Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Art of Living - DSN course

I still remember the uneasiness when I reached the Art of Living Part 2 course venue. It was not the fear of going into silence for 3 days – I had the inhibitions but at that moment it was something else. It was just one day before the course that I found out that my project ended and if I was not able to find new project, I had to leave US – that means further away from Navin (if 8 hours flight travel was bad, imagine a 20 hrs flight travel).  I was not even sure if I should go for the course or stay back home and look out for opportunities by talking to my managers. My AOL teachers suggested I go for the course. I complained that they don’t understand, in fact no one understands the seriousness of my situation; but still I listened to them and went for the spiritual transformation.
Read my old blogs (Before Part 2) and (After Part 2).

It is time for yet another meditation course J – this time I have enrolled myself for the DSN course. And is this a coincidence or what? Navin is in the US and I am in India. Last time when I was doing Part 2, distance between Chicago and California was too much. What should I say now? J Whether or not a situation is grave depends on how you perceive it. Anyways, the distance is not a bother this time.

The DSN course begins tomorrow (Thursday through Sunday). My visa stamping is scheduled for Monday and I need to take the flight from Mangalore to the consulate on Sunday evening. When I enquired with a teacher I know about the DSN course, she asked me to postpone my stamping appointment. You cannot attend half way through, she said.  
What? Are these people crazy? Do they give importance to anything other than Art of Living? Re-Schedule stamping appointment? How is that possible. Well, I tried my best to get the date moved but it meant I had to go through the entire application process again. So I tried asking the teacher if she could move the course dates :P. That was little too much to ask with so many people already registered. But what is the harm asking isn’t it? ;)

Nervously, I called the DSN teacher. I explained to him the problem and asked if I could leave half day on Sunday. He asked my flight timings and said that he will make sure I catch the flight on time. He said, “We will finish the course earlier that day. You just come.”

You just come! So here I am all set to attend the course tomorrow. I thought I will pen down my thoughts about the course before I go into it, so that I can share my experiences (good or bad).

DSN – from what I have heard from people, it is a fun course and helps one to attract positive energy. There will be lot of meditation of course! There will be some group activities too. I just read some information about DSN course – It says DSN helps to let go personal barriers and inhibitions and experience inner strength. I don’t know how successful I will be taking what the course has to offer but I am looking forward to some good teaching. The course will be in Kannada and English. I don’t understand Kannada; I hope the teacher gives equal attention to the non-Kannada speaking folks like me which I am sure will be in minority.

My time on Bench (yes, I have been on bench for last 1 month) will be over this week. My managers say they have given me enough time to decide whether I want to take up project in Mangalore or not. If nothing works out in next couple of days, I will be joining the Mangalore Team ( L ). I don’t know where I will head next week; but that will definitely decide whether or not Navin and I would meet sooner or after some time gap. Whatever it is I cannot wait to find out what DSN is all about and what it has in store for me.  

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shreya,

Visited your blog by other links and really liked it. I know it has been over 2 years now, but could you please share your experience of attending the DSN course?

Thanks!

Shreya Natekar said...

Something I would do again for sure. The course I attended was in Kannada; but even though I did not understand the language, I had a great time and enjoyed a lot.

Shreya Natekar said...

And thank you for your comments and visiting my blog.
I hope you get an opportunity to do DSN soon.

Anonymous said...

DSN is such a waste of time where teachers force their thoughts down the throats of participants and all the activities are done for AOL marketing. In the name of making oneself stronger they ask people to do atrocious stuff which cannot be justified with even a bit a common sense.

srividya said...

i too attended DSN and it transformed me and brought out the real person in me at a time when i was feeling so insecured .... i just enjoyed the 4 day course so much and i feel blessed to come across this wonderful programme ....

Anonymous said...

DSN is a fund-raising program with some basic activities of public speaking/personality development courses.

I felt bad when course teacher forced us to go out and get registrations for next part 1 courses. And they try to present this as a great opportunity for you to develop your personality. This was so frustrating.

Another horrible thing was how he makes you emotional and asks to donate large sum of money to AOL. My God. I could not believe.

Out of all AOL courses I attended, this one I disliked.


Waste of time, energy and money.