Some additional photos

http://brandeisandmumbai.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/hello-world/

Advocates of Change. For those interested.

It’s been a week since we held our last meeting with Manjul.

At this point, I feel very aware. I’ve been recollecting all that I studied about Development Economics and Sociology. I’ve been thinking of the play we saw together, current news and have been objectively thinking on a more macro level.
Facts: The budget, it’s ambitions, slum rehabilitation schemes, builders, government, 60 lakh slumdwellers in Mumbai Thane region, 287 million illiterate people in India and only 1 in 10 who go to school make it to college. A question often asked- as advocates of change, where do/should we begin?

Another question I faced almost everyday during the project- what difference do you think this would REALLY make in the long term? Is this practical?

The question rightfully supported by facts: It’s all just a cycle- born into a poor family, illiterate, married early, atleast 5 children, not enough money to support them all- boy sent to work instead of studying- girl married off at the first opportunity, barely get to college- have children at an early age without enough income to support…back to step 1. Then there are the peripheral factors like societal norms, beliefs, classes and institutions that govern.

However, these questions and facts only reaffirm the philosophy of Parivartan and our project. It starts with education, with empowerment. What my mother said is true (at the time talking about the muck they have to walk through everyday), that unless they start to think for themselves, their situation wouldn’t improve. To understand their right to a standard of living, they have to be empowered. There's always room to work.

To donate: http://www.parivartansanstha.org/content/?q=node/9

Advocates of Change:
Revive: Mumbai: http://revivemumbai.wordpress.com/
Experimental Theatre Foundation (Manjul Bhardwaj): http://www.etfindia.org/Home.html
Parivartan: http://www.parivartansanstha.org/
AID: http://www.aidindia.org/main/

THE SHOW ONLY JUST BEGAN…

For many of us, this was the end, the end of a “project”, the end of a trip, the end of a summer. But for the other’s it was just the beginning, the beginning of hope, the beginning of a future, and the beginning of a desire -- The hope of being “Somebody” someday, the prospect of a future and the desire rekindled within each one to reach their goals.
If there is anything that I have learned from this experience, it is that knowledge is the one thing that must be shared. In today’s world man knows only one thing, how to get ahead in life. Well I’m not saying don’t all I’m saying is give a hand to the people who have either fallen along the way or never gotten a change to walk. Show them that there is a future awaiting them. Most importantly educate them on how to get there. Give them the most powerful tool that nobody in the world can take away from them.

BE THE ADVOCATES FOR CHANGE!

Indian Express Article

Indian Express Article by Sukanya Shetty
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/homemade-lessons/485334/0

Brandeis University news feed

FYI: an article on the Brandeis University website about this project.
http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2009/june/revivemumbai.html

The end

Day 20-30th June

Woke up and left relatively early to Juhi’s place for our closure meeting with Manjul. I was really sleepy as usual. I had mixed feelings. Couldn’t believe that the whole program was over and we would not be going to Wadala everyday anymore. I was happy that I could still go visit them at any point and that they would be able to study properly now. But it felt weird that it was over and now I’ll have to move on and do all my pending work at home. I literally had blocked out my entire world of friends and even family to some extent during this program. Many people were angry with me but at that point I was not worried. Those who know me well had understood how much I valued this program and the necessity to block out everything else. But now that it’s all over I have to get back to reality. During our meeting, we reflected on the previous day as usual. Then we talked about how each of us had gained from this project. We also spoke about our great leap form negativity to positivity. On Wednesday night we were at out heights of negativity and had lost all hope but after we had received a concrete plan and decided to be happy with whatever we achieve, enjoy our time with the children and not worry about the final product we had moved on and actually reached our goal. After this we spoke abiut our future plans and expectations. I hope to write more about our experiences in due time and put it together well. I also hope to do more amazing projects like this and to always be in touch and ready to help Parivartan, ETF and Revive: Mumbai.

Final Day

June 29th, 2009- Monday

How do I feel? Elevated. Empowered. Ecstatic. In disbelief that its over. Why? I’m still trying to process… I don’t know where those three weeks went! I no longer identify with the “numb” and “surprised” person I was on June 10th (when I started this project). It seems like I’ve had a world of an experience these past days. It’s hard for someone else to understand or for me to justify this in words – let’s just say that sometimes the simplest and most available experience proves to be more valuable than something that we give up (not only monetarily) so much to attain.

Today was the last day, the final day with the children in the classroom. Zohar and I spent a good 40 mins at a shop buying some last minute gifts for the children, teacher and organization. The three of us were really excited during our ride to the school and decided to just let the children be – enjoy the last day. We reached there, played for a while with the kids until it started to get loud. We then decided to do a run through with the kids. Gave them a little pep talk, got them excited for the special guests that were coming today to see the play and for the surprise gifts that we had for them. We also told them to not worry anymore since we’ll be just doing the play inside as some of them (especially Sahil) requested. At that point Sahil suddenly got up to retaliate! He said that he spent all weekend getting ready to perform outside, now we HAVE to! Then some other kids started yelling saying that they wanted to do it inside..some back and forth…then a consensus- we’d do it inside AND outside! Everyone agreed to that decision, which I think was a first.

