The Dress Rehearsal

We decided we needed two 'near the end' meetings with everyone, one on Tuesday morning, in time to wake up the mentor gang in the studio in which they work and sleep and the other on Wednesday night, right before our Thursday early morning departure. 

Each workshop team had to present details of their plans, materials list and backup plans for when things go wrong as well as clarity on who's doing what. 

Shweta presented the 'Intro to Design' workshop for youth, with objective: Introduce the concept of design to youth and empower them to think with an open mind to address immediate scenarios around them.  

She described moving from individual to pair to team thinking, using their imagination and making objects of their inspiration. Some of the key learning elements she had envisioned and planned for were the difference between art and design, about form, nature as inspiration and about empathy. 
And they had an impressive set of visuals to inspire and trigger thinking. Siddharth, a recent joinee in the team is gearing up and getting ready to work with the youth. 

Amit has taken on leadership not just of his Multi-Jugaad workshop for adult men but also coordination with village leads, the police personnel and several other administrative requirements. 

After our last visit to the village, we  were a little taken aback by potential attendees' queries on why they should miss a day of work and attend our workshop. It certainly got us thinking. After careful deliberations and discussions within the group, Amit, Pulkit and Pankaj presented an impressive and contextually relevant set of workshop activities which we hope will not just engage participants but also trigger their thinking into everyday problem solving in their setting. And we also decided to minimize the use of the word 'jugaad' as we realized it has too many different connotations for different people and has the potential to fragment the thought process. 

Their workshop objective: 

To sensitize village residents to the concept of local innovation. To imbibe in them the confidence to take forward their learning from the workshop and adopt it in their daily life. And to make them understand alternate uses of existing everyday products. Their visuals also were a well thought out collection of inspirations and triggers. Some interesting exercises they had envisioned were: alternate uses of everyday throwaway items, such as create an alternative device other than an umbrella to protect from the sun, design a portable object that women could use for toilet privacy etc.

Kulwant and Koel prepared as they presented their 'Toys from Trash' workshop. This is a new area of work for them and they are understandably improvising as they try to learn about toys, trash, toys from trash and children!

All I could get from them was a lot of verbalization of their overall plan that you see here. But I have confidence they will run a great workshop as they have the passion.

We have had a lot of uncertainties around Sharmila's ability to be here but finally it looks like she will arrive on Tuesday evening. We look forward to her presence and the samples like these shown here as well as raw materials she will bring to conduct the Jute and Cross Stitch workshop with women.  

Mohit, who will work with her, has prepared a color circle visual with which he hopes to explain color sensitization and color selection to the participants of this workshop.  

Pankaj was allocated the task of certificates and Piyush the badges for participants. Pulkit took on the brave responsibility of rounding up all the materials list from all workshop leaders and coordinating with Raja, the dependable coordinator of our department. 

We also made plans for 'minor' details like breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleeping arrangements, preparedness for mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies and not to miss the famous and promised Kulwant Fried Chicken (KFC). 

Vinodji suggested we stay in the local school premises where we could cook our chicken undisturbed amidst a predominantly vegetarian village. And he graciously invited us to his home for lunch on the second day. 


28 April, 2015