Journey of discovery

The 13-day walk from Chennai to Velankanni, to promote peace, may have been arduous for the Gandhi Peace Foundation team, but it opened their eyes to a world where simplicity reigns. IT WAS for spreading the message of peace that Kulandaisamy of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Chennai, and four volunteers undertook a 13-day walkathon from Chennai to Velankanni. Kulandaisamy (the secretary of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Chennai) and his team comprising Sriramachandran, Joseph Raja, Balamurugan and Shenbaghavalli carried pamphlets on meditation for peace, which they distributed among the people they met on the way and also books on peace for school children in the remote areas of the State.

"We wanted to break the feeling of the false security we live in", says Kulandaisamy. "There are millions of people living extremely insecure lives and facing the challenge of insecurity was a reason for the journey." The five of them recently shared their experiences during a meet at the Gandhi Peace Foundation.

The team members did not meet each other prior to the journey. Shenbhagavalli, Kulandaisamy and Balamurugan, who arrived from Trichy, met at the Santhome Church and after offering prayers at the Vinayaka temple, Luz, the group began its journey.

The villages, where the group stopped by, are untouched by modernity. There were enough encounters in these places to reinforce the group's faith in humanity.

There were no light, but incredible peace during the nights, they recalled. The greatest pleasure was to gaze at the sky, the Milky Way spread across it, reflecting the immensity of the cosmos. "After the journey, an immense love for everything and everybody has invaded our beings." School children in the villages welcomed the travellers happily and requested them to talk to the students. The students were curious and took part in the discussions with enthusiasm.

The discussions generally began with a question. Does the pen you write with have life? The discussion then boiled down to the atom. Students told the visitors that there is dynamism in the atom. Then can we have disrespect for non-living things like a pen or a bus? Should we not have reverence from them like we should have for trees? These posers got the students thinking.

Several questions were taken up for discussion in the schools. Does the river have life? One student said it does since it can drown people. Another refuted it, saying we can swim against the current and come out of the river hence a river does not have life.

In this context, Kulandaisamy narrated a story told by J. Krishnamurthy. The philosopher once spoke to a plant that was shrivelling up and was on the verge of dying. He would sit by the plant and while watering it, tell it that it had life and to believe in life. The plant, soon, sprouted new leaves! The message to the students was "If there is anyone in your class who is branded as bad or stupid, sit by their side and keep telling them that they are brilliant." Raja spoke to the students about plastic and its harmful properties and told them not to use plastic bags.

The group met many interesting people en route. In a hotel in Sittamoor, the group met a boy of 12, with an intelligent and happy face who served them food. He was very curious about a lot of things and asked them many questions about the world outside. Then there was a man who took the group to his house and served them a meal within half an hour. At Kandade, villagers told them about how to save six or seven kilometres by walking though the fields. It was a walk through a barren land. As sunset approached, the group was lost, as they had no idea which direction to take.

At that point, a girl of about six walked up to them. She warned the group about swamps ahead and walked with them for quite a distance, and then stood watching till they had reached the cart track.

In another village, there was a koothu performance all night. The whole experience was almost surreal. In a Navodaya School in Pondicherry, 300 children had assembled at lunch time to meet the group and listen to them talk about peace education.

"The one thing we realised after walking into villages and not having any newspaper to read or TV to watch, is that villages can do without a government. They can survive on their own", says Kulandaisamy.

The group says, "Though when we set out, we had no money, knapsack and survival kits, yet we lacked nothing. There is nothing harder in life than discovering that we can achieve the power. The power to live simply."

Incidentally, the Gandhi Peace Foundation is organising a symposium on "Countering terrorism through peaceful means," on October 2, from 9-00 a.m. to 12-30 p.m. at Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam, Ambujammal Street, Alwarpet.

There will also be an all religion prayer and charkha spinning for peace. The symposium will be followed by a discussion on methodology of practical application of the resources in education. For details, call 4970039.

V. R. DEVIKA

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