The importance of resilience
Those times, talent, hard work and initiative go unrecognised, it is resilience that helps us survive.
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. Ours is not a caravan of despair.”
It was surreal to hear the poetry of Sufi mystic Rumi recently being sung at what seems an unlikely venue: the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ann Arbor. I first heard of this church from an atheist friend. I understand acts of faith, but am critical of several aspects of organised religions, especially those that posit faith and social justice in antagonistic terms. So, when my friend suggested we visit “a church without rules, mostly,” I was naturally curious. Looking at the church’s website, I learned of its organic links with Harvard Divinity School, and that it draws from the wisdom of all world religions, their spectrum including eastern philosophies, as well as scientific humanism, welcoming people from a variety of faiths and sexualities to search for their own meaning and evolve. But what finally convinced me to get up and out early on a cold Sunday morning, however, was not just the promise of progressive theology, or pluralism, or the open-door policy, but the topic of that morning’s sermon: resilience.
As an educator, I often find myself speaking to students at universities and other settings about the importance of resilience. Talent, hard work, planning, initiative, innovation: the role of these in trying to craft our lives and the world around us gets much talked about. However, we often fail to acknowledge the overarching importance of resilience. Those times the talent, hard work and initiative go unrecognised, or our best-laid plans get derailed, it is resilience that helps us survive and hopefully, even use the experience to grow stronger. This is not to deny structural reasons for despair, nor to facetiously claim that everything is always up to the individual alone; for instance, being born into debilitating poverty can significantly undermine one’s available opportunities and life chances. Rather, it is to suggest that, even given the same structural and social conditions, any two individuals will each engage with them differently, with greater or lesser resilience, altering the experience of life.
At the church, members of the congregation were asked to introduce themselves. They say this church is not evangelical and members do not proselytize—unlike some other denominations with a formal mandate to convert “non-believers” since colonialism, and not always with an eye towards social justice. Hence, there were others like me, who had discovered this church informally. The general energy, aided by an effervescent choir, was joyful and upbeat. We talked some, sang some, and were then handed a sheet on which to note down five “resiliency practices and habits” from our own lives, followed by the sermon, which was more a friendly talk. The first “resiliency habit” I noted was walking. I do not own a car and walk to work; over the years, I have found that it is both exercise and relaxation, allowing me to appreciate the trees, the road, the wide expanse of sky. Writing and cooking were also on my list, neither of which should be seen as the exclusive preserve or duty of any particular gender. Another was the time I try to set aside to reflect on where I was, where I have arrived, the joys big and small.
Afterwards, we bought some books f rom t he church’s small but lively collection. I highly recommend famed Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s slim volume on How to Walk. “We frequently walk with the sole purpose of getting from one place to another. But where are we in-between? We can arrive in the present moment with every step.” And elsewhere, “when we first learned to walk, we walked just to enjoy walking. We can learn to walk that way again.” But my favourite was a book of prayers by women, worldwide, down the centuries: Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Andal, and others. Among its inspiring offerings was a simple prayer titled “What Must I Do” by Bishop Barbara Harris that renewed my faith, if not in the universe, then in myself, in those around me, and in our resilience.
“I am but one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”
In determining the future of the three main contestant parties in the fray, the elections to the municipal corporations in Delhi have enormous significance so far as the capital goes. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power for the past ten years with not much to show performance wise, is extremely confident of retaining its hold and is relying heavily on the Narendra Modi magic to do wonders once again. The victory of its nominee, Manjinder Singh Sirsa in the Rajouri Garden Assembly byelection is being portrayed as an indication of the mood in the city and several analysts have already written off the Aam Aadmi Party, whose candidate not only was a distant third, but also, in the process, forfeited his deposit. The Congress, which emerged as the runner-up, is erroneously attempting to project its showing as a comeback sign at the expense of the AAP, which had swept to power in 2015, denying the grand old party even one seat in the national capital’s Assembly.
The BJP is putting its best foot forward and its efforts are backed by superior strategy and immense hard work by its cadre. The party has, so far, ensured that the focus of its campaign does not deviate from the mega status of the Prime Minister and has thus succeeded in keeping its own dismal performance in the three civic bodies under the wraps. It would be an accurate assessment that the BJP would have little chance if its decade long rule would come under close inspection and scrutiny. Therefore, to interpret the Rajouri Garden victory as a barometer to judge the people’s mood is perhaps a bit premature.
The byelection result was on expected lines. Rajouri Garden has never been an AAP variety of a seat, even though Jarnail Singh, who resigned to contest against Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi in Punjab, had secured it by a convincing margin in 2015. In 2013, the AAP had not fielded a candidate here. The constituency is dominated by Punjabis, including Sikhs, and Sirsa, thus, from the very beginning, was the potential victor. People were disillusioned with AAP for abandoning them mid-way and this became clear once the results were declared. The primary reason for the Congress coming in second was due to the family influence of its candidate, Meenakshi Chandela, who, in particular, put up a brave fight in the non Punjabi segments. The seat had been represented thrice by the DPCC president Ajay Maken and many of his colleagues were of the belief that he should have himself contested from there. The matter was compounded further when instead of appointing a known Punjabi leader as in-charge of the byelection, the Congress chose to nominate former MLA, Devendra Yadav, who happens to be unfamiliar with the dynamics of the constituency. It must have also come as a rude shock to Maken that even in the booths in the vicinity of his family home, the Congress was trounced by the BJP.
The AAP has chosen to put the byelection defeat behind it and has begun hectic campaigning for the polls to be held next Sunday. The Punjab debacle has demoralised its cadre and a chastened Arvind Kejriwal has hit the poll trail, promising to give Delhi better governance even in the civic bodies which have witnessed “unprecedented corruption and inefficiency” during the last decade. True to his style of offering sops, the Delhi Chief Minister has assured the abolition of property tax for residential houses. He has also made a strong case for his nominees by stating that it would be in the interests of Delhiwallahs to have the same party in the Assembly as well as the corporation. Delhi, in the past, has defied the national mood and has voted on a contrary manner. In 1983, the BJP’s war cry was “Karnataka, Andhra Haari Hai, Ab Dilli ki bari hai”, but people in Delhi spurned the saffron brigade and voted for the Congress. Kejriwal would hope that something similar happens this time in his favour.
The Congress is apparently swamped by its own internal dissensions and squabbles. There is an overall dissatisfaction over the distribution of tickets and several senior leaders have vocalised their resentment publicly. The Sheila Dikshit camp, or whatever is left of it, has decided to oppose Maken at every juncture. On his part, the DPCC chief has been engaged in convincing the top leadership that all was well on the ground and his opponents were playing spoilers. His supporters are of the view that the Muslims in the city would return to the party fold since they are deeply disappointed with the AAP and presume that Congress alone could curtail the BJP in Delhi. The problems within the Congress are evident from a recorded condemnation by a former MP of Rahul Gandhi whom he has described in unprintable language.
As a consequence, what is happening is that real issues concerning the functioning of the municipal bodies have taken a back seat. Caught in the web of their own problems, the AAP and the Congress are attempting to corner the BJP, which is unruffled by its own record and is seeking to come to power consecutively for the third time. Between us.