workshop kya hota hai

21JULY

Building a teamWe created a strength wheel that we would want to fill during the process of the project, depending on what we gain in the project.

22JULY

27JULY

“par ye geet humaare geetn nahin hain”

“aaj to is matke ko bhar kar hi rahenge”

Breaking the iceTo get the artists to talk, I introduced the game passing the parcel using Bhapang.

“ab to teri baari bhi ayegi, sochne lag ja kya bolega”

“to phir lok geet aur mewati geet main kya antar hua?”

“kabhi ye sab socha hi nahin, hum to wo hi gaa dete hain jo humain bola jaaye”

28JULY

29JULY

30JULY

02AUGUST

03AUGUST

Bringing in the per-sonalEach artis had his own story of how and why he learned to play the in-struemnt and sing. They made a song and used these stories to talk about the artfrom to the students

Mausam bhai used to prac-tice on a broken bucket while scaring away crows from his field.

“apni kahaani to main bhi suna sakta hua”

“bachchon ko mausam bhai acchi tarah yaad hain, kyunki unhone apni kahaani sunayi thi”

“aap ye hi soch ke chalo ki aapke saamne shisha hai”

Very often the artists made their own videos and spoke about themselves.At times we sat and watched the vides togehter to help frame a story or I the artists did this by themselves.

04AUGUST

05AUGUST “ab samajh main aya hai ki

workshop kya hote hai”

“ in bachchon ko teem din main tayyar kar sakta hun main”

Re-visiting the workshopWe all sat down to discuss what worked and what didn’t. The artists were still overwhelmed by the experience.

The artists were pleasantly surprised by the reaction of the students. The were happy to know how curious the students were about their art-form and their lives.

While doing a workshop it is as important to listen to yourself as to listen to the students. You need to know what is it that you are telling the students, to gauge how much they are learning

12AUGUST

“maaniye ye jo aapke saamne hain aapke jaise lagte hai par kisi school ke principal hain!”

“hum bachchon ko apni kala ki peh-chaan karwa rahe hain”

very often the artists would video themselves and listen to it with evenryone to practice what they would want to say when talking about the project.

17AUGUST

“instrument haath main aane se hi instrument banta hai”

Such interactions created s sense of fomral learning spaces with their gurus even if they were their father or uncle.

“aap jis bhi vastu ko apne haantho se baja sakte hain, vo hi folk instrument hai”

24AUGUST

“Aapke gaane main mukhyakirdaar kaun kaun hai?”“Gaane main kaun kaun hai”“Gaana kis par aadhaarit hai”

“Aapke gaane main kahani hai?Usme mukhya log kaun hai? ”

“Baat cheet main ye gana kaise gaoge? aap kya banoge aur yusuf kya banega? ”

“Ma’am jaise is kahani main sher aur haanthi ”

We started looking at our songs as stories. Who are the main characters? WHat is the plot. What is the climax?

“Yusuf bhai, vo dekho uss kaune se aa raha hai paani. Jakir bhai zaraa paani ki aawaaz nikkal kar dikhao?”

The artists spent hours picking up different songs and discussing what visuals need to be made to retell the story. They found a new way to connect to their songs

They looked at books, anima-tions , and free hand drawing to see examples of how a song can be visualized.

I grew up reading stories from ‘Baalhans’. It is a local children’s comic book.

25AUGUST

26AUGUST

Storytelling - a profession?Parul Gupta is a storytellerand works on learning language through storytell-ing.For the artists it was new and refreshing to see storytelling as a profession

“kahaan sunate wakt sabse zaroori hai bhasha ki saralta”

“bachchon ko kahaani main kuchh jodne ka mauka milna chahiye”

As a part of the project, we aimed to identify more local practitioners in Alwar who might be interested in the pro-ject. Parul Gupta was our first practitioner.

27AUGUST

When things dont go the way we plan

Not only was vijay mandir a new set of kids and new space to

adjust in, very soon the artists realized they would not have the

luxury of space they way they did in the previous school. It started

raining and we had to shift inside.

