Roberta conducting her dance workshop :o)

The above is Roberta’s first few days of working with physical expression through dance with younger children of El Shaddai. The following is how Roberta expressed her experience in Italian. Here’s what I could translate:

“The intention is to give kids the opportunity to express emotions with movement and accepting their limits without giving up. Each one is special. Through dance, anyone can turn into what they want and through play you have a way to find the right balance…the theme of the 2009 project.”

Tanu and Balance.

Tanu with the gang

Tanu is our friend from Pune and an essential part of Laboratory of Smiles. She wasn’t mentioned in the first introductory update because this year she has been studying very hard (you will soon know what she is studying when you read her blog entry) and hence cannot be part of the project. Nevertheless, she did drop in for a week to help us around and the following entry is what she took home.

Okay, wait. In order for you to understand her entry better, I must brief you about the theme of our workshops here in Goa. The theme we’re all working within is the theme of ‘balance’. I know not how this theme came into being but I am only to glad it did because it is helping us all (educators and participants) to gain a new perspective about life and its balancing act.

The monocycle workshop as well as the air acrobat workshop is all about finding the right balance in your body. The theme fits in perfectly. Theatre also works a lot on balancing the body and mind…and Erica is making sure the children find their balance through the drama sessions. Now coming to photography and videography…well, you will be surprised in the coming weeks when we start uploading the work of the children.

That’s all I’m going to tell you for now. Here’s Tanu and her philosophy (yes, that’s what she’s been studying for the past 1,237 years!) on ‘balance’:

What is Balance?

If only we could tell.
An Earth out of Balance,
Untimely cyclonic clouds,
In an Indian winter sky.
What is it after all?
An objective search
for a subjective trauma.

Will we find it?
After all.
An Answer.
Or will we find it
In Body and Mind
Though not in words.

I am in the Goa Express (train no. 2776). Peter* kept his word and rode me here in the nick of time. The rains were setting in, it seemed. But its a cyclone actually, somewhere in Gujrat I heard. I am not sure. We are facing “side effects” I was told by my worried father, who I am guessing was playing it cool. The world is in crisis, we all know that.
The journey has been from Fantasy to Reality, somewhere in between them we stand. Always on the edge. Balancing our acts, as smooth as possible. Pretending to understand the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of our movements.
Perhaps, in our Movement lies the answer, or perhaps in capturing those Movements and documenting memories we could well reflect on what has passed us.
Serene and surreal; the clouds fog our visions and the Sun has yet to resolve its conflict with the horizons of Goa.

So far…

‘Sereno e seren sara se non sara sereno…sara’

* The Tanzanian-Indian owner of the residence ‘Boons Ark, Vagator’ where the team dwells now.

Smile Please — Click!

Timira (me) with the children in Chimbel

The photography workshop finally began today in Chimbel, a slum in Panjim, which is home to more than 40,000 inhabitants. Most of the people are day labourers who have migrated from Karnataka in search of work and better living conditions. They live illegally with no real security and face a whole lot of communal problems as the slum is pre-dominantly Muslim. The slum has also been infamous for its high crime rate and only last week the area was cordoned off due to a series of four murders. We’re only too glad that everything got sorted out and we could begin our journey this week.

We insisted that at least one parent of each child be present for the first class so we could explain to them our work with the children. Curious mothers entered the little centre of El Shaddai along with their children and after a brief but very interactive session of talking, joking and laughing, they readily handed over their children to us.

The workshop began with the children discussing why people take photographs. Most of the responses were about ‘preserving memories’ and it was beautiful to listen to the precious moments that the children remembered from their childhood. Well, it was time to introduce the power of photography to the children and one spontaneous idea instantly made them understand how powerful photography could be. I handed my notebook to the children and asked them to read what was written in it. They slowly read out and understood the english words that were written on the pages. Next, i gave them Paola’s notebook. They tried to read but could not comprehend the Italian writings in her book. We then showed them a photograph. The photograph was a close shot of three hands placed atop each other. We asked the children what they saw in the picture and each child had an interpretation of his own. This is when they realised that a person does not have to be literate to understand a photograph. Every photograph has a story or a message in it and that story/message can reach anyone because photography has the power to cut across literacy, languages and even cultures.

The children were ready to begin clicking. The cameras were distributed and the children went home with their very own cameras!

PS: Kodak India has been so so so kind that they need a mention here for sure. One telephonic conversation followed by just one mail about our project and Kodak India had ready 10 cameras and 50 film rolls ready for us. Gratis! We really thank them with deep gratitude for generously giving us equipment for the children for free. Thank you Mr Vivekanandhan from Kodak India.

Children in Chimbel with their very first cameras