Prayog is a library organisation in Gopalganj Dt of Bihar and is lead by our LEC alumni Surya Prakash Rai. We met Surya as a Wipro Foundation Fellow in 2018 when, he rather reluctantly ( his words!) agreed to participate in an Introduction to Library workshop , Bookworm hosts with Wipro Foundation support every year. This suggestion and recommendation to attend came to Surya from the very intuitive and thoughtful Avinash Kumar of Wipro Foundation and perhaps as with so many recommendations, we act on them because we respect the teller. Surya therefore, made his way to Goa.
Surya is gentle, thoughtful, observant but at first held himself apart. I picked that guarded-ness in him in the first few minutes of our meeting in Panjim, Goa. By the tea break- an hour and a half later – I observed him sitting before a chart we had displayed that showed the history of Public Library legislation in Independent India and he was animatedly exclaiming and explaining to younger Fellows how and why libraries are perhaps not part of the larger social reality because of significant policy gaps. I was listening to this gentle man talk with so much passion and revelation and knew that something had clicked.
We stayed in touch intermittently through emails and I was again fortunate that Avinash Kumar urged me to visit some of their partners in early 2019 and I found myself in Bihar.
I had never been to Bihar and I think there is no better way to enter a new region than through the eyes of one who feels a sense of belonging, pride and ownership. The Bihar I see now, three years later, is formed for me through participatory conversations with Surya. I am deeply thankful for this because there is always lurking for us the danger of that one narrative that shapes our thinking.
When I visited Prayog, the organisation was a two person field team with Surya and I found myself visiting some schools, spending time in the office and meeting with people and places Surya had hand picked for my exploration. I left with a sense that so much of possibility to expand, stretch, widen, deepen existed because such amazing work was already happening and we had to support Surya to enable this.
It was with great anticipation therefore, that we invited Surya to participate in the LEC 2019 cohort knowing that the rigour, excitement, engagement and diversity of the course experience will strengthen him and his work. It did and continues to do , as Surya begins a new journey as a mentor on the LEC 2021 course, two years later !
Our relationship could have stagnated at this point. We had met, we had shared, we were able to part ways. But that did not happen. When I look back , I realise I had never given much thought to that most powerful of forces – ‘interbeing’ that connect us. A Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh writes about the act of ‘interbeing’. He says that we find ourselves in the communication we hold with the universe, with other beings. This communication is spiritually transformative when we let ourselves be seen , when we connect with other human beings with vulnerability. This act of letting ourselves be seen is an act of intimate bravery.
My relationship with Surya and our professional growth has grown stronger because of this very act of intimate bravery. Surya will do things and make decisions in his work , writing to me that he knows I may think they are not right ones, but he made them. I write to Surya telling him how hard some of my journey is and he will reach out in the most humane of ways and support me. But our relationship is not only that of two beings, it is that of two organisations – being. So post LEC 2019, my brave hearts at Bookworm travelled with me in 2020 to Gopalganj to work harder and stronger with a more extended team of four field staff and Surya. We had a week of joy and left behind ideas that we hoped would continue to strengthen Prayog’s field work. All three of us were impacted by this visit, most strongly perhaps our youngest colleague Anandita whose own growth since has become even more powerful, thoughtful and rooted.
Prayog began community library work during the pandemic, as schools were closed, continued to engage with Bookworm in a library mentoring support program because of our Nayan who brings a strength and grace of being bi-lingual and who absolutely enjoys Surya ( her colleague from LEC 2019) and the team members of Prayog. I have the best role to play in this nexus , that of observing and admiring how Nayan plans and shapes the thinking and learning of the group at Prayog, drawing on her own knowledge and understanding but also what she learns from being part of Bookworm. Our inter-being continues.
Our mentoring and support to Prayog has continued and Prayog’s movements, their struggles on the field, their stupendous growth in reaching under served communities, their willingness to learn means that we breathe two organisations needs together. There are so many instances that we are able to support for Prayog because our journey has not been too different even though our cultural contexts may vary. There are so many instances that Prayog supports us because their understanding, their experiences enable us to broaden our perspective and be more aware of differences in our sites and learn new ways.
Surya offers me fresh ideas in areas I know nothing about and I am able to offer him some experiences that help him think freshly.
We have come to know the Prayog team intimately and they are learning about us – this will become more pronounced as the entire Prayog team make their way to Goa later this year. When we think of organisations we often think of independence, our relationship with Prayog has been thus far one of co – dependence and inter being and we are stronger for it.