“vo bachche humaari bhasha aapki bhasha se zyada samajh payenge”

“aaj kya kya cheezen humaare hitt main nahin thi?” the space was way smaller

than required and the number of studnents was much more than the artists could handel.

When things dont go the way we planThese children have had some exposure to this kind of music and have a pre-conceived notion about the artists. For them, the artist is just an entertainer.The biggest challenge was to be able to overcome the assumptions and notions about how they were viewed as artists and develop a learning space around those kids.

“gaon ki ladkiyaan seekh hi nahin sakti”

“agar aap mere saath kaam kar sakte hain to in ladkiyon ke saath kyun nahin?”

This was the first experience for the artists to work with girls. I had expect-ed some tension but here the artists decided to completely ignore girls. It was pretty acceptable considering they had never been allowied to interact with girls before. But in our discussion I realized, that it is not just exposure. They carry with them a bias against girls and their will and ability to learn something new.

We all had a lot to think about. I had to think about being more sensitive to their upbringing and find ways to work around it and the artists had to ques-tion their own beliefs and biases.

28AUGUST

“aaj hum dono bhai to soch kar aaye the ki sabko khush karna hai. Ladkiyon se bhi baat karni hai”

for most of the artists it was the first experiencing of dipping fin-gers in paint.

the exchange between the artists and the students is what made the workshop so rich.

“main aaj tak school nahin gaya to kabhi pencil pakadne ka mauka hi nahin mila. Yahan bachchon se seekhna ka mauka mila to maine pakad liya”

“jaise bhai ne aapko gana sikhaya aap unhe chitra banana sikhao”

29AUGUST

“in bachchiyon ke saath kaam karne ke baad maine apni behen ko gaate hue suna. Main ab isko bhi tayiyyar karoonga.”

“mam humaari kasan baaki bachchiyon ke liye misaal ban sakti hai.”

Pushing the boundariesYusuf brought his 6 year old sis-ter Kehkasa and made her sing in front of the group. It was a big step both for the family and for the project.

04SEPTEMBER

Parallel processesThe artists were in Bombay for 10 days auditioning for India’s Got Talent, 2012 - a reallity show. They got selected for the semifinal round.

This was also a space for the artists to sit back and reflect on

what they had done so far. We had completed exactly half our

workshops.

“mujhe darr hai ki aap log ye sab kaambhool na jaayen Bombay Jaakar”

12SEPTEMBER

“main musalman hokar bhi har saal is mele main jata hun.”

Weaving our local cultural practicesBharat Hari mela is something that everyone looks forward to in Alwar. For me and many like me, the only significance it had was that it was a reason for a local holiday. It was here that I got to know about the entire story of Raja Bharat Hari.

the artists retold the story ofRaja Bharat hari through their songs and couplets. The entire katha was a mix bag of couplets which have been existing for decades, songs that people listen to radios today interwoven with personal experiences of artists.

The performance elaborated on what was unheard by most of us to the way the practice exists today in the region. It ended by a very local take on the festival where a young Mewati wife is ask-ing her husband for money to par-ticipate in the ritual and be a part of the community celebration.

13SEPTEMBER

Building a bridge“ye workshop karne ke kaaran humain apni kala ke baare main aur kitna kuchh jaan ne ko mil raha hai. Humain to pata hi nahin tha kidohew ki kya taraj hoti hai“

That evening the artists sat down with the elders of the house to know more about thesubtleties of this kind of singing and deep-ened their understnading of the story.

asla

m

Broadening horizonThey brought their cousin aslam, a 13 year old boy to the studio. they started open-ing up the space for more youngsters from their family. Alsam likes to draw. They said like other students, they would like their cousin to particuplate in the project.

hum sab kalakar hain

hum sab kalakar hain

We are all artistsThis was most unplanned,to get the students to repeat after us. But, as soon as we did this we could see the enthusiasm in the students. It became a regular feature at every workshop.The artists also believed that theirresponsibility is to help each kidfind the artist in herself.

