Over the last three years, several workshops have been organised by BASICS to teach senior citizens, housewives and students methods of dealing with their long-standing emotional and psychological blocks through creative work, movement therapy and other techniques aimed at self-growth. As part of the free tuitions imparted every week, Vivek Vani students are taught concentration techniques. It must be remembered that many of the students have suffered nutritional deficits in childhood, and live in disturbed family environments. Attention deficit is a very common problem, and we use the methods available in indigenous systems, such as breathing practices, tratak, etc, to help them to increase their attention span. Regular counselling is done to help them learn the basic ways of dealing with a variety of stress factors at home and school/college.
Regular free classes on yoga for general health have been conducted for all by our volunteer teachers over the last decade. Our Vivek Vani students were exposed to the practice of eastern disciplines like tai chi and yoga, and encouraged to come to the Vivek Vani study-shed to practise exercise once a week. The senior girl students of Vivek Vani also did a series of free classes on basic self-defense methods under the guidance of the eminent sensei of warrior meditation, Tania Hui, at her school.
Dr. R Ghosh, an eminent botanist, has been regularly giving talks over the years on the use of common plants and herbs as adaptogens and neutraceuticals, and on the correct use of easily available spices and foods for healing the body. She has disseminated these teachings through our newsletter Vivek Vani as well for those who could not attend her talks.
BASICS organised a day long State-level Workshop on ‘Healing with Plants and Herbs’ on 22nd October, 2019 at Jadavpur University. There were about ninety participants in this workshop from various fields and backgrounds ranging from students, research scholars, teaching faculties, doctors, professionals to retired persons and homemakers. The workshop was focused on traditional methods, new advances and current studies on the efficacy of plants and herbs as food and medicine. In this workshop eminent botanists, nutritionists, pharmacognosists and clinicians delivered audiovisual lectures to explain the use and implications of plants and herbs in daily life. After the lecture sessions, a poster presentation session was held. The last technical session was a hands–on demonstration session. In this session experts gave live demonstrations on the preparation of vermicompost, organic biofertilizers, bio-pesticides so that people could learn to grow chemical free food. The preparation of nutraceuticals at home were taught by experts in the last session.
Our Vivek Vani students learned from BASICS about the simple ways of growing our own food in cities. One of our volunteer teachers had done a certificate course on natural farming at Smell of the Earth Farm, Birbhum, and shared her learning experience with the Vivek Vani students. This was a continuation of small classes on gardening and mushroom cultivation that had happened over the years for our students. A senior student immediately started composting food waste, and growing vegetables on his little roof. During the lockdown, while most Kolkatans were worried about going to public markets and getting infected by the coronavirus, he had ample fresh food growing at home! No excuses for "busy" city people - this Vivek Vani student who went on from being a second generation learner in a less privileged family to being a sector V employee, does his urban farming alongside a full-time corporate job
Regular cleaning campaigns are held by Vivek Vani students. A “green trek” was organised in 2018 by BASICS for the senior students of Vivek Vani to Uttarakhand. In 2019, a more arduous trip to Gangotri and Yamunotri was organised as part of a BASICS retreat, and some of the Vivek Vani students were selected for the trip as well. The trip to Tunganath in 2018 was the students’ first trip to the great Himalayas. They started from Rishikesh, and trekked up to Tunganath at an altitude of 12070 ft. The highlight of the trek was that they carried large sacks and collected all the non-biodegradable trash that trekkers and pilgrims had left all over the mountainside and brought it down to the base. Seeing them in action, many other trekkers and tourists also became conscious of the problem of waste, and started helping in the cleaning campaign. The students learned about responsible travel, and environmental consciousness, even as their travel expanded their understanding of the world beyond the less privileged neighbourhoods they had grown up in.