A visit to Pehla Akshar, in Gurgaon aka Gurugram

My first blogpost from Gurgaon – and why not? Gurgaon is a part of NCR and all of us keep going there, as if it were our backyard!

This post is also special as it was my first visit to Pehla Akshar, a teaching centre run for children of construction workers by my dear friend and batchmate Vikas Bagga and his team of like minded committed individuals. How committed Bagga is? Try this, well, he literally drags the kids from their homes to bring them to the little centres he has established where they get a semblance to education. Most kids have no or little access to formal education. Far from playing in the mud and sand at the construction sites.

This visit happened, thanks to dear Neetu Sehgal Mahajan, yes of the Ek Mulaqat play mentioned earlier! We had organized a lunch for another friend visiting from Vancouver. The day tallied with the day Neetu taught the kids at this little Centre.There was lot of back and forth and cajoling me to reach Gurgaon by 10 am in the morning! An enviable task from good ole South Delhi. But destiny had its way and I was there at 10.02 am delivered safely by Uber.

At Pehla Akshar -  Bagga was outside deciding on his agenda with Richa, a team member for the day and was he pleased to see us. He shooed us to the basement promising to join us in a bit. As I descended the stairs, one look at the innocent 3 – 4 year old gazing at me and my heart sank. Such innocent minds did not deserve this. Their parents build some of the most expensive condos and luxury apartments in the country, yet these kids did not seem to have any future. No option of formal education or dream of  a secured life. Left to their own devices when the parents went to work. The older ones look after the younger siblings. Some privileged ones go to nearby Government Schools. The rest simply move from place to place wherever the journey for bread and butter take their parents.  Dressed neatly (yes, they were sent neatly) in hand me downs, the innocent eyes were heart wrenching!

I was soon shaken to reality with the cheerful enthusiastic, “Good morning ma’am”! I perked up.The basement looked lovely and cheerful. Lots of charts, carpet on the floors, individual desks for the kids to use for writing, chairs, a few laptops with wifi connectivity and of course racks and cupboards full of books, notebooks, pens and more. Neetu promptly took over her teaching.

The mandate for me had been to sit in a corner and observe. But Bagga had other plans. A set of older children around 10 years were around. Of the 5 handed over to me teach English – 1 went to regular school. The others when they went back to their village. For someone who has not taught after leaving college decades ago, it was fun. The story was of the fox and the raven and the kids loved the story. Holding their attention, getting them to read, write and understand was another matter all together. This little interaction gave a clear indication where we are headed to in the education system of our country. And whether it actually has inclusive plans for such kids.

About Pehla Akshar  – Bagga has been a long time advocate of inclusiveness in education. Having worked with literacy India for a longtime, it was time to set up his own. Today, it is run with a core team of volunteers – Richa, Dipika and Aarti. There are other volunteers supporting as an when they can. These three form the backbone for each of the centres. There have been patrons, friends and family who are helping at each step.

Volunteer, contribute do your bit with Pehla Akshar if you believe in what they do!

Where – Sector 43/27/28 Gurgaon. You can reach out to Pehla Akshar – Instagram -@pehla_akshar, www.pehlaakshar.org

Timings – 7:30 am to 2 pm everyday

Highlights – The children are from the age to 3 – 14 largely 3 – 10. The kids are adorable and as vivacious as kids their age, very quickly forming friendships. It is wonderful to hear them sing the National Anthem or other songs.  They paint, sing, learn and probably see a world which otherwise would not be within their reach.

Insider Tip – Bagga goes above and beyond in his passion for education. On Children’s Day, the kids, the volunteers and teachers were treated to a trip to Hamleys where they played to their heart’s content and of course ice creams from the nearby Burger King and McDonald’s. Generous donors do hand out soft toys, food, biscuits..anything to brighten up the children’s life. 

For me, this post was straight from my heart. After 78 years of Independence, such little minds definitely deserve more!!

 

A deck of cards with a Classical Touch Bharatnatyam Dancer Jayalakshmi Eshwar

The original article in Hindu 

The Hindu : Features / Sunday Magazine : Dance with the cards

Read the unedited version here.....

