New blog!

I have finally, after five years of planning, decided to start blogging about my experiences here in Banaras. I work on education and the arts with NIRMAN (www.nirman.info), a non-profit organization here. A quick summary of my work here so far:

The first year, I worked mainly on an evening resource centre for youth. It had arts and other classes, as well as performances, discussions, film screenings, campaigns, sports, and other activities. The idea was to create a constructive space for youth to learn, meet others, create their own platforms, and exchange ideas. I also taught grade six maths, grade ten English. I set up the NIRMAN Theatre Studio and directed a new play, "Dhage," by Nandini Majumdar.

The next two years, I taught full time, grades 5 through 10, as a co-classroom teacher of a multi-age classroom, and started making curricula. We set up more formal Arts Studios, to both teach the arts and produce quality products. I directed a play, "Raju ki Barbadi," created a partially improvised and participatory performance, "Socho, Zara Socho," and worked on invisible and forum theatre. I studied improvised dance and capoeira through the Arts Studios.

The fourth year, I worked on the "Ramlila" Project (see NIRMAN's website www.nirman.info), a theatre/film/bookmaking project to do workshops with children from a Ramlila neighbourhood, produce a curriculum kit and children's books, and make a documentary film about the workshops and the children who participate in the Ramlila as actors and audience. I worked more on training teachers and making curricula.

The next year, my co-filmmaker (and fiance) and I showed our film, "Children Playing Gods, in various locations in the US and India. After that, for three months, I and other teachers lived in our village campus, and we had a day school with the children coming from the city by bus. Living in the village was very peaceful and inspiring in many ways. I continued to train teachers and work on curricula. I taught math to grade seven.

This year, my job description has changed a lot. I am a manager at NIRMAN, and, along with other managers, in charge of planning and administering its various projects, including the school. I also plan to write about my work in education and theatre over the past few years.