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Attend: A storytelling festival for children

Enroll your child in this 10-day storytelling workshop that ends with a finale performance in front of a live audience.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

We ply our children with a variety of ‘activities’ to keep them ‘busy’ during the long summer vacations. How about keeping them occupied in an activity that will help them explore their innate creativity and become imaginative storytellers?

‘Story Nest’ is back with the second edition of its storytelling summer festival for young children from Apri 14 to 24. Conceptualised by professional storyteller Sherin Mathews, who has been grooming children for the last 11 years, Story Nest will, through a 10-day camp, present the Big Fat Indian Wedding adaptation of the classic story, ‘The beauty and the beast’. The workshop will also work towards staging the inspired version of the Blue Umbrella.

“Through Story Nest, we help children aged four to 16 years use the tools of storytelling in performing arts, storytelling techniques, public speaking, drama, music and dance. As a culmination of the unique storytelling festival, Story nest will stage a public performance of its young storytellers,” explains Sherin (in pic on left, during one of her performances with the children).

She adds, “Stories engage, enchant, touch, delight, inspire, motivate, challenge, entertain and transform the listener into a new way of being. Stories go right into the heart and soul of people. The power of storytelling on our lives can only be experienced. Listening to a storyteller can create lasting personal connections, promote innovative problem solving, and foster a shared understanding regarding future ambitions. The listener can then activate knowledge and imagine new possibilities. Together a storyteller and listener can seek best practices and invent new solutions because stories often have multiple layers of meanings.”

A few details about the workshop:

– The ‘Story Nest’ workshop will take place from April 14 to 24, 2014. These will be practice sessions, and will take place between 9 to 11 am and 6 pm to 8 pm.

– The finale will take place on April 26, 2014 at Prabodhankar Thackeray Auditorium, Borivali, from 10 am to 1 pm.

– The registration fees per child will be Rs 5,000. Each participant will be trained to narrate a story in one or more narrative forms.

– Call Sherin Mathews for more details on +91-9004748616.

(Pictures courtesy Sherin Mathews)

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Go birding!

bee-eaterUnique four-day global event invites citizen scientists to participate in a ‘spot a bird’ initiative – in their own backyard.
by Adithi Muralidhar

If you have always had a fascination for observing birds, this is a great chance for you to convert that hobby into something productive. The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is back with a bang!

GBBC is an annual four-day (February 14 to 17, 2014) event that engages bird watchers from all over the world. A citizen science initiative, this event is as simple as maintaining a sincere account of the birds you sight in your backyard. It attempts to create a real-time snapshot of the location and the birds found there. Organised jointly by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada, GBBS is sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited.

What is the event about?

To understand how to participate, first visit this page.

– Decide on a location where you want to bird. You could do this sitting by your window, sipping your morning coffee or on a walk to a nearby park, or visit to a national park/ bird sanctuary. The minimum time limit to do birding is 15 minutes.

– Observe the bird, note down the species, and note down how many individuals you can see of that particular species.

– Note down important aspects like time of the day, duration of birding, weather, any behavioural observations, and estimates of the number of individuals of a species.

– Register to enter your results here. Enter your results on the GBBC website by clicking on ‘Submit Observations’. Apart from entering the bird check-list, you will also be asked to map your location, mark the day and time, whether your sightings were incidental, during travel or while stationary. You will also be required to enter data like how many people contributed to the checklist, sighting of rare birds, unusual or peculiar bird behaviour. It is also important to mention if you are reporting all the species you saw or only the ones you could identify.

– If you are not familiar with identification of birds, try and check with peers, or use a field guide. Do not guess the names or enter unsure sightings.

– If you still have questions, visit this page GBBS’s FAQ section.

Why participate? 

Monitoring bird populations all over the world can tell us a lot about the status of a bird species – you can keep account of their abundance/absence in some areas, their migratory patterns, their breeding grounds, their behaviour and distribution, monitor any ill effects due to pollution and climate change, etc. This is a Herculean task and it cannot be done by a single team of scientists or nature enthusiasts. A collaborative effort like this will help put together pieces of the puzzle from all over the world, which will in turn help the scientific community to make inferences on trends in bird populations.  In 2013, 110 countries participated in GBBC and India contributed to the third highest chunk of checklists (467). Hopefully, with more participation from nature enthusiasts this year, we can do our bit and contribute to this initiative.

But remember…

While GBBC encourages participation from all age groups; beginners, amateurs and experts, one should take care that you are contributing to a global science project. This citizen science initiative asks for numerous individuals to contribute their observations of a particular subject (in this case, birds) to a central database, which in turn will be analysed by scientists. This empowers the scientific community since now they are equipped with a massive set of volunteers who contribute to enhancing their observational research. So, be sincere and responsible while doing your bit.

Adithi Muralidhar is currently an Associate Fellow with Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. Apart from her pursuits in environment, education and sustainability, she also has a keen interest in socio-cultural issues. 

(Pictures courtesy GBBC website, Adithi Muralidhar)

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Blind men’s car rally flags off tomorrow

Head to Worli Sea Face tomorrow to cheer on 100 visually-challenged navigators and their sighted teammates drive a 45-km course.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The city will host a wonderful car rally tomorrow – 100 visually-impaired persons will be navigators to 100 sighted drivers as they traverse a 45 kilometre route in Mumbai together.

