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Conflict
Transformation Workshop Alumni
Reflections
Uttamam! Excellent forum
that helped me lighten myself of a heavy baggage of preconceived and
unfounded biases. As prescribed in the ancient Vedic dictum, that tells
us to 'Walk together, talk together, to know each others thinking' the
workshop gave me the opportunity to walk, think and laugh alongside my
'enemy', to look at an individual as a human being first and to respect
that truth irrespective of what labels are circumstantially attached to
him or her. In the present world-scenario we could definitely do with
many more such efforts!
I am of the firm belief that
if such interactions were frequently arranged across the border and in
both Kashmir(s), the existing wide gulf of hatred and mistrust between
India and Pakistan would be bridged easily. Bringing minds and hearts
together would soon silence the roaring guns.
The CT workshop was a
remarkable experience and I would consider it a milestone in my personal
journey of humanizing and understanding the ‘other’. It was an eye
opener in how to unlearn and relearn. It provided the ideal platform to
interact, learn, grow and of course make wonderful friends from across
the border.
WISCOMP is an ideal forum to
bring together a wide spectrum of people. It enables the participants
the space to interact freely, dispel misperceptions, re-humanize each
other and imagine and create new peaces.
For me, the Conflict
Transformation Workshop 2004 created a unique meeting space to engage
with fellow youth from across the border and connect with them at a
deeper, human level.
I will always consider
myself lucky to have participated in the CT Workshop 2003, where I met
some of the finest people in South Asia. The workshop opened my mind to
many new ways of looking at conflict and how to deal with it. It also
gave me many friends for life, with whom I have never stopped
interacting since then, and with whom I continue to share ideas and
possibilities for bridging our distances and creating an exciting future
for our region.
The conflict transformation
workshop made me see conflict in a dimension that I did not know
existed. Being from a conflict zone had made me think that living in a
conflict is all that can be to a conflict but the workshop exposed me to
a different world of conflict – one were we can try to resolve it.
The workshop saw moments of
clashes and confusion – as most of us confronted 'truths' /'lies' deeply
internalized, doled out and projected in our imagining the "other".
Hesitantly and rather cautiously we took little steps – rethinking our
shared pasts and reflecting on our often politically violent present.
The end of the workshop was actually a beginning for most of us – long
distance dialogues across nationalities and borders persisted and
flourished since 2002, small but significant steps to feel regionally
‘connected’. The curriculum was near perfect, with an excellent
combination of lectures and experiential learning.
WISCOMP and its alumni give
me hope in the knowledge that we as a group can work towards a better
future. The kind of friendships forged here make you
believe--assuredly--that borders are irrelevant.
The workshop was an
extremely enlightening experience which was my first ever exposure to
“the other”. It was informative -new ideas were introduced, made us
re-think concepts & very enjoyable- I made new friends..… and fell in
love with Delhi!
I learnt peace-building
strategies applicable not only in the macro picture of conflict between
nations but also at a micro level for finding commonalities at an
interpersonal level. Personally, I found these measures extremely
effective in my professional interaction with people from varied
backgrounds as I had learnt at the workshop that there exists common
ground between any two individuals–waiting to be discovered.
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