14SEPTEMBER

hum sab kalakar hain

hum sab kalakar hainhum sab kalakar hain

bringing in the sense of “collective experience”

“mam agle school main bachchon se aur bhi josh

main bulwayenge”

15SEPTEMBER

Taking a step furtherThis was the most challenging space for the artists. This time it was not just the artists but even students who would hesitate in interacting with the artists.These girls are not allowed to sing anything except wedding songs at home.

“mam darr nahin lagta par bachchiyon se baat karne main jhijhak to bahut hoti hai.”

“humko nahin pata tha ki hum ladkiyon se kabhi baat kar payenge.”

“ maine socha nahin tha ye bachchiyan itni hoshiyaar niklengi”

“gaana humain full mewati main hi gana chahiye, aur gaana ho shiksha par. Ye bachchiyan padh rahi hai, itni mehnat kar rahi hai”

17SEPTEMBER

we added the wordEMPOWER to our articulation of the objectives.

Creating spaces for dialogueThe girls collectively recreated the song with visuals The song acted as a trigger for conversations on education and their personal experiences.

“mam ab vishvaas ho gaya ki khud bhi kar sakte hain workshop”

22SEPTEMBER

“jo humaari traditional language hai to to bachcha maa se he seekh sakta hai”

Plugging it backThe artists spent a day with their family sharing whatever they had done in last three months.

“jab humain puraane gaane yaad nahin hote to hum bhabhi se hi aa kar poochhte hain”

“humaari kasan ko mauka mila bahut achha laga”

“aapki ghar main auraten , shaadiyon main gaati hain, mewati bhasha main gaati hain, puraane gaane gaati hain, to kya hum unhe kalakaar keh sakte hain?”

Re - imagining rolesAmong many informal conver-sations, we tried to re - im-agine the role of the women of the house, and if there are possibilities to create a space for them in the workshop model.

The wormn of the family were not allowed to come for the final event so we decided to do our practice session there so that they can get to see what the kids of their family are performing.

“humara poora parivaar program ki taiyyari kevaega”

Re - imagining rolesThe artists along with their family worked for the event. There was a sense of owner-shoip that they had in talking about the project. The job was done.

“tees taarik ka karyakram bahut badi baat hai hum sab ke liye to apne parivaaron ke saath us khushi ko baantna bahut zaroori hai”

“abhi to chaaron ladne lg jayege aur 5 hi minute main aapke workshop ki tayaari karne lagenge”

“mujhe pata hi nahin tha ki meri chachi painting bhi karti hai”

28SEPTEMBER

Strength wheelThe project was ending and it was time to relook at the strength wheel.By this time, we had found our own spaces and divided our roles depending on each one’s strengths.

“jo aapkki khoobi hai, aapke apni team main se kinhi do logon ko sikhani hai. Mausam bhai agar aap comedy achhi karte hain to ye aapki zimmedaari hai ki rajesh bhai bhi comedy karna seekhen”

29SEPTEMBER

Understanding spaceThe stage was designed keep-ing in mind the pholisophy followed in our workshops. We wanted all the students to share the stage with the artists through out the performance.

Understanding spacewe divided our roles for the main day. Each artists took re-sponsibility of one school, The idea was to involve the artists in each of these processes for experience and for them to feel a sense of ownership on the project.

“yahan stage thoda alag hai. Yahan bachche aapke sah-kalakaar bhi hain aur aapke darshak bhi”

“jo vahan aaye unhe aapka aur in sab bachchon ka rishta dikhna chahiye.”

“mera humesha sapna tha ki main sau bachchon ko ek saath tayiyyar karun. Papa ne pachhattar bachchon ke saath to kaam kiya hai.”

“poori ki poori picture ban gai humaare workshop ki”

Seeing all of it togetherAlong with the artists, we put up a photo essay of the entire journey. For them, to see all of it coming together triggered many conversations.

30SEPTEMBER

“is waali photo ko to kaat kar copy main lagayenge”

Value in sharingWe planned an event where more that humdred students performed together with the artists. The event was a part of the training for the artists.

“mam ye to kaafi bada program hai”

There was hardly any talk today. Everyone knew exactly what they have to do and they were focused.