Looking Back and Ahead

My internship with Kolkata Sanved is already in its fifth month. It doesn't really feel like five months, but at the same time, I feel like my own skills in the field of drama therapy and dance movement therapy have become stronger in comparison to what they were pre-July 08. So even if time has zoomed by, it's been a constructive kind of zooming (!). Personally, the intenship has done wonders to my sense of confidence. Not surprisingly, it has reinforced something I've always believed in -- you may think you'll be able to do something, but when you actually do it in practice, your sense of self-belief is much greater. Over the past five months, I have been given a number of opportunities to bridge that gap between thinking I can do something and going ahead and doing it. And I think that has helped in both my professional and personal growth.

In the next phase of my internship I would like to conceptualize and direct at least one short performance with either the Sanved trainers or some of the girls/boys I have been working with through Sanved's partnership programmes. That's an area I have touched upon so far (the Independence Day programme at Apne Aap, the performance for Anjali in October), but not delved into completely. It's very challenging and exciting to build concepts, develop scripts and direct performances geared towards generating human rights awareness and I hope to get an opportunity in the next year to hone these skills.

Another aspect I need to give more time to is structuring drama therapy modules for mainstream school children. I have been conducting sessions at Patha Bhavan for Class 3 and 4 children and I may begin sessions at another school for middle school students. The nature of sessions for mainstream children obviously needs to be different from those conducted for marginalized or disadvantaged children and, at the moment, my classes for the Patha Bhavan kids are more on the lines of theatre for recreation than theatre for therapy. We do team building, body-mind coordination and skit development exercises, but I'm looking at expanding the range of activities so that even if they aren't "therapeutic", they can be educational and can help channelize the energy of the kids positively/constructively. If any of you has any suggestions regarding activities I can do in this vein or books/websites I could look at for ideas, please let me know. I was so focused on planning sessions for communities with special needs that, ironically enough, my mainstream sessions aren't as fine-tuned as they can be. And I'm sure there is a lot that I can do in my mainstream classes.

Peace Rally At The Gateway of India

One of the main reasons I chose to do my internship in Mumbai is because I have always been enamoured by the energy and enthusiasm in the city and its people. The city gave me a positive vibe the minute I landed here.

Looking back at the history of the city we come across a number of terror attacks and tragedies. The people of this city have been hit time and time again but they always get back on their feet almost immediately. When I used to live in Calcutta, i watched the coverage of the previous attacks on the city and read about it in the newspapers, but I could never actually fathom the emotions of fear, helplessness and panic that people go through. This time I was present in the city and for the first time I understood what it all really feels like and what is it to be afraid for your life. Although life has returned to a fairly normal state, people are still shocked from last week's events and fear for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones.

I attended the Peace rally at The Gateway of India and was amazed. I was amazed at the number of people and the energy in that area. People from all over Bombay attend the rally. Alyque Padamsee organized a campaign 'Enough Is Enough' in which almost everyone in the rally participated. Leaflets were given out where we had to fill in our contact details and state three things of the government that we wanted changed. The persons concerned would put forward an ATR with the list of demands. People were present with candles, banners and of course their spirit. The place was flooded with media people who were clicking away and interviewing as many people as possible. It was good to see people of all ages, walks of life and religion.

The Peace rally was quite an experience for me although after a while the motive of peace was lost. I personally didn't feel comfortable after a point because all one could here were anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan slogans and of course the ones against the politicians. There was a lot of anger and rage and after a point it was a little unnerving. Frankly I feel that instead of blaming the government and the media and various other people for their irresponsibility and insensitivity we should take charge and change our ways too. We should become responsible and vote for the right people and take a stand against things we don’t agree with. If we don’t do it this time, we’ll be lighting candles and having many more peace rallies and not solving the real problem.

Had Anhad - Journeys with Ram and Kabir

Citizens for Peace organized a screening of the film 'Had Anhad - Journeys with Ram and Kabir' in the month of September. Shabnam Virmani has directed the film. Started in 2003, the Kabir project brings together the experiences of a series of journeys in quest of this 15th century mystic poet in our contemporary worlds. 'Had Anhad' is the first film in a series of four. A small screening of select individuals who would be in a position to disseminate this film widely to the mainstream. The audience included Mr. Om Puri (Chairman, National Film Development Corporation) and Ms. Nina Lath Gupta ( MD, National Film Development Corporation) and others.
This film is an attempt to understand Kabir's Ram through poetry, song and encounters in India and Pakistan. It provides an insight into the politics of Kabir's poetry and the genre of folk music. Its journeys through different parts of India and Pakistan locate Dalit, Muslim and Hindu folk singers, capturing their intensity primarily through their enthralling music. Deeply rich in subtle detail and simplicity, the film takes us unrelentingly inward even as we venture outward. This film provides an opportunity to listen and to make the connect between Kabir's words and our day-to-day acts, the social, spiritual and political choices in which we're all enmeshed.

It was a wonderful experience for me. I not only got the chance to watch a fantastic film but also got to meet a number of very interesting people from various fields. The film also touched me at a personal level as it brought back a number of memories of my three years in boarding school. I was lucky enough to study in The Valley School in Bangalore. It was there, at my very first assembly that I was introduced to the songs, poetry and writings of Kabir. In school, it was used to teach us the basic values of life. All the elements of the film were extremely appealing and absolutely captured your attention; whether it was the treatment, the music, the people interviewed and of course the locations. The simplicity of the content of Kabir's literature and the simplicity of the people who till this day live by his way of thinking has changed and influenced the way I think about certain things in my life.

FIRST EXPERIENCE. FIRST LESSON.

Landing this internship finally made me feel grown-up. Signing contracts, monthly stipends, and 'office hours' inflated my so far dormant sense of self-importance. But I didn't know that in order to grow up, I'd have to grow down a little bit first!

My first assignment was to report on the different Peacefest workshops, starting with music. I walked into the workshop space feeling strange, knowing that even a year ago I might have been one of the participants. It hit me- I was no longer in school, I was taking a year off before college, and I was not quite a fully qualified working professional either. For the first time in my life, I was no one. And yet, I was surrounded by a gaggle of schoolchildren who were both nervous and excited about the task at hand, and I knew what that felt like. All grown-up? Not quite.

The workshops turned out to be hugely enjoyable. I made friends, and I realized that there was always something to learn from every experience. I learnt how to hold my concentration over a length of time, and make little notes while doing so, two skills that were only half-developed in school! For the first time, I had to write full-length critiques, and, most importantly, I had to respond to different forms of the arts, from film to theatre to music. Now, I was actually growing up.

By the time the Peaceworks Festival closing ceremony came along, I was thoroughly enjoying being 'no one'. I greeted the participants I had become familiar with during the course of the workshops, wished them luck and chatted with them briefly. I watched the plays being performed and said to myself "I was there when this was rehearsed!" or "This is the scene that I like."

When all was over, I felt buoyant and fulfilled, looking forward enthusiastically to the next 'growing-up experience' my internship had in store.

Workshop at Disha foundation

On the 16th of November, Writeherewritenow conducted a Workshop at Disha Foundation. Richa had told me at the outset that I would have to conduct this workshop at the very outset but honestly, I was really nervous about how the workshop would turn out to be. Megha, Richa and I had discussed the concept of the Workshop earlier and we'd brainstormed together till we decided that we would conduct a performance related workshop. We would hand out stories to the children, divide them into groups and finally ask them to rewrite the story with dialogues. Then, they would have to enact their stories so we could get a sense of what they'd written or how they'd interpreted the tale. We also told them that they could work in English, Bangla or Hindi and add songs or dances to their performances if they wanted to. I was quite nervous about the performance bit of it because I'd never conducted a workshop that dealt with performance but Megha reassured me and said that if I went wrong, she'd take over from there.

