Name: Aakash and Aditya 

Task: FR- Dharmik azaadi ki svatantrata (gold)- social

Experience: In this task, the pair had to visit the religious places of 5 different religions and talk to the religious leaders in that space to understand what role the religion plays in social lives of each religious group. They also had to understand the differing roles of women in each of the religions. 

The pair visited a church, a temple and were only able to talk to a Sikh man instead of visiting the Gurudwara. 

They were not only intrigued by the differences they saw in each religion, but were more fascinated by the similarities that they saw in the religions played a role in everyday life of people. 

The most striking information that they received was the kind of treatment of women in different religions. They learnt, and told all of us that while women are excluded in a lot of practices in Hindu and Muslim groups, Sikhs are of a strong view of including women not just in religious practices but even decision making. 

Challenges: Aditya and Aakash were uncertain of how welcoming people would be of them wanting to know about any religion and stories of people. They faced a challenge in convincing people to talk to them. At the church, they weren’t able to find someone to talk to the first time they went there. They found someone the second time, and didn’t find that very helpful. Only after waiting for more time, were they able to find someone to talk to them and explain them things. 

Achievements: The boys were able to convince their friends to do some activities of this task along with them. As a result of this, it made more of them more empathetic towards the differences and later encouraged discussions regarding the same in their class too.