A Workshop to Sit With Conflict, Not Solve It. Fort Kochi [Feb 12]

What happens when we stop trying to "fix" disagreements and start making something with it instead? In a world that keeps demanding we pick sides and reach consensus, the Conflictorium approach is refreshingly honest. Conflict is not something to be solved. It's something to be understood, felt, and held.

My early memories of Conflict

I was twelve when I learned that disagreement had a price. My science teacher's class had a real lesson but it had nothing to do with science. If you disagreed with her, a piece of white chalk would fly across the room. If you disagreed a lot, it was the cloth duster. Sometimes if you are unlucky the wooden one. She had excellent aim. And I was a good target, rarely ducking from the projectiles. A sitting duck?

There were points for taking her side. There were no points for asking why.

She never asked me, "Why do you see it differently?" She never asked anyone. You picked a side — preferably hers — and you shut up.

The thing about practice is, it works. You cook every day, in six months you're a decent cook. You run every day, in six months you can finish 5K without stopping.

I've been avoiding conflict every single day for decades now. And yes, I've become magnificent at it.

I can sense a disagreement forming three sentences before it arrives, the way some people can smell rain. And I steer away. Smoothly. I nod. I say "that's a good point." I swallow words that taste like chalk dust. Perhaps memories from the projectile chalk pieces from the "school of no conflicts".

I got so good at it that I started paying for peace. Literally. A vendor overcharges? Fine. A partner takes more than their share? Let it go. If you watched me, you'd think I was being completely irrational.

But it isn't irrational. It's trained. Decades of training myself.

Then one evening, I came across a note about a workshop. Something about psychologically safe spaces — places where you could say "I see it differently" without a duster flying at your head. Places where the first question wasn't "which side are you on?" but "why do you think that way?"

I sat with that idea for a long time.

Because each one of us has our own mind. Our own way of seeing things. And I'm starting to wonder — the most dangerous thing my teacher ever threw wasn't the chalk.

It was the silence she made me carry out of that classroom. And the conflict she did not let me share. I'm still carrying it.

On 12 February 2026, Aishwarya Shrivastav from Conflictorium will lead a free, participatory workshop at the ABC Art Room in Fort Kochi. It's called "Sensing, Difference, and Making Together"

The Workshop promises No neat conclusions. No group consensus. Just two hours of slowed-down attention, shared making, and sitting with the discomfort of seeing things differently from the person next to you.

What Happens in the Workshop

The session is shaped by Conflictorium's practice of sensing, listening, privilege, interpretation, and collective making. The idea is simple but powerful: meaning is not fixed. It shifts. It breaks apart. And that breaking is not a failure - it's where the interesting stuff begins.

Rather than smoothing over disagreement, this workshop treats tension, contradiction, and partial understanding as productive.

The session will end with participants creating a collective "Patchwork of Differences." Each person contributes fragments of their own expression - words, marks, gestures - and these are placed together without hierarchy or correction. What's left behind is an open-ended assemblage. Multiple ways of seeing, remembering, and making sense of conflict, all held together without anyone needing to agree.

Who Is Aishwarya Shrivastav?

Aishwarya is a writer, communications strategist, and facilitator who works at the intersection of storytelling, community, and public life. Her strength is creating spaces where people write and reflect without pressure or performance. Her facilitation is rooted in feminist and people-first approaches. She focuses on lived experience, memory, and everyday language - not "perfect" writing. The kind of space where you can show up exactly as you are.

Workshop Details

What: Sensing, Difference, and Making Together - A Participatory Workshop

Facilitated by: Aishwarya Shrivastav, Conflictorium

Date: Thursday, 12 February 2026

Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Venue: ABC Art Room, Water Metro Station, Fort Kochi, Kerala

Entry: Free. No registration fee. If you're interested, fill out this registration form . If you are conflicted about whether to go or not - that's ok too :)

Who can attend: Anyone aged 16 and above

Why This Workshop Matters for Humans

As a cat, I see a world that keeps demanding humans to pick sides and reach consensus, the Conflictorium approach seems refreshingly honest. Conflict is not something to be solved. It's something to be understood, felt, and held. And sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is sit in a room with strangers, acknowledge you see things differently, and make something together anyway.

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025-26 runs until 31 March 2026 across Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, and Ernakulam.

Related reads on Cats of Kochi:

The Ultimate Guide to Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025 Venues and Schedule

Local Cat's Guide to Fort Kochi's Cafes - for when you need a coffee after all that sensing.