Our morning observance of playful exercise of Handball, followed by gentle movement with breathing, and eventually grounding ourselves with Vipassana meditation, primed us for the rest of the day’s activities. We pledged ourselves to the day and what we were going to receive from it – with open hearts and willing minds.

Vineeth extended his apprenticeship with us for another day, so he was obliged to partake in our sharing circle of two thought-provoking questions:

1.      If your house was on fire and you had time to grab only three things, what would they be? (assuming that your family and pets were already safely outside)

2.     If you were granted the power to meet anyone from the past (not alive anymore) and anyone from the present, who would they be?

A round of answers revealed that there were quite a few things we commonly considered valuable, and that losing them in the fire would have surely felt devastating. However, in one smooth move, Preetham provided a “fresh start” to our imagined adversity, by gifting us all with journals. Thus, began the journey of journal writing. We had to articulate our thoughts in our books on a daily basis and then share it with the group the following day.

Answers to the second question provided a good insight into who we considered to be role models at this time of our lives. As is with most ideals, our role models would change to complement our evolutionary path. For now, we were quite clear about who we wanted to have lunch with.

We then put our minds together to think of all the problems existing in the world today and submitted a grim list of 40 issues – a tip of the iceberg – given our limited exposure to the world so far. Everything right from stress to chemical farming was projected on the board for us to examine. Even though the list looked quite disheartening, the Captain presented a positive perspective through all this: that these problems potentially would give rise to several more job opportunities – a chance to make things right. Take heart, there’s hope yet.

Before our rumination over the world’s problems could drag us down, Captain Preetham threw us a momentary lifesaver: a fruit break, and a game of cricket catches in the glorious morning sun. Balance was restored once again.

We convened back inside where another interesting question on lifespan which kept us engaged in discussion: The fact that everyone wanted a longer life truly gladdened the heart. Clearly, we had miles to go before we sleep – and lots of cherry moments to pick from this garden of life.

We recessed for lunch and strung up the rest of our day with photography pursuits led by Vineeth. He coached us on the characteristics of the DSLR, focusing on aperture and shutter speed, and illustrated those concepts while shooting a few pictures. He exemplified his work with anecdotes on his life with a camera. For a while, we saw the world through his lens. The rain restricted our outdoor photography session, but we continued to practice semi-indoors.

We rounded off the day with our closing circle – sharing our thoughts on what we learnt, thanking Vineeth for his time and expertise, and signing off with our prayer.

For all the world’s problems, we made our silver linings in the thoughts and activities we chose to nurture during our day – come rain or shine.