January 22, 2009

My Choice Internship-an Epilogue of Sorts :)

Having finished six months as a Choice Intern, I think it is only natural that my final blogpost (as a Choice Intern for Writeherewritenow)will be an overview of whatever I have worked on in the past six months and the invaluable experience that this internship has given me.

I had first read about Choice on a poster that was put up at my University ( Jadavpur University) and I remember being fascinated by the Project at once. After rushing home, I dispatched an application immediately. Bishan got in touch with me promptly and asked me to come over and meet him at Seagull's Circus Avenue office.

The wonderful thing about the Choice internship is that it allows a tremendous amount of flexibility. For instance, when interns do apply, they are asked to list their interests and their interests are matched with an organisation that they may wish to work for. I had dabbled with the idea of working with folk musicians and my interests were listed as writing and Music. Because it was term time, I could not possibly spend my time talking to folk musicians and simultaneously learn their craft because it would mean that I would not be able to balance my academics with my internship. Instead, I decided to opt for my other love-my love for writing.

I've been fond of writing ever since I've been a kid. When I heard about Writeherewritenow from Bishan, I was really excited. I was thinking of starting out with my Individual Project (which would mean me designing the module entirely on my own, only to be guided by my mentor)but after much brainstorming, Bishan and I decided that it would be a good idea to do an internship before embarking on an Individual Project.

I met Megha first. Megha invited me to come and watch a Writeherewritenow workshop before I made my mind up about the internship. My first " unofficial" workshop had Richa telling the children how to script superheroes. One little child, Chirayu, all of eight, gingerly came up to me and asked me how to spell glasses ( His superhero was Harry Potter). Chirayu then decided that 'g' just didn't look nice with a tail, so he decided to do away with it. Finally, there was only a 'c' left.

Little had I known then that I would end my six month internship with Many such Memories. During my six months as a Choice Intern, I was expected to help market the site, help design the workshop modules, conduct a few workshops, handle press and publicity for the website, jot down the minutes of every workshop that was held and assist in conducting the workshops.

Some very interesting ideas were experimented with during the course of my Internship. There was the translation workshop, where children were given a piece in English and they could translate it either into Hindi or Bangla. Then they were given a piece either in Bangla or Hindi and asked to do the same. Then there was a Doodle and Decipher workshop where the children were given themes and were asked to draw. Based on the illustration, they were asked to write a story.

Finally, it was a great pleasure to work with a wonderful and committed team and I'm glad that I decided to work with WHWN.

January 08, 2009

Bal Vividha 2008

STUDENT WORKSHOPS: 




Very enthusiastic Rang Manch participants: 



Events and Performances:


More Colors:


Student's Workshop:  

Looking around: 

Ah! Presents! And certificates:



The culmination of the theatre workshop for kids:



Rang Manch:



A Children's workshop in progress:


Colloquium: 

Rang Manch:

Teacher's Workshop:

IC:

Peformances:


The colors corner was a real hit:


Interactive Corner (colors): 

 The Gate:

January 07, 2009

A Brief December Afternoon with Nisreen

It seemed ever so small.

I was to go upstairs to the gallery space where Nisreen's paintings were being kept for the time being, and write down their titles, mediums and sizes for the catalogue. Work that was fairly easy and not time-consuming. Well, yes and no.

Lights are switched on for me upstairs, and then I'm left alone. As the door swings shut, a gush of December breezes past me. Winter's here, and I get ready to snug up to the damp coolness of the room, the cozy silence, and the endearing oddness that seems to be Nisreen. I take a stroll around the small space first, taking in all the pictures in one sweeping view. And then I'm ready. Paper and pencil in hand, I carefully check the back of each work for the required details and jot them down in neat columns. Diligence at its best.

Diligent, but intentionally slow. I let myself imagine what some of the works would look like in a graphic novel. Maybe I should suggest it? I am amused by the morning walker, who for some reason looks very familiar. And I linger on 'Once Upon a Time' and 'Windows 129', for there's 'something' in those two paintings that I know I have to find.........

Sweet nothings in the head of a dreamy teenager, you must be thinking! And yes, I did prolong those moments of lovely loneliness. But then it was back to work.

Peace arts and some randomness

The peace arts festival that stretched from 3rd to the 5th brought together a wide array of people and promoted the creative arts as models of social change. It was an informal way of introducing writing, music and paper making to the audience and letting us explore at how to look at oneself, the world and at inculcation of creativity which we often neglect because of our various daily commitments.

The first workshop was conducted by Ms Melissa Pritchard, author and professor of writing at Arizona State University. She started by talking about the Four fold creative process which was about preparation and commitment to ones writing, followed by a keen sense of observation and listening power to the final shaping up of the story and finally letting go of it once it is done. Various techniques and devices such as the Da vinci Device and the memory exercise was practiced which helped us chalk out our stories from the mundane. Using everyday themes it is possible to write great narratives as she showed us through these exercises. Finally we ‘cooked up a story’ and finished the days session.

The second day had Melissa Walker, a music researcher from Arizona conducting breathing exercises and teaching us the basic techniques of sound and singing. Melissa's research is pretty exciting. She has got a grant to travel in India and collect poetry and writings from women who have been trafficked or belong to such families and are living in a vulnerable atmosphere. These poems would later be put together, translated and given music. Melissa plans to perform this at a concert (also under her grant) and produce a CD, the proceedings of which would go to these various organisations that had helped during the research and data collection.

The third workshop was taken by Drew Mattot, a professional papermaker. He explained how paper could be made from everyday things like the previous day’s movie ticket to the old t-shirt we do not wear. He showed us models of the pulp maker and samples of paper he had made. We were pretty enthralled to hear about the process. He then spoke about his various other projects (like the deep fried books project where books were fried and then vacuum sealed, do not even ask me why) By the end of the workshop we all had chosen book covers made from hand made paper and learnt various forms of paper folding and collating them together we learnt how to make an ‘artist book’

The fourth day was not really a part of the peace arts project but it does deserve to be mentioned. As a part of Melissa Walker’s research I spoke about earlier, I took her to SANLAAP, a Calcutta based NGO working with trafficked children and those children who live in vulnerable areas. Melissa Pritchard also accompanied us and she took a poetry writing workshop there and surprisingly within an hour we had sixteen beautiful poems about listening and hearing closely to what the poets can hear. I translated a few of them and both the Melissas were pretty stunned at such beautiful creations. Melissa Walker then sang a song much to the group’s amusement and then interacted with various children and adolescents of that centre. We finished off the day by visiting New Light, Kolkata where we interacted with the children of women who were primarily prostitutes and observed them in their natural environments for sometime.
Just before leaving Melissa asked me if I would be willing to be a part of her project formally, to which I readily jumped. So I am now going to be helping her in collecting and putting together the various poems and translating them to English. The project is funded by Arizona State University and is a brilliant way of outreach for the various voices in India who come from red light areas or have been trafficked to tell their story through their own unique creative narrative to the world at large. I am really looking forward to being a part of this project till its completion.

:-)

Relevant links that you might want to check

Melissa Pritchard
Melissa Walker
Drew Matott