India Untouched screened @ Kirori Mal college

Our second movie screening was held in Kirori Mal College on the 26th of August with the help of the film society in the college. The movie screened was “India Untouched” by Director Stalin K. who with his team spent four years traveling the length and breadth of India to bear witness to the continued exclusion and segregation of those considered as ‘Untouchables’.


The screening was attended by about 20 participants and after the screening a brief description was given about Pravah and SMILE to acquaint our audience about where we were coming from and why we wanted to share our experiences with them and why we felt the need to be there.


Some participants shared that they felt “Sad” “Disturbed” and “Shocked” after watching the movie, some also said that they were unaware that caste existed in so many areas of the society. What shocked most of the audience was the fact that issues like untouchability and caste system are still prevalent in states like Kerala which has the highest literacy rate. One of the student also shared, and I quote, “JNU is supposed to be an institution which is stereotypically a leftist and it’s shocking to see that discrimination like this is there also, I wonder if this also happens in DU” .


The issue of reservation which in our country is closely related to the system of caste is also raised in the movie and the students gave their opinions and shared what they felt about the issue, and I quote again, “Caste is prevalent across all parts of the country and all sections of the society” Another issue that was raised in the movie was that of back door entries and students coming in through self financed seats.


To this the students said that Many instances of the Vedas came up as many portions of the Manusmriti are mentioned in the movie, to this the group reached a consensus that it might be that when the Vedas were made during the ancient times it fit into the scenario and they might have been scientific for those times, but the interpretation that has trickled down during centuries has been seriously misinterpreted.
A very interesting topic that was raised was the discussion of Burqa which was left at the open ended question of “Does the individual really have the choice to decide whether to wear one or not? “


In all it was a great discussion which led to a lot of thinking, it was followed by another screening on the 28th of August details of which will be coming up soon. A special thanks to the film society of Kirori Mal college in helping it become a success and we would like to carry on with this association.


Keep :)ing

SMILE'rs





Posted in: on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at at 9:15 PM 2 comments  

First screening @ Youth For Development workshop!


Date: 24th August 09
Venue: Don Bosco Technical Institute


Introduction:
The event started with a fun activity, wherein the volunteers were divided into pairs and were asked to balance a pencil between their foreheads without actually touching it. The activity managed to gear up the audiences and also helped the facilitators who were supposedly unknown initially to develop a connection which is an integral part of any interactive session. Thereafter, a random question was thrown at the audiences. The question was “What images come to your mind when you hear the term boundaries." There were diverse response to these questions and following terms seemed common in the responses that were received.
Partition
Controversy
Limitation
Barriers



A thought process commenced and just to add spark to the fire another question was thrown randomly after jotting the previous points at the whiteboard. This time the question was “What image comes to our mind when we hear of the term terrorist”? Again a lot of different answers came from the audiences and following points seemed prominent.
Blood shed
Violence
Destruction
Fighting for a cause




Movie : Little Terrorist
The movie managed to keep the audiences engrossed at all times. The very first scene which depicts a scene, wherein a group of children are trying to retrieve a ball which has crossed the Line of control aroused curiosity among the audiences and that connection seems to be everlasting. One amazing thing about the screening was that audiences were thrown in an ocean full of varied emotions and at the end one could see questions of the faces of people. People who were from different background, Different geographical locations having different interpretations. However one thing seemed to be common. There were questions looming large on their faces.







Discussion:
Once the movie was over the question about the images comes to our mind after hearing the term terrorism was again referred to. It initially started with the debate on identities. A part of the audiences agreed to the fact that that we fall prey to stereotypes and our own preconceived notions and label a person as terrorist and the views are predominantly based on physical features which has been beautifully shown and portrayed in the movie. Gradually a few interesting perspectives came up which not only intensified the discussion but also gave a proper ground for brainstorming.
“People are same irrespective of their religion”
“Humanity is our first religion”



Thereafter the discussion turned towards the cause of the problem under consideration and the following important points were the core of the discussion


  • It was discussed that fear is an important cause and the customs/tradition that we at times blindly follow are affected by fear that we have

  • A few thought that fear exist owing to the insecurity that a living being have and it is an animal instinct to form a group in order to feel safe and secure.


