Bal Mela – Tug of war
Bal Mela is a fest in which we invite and entertain students from the local schools of Surat. My role in this fest was to make those children play tug of war along with my friend Shasvat. During this fest, I felt very energetic and fresh, maybe because I could connect myself with those students or as I was just pleased to see children laughing, dancing and enjoying all around.
The one thing I perceived from this activity is that even after losing in the game, the children got up with laughter and tried harder to achieve their goals. The children lost the first round but got up with fiery spirits which helped them win the second and third round. I first thought that this activity would be a waste of time in which I will have to just entertain a handful of children just for the sake of it, but later on, I realized that I was wrong because I understood the true meaning of this activity. It showed me that you can’t find happiness by purchasing a PSP or an iPhone. One gets happiness by playing with other children, by seeing happiness made by you all around.
There are many things I learned from this activity. Firstly, I learned the skill of planning and initiating an activity. I remember how I and Shasvat were planning strategies to control so many young children while remembering to make the have fun at the same time. This skill will help me in the future because I want to be an entrepreneur. Secondly, I learned the skill of being calm in tight situations such as fights or a crowd. Finally, I learned the skill of co-operating with others as I could not have done it alone. I had literary hoped nothing to achieve from the fest, but the truth is that I learned many things. There were times when all our planning is done previously failed and we had to come up with new plans on the spot due to the mass.
I did find myself out of my comfort zone of peace and laziness, which eventually made me feel very happy and proud of myself for doing something new with my own free will. There are been many benefits I found out of me quitting my comfort zone, which are, a)I found myself more useful in the particular circumstances, b) I had a completely new experience which I doubt I couldn’t have experienced if I preferred to be in my comfort zone. I realized out that I need to improve my skills of controlling the mass, and the skill of communicating with small kids. There were times in which Shasvat and I were facing each other in the game itself dividing the team into 2 groups, Shasvat, and mine. Enchantments such as these made our time in this activity very cheerful and entertaining. This activity also had a global concern “equality” related to it. From performing this activity we showed that there is equality between the children from different castes and religion – because we did not judge any student or school by what clothes they were wearing or their skin type. We saw very child equal and we gave them an equal amount of attention and chances.
There were many difficulties I faced, but the main difficulty was controlling the huge numbers of children at a moment. In our planning we had planned that a couple of 50 – 60 kids will come in total, but we were so wrong, in fact, we had 50 – 60 kids in every chance of the game. Thus, all our planning was inappropriate, so we quickly changed our plan to that Shasvat will explain the game to the kids, where I will look at the center mark of the rope, and we decided to take help from the bhaiya’s to help organize those kids. We were able to complete this activity because we showed high amount of commitment and perseverance in this activity – otherwise, it could have been very easy for us to quit and leave the entire activity on bhaiya’s and the other students, but we decided that we will be committed to the work we were given and prove we are capable of controlling such a mass of children. Well, the one thing I learnt about me from this activity is that I am good in changing my plans at the last moment. My overall experience of this fest was amazing, and I think I did a pretty good job in organizing those kids and entertaining them to the fullest without any criticism. At the end of the activity, I was completely exhausted and my hand was covered with bruises, but this activity was worth it.