We then gave them a break to call their parents- more confusion- no one landed up with any of their mothers for individual reasons. During the recess time, we tried to coordinate the entrance of our family, photographers and friends. Since we took a little longer than expected, Gayatri teacher took quick charge of keeping the children occupied while we went to get the family (..sign of smooth team work again- the fact that we didn’t have to ask her, she assumed the role while we were gone instead of remaining apprehensive..)

There was a reason why I wanted my two closest friends, my sister and mother to see this. One reason was that I wanted to share and they had the right to know what I’d been so passionate about that I couldn’t spend much time socializing or why I didn’t get enough time to visit family since I’ve come back from the US. Another reason why I was excited about them coming to Sangam Nagar to see the play rather than on just video was so that through their reactions of walking in the community I could get a sense of volunteers for future projects. I asked the car to bring them through most of the distance so they didn’t have to go through the entire grind. However, as expected, they were completely surprised by the walk they had to go through to reach the class. Through the narrow dirty walls on the mucky mud, through the houses with staring and curious people, half-naked children running around, past the aimless goats and chicken, over the trash and red spit marks, with the distinct smell.. basically getting the raw experience of the slums. My mother was quick to note that ‘these people need to learn how to live. Its just so simple to put a plank over the mud to walk!’ Seems like a simple solution. Something I could relate to EVERYDAY. Everyday I saw problems with basic solutions. Everyday I discussed with Gayatri. Then I realized that its easy for us (the educated population) to comment, but only after talking to Shabana did I realize that most of the ‘simple’ problems are much more complicated than we think. Hence I decided that for the short term, it was best to not dwell into those concerns and trust that education will somehow propagate the needed cultural change in that community as well. With a little expected discomfort, they climbed the tiny stairs to the classroom.

We introduced the children to the guests. The children were delighted to see them, especially our mothers. Gayatri was very happy to see Ria after 2 weeks, as were the kids. At that time Gangadhar and Shoab had reached as well. As the children started the play, the guests got much more comfortable in the room. The children were extremely smooth and barely needed any prompting. The ‘leaders’ of the group assumed charge at times of slight confusion as the rest followed. Everyone was very confident including Sahil, Hina and Khushnuma. Hina had refused to be a part of anything until 2 days ago when they decided that they wanted to sing. Khushnuma had never been to school and had just come from the village for the first time. Her hindi wasn’t fluent and she was very shy. But she wanted to sing, and so she did. Both these girls were not consistent in being comfortable enough to sing. They refused during practice, but today they voluntarily stood up! Everything was falling into place. Shoab ended the play with a strong comment on “how are we supposed to work in a world like this when we have so many problems? We all have dreams and we want to be something after studying, but how can we when we live in a society like that !? Please tell me! Please tell me!”
Everyone was very impressed with the children, their acting, their message, their dialogues and with us. They got perspective. The children were very happy with their performance as well! Hearing everyone’s comments, their confidence level shot rocket-high and they were ready to go outside. We asked Gayatri teacher to lead the way while we followed. The children didn’t take much time; they started as soon as they reached. Soon enough, more than 50 people started to gather. Someone close by was playing loud music. As I walked into his house to request him to switch it off for 5 minutes, a little boy came running screaming out to the man to turn off the music! Many of the people possibly couldn’t hear anything..they still watched. Some commented, but they watched. Shoab was reluctant to end it, but he mustered the courage and did it well. I was proud and I’m sure it was the same for the children, Gangadhar, Gayatri, Zohar and Sriya. As the children started to walk back to the classroom, Gangadhar was calling the three of us over to a conversation where an old man was asking about the performance. The old man was a Congress leader and an influential person in the community (as Gangadhar explained). He said that he couldn’t see the play himself but within those few seconds heard about it. He wanted his son to be enrolled in this program that we were doing and wanted to talk to us. We explained that Parivartan is who he should talk to, but he wasn’t willing to spend money on education. That’s when we brought Gangadhar the conversation that led to some political topics. So we left.

We went back to the class, surprisingly my 2 friends and sister wanted to come back with us (the mom’s went back) and play with the children as well! We played the Jan, Feb,…game which got to a fun level of competition. After that, we danced for a while. All of us were having a great time!!! But ALAS! It was 10 to 5pm. We gave them the gifts.. which got very chaotic and nothing like I had planned (which seemed like a common theme throughout this experience anyway). After that, we took a few pictures with the kids and said our goodbyes. Saima cried and made me promise that Sriya and I would come back to visit. I promised in a heartbeat. She said that the only reason she came to school was because of us. But she will promise to continue. I still have the little plastic bottle she gave me as a gift.