Page 8 - Here and Now June 2022

one- on- one meeting. I called Aroon and he said, “So what? you just come. Even if there is one person,
we will start monthly meetings. ” That statement has stayed with me.

Amit, Tina, Vinita and I have been making these meetings happen now continuously for the last 5 – 6
years. Gradually, Manoj Walsangkar, Mukta Kamplikar and Anuja joined in. Leena John, Annie Aacharya,
Sandhya Kulkarni, Aishwarya Hariharan, Sanjana Vaidya and Mukund Joglekar also started dropping in for
our sessions. In 2020 Mukul Joshi shifted to Pune and became part of the group.

I was eager to learn. We decided to follow subjects from our ISABS Phase A brochure, and I started
learning from that. We had topics like Intra-personal, Interpersonal and group processes, Defense
mechanisms, self-esteem, Transactional analysis, catharsis , group development, power and gender for
discussion and Q and A sessions in our monthly meetings. I also took up a few topics like defence
mechanisms, self-esteem, diagnosis, Phenomenology and Dialogic self-theory, gender etc., Here in this
forum, I also got the opportunity to facilitate two one-day labs - one with Tina rattra and the other with
Krushna Sawant. Aiswarya also took an initiative. She organized some pro bono labs for MBA students of
K.J. Somaiya college with the support of Prof. Dr. Shiji Lyndon. I got an opportunity to work with Archana
Srivastav for one of these labs. Our Pune meetings gave us conceptual understanding of processes, helped
us explore depths of what we did in labs. These meetings gave us space to learn, to laugh, to cry and to
share our vulnerabilities. They created bonding between people, and we as a group experienced a team
spirit. We conducted more than 45 meetings even during the lockdown over Zoom and kept sharing and
learning throughout. I would also like to believe that these meetings were a support system during those
difficult days. I went through a journey from a learner to a competitor and then to collaborator in this
group.
When I and my family suffered from Covid and its after-effects, I shared what I went through with our
Pune group and felt tremendously supported and held.

From my Phase A until now, I have facilitated four labs as an intern (besides of course practice labs that I
do for my learning). For me, my ISABS journey is meaningful and challenging. The Pune group helped me
develop an ability and an attitude to learn and understand processes. It is and will always be a wonderful
space for all of us to explore and experiment and learn.

I have deep gratitude for our group. I specifically want to say this about Aroon. Most of our meetings were
held at Aroon’s place and he was present in all those meetings. He always gave us an environment to
learn and thrive. Since last two years Mukul Joshi is also very active and present for us for most of our
meetings.
Beginning as a learning group for progress in my ISABS journey, we in the group now experience the
process of learning as a joyful one. . We are eager to meet each other every month and take time to decide
our subjects to learn and look forward to our upcoming meetings.

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