hearts as they
passed away in the recent past. It was an awful feeling to see the two empty
seats in our class, so we were hesitant even to enter the classroom. Anil sir’s
class was an appropriate and fitting beginning to our second term.
Anil sir asked us to express our grief in writing, some
of the students wrote without a hint of dither. For me it was very difficult to
explain my feelings and thoughts towards the unfair means that fate opted to surreptitiously
steal my friends from me and my classmates. After a few brief moments of
awkwardness, I was able to overcome the initial hesitation that impeded me from
penning down my thoughts on the white paper. I was sceptical about this entire
exercise as I did not know what Anil sir had on his mind. Once every one was
done with the writing exercise, Anil sir asked us to share our thoughts with
the entire class. By doing this he helped us in relieving us from the humongous
weight from our hearts. Slowly, my classmates shared their personal hell with
the entire class, which helped us in reducing the intensity of grief.
From this point on the mood of the class had improved
considerably. Post break we discussed the ability to control and evaluate
emotions known as the concepts of emotional intelligence. Anil sir clearly
explained us the importance of active listening with the help of some good
examples. From listening skills we slowly moved on to the next topic – empathy and
body language. I particularly liked the way he illustrated the concept of
empathy with a fine example. He asked for two students from my class to
volunteer. Then sir asked them to exchange the shoes that they were wearing. At
first, they were baffled but followed the instruction anyway. Immediately we
understood what Anil sir was trying to convey with the help of this example.
Then he explained us that no one can feel others plight, they can only
understand their difficulty. As future leaders we needed this important lesson
and with this he let us take a lunch break with food for thought.
The second session after lunch was filled with
appreciative inquiry, one of my least favourite topics. However, Anil sir had
his way of explaining and involving us in his lecture. To make us understand this
concept better, he asked us to choose a partner to try out appreciative inquiry
with each other. We followed his instruction and to our surprise unravelled different
facets of one another’s character.
Finally the session ended with a discussion of our
experiences of the day and we were told to reflect on the learning and meaning
of happiness. This is when it dawned upon me, that I was not sad anymore and I was
one step closer to Anil sir’s teaching.
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