Sundarban... an Epiphany

“Amder jongol ta thik Afrikar jongler moto lagchilo. Ki shobuj… ki shundor. Ami to bhabte’i parini… Camera die dekhlam. Bujhlam”

-       Buddha, Village Hentalbari, Goshaba, Sundarban.

“Our forest was looking just like the African forest. So green… so beautiful. I just couldn’t imagine… I looked through the camera. I understood” This is what Buddha said when he finished the 9 day workshop on Participatory Video (PV) with us at ECO. Buddha along with 8 other young adults of Hentalbari village in the Sundarbans went through an intensive 9 days where they learnt to create a video. They created their story, learnt to shoot and structure their film. Together they made a film encompassing their lives and it’s exploration, in a poignant film called ‘Sundorbone’r Sundori’ (Sundarbans- Forest Beautiful).

This blog is not about our experiences… though that would make for an interesting story. This one is about what Buddha said on that last day. It’s this astuteness of his, which gives the ever-playful Buddha the wisdom of his namesake. In one sentence he captured for me the essence of my work and brought me a sudden and startling moment of epiphany.

All over the world, especially in our country, Participatory Video is increasingly being realized as a one of the most potent tools of empowerment. A tool through, which the oppressed of the earth find one of the most important fundamental rights of a human being. The right to Voice. The right to tell the world their own story authored by them. Participatory Video has achieved miraculous ends giving the exploited a weapon to fight for themselves and find solutions for their lives.  Experiences and examples abound. The sheer power of holding a camera and walking into a space has the potential to change circumstances. When the person holding that camera happens to be someone who is disadvantaged, then we see the reigning power structures tilt for a while at least.

However there is another aspect of Participatory Video, which often goes unnoticed, unappreciated. It was this aspect, which Buddha led me to in the Sundarbans. When we began the workshop, the 9 young people who were its participants were not too enthusiastic to make a film about their lives. ‘There is nothing interesting in our life. The same forest, the same river, the same village.’ However when they started filming and creating their stories it suddenly dawned on them that their forest is really beautiful and so is their village and the people who live in it. During the filming, Bappa and Bacha told a story about a shark attack, which killed their friend and his brother. It is believed that on the day of Ganga Puja (worship), the mother Ganges ties up the jaws of the crocodiles and the sharks. All boys young and old jump into the muddy Sundarban rivers and swim across from one village to the other as a part of the puja. However a few years ago during one such day, while the boys of Hentalbari village were resting in the shallow waters after a vigorous swim, a shoal of shark attacked them and killed two brothers. Since then they have stopped swimming in the river.

The group of youngsters filmed this interview. They had all been present when the two brothers, their friends had been killed. It was a moment rife with emotion and I was somehow a part of all this. When we sat down to edit this interview, there emerged a discussion on why sharks and crocodiles had suddenly come into their river at this time of the year. Buddha, who had spent most of his life fishing in these waters, said that the sharks would come into their khal (river channel) only during the mating season. They seemed to prefer the comparatively sweet waters of the khal than the brackish waters of the open sea and rivers. Then why has this behavior changed what has happened to change it? I asked them if anything else had changed? The rest of the group jumped in. The weather has become topsy turvy… ‘grisho kale nei grisho, sheet kale nei sheet, boshont’e daakena kokil’. (it’s not hot during summers, not cold during winters, the koel bird no longer sings in spring.’) The islands are slowly being reclaimed by the river. Inch by inch. Day by day. Everything is changing didi. Why is this happening? What is happening to our lives? I asked them if they knew about climate change? I told them the little that I knew. The fog seemed to clear a bit. So there was an explanation. There were reasons. This is why our lives are changing. Is this why the fish is receding in the waters? Is this why it is becoming increasingly difficult for small fisher folk like us to eke out a living from our surroundings? It’s complex I told them. We have just begun to unearth and ask questions. But what is important is that we have begun asking these questions about our lives and this world we inhabit.

How did this happen? From the moment of disinterest and boredom to this moment of intense excitement of wanting set out on a quest, as it where to decipher their world? I believe this happened because of the camera and the process of filming. Framing their reality created the dual process of distancing them from their reality while at the same time linking them closely to it. Looking through the camera gave them the opportunity to almost step out of their own skins and look at themselves from outside giving them the ability to engage cognitively with their own lives, as if it were something to be observed, analysed and wondered about. 

It was this sense of wonderment which created this moment of epiphany not just for me but for these young filmmakers as well.

