This blog post has been long overdue but today I finally discarded my recent laze-attack-cum-not-feeling-like-working-phase.
Well, I thought its best I started by introducing myself. My name is Rohit K Dasgupta and am a final year student of Comparative Literature in Jadavpur University. I am interning with this organization based in Kolkata called Kalam Margins Write. They are a literary organization which conducts workshops and helps in building critical and creative voices amongst the youth in the marginalized sections of Kolkata. It creates a radical space within the present framework within which these youth can think and hone their literary and creative skills and develop sharp analytical and creative minds.

The first project I was involved with was the launch of the annual magazine “Khola Baksho” (Open Box). The magazine was a collection of poems written by various youths between the ages of eight and eighteen. The launch was celebrated amidst much fanfare at Worldview bookstore, Jadavpur University campus. The poets read out their works and there was some music between interludes to keep the mood alive and add to the ambience.

Other than this I have been helping in moderating and documenting the workshops for two separate writing programs called "Writing out” which is a fifteen session poetry workshop dealing with the concept of identity and adolescence. We have been conducting these workshops with a group of 11 kids from Vikramshila, every Wednesday. The themes and topics ranged from every day observations using the five senses to topics such as Motherland.

The other program I have been associated with is “Neighbourhood diaries” which is aimed at creating young journalists who could address the problems within their own neighborhoods and learn to appreciate and build up an analytical mind towards the problems within their Neighbourhoods and try and come up with solutions. This is held every Monday with a group of youths from Sanlaap, at Bowbazar.

Some of the works of these journalists can be viewed at:

http://bowbazaar.neighbourhooddiaries.org/

So far the experience has been mind-blowing, planning out sessions and conducting workshops with these young adolescents have been quite enjoyable. We as moderators have tried to make the sessions as lively and enjoyable as possible and often went out of the set/planned curriculum and tried out new stuff which got back good feedbacks.
Check out the Kalam Website to know more about the organization and what it does.