Finally the discussion moved towards solutions and almost everyone present there agreed that we are the only problem and we are the only solution. And although it is not possible to find a solution instantly but the fact cannot be ignored that the onus is on us to change the things.



Feedback:
The involvement of the audiences during the movie screening and the subsequent discussion helped us to get a feedback on the proposed activity. The discussion has a direction and purpose. One important observation of this screening was that a film with limited duration helps us to connect with audiences better and leads to a comprehensive discussion.




In all it was a great session which provided us with just the perfect amount of motivation, enthusiasm.




SMILE'rs :)

Posted in: , , on at at 12:44 AM 0 comments  

Action Project '09!

Hello to all!


Guess who is back in action?

Yes, you guessed it right.. it's we SMILE'rs '09!!

We have come back from our Rural Internships and have boarded the ship loaded with ideas, learnings, experiences and much much more, we have been moving from shore to shore sharing experiences and taking in more and more of them.



As a part of our Action Project we have started a chain of movie screenings across different colleges in Delhi, SMILE'rs themselves are facilitating these sessions with a lot of enthusiasm and we are very happy to tell you that till now we have screened documentary movies in 3 colleges starting from 24th of August with a thought provoking discussion followed by a documentary screening.



We will be keeping you posted about the screenings through this space and we will also be posting about the discussions that are taking place in various colleges. So that we can share our experiences with all of you and get to know your thoughts, as they are important to us :)



Looking forward to hear from you and sharing with you!




SMILE'rs :)

Posted in: on Sunday, August 30, 2009 at at 10:11 PM 1 comments  

SMILErs at play this summer

the journey just started at the orientation camp there's a long distance that was covered post that... an account of some of those journeys...

http://www.younginfluencers.com/sitec/images/public/Publications/SMILE_NEW_LETTER.pdf

Posted in: on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at at 11:33 AM 0 comments  

Orientation camp

a little insight into what goes into preparing oneself before we tread towards our rural internships... read to get some accounts of some SMILErs experiences

http://www.younginfluencers.com/sitec/images/users/1/SMILE/SMILE%20please.pdf

Posted in: on at at 11:33 AM 0 comments  

M4H - Ek SMILErs ki Nazar Se

Smile ke andar hai ek program,
‘Music for Harmony’ hai jiska naam,
Sandesh hai iska ek hi, shanty aur badhana,
Logon ke dilon mein, ummeed ki roshini jalana.

Shanti ke program ne,
success khoob kamai,piche hua kya,
kitni khalbali isne machai,
aao hum milke yeh batate hain,
Lodhi garden mein thoda fun late hain.

Hoch-poch, hoch-poch,
Yeh tha shuru mein haal,
Manmeet, Namrata, Kanika ka,
Sir dard se tha haal behaal,
Dheere-dheere SMILErs ne,
Seriousness apni dikhai,
Sur apne ideas deke,
Manmeet ki diary badhai.

Dili Haat ke alawa,
na tha kuch bhi pakka,
josh tha itna andar,
par mila nahi tha dhakka,
SMLIErs ne wahan jakar,
Jagah ki ki napai,
Aur tab jake side events ki list ban payi.

Resource aur poster ki meeting,
Campus mein bithai,
Thode se kaam ke baad,
Namrata ne treat khilai,
Dhabe mein SMILErs ne jam kar khaya,
Namrata ki pocket ko khali karwaya!

Peace package ke kaam mein,
Lag gaye sab log,
Itne colours ke beech mein,
Painting ka pehla rog,
Subah se sham tak chalta tha yahi kaam,
Par uth jate the sab sunkar tikki ka naam.

Conflict map, banner aur exhibition ne kiya kamal,
Aur ‘Music for Harmony’ ne macha diya dhamaal!!

