In dialogue with Grusha

I met Grusha on the IHEID campus, socialising at the events and sharing snippets of our journeys. Grusha is into writing, yoga, sustainability through the lens of indigenous knowledge systems, stories and a lot more. Intrigued by her varied interests, I tried to catch up with her on the stories that brought us to Geneva. As every story begins with a timestamp, we began with the question of when did you start loving your name?

AR: What does your name mean?

Grusha: My full name is Grusha Grace Victor. When I began to investigate what Grusha meant, I found different answers at different times at different places, in different contexts. No matter how different it seemed, I began to love my name.

AR: Where have you spent most of your childhood?

Grusha: I don't know how to quantify the 'most' but, in general, I've lived in different places. I need to walk down memory lane as it's a lot of places.

AR: To start with, what about your 1st grade?

 Grusha: My father retired from army. While growing up, shifting places was the norm. Before starting school, I was born in Allahabad, raised in Delhi for couple of years. Studied in Siliguri, Dehradun, Sikkim, Bareilly, Jammu and Kashmir, U.P and Delhi. Had a little stint at Bangalore as well.

AR: What brought you to Bangalore?

Grusha: I pursued B.A Programme at Stephens College, Delhi. I got into History Honours but chose B.A programme instead for which my dad still taunt me haha. After my undergrad, I tried to attend a course at Christ University, but soon decided to take a different journey-outwards and inwards.

AR: How did your parents react?

Grusha: I was confident of my choice then. I decided to drop out of the course. The decision didn't seem logical to anyone who was around me but I felt so right about it. My professors tried their best to retain me in the course. I felt I've gotta learn more than what that course was offering at that point of time.

AR: What did you want to learn?

Grusha: I don't know. I felt I'd waste my time here. I was tempted to go out and see things for myself before I try to ‘solve’ them.

AR: Where did you go then?

Grusha: I headed to Gokarna to do nothing. Doing nothing was the only thing I had in my mind. After a week of stay at Gokarna, I moved to Bangalore and made a living on my own. Created bookmarks, sold them at cafes, bookshops, spent a lot of time at Lal bagh and various public places. I was keen on living at the edge then. A friend who shared similar interests accompanied me and life seemed intense yet, meaningful.

AR: And then?

Grusha: And then the journey began. Thankful for having friends all over India, a friend of mine shared about a International Convention organised by SPIC MACAY at IIT Guwahati. I took a 3 day train ride in a sleeper coach not knowing where it'd lead me.

I spent 10 days at IIT Guwahati campus immersing myself with a lot of artists, art forms, yoga, stories and people who brought a synergy at the gathering. I met a frail man from Banaras who spoke to me about life in depth and narrated his stories, I learned Nadh Yoga and Manipuri dance. We'd dance in rain, stroll in the campus, we were listening to stories, collecting stories everywhere we went.

AR: Where else did you go afterwards?

Grusha:  one of my friend suggested me to travel to Dibrugah where his extended family would love to host. Thus, my friend and I began our journey to live with a couple who lived in an old british bungalow and worked for a tea estate. Thanks to the location, we got the chance to learn how tea is made, had tea tasting sessions, and got a chance to know the life of people who live around there. On a very serendipitous meet with Stephen's Alumni at the tea estate, we were offered a visit to Tea Estate at Arunachal Pradesh.

AR: People were ready to shower you with a lot of love and help. How were you feeling?

Grusha: I was feeling grateful. People were ready to arrange a travel, stay and everything to host us at a tea estate. From South West coast to North eastern hills, we traveled, thanks to generous help by all the people who crossed our paths and helped us in their own ways. From tea tasting to elephant trails, I was immersed in different learning experiences.

AR: Where else did the stories collection take you?

Grusha: Friend from Jammu who was studying at IIT kharagpur, invited me to visit IIT, traveled there a bit and after spending a few days, I returned home- where my parents were living- Allahabad.

AR: That doesn't seem to be the end of the story?

Grusha: That's where the story began. Through friends again, we were invited to attend Kailash tribal school of Yoga with a sponsered stipendship. At the beginning, I was skeptical about the invitation but it felt right to go for it and I went. We learnt yoga at Kailash Tribal school of Yoga, located at Mcleodganj, Himachal Pradesh. We used to spend hours discussing everything under the sun. Through this journey, I met several amazing personalities who shared their perspectives on life.

I moved to Delhi post my course at that school and began my Yoga journey. As I began to share what I've learnt, through various connections again, I ended up affecting more people through Yoga. There again, following my learning path, I applied for SBI-Youth for India fellowship and moved to Maharashtra, living in a village and got immersed in experiential learning and diving deep into the issues of Indigenous People and Local Communities.

Walking back the memory lane, Grusha has a lot of snippets and learnings to share. Connecting the dots backwards, everything seemed to be falling in the right place. Trusting and sharing seemed to take Grusha on a journey that's full of learnings and cheerful experiences. Over a couple of hours we trailed on her journey and pondered on the need to trust ourselves and be grateful for the journeys that embark upon us.

Grusha remains a learning spirit, never forgetting to laugh her heart out and stay in gratitude. As we take a break before we catch up further on the rest of her journey, Check Grusha's writings and a lot of stories at her website- https://grushavictor.wordpress.com/

Cheers to more stories and journeys.