Since I am nearing my last month of interning with Writeherewritenow, let me just take this opportunity to say that I've had two really fantastic mentors who have guided me every step of the way. I have learnt so much over the last six months and whenever I've made mistakes, I've been taught how to rectify them. A big thank you to Bishan as well who has not only been keeping track of everything that is being done but who also took the time out and actually attended a workshop and took photographs. He has also been brutally honest in terms of feedback, something that I really appreciate. So thank you so much :)

Getting back to the Workshop, I think the kids really enjoyed the workshop and we have videos of them performing which I will upload soon

More later!

Workshop at British Council

Situation 1

Aloo Prasad Yadav and Ramdev Dubey are names of school Principals. Aloo Prasad Yadav takes a special class for the students. He teaches Bhojpuri. Ramdev Dubey teaches a Pathshala.


Situation 2

A grumpy teacher becomes a loving one when she accidentally breaks her leg and has the children taking her to the hospital.

Situation 3

A young princess with beautiful green eyes and a crown set with precious stones cannot win over her subjects because she is rude and arrogant.

These were some of the things that the young children aged 10-14 came up with at British Council during the October 25 Workshop that was Conducted by Writeherewritenow.

Richa gave the children leads, saying that in order to create a character, one must focus on Appearance, Attire and Personality Traits.

Then, as a kind of warm up exercise, Richa asked the children to concoct characters of a thief, a princess and a school principal, keeping the above factors in mind.

Finally, she asked them to focus on "character growth" telling them how if a character did not grow in a story, it would be a flat character.

This workshop culminated into many interesting stories.

The Red Badge of Honour

The Beauty Inside is the last of a series of plays that I have been writing about. Catherine Filloux has based her play on a real life account of a victim of the tradition of honour killing in Turkey. Yalova is a 14 year old village girl who has been raped by a neighbour and consequently has become pregnant. Her family kills off the man and throws her into a canal to die. But she survives and fights back. Her case is taken up by Devrim, a female lawyer hailing from a rich and educated family of Istanbul. The play traces how Yalova helped by Devrim, defies all odds of family and society to give birth to her daughter in whom we see the prospect of a better future. However it is not a clear victory of right over wrong for as Devrim’s father tells her, the judicial system has merely used Yalova’s case to whitewash the country’s human rights record in front of the UN.

The play has a number of interwoven themes ranging from the conflict between the different value systems of the urban rich and the rural poor, the trauma that the victim’s family has to go through to corrupt contractors building flimsy houses which come crashing down during the earthquake. But at the heart of the play is the grave injustice done to a young girl–first she is repeatedly raped and silenced by a death threat and then when her family finds out they try to kill her to save their honour. How can ‘honour’ be at the root of such a heinous crime?

The word honour goes back to the beginning of civilization when society was in its rudimentary stage torn apart by the constant struggle to survive. Then it was honour that made men aspire to something higher and nobler, an ideal to be striven toward, in short it brought out the best in men. But with time, like every other good thing that has been abused, the concept of honour too came to be much abused. Today it has become representative of all things repressive in society and is binding upon us. And an extreme case is Yalova’s. Filloux has beautifully described the rape in symbolic terms by making it coincide with a solar eclipse. This is based on reality since Filloux was there in Turkey in 1999 when there was a total solar eclipse as well as an earthquake. For those few moments the day turns night–symbolizing an inversion of everything that is right and good. It is as if the entire cosmic order is mourning and protesting her rape by blocking out all the light in the world. If that is the case then how can her family try to punish her for the unnatural crime committed against her? It defies all logic! It seems as if man is capable of inexplicable cruelty. In the play Yalova’s family members are not depicted as unidimensional villains but as hapless victims of social ostracism. Thus some societies not only justify honour killing but also glorify it by saying that the death acts as a ritual cleansing of what is impure and unnatural. This interestingly reminds me of Stephen Crane’s war novel The Red Badge of Courage where the red badge is the wound received in war, a symbol of courage and valour. Here paradoxically the red badge of honour is intended for those who murder innocent victims like Yalova and bring glory to their clan. It seems as if something is rotten deep within our social foundation and it is finding expression in such bizarre but quite frequent incidents. Women are particularly vulnerable since honour be it of the family, caste or tribe is inseparably associated with them. While these stereotypes have been created by men, women too have contributed in nurturing them.

What is cause for worry is that incidents of honour killing are alarmingly frequent in India what with our rigid caste and religious divides. I am perhaps despairing but I cannot see the situation improving given how deep-seated the mistaken notion of honour lies. Till then we shall be occasionally encouraged by the likes of Yalova acting like a shining beacon of the little courage, bravery and right left in this world.

Bal Vividha- Kalam (day three)

DAY 3

This session started with identity forms being given out consisting of name, ages, address, height. Weight etc. After the forms were filled it was explained how one’s identity was not merely formed by these quantitative data alone. One’s identity was this & much more. The form failed to say what we liked, what we disliked, if we loved doing something or not. In other words it was redundant. If the participants felt such then they were asked to tear up the forms and if they did not then keep it. The whole group saving five participants tore up their forms.

At this juncture I read out three stereotype profiles using the quantitative data such as name, birthplace, etc and the group was asked to describe these characters based on their name and information given. The participants came up with the stereotypical answers as expected
Durga Mondol from Murshidabad had to be a factory worker with no education and Mohammad Ansari a ‘goonda’. When the real characteristics of these profile were read out, the participants were surprised ( Durga Mondol, a national swimming champ, Ansari a women’s activist) the remaining four participants also tore their form saying the form did not do justice to the type of person they really were. Only one participant still maintained that the form could be an identity if a picture was provided. Nargis then took out Sahar’s picture and asked him to say what he thought about this woman (birthplace, work, language, etc) when he was unable to make a successful analysis h realised he was wrong and he tore up his form too much to the relief of the facilitators.

A human being was not made up of these forms and the data collected rather it was in his character that we can find the true him. The participants were then asked to think up of an image and using the keys given (colour, smell, sadness etc) describe it on paper and then share it with the rest of the class.

Important and recurring points about the images:
Shapeless
Sounds of birds and leaves
The place becomes flooded when angry
Green place with lots of trees
Waves

All the participants spoke about a green place with trees as part of their image. Only one girl ( Reshma) had a desert place, with cactus, lack of colours, sadness as her theme. When prodded further she said that was how she was currently feeling hence the image.
After this exercise the participants were asked to write a poem titled ‘I Am’ using the keys given in the previous exercise. They were told they could be as experimental as they wanted to be and if they desired they could do without using the keys and write something totally different.

It was seen that many of the participants had made themselves birds of other objects and created a whole new identity for themselves in this poem.

At this point lunch break was announced.

After the break, chits were passed around with a feeling written on them and selected participants were asked to act this out to the rest of the group who had to identify it. After this exercise further chits were given and the group was divided into two people sub groups and then they were asked to write the symptoms of the feeling given in their chit and the group had to identify the feeling. Both the exercises were quite popular and were easily identified.

At this point we spoke about feelings and emotions and how it affects poetry writing. After this discussion, the facilitators asked the participants to pick out any two colourful characters from their neighbourhood and share something funny. This exercise was used to successfully close the session on a fun note.

The participants were then further told about Kalam and what it does and contact details given. Comment sheets were passed around for their comments and suggestions.
The session ended on a high note. All the participants were extremely happy and wanted to come back for more if there was any. Some great works were collected which will be displayed in the fair later on in the year. The facilitators enjoyed this experience as much as the participants did

Bal Vividha-Kalam (day two)

DAY 2

This session started with the participants being asked to discuss why the writer’s notebook was so important and what role did it play if at all to writing. Nargis shared her views on it and said how Melissa Pritchard who had conducted workshops with her had told the writer’s notebook was like a mother and if the writer did not love it then one would not get the enthusiasm to write.

The participants were then handed out blank sheets of paper and asked to draw a map of their hearts. Some of the possible things that they could include were: places they loved visiting, stories they had heard/hear, people you like, happiness and sadness, things one might have lost. Basically things which had left a mark in their hearts.