Kavita Das Gupta

Goshaba, Sundarban

January 2013

ECO will soon share the film Sundarban- Forest Beautiful, along with 2 other films made by children attempting to decipher and voice their narratives about their lives and their environment.

 Filming in the foggy rivers of the Sundarban near Hentalbari village, Goshaba

Story of a little village road...

... the ever energetic Suchismita

Suchismita was the highly energized one. So high voltage, that we had to find new ways to keep her focused and channelize her energies. Though she was also the one coming back with new ideas and arguments, which took the class forward.

Suchismita had an older brother and no father. He committed suicide, a few years ago trying to repay a loan he had taken to start a new business. Suchi, 13, wasn’t aware of the reason. I was told by the cycle van driver who took us to her house.

Suchi and 9 of her friends from class 9 of Dhablat Lakhsman Paribesh School were in an 8-day workshop making a film on sustainability. Their vision of sustainability, from their lived experience. I was the trainer who was a teacher and a co-learner at the same time. We were in the biggest island in the Sunderbans delta. All of 300 sq Kms. called Sagar.

Each child made an interesting journey to school. We thought we should explore Suchi’s. Just to know our filmmakers better. Suchi’s grouse was that on exam days she would be very anxious waiting for the boatman to finish his lunch and take her across the river. This excited me and Dharma, my co trainer, to do this journey with Suchi, one day after the workshop was done.

Suchi was thrilled. Her Sir had decided to visit her home. Evening was closing in. A small rivulet was to be crossed first. We waited for the only ferry boat in service and then waited for it to be full up before we could cross. A daily passenger Suchi, was today in the limelight. Everyone was asking- who we were? She proudly announced that she was making a film and these were her filmmaking Sirs.  

The boat ride was short. Then the cycle van. A flat bed made of wooden splats on two wheels drawn by a cycle. You sit on the wooden splat bed, careful not to get your legs entangled in the wheels. The ride took us about 30 minutes. We had to take a longer route today because the shorter one was being flood repaired.  Bobbing up and down on the village mud roads, we came upon a scene and there was commotion. Members of a family including women and children were sitting out on the road. On inquiring, we learnt that there had been a theft in their house.

The light was fading fast by the time we reached Suchi’s straw, mud and roof tiled house. Powered by their own solar ‘plate’ on their tiled roof. Her mother promptly produced tea for all of us and we had a few laughs over Suchi’s overflowing energy levels. Her house was next to a small patch of forest, which gave them fuel wood. No famed Sunderbans tigers on this island.

By the time we were out of her house it was pitch dark. There were no streetlights as is common in rural areas. Our cycle van driver produced a contraption which was a torch slung by a string over the cycle handle, pointing towards the road, throwing a small pool of weak yellow light. Visibility wasn’t more than a few meters. The road was a raised strip and the sides ended up in a ditch before the rice fields began. Once one of the back wheels was found precariously fighting a complete dislodge into the ditch. Thankfully it won that round and we all were still safe. We crossed the family out on the road. The cops were awaited still. One oil lantern had been added to the crowd.  Amidst the cacophony of cricket, the village was lit by tons of flickering oil lamps though a few low voltage CFL bulbs were also on display powered by solar plates. What I dreamt that night was, what if our cycle van had lost the battle and we overturned into the ditch?!

The children were making a film on the proposed development of the island. A port, a bridge joining mainland Kolkata to their island and power stations were proposed. Tourism and infrastructure development were next. The children were apprehensive of the new proposals of the adults.  They were ready to take an extreme ‘all development is bad’ tenor in their film, had it not been for my trip to Suchismita’s house that evening. Is, having streetlights in their village a bad idea?  Roads, which don’t flood every monsoon? A small bridge across the river, which may help Suchi bring her cycle across and not wait for the boatman to finish his lunch on exam days?

Controlled and an inclusive development is good. But a runaway development especially for an island ecosystem, could spell doom is what their film said.

Ajaner Deeper Golpo- A story of an Unknown Island.

Perched on the edge.... on the way to Suchi's village

Krishnendu Bose

New Delhi

22nd December 2012

Watch this space to view this film…

3 New Films on the Way

3 New Films... conceptualised, scripted, shot by 3 groups of children/ young adults from the Sundarbans and Kanha are in their final stage of production....

Waiting to share new voices and thoughts with you soon...

CHHOTO MOLLAKHALI, SUNDARBAN

GOBINDOPUR, SUNDARBAN

KANHA, MADHYA PRADESH

                                                  

INDRI, KANHA, MADHYA PRADESH

SAGAR ISLAND, SUNDARBAN

SAGAR ISLAND, SUNDARBAN

Sarang, one of our children filmmakers from Adharshila feels...

