Ojasi Mehta shared her experience of Open capacity building workshop (4th-8th may 2010)
Workshops , camps , festivals , programs always spread positive energy around the people who attend them. For five days Jawahar Kala Kendra was glittering with positive vibes. I could feel a change from first day to last day . It was as if scattered pieces are slowly coming together . There was so much diversity of creativity in the workshop , everyone was very creative as well as hungry for knowledge and skills.
I was personally interested in all three skills which were being taught there – Comics , Theatre & Film making . Of course , film-making attracts a lot but I knew right now I needed to learn a simple yet an effective skill which I can use through my creativity and teach others too .. so , Comics was for me and I am so happy that ,I chose it 
Well… well… well… before taking you into the sessions which we had of our skill , I would like to show you some glimpses of outside fun which we had through different games . On first day , due to hesitation lots of people could not come out of their shell to make new friends – I was also one of them , I was stick to my old friend only but we played a game where you will have to choose randomly anyone and Know him/her in two minutes… it was very interesting I made two friends there only. After this “silsila” of games was on and we enjoyed all the games , new & interesting. These games were called “energizers” and they boosted our energy and spiced our Fun. Wait – let me tell you the very first “Value” of Pravah, who organized the workshop – Fun with Learning. And exactly five days we didn’t realize – whether we are having Fun in Learning or Learning in Fun… but whatever it was – it was Awesome. Oh! did I tell you that though we were physically in Jaipur but we roamed around the whole world through our superb energizers. One of the very different experience was “Kabila” . The whole group of 30-35 people were asked to form a “kabila” , give it a name , prepare its song and dance. The name of our kabila was – JIM HAKUBA TAM TAM TORA TORA SA SA … J So we did it successfully – and Guess what --- we actually looked like the “Kabila” and it seemed if today we are thrown in the jungles of Andaman we will make a great original “Kabila”.. ahh… the word “original” reminded me of something—Aasif sir (theatre guru) gave me a name – O.C. – Original copy… see its an example ! we lived like a family – when we were together no one was from theatre , comics or film making – we all were One – one of the motto of Pravah – “Me to We”… and of course it didn't come on the very first day but it was a gradual journey.
Now have a look at our inside sessions –It was really great , we got to know that we are not learning simple comics but its called – Grassroot comics . A story told by pictures is called comics and when this comics is made on some important issues and problems of layman its called Grassroot comics . I loved it because anyone can make it with very few things – a black sketch pen and 2 A4 size papers . Well… we learnt so much in 4 days – to make cartoons , give special effects , give a title to comics and so on… But with learning we had lots of fun… for example – We had to bear Dilip’s songs and queries. Yash and Rajesh irritated me a lot. We chatted on different topics.. shared our experiences…Our trainer Pankaj bhaiya and Abhishek bhaiya were very friendly … I always tried to call them “sir” but I could never because they never treated us like students… they encouraged a lot and taught us to make cartoons in very funny way J
Well … I don’t know much about the inside stories of other sessions but as everyday in the morning we recalled last day’s experiences, I had some idea on the basis of it which I will tell you , the tit-bits of other sessions – Theatre learners learnt small skills of theatre and I could see on Finale how they took out the hidden actor in themselves. Though everyone complained that five days is a very short period to learn such art but they still make something out of it . Same with the film making students – 5 days is a very small period … but as they told us they enjoyed the time , got familiar with camera and… they learnt “How to think…” because their trainer Akshay Bhaiya would ask them to “think..” and disappear for several minutes …J Our all trainers were very friendly and enjoyed with us , they actively took part in all games… so the whole atmosphere was so strongly Positive with Creativity , Fun & Learning…
We not only learnt the skills we chose but also about “Active Citizenship” . We were shown a documentary also – Dark Zone – on water problem , made by Rakesh Gogna. Thus we did so many things in four days , I am not able to mention all of them here. Last day we went into a “Kachhi Basti” and there we interacted with people , especially kids. It was an another different experience.
Now I am just waiting for the next workshop by Pravah… Only by Pravah because I know the way they made learning Fun and taught Active citizenship as well as the chosen skill very friendly … hardly any other group/NGO can do…
So---- We Rock !!!!
Cheers!