Nargis then brought out her own sketch of the heart where she explained how some of the things depicted there were such important part of hr life. Her first taxi ride alone, visit to Darjeeling, getting her passport made etc.

The participants were then asked to share it with the rest of the group. Many interesting imagery came up during the course of this exercise- dreams and ambitions, love, hardships, fantasy. House and dead loved ones were a common theme found in most of the participant’s works.
For example, Smriti drew a house and when she explained it she told a tragic story about how a young girl who lived there had been raped. She did not know this girl but the story and the house had left a deep impression in her mind.

The participants were then asked to revisit the five senses we had discussed in the previous session and using those asked to write a poem about the lane in front of their house. The poems were then discussed with the whole group and suggestions and changes were made by the participants themselves.
After this exercise the participants were told about similes and metaphors. They were told how it was important in poetry and how anyone could actually make these similes by comparing one object to another.

A box of crayons red in colour was passed around in the room and using their five senses the participants were asked to come up with at least one interesting comparison between the box of crayons and some other object. I explained this by passing about a green file and comparing it to a thin blade of green grass and the texture to the oil that my mother puts on my sister’s hair.

Some of the interesting comparisons that came up with the box of crayons were:

Smells like soil
Red like blood
Looks like a red rose
Like the colours of the rainbow
Like the red ‘alta’ my mother uses
The sun in the autumn sky
Like a thin notebook
Oily like the leaf of a lotus

At this point the session was stopped for lunch.

We started the post lunch session with the free writing exercise where the participants had to write about their names for at least ten minutes without removing their pens and not taking time to think. Interestingly one participant wrote his name for three consecutive pages since he felt he could not think of anything else.

After this exercise we went back to the similes and metaphors and the comparison that were made. The facilitators used a dead crow as an example and used five different ways in which this dead crow could be seen. Followed by a discussion, a glass of water was brought and placed in the middle of the room. The participants were asked to look at it and then write five ways in which this glass of water could be viewed. The comparisons could be as outrageous as possible but it could not be a common imagery or everyday theme. Some of the comparisons the participants came up with are:

A pond with a boundary wall
A drop of tear
Life
Magnifying glass
An upside down temple
Particle of sand
White sky
The pent up sadness in the heart
Early morning fog.

After this Sandra Cisneros’ poem ‘My Name’ was read and discussed and then the participants were asked to similarly write five lines about their names associating the name with a number, colour, feature, smell etc. the poems were discussed and changes and suggestions made.

Bal Vividha- Kalam (day one)

Bal Vividha

(15th to 17th October)
The theme for this year’s Bal Vividha was Education for Change and a concentration on alternative forms of education. Creativity has been as a mover of change and all the workshops were centred on this theme.
Kalam conducted three full day workshops on poetry and creative writing. The workshop was called ‘Power of Writing’ and facilitated by me and Nargis.

DAY 1
The sessions had fifteen participants from various schools and backgrounds( there were two participants from English medium schools, a few participants from Murshidabad who had problem talking, and the other participants were from various other parts of the city and state. Their ages ranged from 13 to approximately 20) and thus it was one of the most diverse groups of participants I have worked with till now. The participants were asked to introduce themselves after which we played a ‘name game’ where the participants had to associate their names with a place which began with the first letter of their names. This was an energiser round and was intended to break the ice between the participants and the facilitators.
The participants were asked what they had thought of when registering for the workshop. For some of them it was a forum to polish on their writing skills. Others had never written before and thought they could use it as means of learning how to write and for some it was the first time they were participating in a public program like this and had no idea what to expect.
We started the workshop by handing out blank sheets to all the participants and other stationery such as crayons and pencils. The participants were told to imagine that they cannot talk and write and the only way of expression for themselves was through images. They were asked to draw images and share it with the rest of the class.

It was observed that most of the group belonging to the higher age range preferred to just use their pens and pencils and kept the pictures as minimal as possible whereas the participants from the younger age group had colourful pictures and made use of lots of colours and imagery. There were two teachers from the organisations participating as observers and they took part in this activity as well.

After the participants had finished with their drawings, they were asked to exchange their papers and each had to explain the drawing of the co participant and tell what they thought of him or her through the drawings. After which the participant who had made that drawing was himself/herself asked to explain it and share it with the rest of the group.
Bilkis Khatun for example had drawn a tree and a house. Nargis started the discussion by saying she though the tree was where Bilkis had for the first time met her lover and the house was a dream which she perhaps wanted to build some day. Tumpa on the other hand felt theatre was somewhere Bilkis used to hang out with friends. Bilkis said the hosuelike structure was her school which she was very fond of and the tree was in her house courtyard and she felt a strange affection towards it.

Some of the common images that were seen through this exercise were trees, flowers, televisions, house (or house like structures)
Hazara Khatun was the only participant who drew a nurse and spoke about her life’s ambition to become one through her image. Many of the participants also spoke about their dreams through these images.

At the end of this exercise the participants were told how poetry was also nothing but written imagery. Keeping this mind they were each asked to write one line about what they thought about ‘Night’ and compare it to one image. They were asked no to use common images such as darkness. Solitary, etc but to try and think of other images which one might not immediately associate with night. The lines were then read out and a group poem was created titled ‘Night is’ with each of the participants having contributed one line each.

Night Is
Night is a beautiful woman
Night is the drooping eyelids
Night is silence
Night is the light in the darkness
Night is the solitary heart
Night is the dark clouds
Night is a message that like night is followed by day, sadness is followed by happiness
Night is the light of the new moon
Night is watching stars on the lonely terrace
Night is the soft sound of breeze
Night is the moonlight streaming in through the broken windows
Night is the end of all my hopes and wishes
Night is walking through the lonely streets
Night is sleeping in the cool shades of my mother’s sari.

After this poem was created there was a lunch break for an hour after which the participants would return for the second half of the session.


After lunch the participants were asked to play an energiser game where they would walk about the room and a number would be called out and the participants would have to form that number and the remaining few would be out. This would continue till there were two remaining participants.
The participants were then given copies of Al Mahmoud’s poem “Poetry Is” The poem was read out and then discussed by the facilitators and the participants themselves. Some of the key points discussed were: what poetry means to the poet and what it meant to the participants. How poetry talks about everyday life and such. Poetry is not only about having a rhyming scheme.

At this juncture the concept of five senses- smell, touch, see, feel, hear was discussed and using these senses the participants were asked to write a poem of five lines each about what poetry was for them. The poem was titled ‘Poetry is’. After which they were asked to share it with the rest of the group. The poems were discussed and suggestions and changes were made.

Looking back at September

At the outset, let me start by wishing all of you Shubo Bijoya. I hope your Pujas were exactly what you wanted them to be (peaceful/noisy/non-existent...). I had all good intentions of posting this earlier, but then I was hit by the viral, after recovering from which work was quite hectic and then came the Pujas. So after a very long period of virtual absence I'm sitting down to write that post about our visit to Murshidabad and then, a short performance we staged a fortnight ago.

Kolkata Sanved has been trying to involve itself with governmental ventures in the area of social development and one of these partnerships is with a government shelter home in Behrampore. We will be conducting dance movement therapy sessions with the girls and women in this home, once a month. I went with two other members of Sanved for the first session and it was, as I'd expected, enlightening.

Having visited a couple of governmental care giving institutions in the past, I wasn't surprised to see that in terms of infrastructure, the shelter home at Behrampore was not lacking in any area. The home was accompanied by very large grounds and the building itself was well planned -- large rooms with high ceilings that attracted air and were sunny. However, as my experiences in the past had indicated, the maintenance of the facilities left a lot to be desired. The ceilings were overhung with cobwebs and the floors were carpeted with dust. The grounds had become the home for various kinds of weeds and wild grass: unfortunate, because with a little care they could have been made to look quite attractive. Moreover, the girls themselves could have helped with the gardening. Which brings me to the girls. My co-trainer conducted 3 two-hour sessions for 3 groups of women/girls and each of the groups took to the sessions she had conceptualized with marked enthusiasm. They seemed so happy to be given the opportunity to do something creative and different, for want of a better word. They lapped up the exercises that were done and displayed much eagerness in picking up what was being shown to them. It was as if they were starved for creative endeavours. In that sense, it's great that we have been given the chance to provide them with this space where they can explore their creative impulses. While I didn't conduct any session with them this time round, I certainly hope to in the course of our subsequent visits.

