The July Committees’ Day (JCD) event is the first event of the NHSF calendar and thereby takes its place as one of the most important events across the year. The event was based on the theme: creating future Hindu leaders. After university level elections in the spring term, new committee members have just been elected for the new academic year starting September. In this context, JCD provides the platform for individual committees to form connections with other university committees from across the country, develop tangible aims/targets for their university Hindu society and focus on individual role based training.
A common university Hindu Society committee will have the following roles: president, treasurer, sanskaar (learning coordinator), PR/events and sports representative. Therefore, sessions were planned, one session corresponding to each role, and were delivered to the relevant committee members. Skills workshops took place highlighting the importance of public speaking, team building and time management skills, both as a committee member and at an individual level. NHSF committees (past and present) never fail to put special emphasis on the khel session, ensuring that the message of ‘strong body, strong mind, strong team’ reaches one and all, amplifying the already electric atmosphere.
On top of the numerous sessions which were covered in some detail above, the day has features common to many NHSF National Events; Aarti, Bhojan Mantra and experience activities. These features are essential to providing moments of reflection throughout the day and plants the seed of spirituality in students; so important for one’s individual development.
There were three carefully designed experience activities on the day; Raising the Flag of Hindu Dharma, Goodreads and Reflections. The first activity was a zone based activity; each zone used post-it-notes to create the building blocks for the pole of a flag. The post-it-notes contained their interpretations and thoughts regarding the essential components of Hindu Dharma. Goodreads is a chance for university committee members as well as National Committee members to list books or articles they have found to be interesting, relevant and inspirational. This list, open to anyone interested, throughout the whole day, will help create leaders well versed in literature and open to new ideas. The last activity provided an opportunity for university committee members to think back to their last year of university and analyse their relationship with their local Hindu society.
Overall, JCD provided an energetic start for our chapter’s year on their committees. Our aim of developing future Hindu leaders was met through the various experiences and sessions held throughout the day. We look forward to seeing our chapter committee members again at CED (Committees’ Experience Day) in September.