"trignometry is like filmmaking... is like music. all 3 need loads and loads of practice" :)

Scroll below to watch 'Trikon Khirkee Wala School', a film made by Sarang and his friends from Adharshila in a collaborative Participatory Video process with us at ECO. Enjoy!

Link to Trikon Khirkee Wala School

Children from Adharshila Learning Center in the heart of tribal south Madhya Pradesh make a short video about 'why shouldn't education be fun and interesting?' To push boundaries in true ECO style, they step outside the world of their own school and comfort zone to dialogue with children from mainstream public schools in a small city a stone's throw away from their school.

This film narrates the journey of these children and captures what happens when these two worlds collide...

To watch the film, click on the link below:
Trikon Khirkee Wala School

... a school with a window to the world.

Shankhayan

Adharshila

Adharshila, a name that would come up every now and then in the Earthcare office. And for the last few years I had been wanting to go there out of curiosity, to find out what was so unusual about this Adivasi school. I have worked with Adivasi children many times before but I was told that Adharshila is different.

Opportunity came when Kavita designed a participatory video project for Adahrshila kids. I was excited to take on this one.

Kavita had told me that the school was on a small hill surrounded by villages. Throughout the 15-hour journey, I kept imagining and picturing the school. Most of my previous work with Adivasis was more or less inside the forest or around it. So I was visualizing a school among tall dense trees, birds chirping...…. a typical forest scenario.

Kamal had come to the station at Indore to receive me, and no time was lost between us to break the ice.  I was joining the workshop in the second phase. After I reached Adharshila, within no time I was sharing a good rapport with the kids. Thanks to Kavita, they already knew me.

As I walked into the campus, I saw small groups of children scattered around. However, I could not make out what they were doing and before I could explore, Kavita took me to meet Amit bhai and Jaya, the brains behind the school.  I admire them for the choice and sacrifice they have made in their lives. It is not every day that you find people like them. We had a brief chat about the school and how it was conceptualized.

Thereafter I thought of getting myself acclimatized to the surroundings and took a walk through the campus. I came across a group of children with glucose bottles and drips, something I had only seen in hospitals and wondered what the kids do with these. Upon asking, a boy promptly explained to me that these are used for drip farming and he practically showed me how it is done. I don't think any text book would have explained drip farming better than my new little friends.

As I continued, I saw children doing so many things practically, which are connected to their course books and otherwise, as if to see if the theory actually works in real life.  I was amazed to find the connections each child had made with life, how they wanted to find a solution to everything, even if they didnt find one,  their quest continued.

At the chicken pen I saw a boy sitting and observing chicks. I asked him what he was doing. He said that some chicks are dying and that he was trying to figure out, why . This was Tota Ram, he became my favorite at Adharshila. He is fond of birds and has recorded over 70 birds in and around  Adharshila. He borrowed my bird guide book, and for the next few days I saw him wandering with the guide. On the last day, he returned my bird guide with all the birds he had seen book marked in it.

Each day  I was surprised by  the little innovations these kids made, be it finding a solution to make a shower for me out of broken material or providing a makeshift screen for viewing films. There is all round talent in Adharshila and a never dying curiosity to explore and learn.

The uniqueness of these Adahrshila kids, which distinguishes them from most of the children I have met earlier, was such that it never brought my attention towards the barren landscape.

The blanket of stars, driving Sureshji’s three wheeler, sugarcane juice after each screening, cooking in Amit bhai’s house, swim in the dam and so many other things will stay with me for years to come…

And yes, Tota Ram did manage to save the chicks, he found out the reason but that’s another episode...

Dharma

Dharma Singh did the camera and was part of a crew, which worked with 10 children from Adharshila to make a film called 'Trikon Khirkee Wala School'. You can watch the film, get a closer look at Adharshila Learning Center and embark on a journey with the children by clicking here.

Memories of Adharshila

Reaching Adharshila, a small school located in the remote village of Sakad in Madhya Pradesh, after travelling for almost four hours in the scorching heat, should have robbed me of all my enthusiasm for the grueling three weeks that was to come. Instead, I found an oasis amidst the barren and desolate landscape. And the sheer energy, love and kindness shared by the kids rinsed out the tiredness and drove me to work harder and push the boundaries.

On being offered the project, as is common to our generation, one of the first things I did was “google” Adharshila. I was the only one among the crewmembers who had no idea about the space and I was anxious to change that status. What I found on the net was not exactly very illuminating; neither did it promise a great scope for enjoyment. It was just a school for adivasis (indigenous people) employing alternate methods of learning. My initial reaction was one of cynicism. Oh! Another one of those vocational training schools that dot the countryside.