The other development that I wanted to write about concerned a short performance Sanved was asked to put up for a programme that Anjali was organizing. In case you're not familiar with Anjali, it's a human rights agency that works to rehabilitate mentally challenged persons. This programme took place on the 1st of October, when nearly all our staff members had gone to Nepal for a regional workshop. So the responsibility of devising a performance lay with the few of us who had not gone. Six of us were involved in the performance and all of us helped with the concept building, script-writing and direction (our piece dealt with issues pertaining to mental health care). I really enjoyed this process and it did make me realize how much I miss directing. I do hope I get the chance to work on developing more performances with Sanved in the coming months.

Mediation, dialogue and negotiation

Here at Meta-Culture things have been pretty crazy! Another 2 interns- a British guy and a local lawyer, have recently joined the team. I feel like I have been here forever and its strange to see them floundering and finding their way around. Its great, though, to have so many interesting people around. I think the Meta Culture staff span almost all continents at the moment.

Along with Open Enrollment, my project for Meta-Culture Consulting, I am currently also part of the team that is setting up Meta-Culture's Community Mediation Centre. I had no idea how much work and planning goes into setting something up! I am in charge of the Administration and am project managing the planning of the Basic Mediation Course which will be conducted mid November. The Basic Mediation Course is the foundation course for anyone who wants to become a mediator. We are hoping to be able get a few people from this course to continue on as apprentices and finally train them as mediators for the Mediation Centre. Having had no experience with administration i am having to read MANY MANY manuals regarding the set up of mediation centres in the US primarily, which we are modeling this mediation centre on.

Other than that, Bengaluru Speaks was held again on Friday. This time the theme was Violence in Urban India because of the current events that have been cropping up all over the country. The dialogue was intense and even volatile towards the end and on the whole a success because we got people talking about their opinions on a very real and honest level. NDTV was actually present at the event and they are doing a piece on Meta-Culture which will be screened at 9.30 on 2nd October.

Im entering the last month of my internship here and I am seriously considering extending it for a little while so that i can finish my projects and tie up loose ends. Hope all you other interns are learning and having as much fun as I am.

Mihika

Ophelia's Complaint

To continue my discussion with Catherine Filloux’s collection of plays that I have proof-read, I am taking up her play Mary and Myra. It is different from the three previous plays discussed because it is not about genocide. But the common thread of oppression links it to the others. Nineteenth century USA, 1870s to be more precise is the backdrop of the play. Mary is Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln and Myra is Myra Bradwell, the first female lawyer of America. In 1875 Mary had been institutionalized by her only living son on the grounds of insanity. Myra, a good friend tries to get her released from there. The play is based on the few visits that Myra pays to Mary in the asylum where they discuss and argue about myriad issues–from a mother’s hopes and disappointments around her offspring, the position of a woman in that society, to the constant obstacles faced by a woman trying to practise law which was seen as an exclusively male profession. The dialogue between these two very sharp and intelligent middle-aged women is absorbing.

Mary has a peculiar problem. She is not mad but has to pretend to be so to keep the doctors appeased who diagnosed her so-called madness, and almost anything she says is construed as a further evidence of her mental instability, so that she is coached and reduced to repeating parrot-like just one reply–‘I think this fair and right’. Imagine repeating this calmly over and over again as one injustice after another is hurled upon you! It requires a lot of patience and self control, attributes incompatible with the notion of madness. So I thought—what is after all insanity? Sanity and insanity are concepts coined by men in a patriarchal society where a woman is labelled insane if she goes against the role defined for her. Is it a tag to cover up non conformity? For quite clearly, Mary is not mad. She is rather a woman with a personality who is eccentric and quirky at times. In the nineteenth century such women were considered wild and unruly and put into asylums by husbands and sons who could not control them. This was also only incidentally the easiest way to usurp their properties, as in the case of Mary. What Filloux has done is to question the presumptions on which sanity and insanity are based. Insanity here is not determined by the state of mental health but by the whims of the dominant male voice. Therefore it becomes a fluid concept based on perspective. Through her intelligent and perceptive protagonist Mary, she is showing us that it is actually Mary who is sane and the society outside the asylum who are suffering from a peculiar kind of madness in their desperate, insecure need to suppress in women all freedom of expression. The technique that Filloux uses to drive home her point reminds me of Shaw. Shaw at the turn of the twentieth century used the technique of reversal in his social plays. He would begin his play with a dominant, prevailing and accepted idea and then through logical discourse between his characters would slowly dismantle and invert that idea and replace it with his socially revolutionary idea. Take for instance Shaw’s Arms and the Man where Raina and Sergius are cured of their romantic notions by Bluntschli, or Candida where Morell’s assumption of being the master of the house is shattered by his perceptive wife Candida, the real master of the house. Similarly in Mary and Myra Mary turns upside down the conventional notion of madness by her logical arguments. Thus Filloux has taken up two historical female characters to raise a number of pertinent social issues which are sadly still relevant in our times— be it professional prejudices faced by women or the unequal struggle to control property and inheritance. I feel that the appeal of the play lies in how we can identify and sympathize with the plight of the protagonists while being separated by centuries.

I had wanted to discuss the last remaining play The Beauty Inside in this blog as well, but did not realize that I would have so much to say about Mary and Myra. Well, I will take it up later.

Diary Writing Session Article in the Statesman

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=18&theme=&usrsess=1&id=223987

On September 14, Writeherewritenow organised a 'Doodle and Decipher' Workshop for its members. Because it is examination time, only 6 members showed up which was quite a disappointment. Megha, Richa and I had come up with the module, mailing each other and brainstorming over telephone conversations. The idea was to get the children to draw and then exchange their drawings with one another and write a story based on that. Each child was given two blank sheets. One blank sheet was divided into four squares where the child had to draw a human character, a scenery, an image and an object. The children were then told to exchange their papers and they came up with stories ranging from humorous to gruesome.

Today, we went to Frank Anthony Public School. 60 children took part in the Workshop on story starters. On 27th, we do a journaling session with the Frank Anthony Students and see how they respond to it.

Genocide and Literature

I had mentioned Catherine Filloux’s play Eyes of the Heart in my last blog. I was citing it as an example of the problems faced in translating native colloquialisms into a foreign language. In the meantime I have read four more of her plays and have been deeply impressed by her commitment to socially relevant issues. It has been a great learning experience as well since I started researching on the net for finer details and related topics and unearthed very shocking and disturbing instances of human rights abuse.

