Little Music Masters meeting The Crane Experts!

Dharavi Rocks! is a joint educational project between Blue Frog and Acron Foundation, an NGO working for the upliftment of slum children and ragpickers in Mumbai. The project was started with the idea to give access to music to the less privileged combining arts with education.

I invited the children of Dharavi Rocks not only for them to share their music with the 1000 crane children, but also to learn about The 1000 Crane Project themselves.

The first half of the day, we had our 1000 Crane children, learn a little bit of paper craft and clay-modeling with Victor, a fellow from TISS.

During this time, I welcomed the Dharavi Rocks team of twelve – Afzal, Faisal, Minaz, Abdulla, Hasan, Billal, Aziz, Afridi, Rahim, Athar, Imtiaz and Asif!

I presented the story of Sadako Sasaki and The 1000 Cranes and the Hazards of Nuclear Power. To my surprise, there were some of them who knew about it already, which was impressive.

They then all painted their own crane T-shirt to be sent to Fukushima.

I then brought them to the Khula Asaman shed where the 1000 crane children were completing their clay models. Played a few introduction games and went for lunch.

Post Lunch, if when the fun began.

The Dharavi Rocks group came out with their home instruments and played a really fantastic piece for our group. The 1000 Crane children we just left amazed.

We then made a pact – The Dharavi Rocks kids would teach The 1000 Crane children music, and in turn they would learn origami from them. This was unanimously agreed upon.

The group was split as per the no of instruments brought, and each child learn how to play a short rhythm. They then performed individually, introducing the instrument as well as their teacher.

Then, we asked the Dharavi Rocks group, to make a band out of the 1000 crane group, which they handled very professionally and actually got the 10 kids to play a collective rhythm.

We then tried to use their instruments to add music to the Tara Anthem as well as another song.  This was a challenge, as both groups were new to each other, but, the co-operation and co-ordination was tremendous. Finally, we did manage to perform two songs collectively, pretty well.

It was then the turn of the 1000 crane children to teach the Dharavi Rocks group origami. Having gone thru a coaching session already, the kids found it easier to teach their new students. They finally made crane mobiles, and presented it to each child, as a memento of the day spent with them.

There was learning for me as well ! The kids from Dharavi Rocks taught me that there is a musician in all of us, as without any hesitation, I took over and taught them the anthem and the African song –SIM GEM GEM, taught to me by my dear friends Ludovica and Paolo from Italy.

A rather musical day and a fulfilling day ! Thank You Anil, Vinod, Acron Foundation and Dharavi Rocks ! 

Theatre , Interaction, Puppetry and more ...

Shruti Sridharan, a trainer in theater with the company Theatre Professionals, Mumbai, spent a day, with the children sensitizing them to some of the nuances of theater.

The morning session consisting of game and exercises, with the objectives to get the children comfortable with themselves and their bodies, learn how to use their hands, legs and themselves to express themselves without words.

She also conducted exercises, which taught them the importance of co-ordination and team work.

After this, she conducted an exercise to help the children build and create stories themselves.

Post lunch, once again, she conducted a very interesting exercise, with the simple principal of throwing the ball, which involved concentration, alertness and co-ordination skills of the children.

 

The children then shared the story of Sadako Sasaki and The 1000 Paper Cranes with Shruti, which she then helped them to elaborate and create their own stories using similar characters like Sadako and the cranes. The story had to be created in frames, like a comic strip. 

We then were introduced to her hand puppet – Miss Purple. Thru Miss Purple, we all learnt how to make our own hand puppets.

We were split into 5 teams, and all of us used the surplus fabrics that we had received from Mandhana Industries to make these puppets.

Some really interesting and lovely looking puppets were made. It was a learning day for me as well, since Shruti, and her dynamic self, did not need anyone else to help or assist in conducting the workshop, so I took this opportunity to also learn a little about theater with the kids.

After we were done making our puppets, she also taught us the method of handling a puppet, the need for change of voice to give the puppet its own life, and not sound like us. The technique of effective puppetry is when you give it life by giving your entire concentration to the puppet in your hand.

Sagar Bhalekar, a very dear friend and professional photographer, came to visit me, and photographed the entire afternoon session, and also captured it on video for us.

The day ended with the kids really excited about their new friends, and have promised Shruti to practice working with them, so she shall come in on Sunday morning and create a short play.

From basic paper cranes, today the cranes took shape of a puppet, this is encouraging as we are acquiring more tools each day to share our story with new groups, thanks to the experts who are supporting us.

A Mumbai “School” and “The Mumbai” City!

Our project was mentioned by the Hindustan Times, in Mumbai today –

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Hand-painted-tees-with-messages-of-peace/Article1-818660.aspx

It was another KIDS DAY OUT !

But the morning began, with a little painting exercise, with Seema Enand, a marketing professional but a ardent art lover and practitioner!

Once again, just using fingers and acrylic painted, each child painted his/her own canvas. We made them believe they were painters, and feel as if they are making their first professional painting.

Seema led them thru a little story about nature and its beauty, and each of them interpreted thru their own eyes!

It was a simple as brushing your teeth, and everyone was happy with their results.

We then set out to the Cathedral & John Conon School, in Colaba. The school, is supporting The 1000 Crane Project, as they believe deeply in the area of community and social development, which is a very important part of each student’s learning at the school. The bus was sponsored by the school, which picked us up from the TISS campus, and dropped us back.

So, it was a day for the children with the students of the school. The students, Riddhima, Jay, Naira, Aashna, Karishma, Upasana, Agni, Sangeeta and Mallika acted as their Mumbai buddies and took them to some of the key spots of Mumbai.

We began with Mani Bhavan, where they went thru the life history of Mahatma Gandhi thru the model gallery.

They were then taken to The Gateway of India, and of course, shown the famous Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The students were really great, as they had done their homework perfectly, with all the information from history, to structural details upto the current situations on each spot.

They also had fun, when we met with Uma Kadam, a photographer of The Times of India, Mumbai, who wanted to capture the children having fun with each other at the gateway. The kids started having so much fun amongst themselves, and with the photographer that in that confusion, I forgot to click a group photo of them in front of the Gateway of India ! 

Then we made some quick stops the Jehangir Art Gallery, Rajabhai Clock Tower and the Flora Fountain. Since, we could only get the students of the school after their school timings, we managed to see most of South Mumbai.

The best part of the day was to witness the interaction between the two groups. When we played a little name game before starting from the school, there was an air of discomfort and unfamiliarity, but by the end of the 4 hours we were driving across town, the buddies actually bonded. When we left, I actually heard, one of the students tell his buddy “ I will call you on your birthday!” and one of our children telling them that he wishes to leave Goa and come study at their school, and the students were very welcoming to the idea.

The objective of the day was for the children of The 1000 Crane Project to meet and interact with a group of young students like them from a different background, but realize that they are all the same, and feel empowered to try and work towards a better life.

On our way back, I was questioned by one “What do I need to do to study at TISS? I really wish to come to Mumbai and study more and then work here.”  My answer to him was “ Study hard ! Believe in yourself and you can get a scholarship, which will enable you to study anywhere in India and the world.”