At that stage, what was most interesting was, that we were going to hold workshops on filmmaking, teaching the young kids the craft and technology that it has become today, at the end of which they would make a complete film. Our task was to capture this whole process along with the day-to-day running of the school, its activities, mode of working and other aspects of the life of these kids.

We were met at Indore station by Anil and Sarang, two of the kids who would be participating in the workshop. Things started going berserk the moment they were given a handy cam. A camera in the hands of even adults turn them into children and these guys were, well, just kids! But through that process, somehow I managed to become their friend.

That first night, we slept under the stars out in the open. It was quite an exhilarating experience though lugging all that equipment and travelling for almost a day in that heat had completely worn us out and we were asleep in no time.

The morning brought fresh challenges, as there was no running water in the bathrooms. In fact, for all purposes, there were no bathrooms. One had to fill up buckets and find a secluded corner and do whatever we needed to do. Anyway, we had scheduled our first meeting with the kids post-breakfast and I got ready for the day.

Before the meeting Kavita, formally introduced us with Amit bhai and Jayashree didi, the people who had left a much more comfortable life in the cities to go into this tribal heartland to open a school for the adivasi children of that area. They came across as honest, hardworking who really cared about their surroundings and the people they were working with. Afterwards we had our first meeting with Revali, Pushpen, Prakash, Lelsingh, Anju, Quram, Sanjay and Vinesh who along with Anil and Sarang made up the group who would be attending the workshop and in the process make a film of their choice.

The first session was spent getting to know each other, discussing the format of the workshop and Kavita, the trainer and our director, laying out the ground rules in no uncertain terms. The only spoilsport was the intense heat, which started taking its toll even on our equipment.

The unique thing about the workshop was the participatory element. Right from the very beginning, there was no attempt to impose pre-conceived notions or ideas. The inputs given by Kavita were purely on technical aspects of film making such as different kind of shots, method of editing and storytelling and of course once in a while streamlining their chain of thoughts, if it was travelling in a haphazard direction. Primarily, the film was taking shape through a process of discussion and brainstorming between the kids. It was fascinating to watch them think of an idea, then discuss ways of visually and aurally achieving it.

As the workshop progressed and the participants started opening up and getting more involved what surprised me was the kind of creativity with which they started ideating and building up the film. The process of the training pushed them into terrains they hadn’t explored earlier and that set their imagination free.

In the course of my stay I came to know Adharshila intimately. The first realization of course was that this is not just another vocational training institute. What Amit Bhai and Jaya didi were doing was teaching maths, physics, chemistry, english, history and other things in a practical way, easy to understand and would remain with them for the rest of their lives. It was more about learning by doing. So one group of kids would spend the whole day intimately creating the battle between the tribal leader Khajya Naik and the British forces. This not only helped them learn history and their own culture but also forced them to think innovatively. Thus colourful bottle caps would replace helmets of the British soldiers while painstakingly collected twigs of various shapes would become the arms of the brave tribal warriors. Whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention was bang on.

Children here not only have fun but also learn things that no text book can teach them. They would know as much about quadratic equations as they would about drip farming. And amazingly, they were doing it against all odds. There was always a conflict with power and acute water shortages. The famous Indian ‘jugaad’ was at its zenith there.

Despite power shortages and having to work at night because of the heat, and after endless fights, discussions, arguments and the much-needed forceful motivation from Kavita, the film was finally made. The children and all of us in the crew were so excited. This whole process was a revelation of sorts as each one revealed their strengths and weaknesses. By then I had become Shankho ‘Bhaiyya’. The long hours spent waiting for electricity would transform into spontaneous jam sessions between Sarang on the tabla and me on the guitar or an intense discussion on Hindi films prompted by Anil who happens to be a huge Mithun fan. What it actually did was build a connection that would remain etched in my heart forever.

As I look back, in spite of the hardships we had to go through, the heat, the unavailability of certain comforts, I fondly remember the nights we spent sleeping on an open terrace under a clear sky with the kids talking about constellations, bollywood and music. We fondly referred to it as our ‘million star hotel’ and that is what it is going to remain for me. Forever.

Shankhayan Chowdhury

July 2012

Shankhayan recorded the sound and coordinated production besides being the children's friend on this production.

'Trikon khirkeewala school' is a work in progress and should be up in a few days from now…

This film as well as training children in Participatory Video was supported by Community, the Youth Collective, New Delhi.