Eyes of the Heart deals with how the genocide in Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime continues to affect and change lives forever. The protagonist Thida San has become blind after seeing her teenaged daughter being beheaded and burnt in front of her. Her brother has arranged for her to take refuge in the US where she is undergoing treatment for the blindness. In reality there are at least 150 Cambodian women living in the US who have experienced ‘functional blindness’ related to what they saw during the Khmer Rouge rule. I tried to imagine seeing something so terrible that I would become blind. I failed. Two of her other plays also revolve around genocide: Lemkin’s House and Silence of God. Lemkin’s House is based on Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer, who fled from the Holocaust and spent his entire life trying to get a law against genocide ratified by the UN and US. We all know the meaning of the word ‘genocide’ but I didn’t know that the word had been coined by Lemkin: ‘genos’ from the Greek meaning race or tribe and ‘cide’ from the Latin meaning to kill. That long after he died the UN still hesitated to use the ‘g’ word for the Rwandan and Bosnian genocide of the 1990s. Filloux’s play begins at a point when Lemkin dies of a cardiac arrest while continuing with his efforts to enforce a treaty against genocide. After dying Lemkin wakes up to find himself in a house where he meets a number of people such as Congress Senators, UN officials, victims of rape, human rights abuse victims as well as his mother. Lemkin realizes that though his efforts may have led to the passing of a law, that law is nothing but a joke as human rights violation is rampant all around. Lemkin died in 1959. By bringing a dead Lemkin back on stage, Filloux is raising a very pertinent point. She is looking at the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, the Bosnian and Rwandan genocide– but from Lemkin’s perspective. The perspective of a man who selflessly devoted his entire life to at least recognize genocide as a crime, to ensure that if it is repeated in future its perpetrators will be booked and punished. The play made me think. As did the other play Silence of God. This is about Cambodia and Pol Pot. The protagonist, Sarah, is a journalist who is dedicated to the cause of finding out ‘why evil flourishes, why it can’t be stopped’? She is in love with Heng, a poet, who is a victim of the Pol Pot regime, when he lost his wife and children in the infamous ‘killing fields’. The focal point of the play is a build up to an interview of Pol Pot by Sarah which turns out to be a total let-down. The play ends on a pessimistic note when Heng commits suicide. He was trying to overcome his trauma and start life afresh with Sarah but when he returned to an apparently liberated Cambodia he saw that that his brother is working for a man who in turn works for someone who was once Pol Pot’s right-hand-man. The realization that not only have the guilty not been punished but that they are flourishing (the former right-hand-man is now a business tycoon who plans to set up the largest hotel in Cambodia on the most beautiful part of the river-side), hits him hard. The point that Filloux is trying to drive home–sometimes subtly and sometimes forcefully is that injustice is continuing. No matter how many laws are passed. We cannot undo the wrongs of the past. But surely such works are a reminder, a warning to act judiciously when such atrocities happen again. And they are happening all around us. Just because they are happening in another country and we do not want to get involved in a wrangle over international politics, we cannot look away.

What I liked about these plays is that they are not propagandist literature. Filloux has very beautifully woven human elements into the causes she is dealing with. So that at the primary level one is touched by the story. And then one is moved to think of the larger issues she is giving voice to.

Two other plays remain to be discussed. I will take them up in my next blog.

Bal Vividha.

It's been a month and a half since I started working at Comet Media Foundation. I am working with them specifically for their annual fair which promotes alternative education. The fair is called Bal Vividha and is scheduled to take place in December this year. There will also be a series of workshops in October, strictly for children. So far, I have been involved mostly in planning workshops. We have included workshops on Human Rights and Writing this year. I am also trying to design an interactive corner dealing with art and therapy. It's still in it's formative stages. We have also been getting in touch with schools, NGOs and other organisaions for confirming participation. The fair will also be held at a rural level. However workshops there are related to a greater understanding of subjects within their curriculum, whereas the ones to be held in October and December have a large number of workshops that will cultivate interest in areas other than acdemics.
The last month has been one of endless planning of workshops, for funds, contacting schools etc. I will elaborate on the workshops that I am trying to/have introduced gradually. So far, so good.

Diary Writing Session

Aparajita, a Voices Co-ordinator with the Statesman, makes notes while the girls are busy writing



The Modern High School Students at the Workshop





All smiles after the Workshop


In my first post as a Choice Intern, I had discussed the importance of the Arts and the concept of Arts as Therapy. The idea originated from " The Diary of Anne Frank"- a diary read and acknowledged the world over. Anne Frank was only thirteen when she began to write and she wrote during times of war. As an adolescent,she had to come to terms with internal strife while also negotiating her way through the Holocaust.

The group of children we addressed at Modern High School for Girls today were from classes six,seven and eight.

The session started with Megha telling the children about conflict and how it is important to explore one's feelings and to put those thoughts down on paper. One child said that the diary was like a "friend" to her, while another thought it was important to write a diary because it helped her to implement the vocabulary that she had acquired from her favourite books. Megha went on to tell the children that in interpersonal human relationships, a certain degree of expectation is inevitable. However, as far as Diary Writing is concerned, a diary can be a non-judgemental friend.

Richa took over from here and told the children to write about themselves. She asked them to introduce themselves on paper, but in an "unusual" manner, assuring them that they would not have to read out anything that they had written. The next exercise was called the "cheering up" exercise where the children had to list five things that made them happy, sharing any two of the five things if they chose to do so. The next exercise involved writing about fear and memories of humiliation.

The idea of this Workshop was to help children put down their thoughts down on paper and delve into the process of self-discovery.

And this is what I have been doing at Meta-Culture..

Hello Everybody!

Sorry its been such a long time since I last wrote. I have been settling in and settling down in Bangalore and at Meta-Culture. As I said in the last blog I wrote, I am working on the Open Enrollment Team for Meta-Culture Consulting and doing whatever else is required of me for Consulting as well as for Meta- Culture Dialogics.

The Open Enrollment Managing Workplace Conflict Workshop is going to be held on the 28^th and 29^th of August. This basically means it is crunch time for the team. We have 34 participants from different companies confirmed to come, which was quite a feat in itself considering how many companies had no clue what we were talking about when we called saying “We are a Conflict Management Company”. This two day workshop is important for Meta-Culture financially and it also introduces the organization and what it does to other companies who may then want either training or consulting services from Meta-Culture at a later date. Even though we have most of our participants confirmed we still need to get them to send cheques, fill out forms and also get other logistical details to fall into place.

Meta-Culture Dialogics had the second Bengaluru Speaks this last Friday. For those who haven’t read my last blog or don’t remember, Bengaluru Speaks is a forum for the discussion and facilitation of dialogue concerning citizens of Bangalore. Facilitation and Dialogue are integral parts of Conflict Resolution and this forum provides a safe place for people to come and talk to one another. At this Bengaluru Speaks the method of facilitation used was called ‘Listening Circle’. There were about 8 tables of 5 with one facilitator on each table. In the centre of the table was a origami flower (made by our Japanese colleague Koari) which served as a talking tool i.e. you could only talk if you had it in your hand. This method worked brilliantly and for the first time in my life I saw people actually actively listening and not interrupting each other once we got going. First we mixed everybody up and then got them seated at the tables. Beth and Ashok were facilitating the session whilst everyone else from the office sat at a separate table with 5 participants. The theme for the evening was ‘Dealing with difference’ and the first question we discussed was “Who do you consider an outsider to the community you belong to?”, the second question asked people to relate a personal incident or experience to explain why they feel that way about the ‘outsider’ they named in the first round. And the third round was a Q&A round. The questions and the theme really made people think and controlled environment ensured that they listened. On a personal note, I was extremely nervous in the beginning to be facilitating a table by myself, but it wasn’t to hard and the people at my table were extremely respectful of each others’ space. Some of the discussions got quite heated by the end but since people were no allowed to respond to each other or interrupt, it remained more or less peaceful and I think promoted understanding as opposed to conflict.

On the whole I absolutely love working here at Meta-Culture! The people in this office are awesome, interesting, respectful and friendly. I don’t feel like an intern at all but part of a team. There is virtually no politics in this office which I think is so rare. Everyo is one here seems open to constructive criticism and the environment is such that one can say anything to anyone as long as it’s respectful and well meaning. Some administrative changes have been taking place and I now have a Senior Manager (Beth) to report to. I’m probably going to have a meeting with her tomorrow to discuss my internship goals and what I would like to work on next. I’m super excited for whatever is next because so far everything has been a great learning experience and has been fun.

Hope all you other interns are having as good a time. Until the next blog then..

