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What Are We?

People often ask us whether we are an NGO or a commercial organization. They bluntly question whether we have a vested interest in doing “free” counselling. They want to know if we are propagating a religion or a cult, or are we clandestinely funded by some rich foreigners with shady motives. The answer to all the above is a vehement “No”.

What we are cannot be defined in conventional sense. Yes, we do provide free counselling. We never turn anyone away. We get perhaps 10-30 people walking in every day, half as many phone calls, and more than 50-80 emails per week. We attend to all of them to the best of our ability.

We organize two free lectures on all aspects of human behaviour every month. We encourage our students to take up independently any “business” offers that come to us. We give guidance and hand-holding to anyone who wishes to work in the field of improving or enriching quality of life.

We invite, nurture and encourage hundreds of volunteers to serve in different ways according to their convenience and as per their area of interest. We offer our retreat Manthan at cost price to anyone working for a cause. We lend our training hall to anyone who wishes to have a meaningful gathering, lecture or workshop.

More than anything else, we welcome anyone who walks in, if possible offer a cup of tea, definitely offer our emotional support or friendship….. and we allow them to walk away into their own world to seek their own path. A few of them do send us their thanks.

Can someone tell us what or who we are?

We grow human beings

If you see a plant nursery, you will only see tiny saplings. As soon as the little plant starts growing, it is transplanted in someone else’s pot or garden, and it continues its growth there, with the new owners getting the flowers, fruits or shade.

Banjara is a human nursery. We plant the seeds of self-awareness, wider and more meaningful thinking, identifying talent and goals. We nurture the thoughts and ideas in people’s minds. Then, as the eagle does in pushing out its eaglets from its nest, we give a gentle nudge, and allow people to soar in the wide blue skies – choosing which direction to fly towards, and at the speed each individual decides.

We counsel people pro bono for emotional and developmental issues. We guide students for careers by professional aptitude testing. We also play with the little ones and assess them for psycho-academic needs. We train people from all walks of life and all ages to become effective counsellors. We spread out in 10 different hospitals and help and support patients and care-givers.

We take joy in seeing each unique individual flying out of our little nest, and we provide warmth for the next egg to hatch.

Banjaras are nomads. They have traditionally roamed through countryside, living a simple life, gathering no wealth, bonding strongly within their ‘tanda’ or tribes, and providing their services to villagers wherever they camped.

Banjara Academy consists of Banjaras who wish to serve others in the form of Enriching Life Through Empowerment.

We provide free counselling, and we also want many others to carry forward our mission, so we train people from all walks of life to become counsellors. We have part-time classroom courses and online programs. We nurture individuals of any age, of any qualifications (and we never, ever hold ‘final exams’). If you wish to become part of Banjara family in any way, read our books, avail our counselling for yourself or for others, and what would make us most happy – become a counsellor yourself. It is not very difficult, ask us.

We believe in the mission……..

“Enriching Life Through Empowerment”

We believe that anyone can be trained in the vital fields of psychological counselling, life skills training and career guidance. Hence we have constantly been endeavouring to train as many people as possible, so that the ripple effect reaches out to as many people as possible. We have very convenient face-to-face part-time programs suiting people of all backgrounds and ages, and for those who cannot come and attend, we also have online programs.

The Joys of Volunteering !

It is said that if you feel pulled down, exhausted, or that life is not treating you fairly, the best thing to do is to reach out to someone who is worse off than you.

Our ‘Helping Hand’ volunteers are witness to this therapy since the past thirty years. If you wish to experience it for yourself, spend a couple of hours every week in a hospital giving emotional support to patients or their care-givers. You will feel so much better, and your life will become more meaningful. Contact us on 80-23535766, or talk to our coordinator Ms. Purnima on 9341972540, or just mail us, and avail an opportunity to give a better direction and deeper meaning to your life.

Find Reasons to Celebrate

As we age, a year looks shorter and shorter. When you have spent many decades in this world, the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another one becomes a minor ritual of holiday, party, shopping, and …..back to routine.

Sometimes we even become pessimistic about how life is going and whether we are getting a fair deal. Without doing so consciously we may start focusing only on the negative, and pull ourselves down further.

Some of us do make New Year resolutions that we will make our life better – but most such resolutions do not last beyond a few days or weeks.

