The Land of Paddy Fields

Oddly enough, the weather's just like England. It started off as a bright sunny day; suddenly a few clouds gather together conspiratorially as though to ruin the pleasure of all those (like me) who'd finally hung some washing outside.

This is Wayanad, the land of paddy fields (Malayalam vayal, “paddy” and naad, “land”). But that title's a tad misleading because Wayanad is actually the southern tip of the Deccan plateau and is at least 2000 feet above sea level. Nevertheless, the fertile soil has long made it an attractive destination for agricultural entrepreneurs from various parts of Kerala. The long history of settlement has not been without its social cost, however. The indigenous tribal peoples (adivasi-s) of Wayanad were often exploited, tricked or coerced and, consequently, find themselves on the margins of progress in Kerala.

I arrived on Thursday at the Jesuit-run school in Eachome (a medium-sized village outside the Wayanad capital, Kalpetta) and the small Jesuit community (4 priests) attached to it after a wonderful bus journey through some very pretty countryside. The school, Sarvodaya, serves classes I to X (Years 2 through 11 in the English system). The medium of instruction is Malayalam. The school has nearly 800 students, mostly from agrarian and/or underprivileged backgrounds. About a third of the students are from the adivasi community. I'll be here for a couple of weeks, mainly meeting the students (and, hopefully, inspiring them to ambitious life-goals) and teaching them a spot of English. On Friday, I went around a few of the classes, doing a bit of 'meet n' greet' and letting the kids interview me (the most common question was about my family). Yesterday, I assisted Fr. Salvin Augustine SJ (recently ordained and a new arrival to the school staff) in conducting a day's leadership work for the student coordinators team.

Working with kids can be very very tiring – and still leave you with a buzz and a hunger for more. I think it has to do with the fact that their lives are full of promise, their outlook always optimistic. Somewhere into adulthood, most of us lower our hope thresholds significantly; kids remind us just how high it can (and perhaps, should) be. And, perhaps, how little our many cares actually matter in the grand scheme of things:

How void of care yon merry thrush,
That tunes melodious on the bush,
That has no stores of wealth to keep,
No lands to plough, no corn to reap !
(C.K. Williams, The Thrush)

The Lord of the Dance

(Photos of the retreat can be viewed online at http://picasaweb.google.com/kensyj/201005AnnualRetreat )

Sing a new song to the Lord,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker,
let Sion’s sons exult in their king.
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music with timbrel and harp. (Ps. 149)

Between the 23^rd and 31^st of May this year, I joined the scholastics of the Kerala Province on their annual retreat at the Ignatian Retreat Centre, Pariyaram in north Kerala. The retreat was directed by Prashant Olalekar SJ (BOM), Director of the Jesuit retreat house in Bandra and Hazel Fernandes (Pune), a lay collaborator. Most of us were surprised to learn that this wasn’t going to be another vanilla Ignatian retreat.

InterPlay^®

Prashant and Hazel are founding members of InterPlay India, an Indian group inspired by Body Wisdom Inc.’s InterPlay^® programme (www.interplay.org). InterPlay is a set of tools and techniques that help a person be attentive to, deepen, enjoy and ultimately integrate her/his physical experience with her/his emotional and spiritual experiences.

The tools explored during the retreat varied from simple walking to free-form dancing. We were constantly reminded to pay attention to our “bodies” (including our instincts and intuitions) and to trust our bodies. We were encouraged to play freely, even as little children. Through simple exercises like ‘walk, stop, run’, we discovered that spirituality doesn’t always have to be “serious business”; sometimes it can just be fun.

We also had the opportunity for some personal direction and counselling (Ms. Fernandes is a professional therapist) to integrate the various movements raised from the subconscious through the InterPlay activity.

Justice

All was not simply fun and games, however. Throughout the retreat we were reminded of the pervasive presence of structural injustices, particularly towards women, and of the need to be committed to ecological preservation. We had at least one session each day outside the house, close to Nature, consisting of exercises that combined elements of Yoga and Thich Nhat Hahn’s meditation techniques.

Ignatian

This was the first time an InterPlay retreat was being offered to Jesuits in India, so an attempt was made to integrate some elements of the traditional 8-day spiritual exercises. Each day had a theme, most of which should not suprise anyone who's done a traditional Ignatian retreat (“Great to be Grateful”, “Come Dance with Me”, “In the Brokenness is the Wholeness”, “The Passion”, “Breath of the Spirit”) along with a few that might (“Embracing the Feminine”). Although the sessions (we had three each day, along with a very active Mass) were conducted in a light and free-flowing vein, we were still expected to maintain silence and spend some time in personal contemplation/meditation outside the sessions.

I was often reminded of St. Ignatius’s fourth Additional Directive [SpEx 76] about the importance of posture and the body in prayer. One of the highlights of the retreat was a video of an Imaginative Contemplation in Dance (called ‘StoryDance’) by Betsey Beckman (www.thedancingword.com).

Personally, I found this style of retreat quite liberating and also helpful in integrating my “left brain” (the centre of our logical and rational thought) with my “right brain” (creativity and spirituality). But above all, I found it useful to be reminded that “I am my body” and that we are not called to a disembodied union with the Transcendent (the focus of many spiritual traditions).

After all, we do profess a faith in the “resurrection of the body”!

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He! (Sydney Carter)

Jesuit Summers

As most of the northern hemisphere moves into its summer break, Jesuits (and particularly Jesuits in formation) take up various summer programmes and apostolates. Some of my noviceship class (almost entirely based out of London) will be going to (or organising!) language schools; some are going on pilgrimage; most will do a little travelling; one is going to Malta to work with Jesuit Refugee Service.

Here in India, the summer programme is over (summer months here are April-May) and most of the scholastics are back to school/regency/studies etc. Between home visits (my parents were down for the summer), I joined the scholastics of the Kerala Province for part of their well-organised summer programme. Along with two Kerala scholastics, I gave a spoken English course to postgraduate students of the Jesuit-run Loyola College in Trivandrum. Most of these students came from very underprivileged backgrounds and went as far as they did in their education only through sheer determination and hard work. I was very impressed by their work ethic and willingness to learn even when some of the exercises (like tense-syntax drills) must've been quite tedious. They also cooperated magnificently with our instruction that they were not to speak in any language but English throughout the course (even in their own rooms or on calls home). I also attended a week's course on Social and Cultural Analysis with the other scholastics. Speakers included M.K. George SJ (Director, Indian Sociological Institute, Bangalore), Prof. Skaria Zechariah (retd. Professor, Kalady Sanskrit University and faculty member at the Jesuit Regional Theologate in Kalady), Baby Chalil SJ (Director, Tribal Development Institute, Wayanad) and Ms Vijitha (a Calicut-based women's rights activist). There was a lot of serious food for thought in those sessions and highlighted the need for Jesuits today to be truly 'men of depth' (in sociology, economics, cultural studies, media studies etc.) for our mission, particularly among and for the poor, to be successful. Following the course, I attended the inaugural ceremonies of the Golden Jubilee of the Kerala Province (although the history of Jesuit activity in the Kerala region goes back to St Francis Xavier himself). The highlight of the ceremonies was the 12-hour Adoration the day before the inaugural function and the inauguration Mass itself - concelebrated by five bishops from two rites! Immediately after the celebrations, I joined the Kerala scholastics for a specially-organised annual retreat - which was a retreat of Movement and Dance (report on that later).

I am now back at the Jesuit HQ in Calicut gathering all my visa documentation together to return to London in autumn.