India and the World at the Dawn of 2010
Report of a Listening Post held in January

Part 1. THE SHARING OF PREOCCUPATIONS AND EXPERIENCES

In this part of the Listening Post participants were invited to identify, contribute, and explore their experience in their various social roles, be those in work, unemployed, or retired; as members of religious, political, neighbourhood or voluntary or leisure organisations, or as members of families and communities. This part was largely concerned with what might be called, ‘the stuff of people’s everyday lives’, that relating to the 'socio' or 'external' world of participants.

This year’s listening post saw a group from different background sharing their experiences in different roles. The major sharing consisted of the many learning’s that the participants had, both positive and negative. The year for some was a series of frustrations and for some it consisted of a salad of emotions. Experimenting with relationships, not celebrating achievements and leaving in a state of paradox formed the centre of all the sharing. Natural calamities — like floods in North Karnataka, the recession and its impact on self and others, case of Richika — a girl raped by a senior police officer, who was scot free for 22 years, now behind bars, a paraplegic — a victim of abuse kept alive for 36 yrs in a vegetative condition, physical abuse by a educated couple of their maid servant, that led to not celebrating of personal joys and achievements, was felt as a state of paradox.

The need for new paradigms of relating and a sense of experimenting and exploring new ways of relating and relatedness was expressed. Passivity, lack of celeberation and overemphasis of negatives over positives, all were discussed.

Part 2. IDENTIFICATION OF MAJOR THEMES

In Part 2 the aim was to collectively identify the major themes emerging from Part 1.

This LP saw emergence of many themes. Most of the themes emerged in relation to the reaction to the various events that were experienced at the personal level as well as local and national level.

Fluctuations, selflessness, selfishness, pain in gain, clarity of roles and responsibility, underplaying the positives over the negatives, experimenting, tolerating, redefining, inhibiting celebrations of achievements, and sense of humiliation and ill-equipped, escapism, underplay positive over negatives, accepting oneself, psycho-social tolerance, redefine, explore, reluctance to engage, feeling of intrusion, escapism, struggle to balance all or few.

The feelings evoked were those of sorrow, joy, inadequacy, fear contempt, compassion, ambivalence, sadness and pain.

Part 3. ANALYSIS AND HYPOTHESIS FORMATION

In this part of the Listening Post the members were working with the information resulting from Parts One and Two, with a view to collectively identifying the underlying dynamics both conscious and unconscious that may be predominant at the time; and developing hypotheses as to why they might be occurring at that moment. Here the members were working more with what might be called their 'psycho' or 'internal' world. Their collective ideas and ways of thinking that both determine how they perceive the external realities and shape their actions towards them.

Hypothesis
Coping with experienced changes in assumed roles and responsibilities, leads to creating a mirage of overachievement and consequently insensitivity to deprivation of self as well as others in order to deny humiliation and agony, consequently there is manifested in lack of self acknowledgement, experimenting with roles leading to a facadic ways of functioning and responsibility taking, demonstrated by inaction to situations, contexts and events not directly afflicting self.

Conveners: Shobha Managoli & Mythili Hegde