I have a suggestion. The way you make a balance sheet at the end of the financial year, and based on the balance sheet you make a budget and financial plan for the next year, I propose to you an audit of where you stand at the end of each year. If you answer the questions truthfully and ponder over them for an extended period of time, you will realize that you actually have very strong reasons to welcome the New Year warmly. This is the questionnaire…..

Whenever you feel like, ask yourself these questions:

Are you……

  1. Serious or life-threatening illness

  2. Bankrupt or in heavy debt

  3. Failed or dropped out?

  4. Any major fight with close person

  5. Court cases, convicted for crime

  6. Clinical depression, schizophrenia

  7. Addiction to alcohol or drugs

  8. Cannot walk, see, hear

  9. Displaced from home, being oppressed

  10. Questioning your existence

If you have answered “No” to almost all the above ten questions, then it means that you are….

  1. Healthy

  2. Financially comfortable

  3. Educated

  4. Have good personal relationships

  5. A free citizen

  6. Have good mental health

  7. A person with full control of life

  8. Physically fit

  9. A proud Indian

  10. A person with a meaning in life ! So……

Celebrate the New Year, celebrate 2020 and celebrate Life !

We love children !

The more we care for them, the better will our life be when they take over the world. While we believe in overall development, building life skills and values in the young, we do understand that academics and grades do play a significant role in their progress. To help students through the challenging time of exams, we will be available for free counselling on all weekdays in the coming months. We also offer the following:

Short, crisp and practically useful video clips on all aspects of facing exams and studying well, which are categorized into:

  • Where to study

  • When to study

  • What to study

  • How to study

  • Why study

We are not Tailors

We do not alter either ladies or gents. But we do endeavour to help them to alter themselves. We believe in the individuality, the talent and the creativity of every human being.

Through counselling, mentoring, training and nurturing, we help people, from children to senior citizens, to find better meaning and purpose to their life

We provide free counselling, we train people from all walks to life to understand human behaviour, to help others and help themselves in the process.

Every Life is Valuable, and every human has potential. At Banjara we do not differentiate, we do not judge – we look for the good, for the hidden potential. We provide free counselling and emotional support. We do not tell others how to run their life, we believe in our mission “Enriching Life Through Empowerment”, and we welcome everyone to join us on this road less travelled – in whatever way you would like to walk with us.

If you too wish to become a Counsellor, do get in touch with us

Great thinkers and those who sought greater meaning in life always walked on the Road Less Travelled. At Banjara, we are always looking beyond the beaten path. We believe in each human being’s potential, and we believe in Enriching Life through Empowerment.

We do not propagate any theories or cults, we do not consider ourselves wiser than you. We learn and change at every step. And if we find that there is no path going towards the beautiful sunrise, we create one ….. and we invite you to walk – not led by us, not to lead us, but to walk hand in hand with us, doing our little bit to create a better tomorrow for everyone.

Our doors are open to those who wish to learn more about life, seek support or give support.

Everyone needs a helping hand some time or the other. That is why our service wing, ‘Helping Hand’ reaches out unconditionally to anyone who needs emotional support or counselling, free of charge. We work through our two centres where anyone can walk in, and we do utmost to put a smile on their faces. We also have volunteers on the help-desks of 10 major hospitals of the city.

We invite people from all backgrounds who wish to get trained as counsellors or life skills trainers, to gain practical and professional expertise through part-time courses. We offer dozens of simple practical and economical books on all aspects of human behaviour. We have a quaint little ‘Gurukul’ for children who need help in getting back to routine or overcoming special needs. We assess students and others for career guidance through Aptitude Testing.

We don’t work from 9:30 to 5:30, we just walk in to welcome you, to exchange experiences of life, and to convert challenges into opportunities.

We Enrich Life through Empowerment

In an increasingly digital world,

If you wish to enrich your life, need counselling, wish to get yourself trained practically to become a counsellor or life skills trainer, read our very practical books, get your child assessed, become a part of a family of hundreds of volunteers, or just spend some time away from the stresses of life, do get in touch.

Look deeper into your life !

Whether you have been happy and contented so far, or whether you have been through many ups and downs in life, the best thing to do now is to reach out to someone who is worse off than you. Experience the joy of giving of yourself – something that is inexhaustible. Stop for a moment and think how nice it is to bring a smile on a tearful face, to share a light moment with someone who is pulled down.

