“Aspersion bound by narrow vision can’t represent a nation”, “no society can afford to not test the profession of religion”, “shed community bigotry!”, “on the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children”,  these wise words of Rabindranath Tagore were brought alive on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary in a performance titled ‘The Paragon of the Last Post-Office’ at Natarani. The play was inspired from Tagore’s travel diaries to Iran, Iraq and Italy, and was put together by grade 11 students of Mahatma Gandhi International School under the direction of alternative theatre activist, Parnab Mukherjee.

“The same student is in a seashore, when she/he logs on facebook and becomes just a dot or a digital island and the same student is in the seashore when she/he is in a sense of a slice of humanity in school or college. So which seashore are we talking about? This is the beauty of Tagore’s poetry, it lends itself to several interpretations”, exclaimed Mukherjee in an informal post-play discussion.

The multi-media play included videos of Satyajit Ray’s 1961 documentary on Tagore, resistance documentaries from Manipur and Irom Sharmila, a rap song inspired from Plato’s writings, songs from John Lennon, Bob Marley, installation art, physical theatre, disturbing photographs of the Iraq war… Performed at entrance of Natarani instead of the proscenium theatre on 11 October, in memory of another great Indian thinker, Mahatma Gandhi, this play marked the relevance of creating a platform for debate about violence that surrounds us, violence that goes unnoticed, violence that has insidiously crept into our daily lives…

As images of smiling children playing with toy guns in Iraq, student performers walking with shackled hands behind their heads listening to the thought-provoking lyrics of Bob Marley, “Only ourselves can free ourselves from our minds”, the spectators watched on with uneasy countenance.

“I was touched. We’re just not aware about these issues, some of which get manipulated and suppressed from becoming public!”, said one spectator Ms. Gurneesh Anand after the play. “I do not condone portraying violence in the name of peace, it defeats the purpose “, said a miffed spectator who chose not to be named. This raises an important question about violence in art- ‘Are we perpetrating violence by depicting it?’

“There is one thing called watching violence and there is another thing called violence. It is easy to get copted to the cult of violence, but within the context of physical, intimate theatre which treates every interesting architectural space which could be a backyard of a garbage dump or an organised auditorium as a studio space, the objective is to objective is to make the viewers feel the pain, and make the actors literally em-body it. Hence, it is not  voyeuristic “, explained Mukherjee. Tejdeep Singh, a parent whose child was performing in the play said,  “Showing violence to create a titillating effect, glamorizing it to sell more is not correct. But showing violence to understand the poignancy of violence is important to shape an understanding of the other side of violence. If my child sees films like Salt, Dabaang that glorify violence and normalize killing and arson, then she must also to exposed to this kind of education.”

Anju Musafir, founder of Mahatma Gandhi International School  concluded, “it is important for today’s generation to connect to lived histories by going beyond Text-Book sanitized history.” After the play, Ashini Jagatini shared her experience, “I didn’t expect this, I expected days and days of rehersal but the core of the work were discussions and readings and re-readings of Tagore’s work, visiting the museum, understanding larger national and international geo-political issues that continue to plague the fabric of society.” S.D Desai, an established art critic working with The Times of India was “amazed at the passion Parnab created in the children for this issue and this kind of theatre. The magic of experience was recreated.”

Deeply ingrained in the words of Tagore and the sub-text of the play was the importance of being earnest in being inclusive, to attempt and overcome the ‘us’-'them’ geo-political, moral, societal divide that have been the motivation for mindless violence.

By Lissa Chazot

All of the French students and teachers were put up with host families from MGIS, and over the past couple of weeks, have been involved in a number of interesting activities at the school that have exposed them to the different facets of life in India. They participated in garba-classes, and an art workshop with Mr. Toofan Refai, they learned about and celebrated holi; they visited the many heritage sites in the city, and also made a three-day trip to Zainabad.

At the same time however, these exchange programmes serve another very important purpose: of doing meaningful and beneficial work in assistance of the underprivileged .The French students were here especially to collaborate with MGIS on various community-service projects, and to set up a micro-credit programme for those in need.

The exchange programme culminated yesterday with a retrospective of sorts. grade 10/11 MGIS students put up stalls of the different activities that had taken place (tie & die, henna, block-printing, Indian games). While the French students expressed their own experiences of their time here through role-plays, songs, collages/visuals, and a short film.

Here’s to the success of another wonderful and enriching exchange, and to the hopes of many more in times to come.

Click here to read a student’s account of the opening day of the exchange

Click here to read related press article

The students enjoy lunch at the Natraani Cafe

Learning to use a Charkha

A visit to the city museam

MGIS and Lycee international students have dinner at Rajvadu

Celebrating holi on campus!

Block-printing stall on last day

A french student at the henna stall on the last day of the exhange programme

The students during their trip to Zainabad

Pics: Reema Shah

In April this summer, we commenced the first leg of our exchange programme with the prestigious Lycée International School of Saint Germain-en-Laye. Fourteen students from the tenth grade and three teachers embarked for a two week stay in Paris. During the course of their visit, the students were all hosted by French families, attended classes at Lycee International and were, in essence, exposed to the culture and people of a foreign country.

Of course, the host-families, students and teachers in France were unraveling our own culture in equal proportions; with our students holding interactive sessions introducing Gandhiji and his philosophy of Ahimsa, as well conducting presentations about India and  its many attributes and customs.

The seeds of this exchange programme were planted in October last year, when Anjou Musafir, Pascal Chazot and Minoo Joshi went to initiate discussions with the faculty of Lycee International regarding the prospect. Subsequently, a team from the American Section of the Lycée International led by Mr Brian, a trustee and former manager of Macintosh in Europe; Mr Sean Lynch, the director and two professors Ms. Terry and Mr. Scott came to visit us at Ahmedabad to finalize the terms of the exchange.

With the success of this first batch, both schools are keen on continuing the partnership and organizing more exchanges in time to come. Since 8 July 2009, three students and a teacher of the Lycée International have been here to set up a community service project and explore some tangible aspects of the next exchange programme. What is more, it has already been finalized that in February 2010, 15 students of Lycée International will come for two weeks to MGIS and collaborate on a series of community service projects and a micro-credit programme for the underprivileged.

Click here to read student  accounts of the trip

Click here to read a teacher’s account

View slide show:

Activities done with the school:

Our students had a busy schedule, organizing  activities and workshops for the students of Grade 4-12 of Lycée International in Paris

-    Presentation on Mahatma Gandhi with a movie & conflict resolution activities. They were organized for grade 9-12 so as to give them a feel of Gandhi and make them understand his philosophy.

- Introductory classes across the grade 4-8 about India where the students wrote their names in Hindi, danced Garba, solved a jigsaw puzzle of the map of India… and a surprise dance performance by Sakhi Ganeriwala and Vishal Pandit on “Jai Ho”.

-    Special classes for the younger children also to familiarize them about India. They learnt how to make rangoli, tie and die, henna tattoos etc.

-    Franco-Indian Night: It was a fusion show where French students and we performed. Sakhi Ganeriwala danced Kathak; Shrishti Bhandari danced Bharatnatyam; we had some bollywood performances by Sakhi Ganeriwala, Fowzia Hawa, and Mahi Baid; and in the end, a Garba performance by Mahi Baid, Vishal Pandit, Parin Mehta and Tanvi Karwal.