Geeta wrote these two pieces during 91-92...
...Of course, in the long run, all learning must be individually meaningful, and it is. However, here was a medium I had chosen, and I would be willing to give and take with these fellow travelers, and would focus outside of myself... As a person obsessed with myself, in my usual encounters with others... my main concern was always what was happening to me. One of the most major learning in the last few years was relocating of myself vis-à-vis others, reducing the psychological distance or alienation, which I earlier felt. An year of teaching graduate students after a long gap, a major illness, the birth of a child, research, shifting and many other... events had made me aware of the ongoing meaningfulness of the I and thou, as distinct from I versus thou. In establishing a continuity from my own learning choices, let me just summarize by saying that I had had a long struggle with being submerged, rationally and irrationally in self-defeating processes of rebuilding the self, in absentia as it were. And all my feedback and my feelings and innermost data bases would confirm to me that I was emerging...
I learnt once again that the self exists in relations to the other, but not necessarily to confirm the Other, or to be confirmed by the Other. Beauty in any relationship must be achieved though truth and some amount of genuineness - it is not a part of the basic givens of life. Besides the onus of this responsibility does not reside entirely with me alone. Eventually, I learnt to be "selfish", or rather relearnt it. My behavior in this or any situation is towards acceptance of myself and honoring of myself. And the other fellow is probably doing the same for himself...
...I think the sun facilitates growth, the rain facilitates growth; they facilitate growth by just being there, by being what they are. The sun does not rise - and the clouds do not rain - so that the plants will grow, but their being there is invaluable to the growth. And all growth is unique. The plants will take the amount of sunlight they can withstand. Too much or too little of sunlight can shrivel up the plant, or move it in abnormal directions, seeking forever the smallest rays, forever dependent.
In the final analysis, the question is about the process of human learning, specially learning for personal growth... Conditioning, trial and error, imitation, rote, social facilitation and structuring - the bylanes all lead to Rome. There could be a royal road too, more suitable to all kinds of passers by and also leading to Rome.
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