Hello all,
The first of anything is always special then be it your first day of school, your first crush, your first big achievement, your first love and all sorts of things. TFI finally began and with the high level of expectation that all institute 2 fellows were harbouring(based on our interactions wid past and insti 1 fellows), anything less than perfect would have been a dampner. The day started off on a hurried note with me getting late for breakfast and having to rush through it, I had papita and coffee simultaneously for the first time ever. However, on a positive note for the 1st time in around 4 years was I on time for my session(a pat on the back to myself for that).
The session then with a really energy filled introduction by Venal,an ex TFI fellow. Then, we were told about the vision and goals of the institute and I really loved the non-serious way in which they actually did that, u didn’t even realize that the staff was talking about something so important. This was followed by showing us a song on the importance of kids for a teacher and then, we were actually made to sing the whole song together, was real fun though and I felt really special being asked to sing a whole song(people who know my voice will not dare for a single line). We then moved on the session which was on: Connect with a Child and it was taken by Milind, another ex fellow.
The session began in a very bizarre way with the distribution of oranges, I actually got happy that tfi even serve you food between the session,however that is not the case and these were actually a part of the session itself. After getting the oranges we were asked by Milind to close our eyes for a few minutes and accustom ourselves to the nearby noises, he asked us to accept that they would always be there and make our peace with that fact. Then, he made us catch the orange in our hand and feel its surface(and please no double meanings here ;), he asked us to actually feel every scar that was on the surface. Then, he made some fellows share what they felt by holding the orange such. There were some good responses but mostly weird responses with people all god knows what. We were then asked by him to close our eyes and feel the orange again. This was followed by been asked to peel off some of the orange and smell it. Again some fellows were asked for their thoughts. Then finally, he asked us to eat of a slice(I remember eating 2 slices together,was so hungry) followed by eating some of the peelings as well.
The beautiful part of the lesson was the way in which it was done, amongst all the weird things that you were asked to do not even once did I realize that I was actually learning a valuable lesson,in fact personally for me I just wanted to eat away that orange for most of the thinking,feeling or smelling part . He actually told us how for the 1st time in our life we had used all our 5 senses to connect with an object, to basically feel it. He told us that connecting with a child is similar, you have to just be in it with whole of your heart, mind and soul and obviously to utilize all those 5 senses that we have been bestowed with.
This was to be followed by a community visit wherein we were to connect with a child but would be posting about that very soon. Thank you TFI to such a perfect start.

Nakul Arora
🙂