The month of November was really action packed for SMILE. The month saw a plethora of activities ranging from theatre workshops, to camps exploring various issues, workshops on conflict resolution, film screenings and discussions and lot more. Since we don’t have the space to take you through the details of everything, here’s a small glimpse…

Theatre
Have you ever thought that an issue can be explored by using a performing art, even if you had no prior experience of the form? Well this is precisely what we did in our theatre workshop that was organized at the beginning of this month. We all know that we have three clubs, Theatre club, Media club and the Film club.The workshop was the launch of theatre club for this SMILE year. It is known to all that any part or any kind of theatre cannot be learnt in a few days. But this workshop was our first step to explore the medium as a means of expression and communication both technically as well as aesthetically and also in special context to impact social issues.

During the workshop we came up with our own play. The play explored the issue of communalism that plagues the country in its every nook and corner. It was a reiteration of the fact that violence and injustice in any form is not what we want. There were various scenes in the play that referred to specific incidents in different states of our country, ranging from the Northeast to Gujarat.

Coming up with our own play gave us a whole lot of confidence and faith in ourselves. There were many SMILErs at the workshop, many of them who had never done theatre before. It was such a fun experience. Over a period of three-days, we learnt a bit about theatre and its history. One of the biggest learnings was how with some effort on our part we can break our own inhibitions and come out of our own comfort zones.

The workshop allowed us to give form to our voices so that it reaches the masses and does not just remain inside us. And what a voice it was…it took a lot of discussion, deliberation and disagreement followed by overwhelming consensus for the group to give itself a name…Ektara.

Our first public performance was at Central Park CP. We were overwhelmed after the great response, feedback and encouragement we received from the public. It showed that our efforts had not gone in vain…even if the play affects one person positively we have been successful in bringing about some change.

Film
The first official film club meeting was held on 26th October and we have been meeting on almost a weekly basis since then. We have been playing games, interacting with diverse group of people, watching films on various issues and having interesting discussions on them afterwards. We mainly tried to explore the issues under the umbrella of 'social exclusion' in the first few meetings through documentaries like 'A second hand life' by Nutan Manmohan, 'Vande Mataram' by Amudhan R.P., 'Turf Wars - Revisited' by Sanjay Barnela etc.

Besides, we have also been looking at enhancing our understanding of films as a medium, which has been the focus of the past few meetings. Here, through film appreciation sessions we saw how films could communicate a lot to us and the way different genres of films like documentary, animation, feature etc. do so.

The film club is currently being led by a group of SMILE Youth Facilitators who wished to take their learnings from last year forward. We have got a very enthusiastic response from the group of new SMILER's, keen not only to learn but eager also to put their learning to use by organizing a film festival or even making a short film of our own.

Window To SMILE
We all know what a window does, don’t we? It gives us a glimpse of the outside world, and the breeze that it lets in is refreshing and energizing. The Window to SMILE Camp does just that. It gives us an insight into how SMILE works, and Pravah’s way of doing things. It is about learning through first hand experience, as well as charcha. It is about working in a group, and so of course, about masti and mazaa !

Not many of us know about the Tibetan struggle for independence and the lakhs of refugees affected by it. In our attempt to explore the issue of social exclusion, we visited Tibetan refugees staying in Majnu ka Tila and interacted with them. We did a small community study, where we got an opportunity to find out about this issue directly from people affected by it. The chat with some members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, who are fighting for a free Tibet, was truly enriching. They patiently answered all our questions clearing many cobwebs in our minds about the community. Continuing with the theme of social exclusion, we also went on a walk through Sanjay Van near Qutub Institutional Area. The whole walk (facilitated by a group called KLODB – Knowing and Loving Delhi Better) on one hand brought us so close to Mother Nature and on the other made us realise that how by our activities we are excluding some sections of people from a more wholesome life, along with natural environment.

The process made us realise that exclusion is not about just a community or specific people, but about how we unconsciously exclude people through our actions, behaviour and even the way we communicate. Everyone's desire was to try and become more inclusive in our ways.

This whole concept was carried forward in the next WTS camp where we explored issue of homelessness and ‘Right to Shelter’. The workshop made us stop and think about how privileged we are to have a roof over our heads, have food to eat and families to care for us and how safe we are with all these things.

During the workshop we visited a night shelter and were overwhelmed by the interaction we had with children who stay there. It was an opportunity to know more about kids who had stayed on the streets and faced hardships that we can’t even imagine in our wildest of dreams at a very tender age. Some of them were as young as 3-years-old, but had seen the world inside out. Their very existence showed the stark reality of today’s world where over a lac children in Delhi itself are devoid of even their basic rights. By the end of the camp, the participants decided that they were not just going to sit back and watch. While some said that they would like to volunteer their time at the shelters, others decided that they would fundraise and collect warm clothes for the children.

