{"id":17969,"date":"2019-12-02T11:06:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T05:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/?p=17969"},"modified":"2019-12-02T15:13:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T09:43:39","slug":"out-of-the-rat-race-manisha-madhukar-outbound-participant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/out-of-the-rat-race-manisha-madhukar-outbound-participant\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of the Rat Race! – Manisha Madhukar, Outbound Participant – Weltw\u00e4rts Programme, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cOkay, but are you getting paid?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was one of the first (or easily top 5)\nquestions that were fired at me upon learning that I am volunteering for a\nyear. And for good reason. Coming from a country that often encourages\ncompetition and clarity in spheres of education and jobs, climbing up the\ncareer ladder seems to take the forefront. That\u2019s why I found it difficult to\nexplain my cloudy, but intuitive choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the truth is, yes, I do get \u201cpaid\u201d. Not\njust in terms of the humble-but-sufficient monetary renumeration I receive, but\nalso wealth through growth and learning. I currently work in an organisation\ncalled IJGD. The 42 volunteers of IJGD for the year 2019-20 are nothing less\nthan a kaleidoscope, in every sense. We\u2019ve come from all over – Asia, Africa\nand Latin America.  The richness of\ncultural diversity is almost palpable when you enter the seminar rooms or even\nmeet up casually on a Friday night! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our conversations range from bizarre\nanecdotes like \u201cOh, you know, when someone calls you \u201cfat\u201d in my country, they\nimply that you are wealthy\u201d to more insightful probing like \u201cWhat does it mean\nto be queer back home?\u201d and it is simply humbling to discover the entire world\nwithin that one room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve already had Indian cooking night, games\nnight, climate change poster-making and other riveting meet-ups. Through these\ngatherings, you end-up learning things you never intended to. Although, I can\u2019t\nquantify my progress, I\u2019d like to say I\u2019m far more aware of my pre-conceived\nnotions, biases and  just myself in\ngeneral, than I ever had been before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My cultural immersion doesn\u2019t stop there. I\nlive with a wonderful German host family who treat me like their own daughter.\nMy \u201cmom\u201d and \u201cdad\u201d sit down with me, sharp at 8:30 am, with the classic bread\nand cheese breakfast, every single day. They tell me about their lives, the\neffect war had on their families and above all, accept me whole-heartedly. It\u2019s\njust been 3 months and I\u2019m already attached to them to an extent that I didn\u2019t\nthink was possible! We sometimes garden together, watch ballet or simply banter\nover tea and cake! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have 9 months to go and I\u2019m eager to see\nwhere this journey will take me. So now, for every \u201cAre you getting paid?\u201d that\npops up, there\u2019s an \u201cAre you out of the rat race?\u201d to follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOkay, but are you getting paid?\u201d Was one of the first (or easily top 5) questions that were fired at me upon learning that I am volunteering for a year. And for good reason. Coming from a country that often encourages competition and clarity in spheres of education and jobs, climbing up the career ladder seems to take the forefront. That\u2019s why I found it difficult to explain my cloudy, but intuitive choices. But the truth is, yes, I do…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":17972,"comment_status":"Closed","ping_status":"Closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1136,1236,1237,1147,1243,1103,1247,1240,1190,1144,1055,1174,1180,1249,1235,1233,1146,1242,1238,1241,1059,1181,1245,1232,1244,1227,1186,1185,1239,1074,487,275,158],"class_list":["post-17969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outbound","tag-communityservice","tag-culturaldiversity","tag-culturalimmersion","tag-dogood","tag-exploretheworld","tag-fslindia","tag-fullyfunded","tag-gapyear","tag-getinvolved","tag-giveback","tag-guidestarindia","tag-interculturalexchange","tag-makeadifference","tag-openminded","tag-personalgrowth","tag-selfdiscovery","tag-socialimpact","tag-solotravel","tag-teachabroad","tag-travelblogger","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteerabroad","tag-volunteerineurope","tag-volunteeringabroad","tag-volunteeringermany","tag-volunteeringjourney","tag-volunteerlife","tag-volunteerwork","tag-wanderlust","tag-youthdevelopment","tag-travel","tag-volunteering","tag-volunteers-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17975,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969\/revisions\/17975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}