It was the morning of 15 Jan 2015, when I opened the mailbox to find an envelope there. Who knew it would lead to a complete transformation in the way I perceived the world.
Finally the day arrived when I was to leave. So there I stood at the airport with a suitcase and a ticket in my hand and nervousness and anxiety in heart. After two hours I landed at the place where a 7 day experience-which was to redesign my life-waited for me.
I was finally at MIT Media lab Design Innovation Workshop 2015 and right there in front of me were some of the luckiest graduate students belonging to the Media lab. The week kick started with the members and students being acquainted with each other.
But the experience had just begun!! Unlike the traditional learning culture, where we have to solve a given problem, we were taken on a field trip and were asked to “find our own problem”. So the task, as unusual as it might be to each of us, was “IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM”. Our track was taken to a neighbouring old age home. That is when we realized that problems are in abundance and a problem could be small as communication handicap because using mobile phone is not that easy for them. Those two hours taught me that technological revolution is of no consequence if it lacks the human emotion, touch and thought.
Highly determined a group of four came up with the desire to help make healthcare more accessible to the seniors without them being dependent on any govt agency or public interest organization. We approached our mentors with the same thought and they said “ GO CHOOSE THE ROAD YOU WISH TO TRAVEL ON. EXPLORE!!” (Quite contrary to the monotonous methods we follow at traditional learning where all do the same thing, the same way!)
This was followed by a week of unlimited work, days of crazy maddening talks and discussions at 2 am in the night & skipping dinner only to gather a tapri at 5 in the morning to have tea and an occasional guitar jam session 😉
On 23rd Jan we finally exhibited our project which was appreciated by our fellow trackmates, people from other tracks and also the mentors. The hard work had paid off.
I also made some of the strongest and best bonds with people whom now I call “friends”. As I found new friends some old ones were lost. Those whom I never expected to help me still stand by me, those whom I blindly believed breached my trust. This taught me that nothing is forever and the deepest cuts are from the knives that you thought you knew. I was made to see the world differently and I learnt to do so…learnt to forgive without forgetting.
As I left that place, the experiences were deeply etched in my heart. It was a place that made me “learn learning”!
agrimaseth 