Comments from previous attendee and team members

“I attended the TTM (Tasting The Mango) convention in 2003, and thought it was fantastic; phenomenal! First and foremost I learnt a great deal about Jainism - the basics about the soul, samyak darshan and the path to Moksh, which were a perfect foundation upon which to build my knowledge through further reading and by participating in swadhyay (study) sessions. However, equally importantly, the wacky presentation style, interspersed with TTM dancing and all sorts of games allowed me to meet some amazing and inspirational people. The ethos of the weekend can be encapsulated by the 4 golden rules _____(can't quite remember :s) "have fun", "capture the information, and "use it." They were iterated so many times that they have stuck with me, and have enabled me to excel in any situation I have found myself in. Getting involved with Young Jains and applying the theory that I learnt in the "dharma" sessions has certainly made a noticeable positive impact on my life. I became more confident, have become more aware of my actions and their consequences and am able to look at things from different viewpoints. If you aren't sure about attending the convention, I can tell you that I wasn't initially, either! I was asked to help with the set up and stay for the first night, but I had such a good time that I ended up staying for the whole weekend, and would recommend the experience whole-heartedly!”

Paarul Tushar Shah, Student

"I was very much enthralled about attending and helping to organise TTM and TTM 2 Young Jains conventions. It's not just 2.5 days where the atmosphere is vibrantly electric, but the many months of pre-planning are abundantly abuzz with positive energy and full of immense learnings. Meeting many Young Jains in our current environment is quite rare; the conventions also provide a platform not only for learning about our precious Jain Dharma (from learned scholars and knowledgeable peers, easily digestible for youngsters, to propagate further to the next generation of Jain youth), but for meeting like-minded aspirants, and even in some cases future life partners!”

Punit Haria – Optician - met his life partner at the last convention.

“My existing knowledge of Jainism came from lectures by Chitrabhanu we had attended and from whatever rituals we participated in whilst growing up in Kenya.  My Father was a deeply religious man and very knowledgeable about Jain concepts.  I am fairly fluent in Gujarati however the Gujarati my father used to express Jain concepts was not everyday vocabulary nor was it relayed in a manner that conveyed relevance to my day to day life.  None of our friends, siblings or cousins were interested in finding out more about Jainism.
 
Tasting the Mango made it accessible for us to learn about Jain tools and knowledge in a memorable fun way that we could apply to our daily lives.  For instance we learnt about the 4 Kshays - bad passions (AGED) and their opposites.  We explored the concept of Anukantaveda, the concept of tolerance of many views about one thing and it has been a good tool to apply at work to diffuse tensions if nothing more!  The information was presented in a fun way with workshops, discussions, music and dancing.  TTM provided clarity for me as a flow chart was used to visually portray the path to take towards - Samyak Darshan, our goal.   Music certainly took on a whole new meaning, e.g. 'Search for the hero within you....', etc. which now reminds me of what we want to aim for in our lives.  We met other like-minded people with whom we could share and explore these concepts and also discuss how we apply them to our life in the western world.  From TTM2 I took away with me the wonderful concept of equanimity which supported me to come to terms with the shock of the life-long life-threatening medical diagnosis I was given a few months prior to attending TTM.  It was a privilege to attend something like TTM as it provided useful a information and tools to enable me to make choices in my life, the consequences of which I can live with.
 
TTM was organised to a high standard and at a fraction of the cost of other motivational thinking/personal development conferences advertised in the media.”
 
Minal Dharmesh Shah