Cheers

Mihika

Found in Translation

I have spent most of my first month of intern-ship at Seagull Publications proofreading English translations of collections of Mahasweta Devi's stories as well as a couple of plays by Catherine Filloux. About Mahasweta Devi's stories- I was told that they were being revised for a worldwide publication. Therefore I would have to keep a lookout for native and colloquial words which would need footnotes.
The stories translated by the likes of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Ipsita Chanda are mostly about tribal and rural Bengal and that too of bygone eras. Coming across words like 'Milk-Mother', 'daughter-in-law sister' and 'Lion-seated goddess' among many others, I felt that they were not sounding right- that something was being lost in translation. I realized that such phrases cannot be translated without losing their essence. This must be a major problem faced by any translator. Further as a Bengali I myself cannot relate to the local dialects of the rural and adivasi characters. That dialect once translated is twice removed from me. A reader to whom Bengali is a foreign language would be thrice removed from the nuances of the language. What is then to be done to overcome this hurdle?
The eventual aim or objective of language is communication- the eternal conflict of the what and how. The reader must then learn to apprehend truth through active imaginative empathy. The appreciation of such words in terms of the mot juste is fallacious. Hence the act of reading must be revised. And the word shouldn't be the doorway to understanding but the key with which you must open the door yourself. Its as if in earlier narratives the reader was a mere spectator and the author was a virtuoso magician who would conjure up a door out of thin air and make us see things through that doorway which have no basis in reality. But now the reader has to go up on stage himself,only nudged on by the author.
A case in point would be Catherine Filloux's play 'Eyes of the Heart'. It is about Cambodian refugees settled in the US who are still trying to come to terms with the atrocities inflicted on them during the Pol Pot regime. Here too I noticed clusters of words sticking out because they were translations of native words. But it is the spirit of the play that mattered and I could identify with the issues raised through 'active imaginative empathy'. My observation is that whether it is a translated work or a work influenced heavily by native rituals and colloquialisms- it requires involvement on the part of the reader which cuts across barriers of culture and language.

Internship with Kolkata Sanved ~ 2

At the end of my last post I mentioned my plans to introduce Image Theatre in my sessions with Apne Aap. However, after one class we began preparing for something that turned out to be much more exciting than anything I could have done using Image Theatre techniques: a skit on the occasion of Independence Day. Every year, Apne Aap puts up a small, in-house programme on 15th August (I hadn't been aware of this when I wrote my last post). This year was no different, and our classes for the rest of July and the beginning of August were geared towards getting a couple of performances ready. Khateja (a dance movement therapist from Sanved with whom I conduct these classes) and I decided to do two pieces -- one would be a dance performance, the other a short play. Right at the outset, I asked the girls to devise three skits (they were divided into three groups) that would convey what independence/freedom meant to them. They came up with wonderfully imaginative performances that dealt with street sexual harassment and the abuse of power (both of which denied them their right to freedom). Additionally, they put up a skit which revolved around a statue of Mahatma Gandhi and three individuals who pass it at different times and steal signature objects that we associate with Gandhi, which are adorning it (spectacles, a walking stick etc). I decided to weave these narratives together and develop a skit that would basically juxtapose the lack of respect accorded to a monument of Gandhi with the abuse of the ideals he stood for in present-day India (daily acts of exploitation). The girls were as cooperative as always and came up with dialogues like, "Desh azad hua, lekin hum kab azadi hogi?" (Our country has gained independence but when will we become independent?) All in all, I think the skit turned out to be as enjoyable as it was thought-provoking. The girls seemed to enjoy themselves a lot while they worked, enacting their roles with elan. The script was completely their own creation; Khateja and I only helped to give it a coherent shape and direction.

Looking back, if I could develop this piece further, I would like to examine how we could bring in Gandhian means of protest/resistance in the sequences where the girls decide to fight against the harassment they are facing. We could, then, extend the Gandhian metaphor further. Perhaps additional layers can be added to the performance if Apne Aap or Sanved wish to use the piece for a future programme.

Outside of Apne Aap, my other update is that I began conducting classes with 8-10 year olds at Patha Bhavan. Our activities with them are somewhat different, directed at providing enjoyment and not necessarily therapy (since it is a mainstream school, the needs of the children are different from children living in slums or shelter homes).

Next week, I'll be traveling to Murshidabad to conduct a day-long workshop along with another trainer from Sanved at a government shelter home. I expect that will throw up a completely new experience for me to muse over!

I'll Find Out: Trips with the Irish boys to Sabuj Sangha and DAS

The first time I heard that there were 40 Irish youth right here in Calcutta volunteering with various NGOs, I was overwhelmed.
‘Are they taking over?’, my boss asked.
I wondered whether there are 40 Indian youth right now in Calcutta who’re as committed to make a difference in the life of others, and thereby change, in whatever subtle manner, their own lives. Perhaps there are. But I don’t know them yet. I’ll find out.

Founded in 2002 in Ireland, Suas Educational Development is a movement dedicated to supporting quality education in targeted under-resourced communities, with programmes in India, Ireland and Kenya. They are committed to helping individuals fulfill their potential and play meaningful roles in shaping the world. Every summer, Suas recruits a group of 40 dynamic youth as volunteers to different social development bodies in India and Kenya, where they help build educational capacities of schools and teaching centres in under-served communities. I got to know about this wonderful initiative from a friend of a friend of mine. But even before that, Stephen Murphy of Suas, coordinator of the Irish team, found Choice on the internet. He wanted to know how youth leadership programmes function here. I met him and talked about Choice, sharing stories of successes and challenges. I was also eager to know how the Irish youth work, given especially the barrier of language. Stephen suggested that I visit some of the many centres the Irish youth are working at to get a better grasp of what they do, and importantly, how they do it. For me, it was also an opportunity to visit these NGOs and literally the ‘field’ they work in and see what kind of help Choice’s internship programme can extend to them.

On the first day Stephen and Kieran O’Brien, fellow coordinator, accompanied me to three schools run by Sabuj Sangha (www.sabujsangha.org) on way to Port Canning. Each of these centres attracts at least 50 to 60 kids from the locality, and is served by an average of three teachers. Add to that two Irish volunteers who not only work closely with the teachers to enrich their teaching capacity, but also interact directly with the kids. I was genuinely impressed by the way the Irish guys have picked up a lot of basic Bengali words and expression, and there seemed to be no hindrance whatsoever in their direct communication with the children. So, I realized the ‘language barrier’ doesn’t quite exist. Sabuj Sangha is dedicates itself to involve the entire community in the development process. So, it runs micro-finance projects that benefit the parents and even grandparents of the children who come to their schools. I realized that there’re infinite ways of pumping young blood into these initiatives. There’s tremendous scope for internships at Sabuj Sangha. The Irish volunteers are on a time-bound visit. But we Indians are here to stay. Or are we? I’ll find out.

The second day was dedicated to Development Action Society (www.das.co.in). They run similar schools for children, mostly in the underserved suburbs of Calcutta. I was struck by the wonderful discipline the kids maintain in these schools. Thanks to the teachers, who are obviously extremely well-trained. I do not remember being so earnest and so ‘bhodro’ when I was in school. One of the centres we went to was pretty much in the middle of the massive garbage dump near what is popularly called ‘Dhapa’. I was unaware of the thriving community there and it was great to see how the kids take school so seriously. The afternoon was excruciatingly hot and sweaty. But there was no dearth of studiousness. Once again, I was convinced that DAS is a place that young people should come to in order to learn and make a difference.

I see these visits as very important inroads into building lasting connections with two more wonderful organizations here in Calcutta. And moreover, it’s the beginning of a relationship with Suas. There’s a lot that Choice can learn from them. I’ll find out.

And now for some More Updates!

These past few days have been hectic for me. Richa, Megha and I have been thinking of conducting a workshop where we tie up with an apartment and we take the Writeherewritenow members to a Newspaper Printing Press and how it works and then maybe talk about the nuances of report writing. I've been to Frank Anthony Public School and they've agreed to give us four weekends in September and I have a meeting with Modern High School for Girls next week.

Since August is the time that most schools have their examinations, I'll try and do most of the setting up of workshops etcetera now.