Walking the Talk…

Mostly life goes on. We get so busy moving ahead, or getting ahead of the next guy or gal, that we don’t think beyond the present. We ignore history and thus are condemned to repeat it – with every painful, nauseating detail intact. Our spines are so bent with the burden of conforming, of saving ourselves - that we find it hard to break the habit and stand up for others, against injustice, for peace, for humanity.

Fifteen years ago, one chilly morning in the last month of the year, something happened. December 6th, 1992 - a day that has gone down in history as a day when the world witnessed a frenzied mob demolish a monument of faith to the almighty.

But how many of us remember that fateful day? How many of us have voiced our protest against a few people dictating terms and playing with our lives? Do we remember how the country and its people changed that day, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished? In 1993, a few young people quit the safety of their jobs and set out to talk to and bring together other young people like themselves, who wanted to be that voice of protest, to remember, to change the country again and set it on the path of peace and humanity again, a path, long forgotten. Pravah was born.
…6th December 2007
In December 2007, we at Pravah decided to delay no further. We set out to take a public stance against that and other injustices. We decided to use the powerful medium of theatre to reach out to people. With three days of intense soul-searching and passionate debates, we came up with a short street play that said that we, the people, have a right and a duty to speak out against all injustices – our silence makes us complicit in that very injustice.
We took the play to our young change makers, and where better than at DU North Campus! Our first performance was at Hindu College followed by one in Delhi School of Economics. Our banners and slogans got some amazing young people to join us and share with us their concerns and their plans and dreams to change the world!
Our next stop was at Central Park in Connaught Place, where the SAARC Folk Music Festival was being held. There too, an amazing crowd of around 500 people, supported and appreciated our efforts, boosting our confidence and motivation to keep trying to do our best to make the world a better place.

Music for Harmony

The month of December saw yet another effort to engage the public through our annual event ‘Encore – Music for Harmony’. The event is a celebration of peace and it brings together various genres of music- and performing arts, which reflect the diversity of cultures. Like every year since 2002, the event was held at Dilli Haat and saw a number of performers who brought their music to a common stage to spread the message of peace. The performers included – Hameedji, Sur Pass (Sanskriti School), Brazen, Goonj, Chhonnochhara-The footloose, Bhawaia music etc. It was a mixed bag of songs with some theatrical and dance performances.

In order to bring together people from varied age groups and give everyone a chance to express their creativity we had a number of parallel interactive events taking place, such as – face painting, nail painting, clay modelling and an exhibition of various presentations prepared by the SMILErs. We also had peace packets that were distributed among people who had come to see the celebration. The packets contained numerous things including a peace ribbon, peace songs, peace quotes and names of some organizations that work directly to bring about peace.

“Encore Music for Harmony” concluded with everyone lighting a candle as a symbol of hope for a peaceful world and then to the melodious singing of “We shall overcome” everyone moved in to create an illuminating and fiery universal symbol of peace.

The event itself was a day to celebrate diversity, to celebrate music, to have fun, rejoice and spread the message of peace around. It was a day planned and organized by the efforts of many; especially SMILE volunteers, who took on the execution of the event with the hope to reach out to many. The planning and execution of the event also gave SMILErs the opportunity to work together as a team. It was great to see the energy, the madness, mayhem and the masti that led up to the event. Volunteers did everything from painting the banners, to creating the displays. Several evenings were spent over tikkis, chai and lots of charcha as the event drew closer.

Build Up to the Event

The build up of the event began right at the December monthly meeting in Balsahyog. It was a day long meeting of SMILErs, wherein we tried to understand the meaning of peace better. The meeting as usual began with some fun filled activities to warm up our lazy bones on a chilly morning. We had Madhuresh and Nidhi with us, to give us first hand information of the situation in Nandigram, for they had just returned from the place. The morning was utilized to interact with them and broaden our horizon on the issue of SEZs, especially Singur and Nandigram. Then we moved on to a session wherein we came up with our definition of peace and again with a help of some interesting activities. And how can we forget the amazing movie put together in one night to give an essence of what ‘Music for Harmony’ is. The movie motivated the SMILErs to come forward to spread the message of peace. We also formed our core group of volunteers who anchored the whole event and also what we wanted to do that day. It was a long fun filled interesting day and we closed by having some nice blank noise

coffee and pastries.

To find out more contact the SMILE team at Pravah
(Kanika, Manmeet, Namrata)
@ 26440619 or 26213918 or 26291354
email us @ smile@younginfluencers.com
OR
Suchismita (LSR College) – 9810835082
Surabhi (Hans Raj College) – 9810431568
Prachi (Miranda House) – 9891963336
Fahad (Deshbandhu College) - 9873188872

Posted in: SMILE Newsletter November-December - 07 on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at at 12:00 PM