Written by Indrani Barua, LEC 2022
In my childhood it was so exciting to take a ride on the ferris wheel that usually came to all fairs. There was a sort of excitement mixed with apprehension for the lurch in the stomach that you knew was waiting for you at the point when the chair passed the top and moved downwards again. One held tightly to a grown-up hand and tried to be brave but once you looked around, the familiar sights and landscape changed at different heights, and then you forgot your fears. The LEC experience is not much different from the ride on a Ferris wheel.
In the beginning it was exciting for me to be able to get back to studies after a long hiatus of twelve years. During the interview my laptop camera, that has a love-hate relationship with me, decided to be uncooperative and yet I was selected. It was evident that the selectors were listening deeply and not going by appearances. I knew from then on that this was the right place, right people and the right course for me.
The contact programme was a kaleidoscope of windows, doors, tunnels opening out and through them emotions, perspectives, realizations, awareness, information came tumbling in . The wonder of it all was accompanied by the familiar lurch in the stomach – would I be able to really sort this all out ; do justice to the Course? But already there was the ‘grown-up hand’ tapping on my shoulder saying : “Your mentor is behind you. Look!”
After the euphoria comes the critical distancing. It was a time for acknowledging my limitations and working hard on rectifying some of them as much as was possible. Soon I settled into an engagement with theory and deeper investigation into library practices. Assignments and Moodle discussions kept opening up new perspectives and challenging my understanding not only of the subject, but of myself too.
As a Library Educator I learnt patience ( or hope I have) from watching Sujata sitting at the back through most of the sessions listening to all that we said, from reading about her actual experiences of sessions; from learning what commitment means when after a full session a mentor seeks me out to clear some doubts and talk. I learnt to listen to my classmates more deeply and admired them for the way they could so quickly get to the essence of an article. I am slowly learning to ‘read’ more deeply with the faculty and mentors and enjoying this journey more than ever. I am deeply inspired to see how dedicated each of them is to the Cause and how much they have invested in us and that is a very sobering thought. I am beginning to understand the benefits of Moodle and am now listening to all that the others have to say…so many voices, so many insights. And all this is changing me.
Oh LEC, what have you done to me!
The lurch in the stomach doesn’t seem so scary now. There’s so much to learn but with deeper exploration and understanding comes greater clarity and confidence.
With each new day I gain a new perspective of what diversity is be it in the form of books or people and their opinions, I face new challenges and dilemmas that arise from these engagements more boldly knowing there is help and advice at hand.
All this adds up to a new me and a shift in the vision of the library. I now feel a greater need to connect with the community at large. The earlier involvement with the library seems to have broadened from a mere involvement for personal benefit ( the library was a lifeline for most of us to cope with various personal issues) to a deeper engagement for a greater and worthwhile objective that now focuses more on the serious need for physical libraries to spread the love of reading among children.
Sujata’s session in the Contact programme on the need to work with the community and communicate with others left a deep impact on me. This has made us( me and my colleagues in our community library) finally decide to end our isolation and go ahead with registration of our library as a Society. It has also inspired us to plan regular storytelling and Read Aloud sessions in a before-school centre for marginalized children run by an NGO from March. The Field Project for LEC also gave me an opportunity to delve deeper into the Vision for our library and explore the ways in which we can share ownership of the library with children so that they become more focused on their reading. The constant help, suggestions and sharing that takes place before, during and after the Field Project is indeed an enriching experience for me.
LEC raises questions, unsettles and asks us to look for the answers ourselves. It is this that makes the Course unique for it is not exactly prescriptive. LEC has sharpened my focus and also solved some dilemmas that we had about learning to read ( literacy) and reading to learn ( reading).
LEC has opened a lot of windows and given me the freedom to explore further if I wanted to. The urge to try to change some aspect in a public library space, the need to share my learning with my colleagues so that we move forward together and the wish to start a mobile library programme are strong wishes. There is so much to do and may be so little time. One needs a big Alia-WHOOSH for all this and hopefully …
What matters most is the total absorption of the intent of LEC and lighting the lamp inside me and keeping it alight.
Meanwhile the ferris ride continues . . .
This is a beautifully written article.