More news later!

now u know who i am

once upon a time my friend said to me

they look for their bodies in the wind and ten years time
their dresses lead them to their tree
they sit under the tree
and cry

Translation Workshop Article in the Telegraph

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080805/jsp/entertainment/story_9646855.jsp

just some random thoughts -- one poem by Celan

Fugue of Death

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall
we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night
drink it and drink it
we are digging a grave in the sky it is ample to lie there
A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
he writes it and walks from the house the stars glitter he whistles his dogs up
he whistles his Jews out and orders a grave to be dug in the earth
he commands us strike up for the dance

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink in the mornings at noon we drink you at nightfall
drink you and drink you
A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes
he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden hair Margarete
Your ashen hair Shulamith we are digging a grave in the sky it is ample to lie there

He shouts stab deeper in earth you there and you others you sing and you play
he grabs at the iron in his belt and swings it and blue are his eyes
stab deeper your spades you there and you others play on for the dancing
Black milk of daybreak we drink you at nightfall
we drink you at noon in the mornings we drink you at nightfall
drink you and drink you
a man in the house your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith he plays with the serpents

He shouts play sweeter death's music death comes as a master from Germany
he shouts stroke darker the strings and as smoke you shall climb to the sky
then you'll have a grave in the clouds it is ample to lie there

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at noon death comes as a master from Germany
we drink you at nightfall and morning we drink you and drink you
a master from Germany death comes with eyes that are blue
with a bullet of lead he will hit in the mark he will hit you
a man in the house your golden hair Margarete
he hunts us down with his dogs in the sky he gives us a grave
he plays with the serpents and dreams death comes as a master from Germany

your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith.

A Guy wants to be an African

One of my friends Hu Xiangqian, whose works will be showcased in the Exhibition of Video Art from China, is working on a new project. The idea is to turn himself into a negro in 3 months and prowl the black community in Guangzhou... Sunbathing everyday... Curling his hair... While it is still unknown what he's going to do exactly... And the title of the work is, The Sun.

Hello!!

I'm sorry I haven't updated anything for so long - I have just been trying to get a stronger foothold on things here!!
the diagram I've drawn out is to explain the structure of my process I am adopting to gain the information I want. So far, I have dipped into the first part of it - studying the break up of the organization. There are two main sides to it - Kolkata, and Phulia. I'm looking at the Kolkata Section as of now. Bappaditya has gone to Assam for a workshop and will be returning on the 7th of this month, after which, we will make a field visit to the village.

This chart is how I intend to work my information. I am using Bailou as a model, or an example of design intervention that has kept in mind the fundamentals of sustaining the craft. Understanding the organization in a systematic way, I feel, will give me a clearer picture on the effort that is being made from one who has an academic design background. Once I jot down all aspects of this level, I intend on going into the village, and doing a similar break-up of their rural set up. This, along with the information I hope to gain on the state of the craft before Bailou entered the scene, and the origins of it, will give me the base on which my document will be built.

So far I have dipped into the first level of this chart. I have started my cross-section of Bailou, and its departments in Kolkata and Phulia. I have been introduced to the Kolkata Team, and I will be starting my conversations with them from tomorrow. So here starts the Kolkata Journey. Perhaps I should illustrate it as I go along? I say this, because each conversation I have gives rise to really strong images in my head. Lets see... I'll keep this a thought bubble, and when the next image comes along, I'll try sketching it out. If it works - well – that’s a new aspect to the project right there!!

Neighbourhood Diaries

Neighbourhood Diaries is a 15-session curriculum for adolescents living in socially and economically marginalized communities in urban South Asia. The curriculum has three components (which will occur consecutively and simultaneously)
1) Raising Critical Consciousness
2) Ethnography and Expression
3) Blogging

Translation Workshop

Writeherewritenow organised a workshop on translation at Disha Foundation,a centre of learning for underprivileged children.
The idea was to ensure that the Writeherewrite now members-most of whom come from very privileged backgrounds could mix with the Disha kids and work with them as a team. Before they were split into groups of three,the Disha children and The Writeherewritenow members (and the new children who attended the workshop for the first time) sat separately,but when they were put into groups, they realised that they would have to work together and began to interact with one another.

The first Creative Writing Exercise was a rather lighthearted one-we called it the icebreaker and gave them words like Nyaka,Paka,Dhishum Dhishum,Chulbuli and Whatever to convert into different languages.

After that,we gave them Sukumar Ray's Ramgarurer Chana to translate.This was a rather difficult poem to translate but Ahaan Ghosh (from Writeherewritenow) and Sujay Tiwari (from Disha) turned out to be the bright sparks in their team and came up with this as their translation:

Ramgarur's Child is a monster
who thinks laughing is a disaster
Telling it funny words is in vain
Everyone laughs at it and yet,it stares
everywhere.

It doesn't want to sleep
and only tells itself
If I ever laugh in my life.
I will beat myself up.

It doesn't go near the woods
as it believes
that the south winds may tickle it
and make it laugh all the time

Its heart is very gloomy
like the dark clouds in the sky
The soul wants to laugh aloud
Yet,it tries to stop itself
With all its might.

At first,the children were apprehensive about translation and we asked them what they thought Translation was. As they were translating, we gave them tips on how to translate.

Next came a Hindi song called Ma from Taare Zameen Par.We ended the session with an Akbar Birbal story.

Mrs Neena Singh and Mrs Ranjana Roy have been tremendously helpful in helping me coordinate and Organise the workshop. A big thank you to Megha and Richa as well calmed my rather jittery nerves (as this was the first workshop that I was conducting.)

Last but definitely not the least,a huge thank you to the Disha kids and the Writeherewritenow kids,for making this event possible.

Back in Action!

Apologies to everyone who's been following this blog. I've been very much at work, but haven't gotten around to writing about it.

Last time, I was in Hyderabad for just three and a half days. Though a fair amount of work got done, there wasn't enough time to get to know the people well enough. This time round, I spent about three weeks in Hyderabad, and felt nice to be surrounded by some wonderful people at my workplace.

Sushma and I were to write a proposal to potential funders willing to support Spark India's proposed Teacher Resource Centre. Since Sushma and I had little experience of proposal writing, it took us quite a while to get started. Eventually we realised it would be best to put down all the points that we thought were essential, and then direct our attention to matters like structure and organisation. Once we put down all the points and gave it some kind of structure, it was passed on to Sheel and Usha who are the decision makers at Spark. Sushma and I got some feedback and comments on our work, and we started redoing the whole thing. Since both of us are new to the place, we don't know much about the history and track record of the organisation, some of which had to be highlighted to attract funders. Putting all of that in, and listing out aims and objectives, plan of action, expected outcomes, etc. made it look a lot better and more professional. That was a good learning experience.

Besides that, I was given some proofreading work. The Telegraph has published a directory of schools, and Spark is planning to contact many of them. The school addresses were put onto the Spark database, but the data entry person had made a huge number of spelling errors. I was asked to proofread them against the original.

I've also been involved with Teacher Plus, a magazine that Spark publishes. It is mainly aimed at school teachers, but is also of interest to parents, researchers and other people who take a keen interest in education. Though the magazine is great, it has been lagging behind because of poor marketing and publicity. I spoke to Mr Tapas Ray who co-ordinates the contact programme of the distance mode Post Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of English at EFL University in Hyderabad. We were able to get permission to distribute complimentary copies of Teacher Plus to 182 students who are in Hyderabad to do the course, and they are from several different parts of the country. We got a good response, and we hope some subscription forms will soon knock at the office. We also visited Aurobindo Montessori School and met the Principal to tell her about Teacher Plus, and gave her some copies to look at.

