Sambhaavnaa
Saambhaavana. Hope. Possibility. Querencia, u can find it at Saambhaavana. Sambhaavana is an educational institute which holds 1 week long, 1 month long or 1year long residential programs for youth aged between 18-25. This is one place where you can discuss the American model of governance or the issues of Sexuality, or Zen Buddhism and World Wars. Situated admist Dhauladhar Range Mountains, district Palampur, village Kandbari in Himachal Pradesh.
This is an institution which exposes and engages people to the real state of affairs in the country and the world and the manner in which issues of common public interest are being dealt with by policy makers around the world.
This Institute of Public Policy & Politics at Palampur, Himachal has been founded by Prashant Bhushan (under the Kumud Bhushan Education Society). The institute aims to inspire young people to understand and critically examine issues of public interest and development through its short and long term programmes and courses. The institute also plans to host workshops and consultations on relevant subjects from time to time.
This is a social platform for youth to come experiment, question, thrive for answers. What I found at Sambhaavnaa was immeasurable. Here, you can connect with people from all walks of life, you could understand the solemnity of an thoroughly educated ‘samaaj’. Budding Economists, Anthropologists, engineers, lawyers, fashion designers, activists and juggiwalas, slum-dwellers give you a direct view of the social disparity prevalent in society. Society ? What is society? People are society, so why be afraid to tell that you smoke up because you are a girl or because it is ‘bad’ .Break the social norm. Bold, eh? That was just a tiny glimpse of one of the steamy discussions at Sambhaavnaa. Mao or Marx? After these stirring conversations, you could sit at the bonfire and gaze stars. If you are lucky, you could find a friend u can confide in and have amazing talks. So the day would start at 8.30 with an amazingly healthy breakfast and post breakfast sessions would include stirred discussion on Mao, Naxalites, GM food and all time favorite gender debate. Also, there is an amazing collection of books which you can anytime read. The night would be for movies and documentaries.
Sometimes, they give you free evenings to explore the surroundings. For instance, there was this river called ‘Awa Khand’. Each group discovered their own routes to go the river, this river was one of the most serene, clean and picturesque places. Everyone would wake up once a while in heavy winter mornings and go to the river. Each one of us had come from a morbid, regular and hectic city life. The river came to a sudden rescue.
The Sambhaavnaa institute forbids any measure to be taken for publicity, hence, if one wants to apply here, one has to keep oneself updated. There is a little selection procedure though. The institute stands in Kandbari, Palampur. You can get here by train from Pathankot or by a bus from Delhi( isbt).
If the saga around development is all cornered by Capitalism, where do we (if socialists) seek to find the path to revolution? Is there a need to revolt? Have we ever wondered, behind those nicely slinging doors of a posh metro, where would that kind of a labour force be coming from, and how does a country with this kind of force seem to exist on its own keeping the balance of capitalism and socialism? Indeed, where does our conscience lie when we, with utmost pride call ourselves ‘Elitists’ and get away with the sickening feeling by getting more deep in the vicious cycle of consumerism?
At Sambhaavnaa , age is no bar. If there is a little conscious mind somewhere deep behind the white collars and Vero-Moda-perfect- fits , come find answers.
