Rachit Khatri - Pune, Maharashtra

 

My journey with MRA started back then when I had just passed out of 10th Std. I was a 16 year old school boy who never used to interact with people & who was very low on confidence. During my final days of board exams, I was thinking of spending my vacations at my home-town Punjab, but my elder brother had different plans for me. He said he wants me to go to a Youth Conference at Panchgani. The word ‘Youth Conference’ sounded serious enough for me to go against it and go to Punjab for a nice vacation. But I was forcefully sent to MRA for 8 days all alone with none of my friends along with me. Right from the time, I knew I was going to MRA till the day I stepped into the premises; I had hundreds of questions in my mind about MRA. I tried to know more about it from my brother, but he said, “You need to experience it by yourself”.

I still remember my first day at Asia Plateau in the premises of MRA. I was roaming all alone trying to understand why exactly I was there. Slowly, I tried to adapt myself to the atmosphere and people around me. The first two days, I remember myself thinking that why is the clock running so slow? I wanted time to fly by and felt like going back to the one’s I know. But gradually I settled down and mixed up with the people around me. I had a wonderful group with whom I shared all my untold stories and sharing’s. Also, I had a habit of talking to my parents every night before sleeping; I called them up that day too. Three days passed by, but it was the first time when I spoke to them, and they felt I am happy to be there. I had settled down and mixed up with the people around me and also adapted the lifestyle there. Soon rest of the days also passed and it was the last day of the conference (June 8) - the day I had to leave the MRA premises and go back to my routine life, and I was really upset as I wanted to stay more. But I was feeling very happy, as I was taking back so many beautiful memories, many true friends & most importantly for me, I was taking back some precious lessons and learning’s that I could use in my day to day life to become a better person.

In those eight days, MRA introduced me with life changing experiences and beautiful memories to cherish longer. Everything that we do here has a reason and a thought process behind it, which gradually comes together and ignites the change within oneself. I have experienced that beautiful change within myself. A lot of people, whom I spend most of my time with, have witnessed the transformation in me from a shy 16 year old school boy to what I am today and I must admit that the credit mostly goes to MRA-IofC. Right from my first year in MRA up till now, I have been trying to leave with the standards of MRA and trying to nurture these values in me. I won’t say I am 100% successful, but I have promised to myself that I will never give up.

Right from my first conference up till now, I have not even missed a single youth conference, and I have no plans to miss one either. Every year, those dates in June are reserved to attend the Let's Make A Difference Youth Conference and get charged up for the rest of the year till the next conference. I would like to thank MRA-IofC from the bottom of my heart to make me what I am today. To end with I would just like to say that this platform is too small for me to describe my journey with MRA. But I would surely like all of you to know the role MRA has played in my life, for which we will have to meet.

All my best wishes and regards to the generous cause of MRA. I hope it helps more people as it has helped me.

Rachit Khatri