If you have 2 or 3 hours to spare in a week, please join us to become a volunteer (no long-term commitment required). Meet other people who look beyond mundane and routine life and get a deeper insight into your own life. We welcome people of all backgrounds and ages. Contact us on 80-23330200 from 9:30 to 5:30 any time, or just mail us, and avail an opportunity to give a better direction and deeper meaning to your life.

 

Every baby and small child has an innate desire and curiosity to explore, learn and acquire skills. 

Adults find it so difficult to hold back toddlers who wish to move around all over the place and investigate everything within their reach. They use all their senses to see, listen, touch, taste & smell whatever they come across.

As the child grows older, he is sent to school to get ‘educated’, but all his motivation and desire to learn reduces.  He then has to be forced to listen to the teacher, take notes, do calculations, complete his homework, and ‘mug up’ for exams. Is it the fault of the student, or is it the fault of all of us adults who kill the curiosity and the joy of learning?

Instead of blaming the system or authorities, each one of us can, and should, do our bit to rekindle the spark of learning in any child we interact with, and send him off on a path of growth to become a capable adult.

It’s not difficult.

Careers and Studies:

Find out your most suitable learning style: 

Each one of us is unique, and the best method that suits our study should be determined by trial and error, till we are satisfied.  Check out if any or many of these techniques give you better learning and retention:

  1. Sitting in one place and reading, or standing, walking around, moving place of study every few minutes, or even lying down.
  2. Writing as you read, either in a notebook, small flip-cards, or on a black/white board that you can keep in your room.
  3. Reading mainly from the notes instead of the main text book, and referring to the text book periodically.
  4. Reading aloud to yourself, or even reading out to a friend or parent.
  5. Highlighting or underlining with a pencil the important passages or definitions.
  6. Closing the book once every 5, 10 or 20 minutes and recalling what you have read (or even writing down in point-form)
  7. Playing soft music when you read
  8. Reading one subject continuously for hours vs. shifting periodically from one subject to another.

 

Case Study

Rohini has been a good student and managed 10.0 CGPA in her 10th standard CBSE.  However she did not like science too much (though she enjoyed Math), and took up Commerce at the +2 level.  Her parents were not too happy with it as everyone in their family were engineering, doctors etc and they felt that science students have better careers than commerce students.

As an after-thought Rohini’s parents asked her to enroll for the Common Proficiency Test (CPT) which is the first step to becoming a Chartered Account.  Again it was entirely in the belief that CA’s are the most respectable professionals in commerce.  Rohini appeared for CPT but missed clearing it by a few marks.  Her parents again coaxed her to re-appear, and in the second attempt she succeeded!

Rohini is not interested in becoming a CA, but did not know how to convince her parents.  Finally she went in for an Aptitude test.  The result was that she is a people-oriented person and would be much happier in areas of applied finance, not pure accounting.  The report mentioned many careers that have commerce as a base but which involve understanding and dealing with people.  The family started looking up details of the careers highlighted in the report, and were pleasantly surprised to see very interesting and exciting options open for their child.  Rohini is now happily doing her B.Com, getting fairly good marks.  She has also taken up a couple of on-line courses suggested by her counselor to enhance her skills in the fields she is considering as her final career.

A famous writer once said: “We Indians are only focused on weddings, but do not give any significance to marriage”.

I look around and find people doing everything to arrange the grandest weddings, but hardly spending any time or effort on helping the couple understand how they can make their married life harmonious.

When two people of opposite gender, having had different upbringing, education, relationships and attitudes, come together to share such an intimate relationship (and even bring up children together), don’t they require to plan, prepare, look into possible hurdles, and learn how to build a strong and loving relationship – which may last more than half a century ?

There is so much that can be done on working out all issues of the marital relationship in advance, the way we work out careers, homes, finances or health. Wish we start working on this crucial issue. 

Generally we are contented with the way our days are going and can deal with minor issues without much discomfort.

But sometimes life throws up unexpected challenges at you. Circumstances change, fortunes go up and down, luck favors or abandons you, and you face intense happy or sad situations. Sometimes you have no control of what is happening, and you do your best to overcome the hurdles or setbacks.  When faced with very difficult times, one thing becomes clear – you get to know who your true friends are, and who will give you unconditional support. 

Hope Diwali brings brighter days in your life.