With Teacher Plus, I also got the wonderful opportunity to get back to writing in a serious way. The person who was to do the cover story for the August issue turned in something that the editing team was not happy with, so they had asked her to redo it. The writer had some other commitments, so she said she wouldn’t be able to do it. Since the cover story was on libraries, I jumped at the idea of taking it up. I had little time on hand and few contacts, so it was a little difficult. But Shalini and Nirmala at Spark were a big help. I fixed up an appointment with Omana Hirantara who runs a learning centre called Kaleidoscope at Begumpet. It’s an interesting place. Apart from the children’s library, they offer a host of other services, one of which is the after school programme. Kids who sign up for this walk into Kaleidoscope after school. They can wash up, change and have a snack; after which, they can sit and read books they like, play with the other children, or look forward to games and educational software. I also had a chat with Radhika Kundalia who runs Akshara, a library in Mumbai. Radhika not only stocks books for children, but also an entire section for parents who have children with autism. Doing the cover story was a lovely experience. It gave me the time and space to think about libraries in a more reflective manner. I learnt how school libraries function, the kind of problems that emerge there, and why it is important to encourage alternative spaces for children. The happiest part was writing the boxes on ‘Caring for Books’ and ‘Do’s and Don’ts for Libraries’. I also found a fun book called ‘I love books’ published by Tulika. It is well-written and beautifully illustrated, a helpful aid for people trying to encourage kids to read.

Here comes the sad part. Though of omitting this, but no, I want to talk about this. There was some unpleasantness at work. I was given a number of things to do, all of which I did. And I sat and waited and waited for a response, which just didn’t come a number of times. My attempt to cope with this was to either look for some diversion or try to find something exciting to do. Now I respect and value my work, and it was difficult to see that things I did were not being taken seriously. At last I lost my patience, and I had to articulate all the disappointment and anger I had felt. It was not well taken at first, but eventually it got sorted out. I also feel happy about the fact that I found many friends at work, with whom I could share my feelings whenever things got bad.

Design Intervention

Hello....

I'm a little new to this.... My name is Nafisa Crishna, I am a textile design student, and I have just finished four years of design at Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology, Bangalore. Actually, I'm currently doing my Diploma Project on the basis of which I will hopefully graduate in December!! And that’s what brings me here... Choice agreed to help me with this project, which is based on the handloom weavers of Bengal, or Phulia, more specifically.

My project is a research based one where I am looking at design intervention into the craft sector, analyzing the impact of it on the lives of craftsmen. My design brief states

“To study the lives of the weavers of Bengal, as they work under a mode of design intervention, in order to

1. Better my understanding and grasp of the subject of textile design, and of the importance of the involvement of designers in the craft space.

2. In doing so, redefine the context for design intervention in similar craft scenarios.

3. Identify new markets and opportunities for design intervention and sustainable livelihoods for the Bengal weaving community.

4. Understand, streamline and add value to their Intervention process while studying it for a period of three months.

I believe that in the context of this country, to be a successful textile designer, one must have an understanding of the handicraft that is produced, as it forms a part of our culture and heritage, and this plays a very important role in modern textile design. Textiles from across the country form a map of the area it originates from, defining it in terms of colour, detail, motif(s), and patterns. It defines the people – their sense of aesthetics. It defines the State in terms of the raw material available, and the need for certain fabrics. Each region has its own such set of ‘guidelines’, if I may? This craft originated from a need, and has become an identity - the craftsmen sustaining themselves, and their professions. With the emergence of “modern industrialization”, however, these craftsmen seem to find themselves at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, as newer, more advanced technology takes over, and the impact of Western cultures define the aesthetics for the consumer. “The designer has thus emerged as a critical intermediary whose function, ideally, is to bridge the gap between the rural artisan and the urban client. This is all the more important at a time when the artisan may no longer be a designer, producer, and marketer rolled into one, as he/she was in the past”. The artisans seem to have lost the direct contact they once had with the consumer, and therefore are no longer attuned with their current needs and demands.

There has always been a great market for Indian textiles abroad – dating back to the Fourteenth Century. In reference to Bengal, the first few trades that have been recorded date back to the time of Vasco da Gama in 1578 AD. The quality of the work that was traded then was said to be “the finest ever seen”. Once the English East India Company took over, vast amounts of trade, I terms of textiles, took place - especially since indigo was grown in abundance here. With the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution, which took place post independence, machine-made goods came into the limelight. Textile companies from all over the world invested in India for their production. Today, the demand for the “Indian textile” has risen to another level, giving it a glorified position. ‘Designer ware’ and ‘brand consciousness’ holds a very high position in today’s urban markets. Indian textiles form an integral facet to ‘Brand India’, as part of its ‘image’ as it sells itself to the rest of the world. With the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, power looms, and the concept that ‘time means money”, however, the original craftsman was still the one who found him/herself without a job. Hence, the emergence of the need for design intervention/s.

I understand the need for such intervention at a time when the craft itself was losing its value, but what I question is whether there is a continuing need today when the awareness amongst people is so much more, and “sustainability” is the new buzzword. I feel, what started out as a method to ‘bridge the gap’ has turned into a few rope-bridges across the two, but somehow the crevice has stayed as wide, with no inclination to move towards one another, in a hope to merge at some point. Academic knowledge in terms of design seems to hold the upper hand, and the craftsman is becoming more of a tool than a resource. For example, the method that a craftsman has used over the years to sustain his/her craft, versus the knowledge a designer learns of sustainability through design processes, and guidelines. What will happen if the two should merge? Does it make it a stronger ground for sustaining the craft?

Why me?

My interest in this particular project originated with my internship where I worked with Weavers Studio – a textile house in Calcutta, where Indian textiles are being put in the foreground and sold to markets abroad. Weavers Studio offers jobs to not just weavers, but printers, dyers, master craftsmen in various types of surface embellishments and the like. It has helped them understand the consumer of today, teaching them newer techniques that are not restricted to traditional Indian patterns, but international techniques as well. It is one of the biggest users of natural dyes in its products, promoting the use of indigo – a dye that is indigenous to Bengal. But somehow I found myself wondering about the weaver and his traditional knowledge. What had changed in his knowledge of the craft? Is knowing the technique enough to brand him a ‘craftsman’?

The next example I came across, as a form of design intervention with similar weavers of Bengal was Bailou – the organization I intend to work with to further my study into this subject. Bailou started as a diploma project for Bappaditya six years ago, as he attempted to work with the weavers of Shantipur to produce his designs. Being declined at first by the Weavers Union, he appealed to the weavers once again, and was accepted by a single weaver who offered one out of the two looms he owned. Today, there are one hundred and fifty weavers working with Bailou. They are mostly sari weavers who traditionally work with different types of sari weaving techniques (e.g. jamdaani, dhakai). What I find most appealing about their work is the understanding they have jointly obtained of the various types of weaves that were traditionally used; thus allowing them to break its pattern, yet keep its fundamentals intact. I find the subtlety used in the products extremely inspiring as it uses the medium of weaving to its full potential – no surface textures or external embellishments are used. It directs the attention of the consumer to the fabric and its qualities alone. There is a dialogue between the designer and the craftsman, not a form of dictatorship. Bailou believes that the weaver should not be asked to move his workspace to that of a factory setup, as his home is conducive to the making of the product, where each member of the family has a role to play. I propose to study this aspect in detail. Have the design processes used here in terms of intervention enhanced the chances of the craft being sustained, and widened the scopes of its markets? Does this work better than giving the craftsman an opportunity to work with his craft, yet not be involved in the creative input? What is the importance of design intervention in lieu with sustainability? Is it just to provide jobs for the craftsmen, or empower them?

I intend to study this example of involvement in West Bengal, with the weavers as they struggle to sustain their craft in order to understand another facet of intervention within the same craft. Through this study, I aim to gain a firmer grasp on the situation, that will help me make my decisions as a practitioner in this field, and perhaps, further the awareness that is being generated, thus assisting in the formation of that point of intersection between craft and design.”

Currently, I'm at the grass-root level of my research, and will hopefully be able to dig out enough information over the next three months so as to generate awareness and suggest a platform for such craftsmen.

My work is also being documented at http://weftsidestory.blogspot.com/ - So please feel free to give me feedback! Thanks!!