  

A full hand - set of sequential cards from the 13 cards of diamonds, clubs, spade or hearts - yes that is the typical rummy.  Fast track it to the world of dance and it is a set of three cards of Kathak, another with Chhau and top it off with a set of four of from say Bharatnatyam and voila full hand – that is the dance rummy game devised by danseuse Jayalakshmi Eshwar. Unlike the traditional deck of cards of 54, this has a whopping 90 cards covering the 9 traditional classical dance forms of India. It is a game for children six years and above. The deck of cards can be used to play two different games one of course on the lines of rummy. The game innovative, thought provoking, educative yet fun has been conceptualised, researched and executed by Jayalakshmi Eshwar. Jayalakshmi, a trained Bharatnatyam dancer from Kalakshetra is the Head of the Bharatnatyam Department at Triveni Kala Sangam and also runs her own troupe – Abhinaya Dance Group.

A talented multifaceted personality, she has maintained the traditional and purity of the dance form yet has embraced modernity with technology. As she says, “in today’s age, children do not have the luxury of time to learn the way it was done earlier. Neither do the gurus have that kind of time available. Today after the 8^th standard, students get busy with the board exams then it is admission, where is the time to learn slowly. So an audio visual medium can be played in the evening at home and learnt from.” Thus both her books cum instruction media, one on a how to on Bharatnatyam a step by step guide on dance  and the other one on the use of hands – Hastha Prayogaah in Bharatnatyam come with an accompanying audio visual CD.  The card game was an extension of this mindset. As she recalls, “my second son Avinash Kumar is from NIFT and was working with the toy industry. He then suggested that I develop a game for children based on the dance form.” The earlier idea revolved around Bharatnatyam but research proved that the general knowledge on dance as a medium was more or less absent.

The game in itself is very interesting. It has been painstakingly put together. Be it the in depth research in getting the information or the succinct manner in which it has been written in the cards, such that it is informative yet not academically overbearing. The cards are larger than normal cards measuring approximately 5 inches by 3 inches. Each of the nine forms are represented by a different colour. The dance forms covered are: Bharatanatyam, Chhau, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, Oddissi and Sattriya. There are 10 cards in each of the 9 dance forms.  The 10 cards are actually 10 broad categories giving information on each of the dance form. These are – state of origin of the dance form, introduction on the dance form, reference texts on the origins of the dance form, temple / tradition which it is associated with, few gurus and exponents of the dance form, costume, two cards on the ornaments worn in the dance form, instruments accompanying the dance form and the technique or nritta position. The information has been patiently compiled with help and suggestions from co-artistes of their particular tradition, Sangeet Natak Academy and CCRT.  The information on costumes, ornaments, musical instruments and accompanying photographs were collected from well wisher friends each a master proponent in the field of dance. For example Guru Shashadhar Acharya, the well known proponent of Saraikala Chhau has provided these for the cards for Chhau. Similarly for Kathakali it is the well known International Centre for Kathakali, New Delhi.  The photograph used in the depiction of the costume in Kathakali is that of Sadanam Balakrishnan.

The detailing in the card is mind boggling. For example, in Kathak the list of gurus and exponents is large encompassing – Shambhu Maharaj, Lachchu Maharaj and Achhan maharaj, the exponents include: Sitara Devi, Pandit Briju Maharaj, Uma Sharma….. Similarly for Chhau the banks of the river where it is performed annually is beautifully put while the exponents have been drawn out carefully in the case of Bharatnatyam. A charming compilation is on the comparatively lesser known dance form is Sattriya from Assam. The set of 10 cards tracing the origins from 15^th – 16^th century to the tradition by Vaishnav Saint Srimanta to Sankaradeva to the gurus Maniram Datta Moktar and further detailing on the ornaments and costumes is a mine of information.

The colour codification of the dance form is also interesting. Satriya is brown while Odissi from the neighbouring State is a deeper shade of the same colour.   Kathakali is represented by green while Mohiniyattam from the state is bordered in dark green. Another little quirk that Jayalakshmi has introduced is that in each of the card at the top the entire name of the dance is not written. As she says, “I just wanted the first two letters or first letter of the dance form written. This will provoke the child to use his intellect and understand the dance form while playing. It is not only educative to the child but also to the parent, many of whom are not aware of the minute nuances of the dance forms.” It is true, people may know the dance form but not the intricacy like names of the instruments accompanying it or the ornaments worn.

The game is played like rummy. It can be played by 4 to a maximum of 9 persons. Each player is dealt 10 cards and the rest of the cards are kept in the middle. For winning the game, three sequences ( 3 cards of two dance form and 4 cards of another dance form) has to be made. The second way of playing it is as a simple question answer format. The cards are simply dealt.  Each player reads from one card giving out all the information, after which proceeds to ask questions on the information read out.  This helps the child memorise facts about the dance form. In the offing apart from her book on feet movements is another card game exclusive to Bharatnatyam to be played by a student. What else can one say except dance playing on!