Hema Devika, an erstwhile student of The Junoon Gurukul, who is now pursuing a higher education at graduate school, writes her story of Junoon. This is a round up of her time on the program as well as her thoughts after. We are so happy to have her live out this long term association with us despite the geographical distance.
Junoon denotes passion. Passion to achieve goals and work towards a happier and holistic future. By being part of this parallel arts curriculum at The Junoon Gurukul, along with with academics for almost 2 years, I have developed myself in various ways beginning with being more active in sports sessions, attentive during classes, engaging in multiple activities without being stressed out and sleeping more fully. In all the sessions, we listened, learned, understood, explained to one another, reviewed our learnings, and practiced movement.
In addition to personal development, I along with my family were delighted that I got to learn a traditional dance form which is a little different from what I actually engage with on a regular basis. My parents tried but could not enroll me into any classical dance schools due to several reasons but one of the main reasons is a lack of teaching centers. I remember my mom confessing that she always wanted me to dance and sing on stage as it resembles liveliness, inclusivity and confidence. Being on stage was never my fear until I changed schools and cities, from Hyderabad to Pune.
The undefined fear of not being able to fit-in in the community and step forward to perform always pulled me back from anything that would put me on stage. I decided to focus more on sports. I continued with sports for a long time until Junoon appeared and gathered plenty of courage to be one in a crowd. I shared the happiness of passing the audition rounds with my mom the next day over a phone call with her and that was when she started talking about doing my best in every session. She regularly asked me for updates on the sessions, I would continuously blabber. We learnt classical art in a modern manner and this seems to be the highlight because as we witnessed that different people learn in different ways, a flexible learning and teaching was all that worked without any hurdle. In the end, I achieved my goal of being less afraid of the stage and smiling after my performance.
And what’s more, here was something that was also tapping into my long-developed athletic abilities.
A healthy body leads to a healthy brain – this is something that I have believed throughout. After being part of the course, I can see it for real.
I learned to cope with a hectic schedule and the tiredness we often felt as a result, during the week. Knowing fully well that when the Junoon weekend came, I’d feel energized. We soaked in, practiced and enjoyed the sessions like any other fun activity. This increased participation, confidence to speak up, articulate thoughts, teach each other, plan, connect and build muscle endurance served me well. I did many things each day and a lot of fun while I did. Most importantly, dancing and meditating alleviated the stress from my body and mind and taught me to live in the present. I even felt safe in the emotional boundary that we created for ourselves to discuss over our sessions, classes, results, and nutrition. We learnt the art of living a healthy life with a healthy body and a healthy mind.
Being a frisbee and football player before being part of Junoon all that mattered to me was strength and being calm during the matches and meetings. My perception of Junoon and its whole curriculum changed from thinking it was only about Dance to plenty of additional knowledge and practice. I was able to prioritize staying focused, being calm, being a better listener, attempting to understand what is unspoken, and obviously muscle strength and endurance. This also reflected that Art is everywhere and in everything that I do.
At university now, I remember attending a showcase organized by our performing arts department, suggested to me by one of my seniors, where performers performed Kathak, Bharata Natyam and Odissi. Although I was happy that I could interpret what the Bharata Natyam dancers were expressing from their gestures. This made me realize how important it is to understand art in order to be able to appreciate art. Being in the audience, I successfully understood the feelings and the story that the performers were trying to convey and this added to my skills of observation and interpretation. Art is not only an expression but also appreciation.
To me, Art is a primary form of education where one learns the origins of art, forms of art, practices values like discipline, time-management, active participation, active listening and many more. Junoon helped me internally grow to face my external challenges and I’m happy to be a part of now, making it grow! 🙂
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