Independence day
20-Aug-2009
A gloomy morning was enlivened by the feverish activity that teachers and children got going quite early at about 7.15 AM. While Gurveen, the flag specialist prepared the flag and set it up over the motor caging for hoisting, other teachers and older children busily worked to decorate the stage and around it. Swathi from the bridge group put in an intricate and beautiful muggu at the gate to welcome the guests.
The flag was hoisted by Mr. Manohar, a friend of CFL, an activist lawyer working in the area of child rights. The senior group children started the program with a Hindi song from the movie Roja. Jitu and Wesley anchored the day's programs.This was then followed by the 1st and 2nd graders <> on the people of India, they wore the costume s of different states and introduced themselves in the language of the respective states. preschoolers presented a few rhymes and action songs - doing an admirable job of what was a first time on stage experience for most of them.
The 3rd -4th group's hindi song "aa chal ke tujhe" was rendered very impressively. A song that they started learning around 4 months back with great enthusiasm and a process which helped particularly Chandu, Keegan and Shantan discover their interest and liking for singing- we missed Shantan who has moved to another school
There were two english plays, that evolved from a 2 week long theatre workshop that the children went through, preceeding the event. Sukhmani a community theatre artist conducted the workshop with children. The making of the plays was a process of education for the children, helping them open up, lose their inhibition, and discover the actors in them while involving them actively in the making of the plays itself. The younger group adapted Rabindranath Tagore's " The training of the parrot" and enacted with great zeal and energy and enjoyed ever moment on the stage !! The children had their say on the end scene - choosing not to kill the poor parrot and letting it escape !! The older group chose 'Freedom" as the theme and used it to explore their own conceptions on it Sukhmani facilitated the process of evolving a script with them with a lot of skill, patience and sensitivity. The play was lively, entertaining and reflected the chidlren's ingenuity. The telugu play "Vaanalu enduku ravatledhu" was very relevant and educative both for the children doing it and for the ones watching it. The bridge group showed a lot of hard work and enthusiasm. They also did very well to handle the last minute absence of a main character by training a new actor just a few minutes before going onto the stage !!
The patriotic telugu song 'telugu veera levara"came out well despite the short time they had to practice it.
The ex students of CFL presented two very well done items. One a well choreographed Bhangra (which some Punjabis refused to recognize as bhangra though !!) and a song "A hole in the world"
At the end the guests were treated to some delicious rava laddoos and murukku that children with Jayasree teacher's help had made the previous day. After that some children, teachers and parents decided to take to the stage to indulge in some merry impromptu dances to some peppy songs and seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly !!
On the whole. the event and the activities that lead to it was more of a process than a "Show", providing children spaces and opportunities for express ion and participation. It was about the children than about the school. As always, every child in the school had something to present on the stage. It lacked the glitz and finish of a show conceived and put up by "experts" where children are mere performers, but reflected the energy,ingenuity,richness and ofcourse the imperfections of children's creation. An opportunity for children to feel 'WE can do it"