Gaane kitni bhashaoon aur states ke logon ne gaaye,
Face painting mein jane kittno ne peace symbols banwae,
Clay modeling mein bacchon ne khoob kari masti,
Chudiyan aur diye sajakar,
Kar di raunak dugni.

Pravah ke natak neb hi,
Khoob dhoom machai,
Anyaaye aur ladai ke khilaf
awaaz uthai,

sham ko toh jaise ek suroor sa dil mein chaya,
SMILErs ne nach-nach ke shor bindaas machaya.

Candles jalake end mein,
sabne milje banaya symbol,
which represents
and a heart that is humble

Aise hua ‘Music for harmony’ ka ant,
aur last line banne se pehle mera
Brain ho gaya band!

Posted in: on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at at 12:29 PM 0 comments  

Rural Internship - An oppourtunity to be your own teacher

Hi all

We have been talking on and off about rural internships and soon you will be seeing posters etc about them around in campus too and so thought should write a bit about them to all of you.

Rural internships are an exposure oppurtunity that we offer in the summer for young people to go to a rural community and intern with a local organisation working on an issue you are passionate about. We at SMILE strongly believe in experiential learning where the world is your classroom and you chart your own learning journey and that is the basic theme behind these internships.
It's a 4-6 weeks long internship oppurtunity. We have partners in rural areas across India who work on various issues and before placing anyone with an organisation we do match expectations from you as well as the hosting organisation to ensure that you are placed with an organisation you would like to work with.

This internship is an oppurtunity for you to get hands on experience working in an environment you may not be familiar with, hone your skills, get work experience of a different kind, push your limits and come out of your comfort zone adapting to a new life and
make a difference.

What does the summer broadly look like if you are interning with us....

In the first half of May we will be conducting an orientation camp which will be compulsory for all those doing internships this year. This will ideally be a 4 day camp held somewhere outside of Delhi. This camp essentially looks at building capacities in certain soft skills, like assertiveness and conflict resolution, which we feel would come in use during your internships. The camp would also be an important space to share expectations and preview what is in store for you to ensure you are well prepared and an oppurtunity to get to know other fellow travellers on this journey.

Post the orientation camp each one can decide when in the next few months you will be doing your internship and figure your travel and other logistics.

In the second half of July (ideally by when everyone should be back from their internships) we will hold a feedback camp which will also be a compulsory component of the internship as its important for us that experiences are documented and shared. It will also be a space to plan forward for your action projects as each one is supposed to take on one post their internship and touch base with all other travellers and so we can be a part of more than one journey even if we haven't been on all.

We firmly believe that learning is not complete if its not actually used in some way which ensures internalisation of all that one has gathered. With this faith the next component of the internship is an action project which everyone has to do once you are back in Delhi. Now action projects are basically forums to share your learnings or do a small project with them once you are back in Delhi. these action projects are really dependent on what you want to do. It's a great space to get thinking out of the box and do something fun.

What are the costs involved....

The basic costs for travel, lodging and food from past years of experience works out to be upto Rs. 4500. For core group intensive SMILE volunteers we ask you to contribute Rs. 2000 and the over and above is covered by Pravah. For all others who are applying for internship we ask you to contribute Rs. 3000 and the over and above is covered by us.
Apart from this we also offer bursaries and there are possibilities for fundraising for those who may find it difficult to come up with the given amount of money. So lets talk about it...

What is the process like?
Write in to us immediately if you would like to apply. There isn't a selection procedure per se but there are certain assessment parameters with which we make our recommendations on whether you are prepared for the internship right away or might want to consider doing it next year.
Please be prepared to come in to meet us sometime during the next two months (before the orientation) so we can talk about the process further and get to know each other and the program better before the orientation camp.

So this is what it broadly looks like please write in to us if you have any queries. To apply for the program please visit our website younginfluencers.com where an aplication form willl be put up shortly and do just call or let us know that you are interested so we can talk further.

Well, hoping to hear from you soon.

To find out more contact the SMILE team at Pravah

@ 26440619 or 26213918 or 26291354

Posted in: on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at at 6:11 PM 2 comments  

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