Internship @ Sunderbans

The excitement of going to a new place is always accompanied with many apprehensions and a fear to adjust with the place, moreover when you know that you are gonna go to an altogether different social environment- a rural place. Same happened with me as i was packing my bags to go to the place.. There were many feelings simultaneously going on in my mind like the feeling of happiness, fun, fear, concern, adventure etc..
So finally was off to Sunderbans (with 2 more friends) with huge luggages, which we didnt realise while leaving from Delhi.
The journey began with lotes of hopes, expectations and a force to change the world for betterment; with the enthusiasm to discover a new place and have fun friends to optimal level; with the motivation to get out of comfort zone and be ready for challanges.
Fun, tea, gossips, making videos, clicking photographs, munching, excitement all followed in the train. The girls, oops the smart girls, as complemented by agency supervisor, were expected to stay the whole night in some Railway Yatri Niwas at Railway station...and this terrified us bad.. All horrified what to do, the same supervisor came to our rescue and picked us up from the station and dropped us at the Kolkata head office (Sabuj Sangha).. As social workers, we are though expected to do anything and everything but as human beings, getting scared is a natural process...
Next early morning, we were off to Sunderban.. The moment i was in Sunderban, i was totally mesmerized by its scenic beauty and calmness. But with time and in the period of one month, i realised that this beauty is enwrapping the gloom beneath it- the flood prone area and the recent cyclone (AILA) that had struck the coastal areas of West Bengal added to the heaps of miseries of people. Poverty is a major setback to the progress of people and the reason of their migration from this place to other areas where they would get livelihood opportunities. And what do they do? They mostly migrate to either work in cold storage and mills, to work as domestic maids and get basically involved in manual jobs. Our system pays to the brains and not the hard working hands. And is this leading to further discrimination and stigmatisation of those classes who lack bookish knowledge, skills (as is accepted by the larger society)? Are we creating more disparity than trying to reduce it? Well, these are some personal conflictual questions which keep raising within me, when i think about this place.
Anyway, from getting exposed to a rural place to getting adjusted in the place- everything has imbibed within me adaptiveness, struggle to learn and discover, being open and has helped me to be self-aware and i realised finally that small thins make a huge difference in our lives and these learning will keep unfolding from time to time...

Internship has made me learn to value things in life and to love all without discrimination because situations have forced us to be what we are.. May be even we would have born in a weaker section and then how would we feel to face ridicule, shame, humiliation, disgrace, dishonor by the dominating sections??