Shirsha

A friend had been badgering me with invitations to attend an introductory session on this life-enriching course she just attended. Every time I asked her what the course was all about, she merely cooed, ‘Its very nice, its really very nice, you must take it. You don’t know the kind of change your life will undergo.’, and such like. My first instinctive reaction was to stay away from it, I cannot quite explain how that came about. However, eventually her persistence paid off, friends must be obliged, and one busy Monday, I was rapidly finishing my day’s work to join her for my first introductory session on this life-enriching course.

A bizarre session of people coming to stage and talking about how the course changed the very course of their life, left me, frankly, very amused. There were old people, dads, moms, grandpas and grandmas’ proudly talking before the whole lot of about 150 or so people, that they will remain ever grateful to Landmark Education Forum for giving them that power which no amount of education, learning, money, religion, prayer, friendship, thinking and will-power could ever give them. The frightening thing was everybody broke into much enthusiastic clapping at the drop of a hat, everybody cheered for the speaker like he was his best friend up there. It was like a whole new clan had been formed with some sort of black magic. I could say, I was even awed and curious, what is this thing all about? I mused.

An hour later, my friend left me for her class, and a whole new lot of us, new-comers on the thresh-hold of this secret atrium of Learning about life-enriching potions, were gathered at a small room, away from the senior graduates. They were called another equally respectful term, which I forget, but it was largely to this effect. Within the smaller room, came a grinning professor. Apparently her ‘real’ life occupation was that of a professor too. She skillfully guided rows and rows of us into giving up our names, occupations and brief introductions.

One of the first things she did was ask us to write down on a sheet, a perplexing problem from life, a problem which has been gnawing at our minds since long, a problem which has little solution. I sat and chewed the back of my pencil, thinking hard, right then there seemed to be just one problem, the problem that I didn’t have one! But when she saw too many of us blinking, without writing down anything at all, she gave us her problem and how Landmark helped her conquer a solution to the same. I faintly recall it was how her mom caught her the moment she stepped home from work and rattled all her problems, about the maids, gardeners and such-like, and how she used to ask her mom to shut up for a while and how her mom used to take hurt at this. She even told us the solution, I suppose, but I do not remember, I rather spotted a squirrel outside the window and watched it bite into a half-eaten guava.

Soon I realised everyone around me was furiously writing down their problems in the sheet and I sat blank, my mind blanker than my sheet. After a long time, just as she was about to move onto the next topic, a brainwave struck me, ‘I am lazy’, yes, I almost said aloud, that is indeed a pathetic problem. I scribbled as much on my sheet. By now, the professor was discussing problems with people who didn’t mind discussing them with the class, and she was helping them analyse why they do what they do, no one might really be at fault and how things happen the way they do. Salary problems like my sister earns more than me or my colleague earns more than me, marital conflicts like why does my mother in law not let me take the dog out for a walk, severe job dissatisfaction like my boss does not recognise my worth or my field has no growth opportunities, time management like I get up at 5.30am everyday and yet I reach office late, friction with relatives like my aunt keeps eying my husband’s progress compared to her son -in law’s, and even sexual problems were all discussed. It was err…. interesting, even though petty and a waste of time hearing them all, given that I barely knew their names.

I will not bore you with further unnecessary details of the course, so lets get on with the catch. The catch is after the introductory session, you will not be forced, but you will feel like signing up for the course paying the fees of, hold your breath, life enriching courses do not come free, 5.5k. Now, I hear the amount is even bigger. No change in booking will be allowed, once the amount is paid, consider yourself enrolled for that period or forget about your cash. No, absolutely no refund. Am sure though, they have damn good, sincere reasons for the same. When it was my turn, I said I want to think about it, and thereafter got cold-shouldered, right till the time I picked my bag and ran out, looking like I had to take a call on my cell-phone.

What am astounded with is the great number of people whom they managed to convince that they absolutely need to do this course to figure out life. They paid up fees in advance and left the room at peace with the world that all problems will now go away, life will finally be chill! How did they do it? Or were a few of them their people, like plain-clothed policeman, ensuring that the initial momentum is generated for people who wait to see who else is signing up? Or were they people who had come decided that they will take the course hearing about it all from their friends’ and family member’s? Surely these will be the kind of people who will stand on that stage 6 months later and talk of their wonderful experience and learning from Landmark. I have not done the course, but I cannot believe there can be any learning that can be had, which will make drastic changes in my thinking, in my life. Things are somewhat solid and quite set now for me.

I cannot help but think that if there is anyone who can solve my problems, however trivial or large, it is me alone. No course can replace positive thinking in one’s life. With this kind of thinking in mind, and then seeing the prolific success of the Landmark Education Forum, I feel helplessly at a loss. I feel there is something that I am missing, despite attending the introductory session, I cannot trust someone else to make any change in my life. Yes, there are things that happen which change our life altogether, turn it around all at once, but how can a course do that, and that too in a way that I turn out to be a totally different person from what I am today. How? How?

I am not over-confidently asserting that this is another of those fake things, that trick people into believing they are going to get a fresh breath of life. I have friends who have actually done the course and believe in its supreme power and can’t help repeating that they are grateful to this course for the kind of person they have become today. At the same time, I cannot help feeling scared that some sort of hocus-focus does happen, some smooth talking… Probably, its merely about encouraging people and telling them that they CAN do it, solve their own problems, a sort of Confidence generating thing? Probably, its a breather of a social life, in the kind of lonely lives we now lead, this kind of a social thing simply lends you a shoulder to cry on, gives a listening ear for your problems and a group of friends who will express genuine concern at your regrets. Probably this is how new religions and new beliefs and new practices come about. This kind of blind belief in a great talker.

I am probably going round and round in circles trying to figure out what this was about, but I hope someone who has done this course tells us what it really is about. Don’t just use adjectives and say ‘it was great’, ‘it was wonderful’, no, tell us succinctly what you learnt. If possible, give the exact difference in your life, the before and after kind of snapshot from your life!