The ‘Blind Men’s Car Rally’ is an initiative conceptualised by Round Table India (RTI )in association with National Association for the Blind (NAB). Says Viral Kedia, convenor for the Rally, “The months of January and February 2014 are devoted to several such rallies all over the country. This year, 24 cities including Mumbai are hosting the rallies. Tomorrow, along with Mumbai, there will be 17 other cities hosting such rallies.”

The idea behind the initiative is a unique one – to create awareness about the grave consequences of ignoring literacy. The initiative focuses on eradicating illiteracy and highlights the challenges faced by the visually impaired. “We want to highlight the fact that a visually impaired person will show the way to a sighted one. It is a powerful message, and a much-needed one. The blind navigators will be armed with route maps in Braille,” says Viral, adding that the NAB screened and tested the navigators, while the RTI was in charge of registering drivers for the event.

The 45 km long route will start at the Police Ground behind Worli Sea Face, and end at the NAB, also in Worli. Designer and politician Shaina NC, ad man Prahlad Kakkar, Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu and Shiv Sena’s Aditya Thackeray will flag off the event at 8 am.

“The rally is a time-distance-speed (TDS) event. Each car will be flagged off within one minute of each other, from the same starting point,” explains Viral. Apart from Mumbai, similar rallies will take off today in major cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Cochin and Ludhiana.

(Pictures courtesy Viral Kedia, RTI. Images are file pictures)

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Have a story to perform? Head to Prithvi

Caferati at Prithvi Theatre, a forum for writers, gives participants a two-minute chance to perform their written work this evening.

A lot of stand-up-and-perform acts for writers and storytellers are mushrooming all over Mumbai. Joining the bandwagon is Caferati, a performing event to be held at Prithvi Theatre tomorrow, January 28.

Caferati is a forum for writers in English. Most of their membership is Indian or has an India connection, because that’s where the group originated. However membership is open to adults anywhere in the world. Some of the members are published or earn a living from writing in some way, but that is not a condition for membership.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, head to Prithvi Theatre today for an exciting event. The event is essentially this: You + your writing + two minutes at the microphone.

However, there are some rules to follow. While the works can be in English, Marathi, Hindi or Urdu, the writing must be yours and you can perform for a maximum of two minutes only. No group performances are allowed. Participants are allowed to shot, declaim, sing; they can sit, stand or lie down; they can dance, do a cartwheel, play a musical instrument – anything goes, as long as you perform your words.

There is no restriction on genres – you can perform poetry, prose, scripts, songs, etc. but nudity, explicit language, slander or anything that flouts Indian laws is prohibited.

Sounds like your thing? Head to Prithvi Theatre today, at least half an hour before 7 pm to make yourself eligible to enter. Submit your script for approval and perform. Good luck!

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Prithvi Theatre)

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Talk: Japan’s post-war avant-garde

Jnanapravah to host ‘Gutai’s World’ a talk by Dr Alexandra Munroe at Fort this evening. Artists and historians, take note.

As part of its ‘Criticism and Theory’ module, Jnanapravaha is hosting a talk titled ‘Gutai’s World: Japan’s postwar avant-garde and the fate of internationalism’ by Dr Alexandra Munroe

In spring 2013, the Guggenheim Museum presented the first US museum retrospective exhibition ever devoted to Gutai, the most influential artists’ collective and artistic movement in postwar Japan and among the most important international avant-garde movements active anywhere in the world during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Founded by the visionary artist Yoshihara Jiro in 1954, the Gutai group spanned two generations, totalling 59 Japanese artists over its 18-year history. The name ‘Gutai’ literally means ‘concreteness and captures the direct engagement with materials its members championed under Yoshihara’s call to “Do what no one has done before!” and to elicit “the scream of matter itself.”

From its earliest festival-like events, Gutai artists sought to break down the barriers between art, the ordinary public, and everyday life, and continuously took on new artistic challenges using the body in direct action with materials, time and space, nature and technology.

Dr Munroe will discuss Gutai’s extraordinary range of bold and innovative creativity; examine its aesthetic strategies in the cultural, social and political context of postwar Japan, including its relationship with the traditional arts; and will argue for the need to establish Gutai in an expanded, transnational history and critical discourse of modern art.

The talk is at 6.30 pm today, January 23. Head to Jnanapravah, Queen’s Mansion, 3rd floor, G Talwatkar Marg, Fort. Entry is free.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Jnanapravah Mumbai)

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RK Laxman, in an exhibition

Over 200 of the legendary cartoonist’s works are being displayed at Worli’s Nehru Centre Art Gallery till January 5, 2014.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Journalists and students of the profession will often remark on the role and importance of the political cartoonist in the newspaper’s overall scheme of things – and lament at the absence of the cartoonist in contemporary media.

Hence, it is heartening to visit an exhibition of works by India’s best-loved political cartoonist, RK Laxman. The exhibition, the 21st in the ‘Indian Master’s Retrospective’, was inaugurated by Maharashtra State Governor K Sankaranarayanan at the Worli-based Nehru Centre Art Gallery, and the works have been curated by the Gallery’s Assistant Director, Nina Rege. The showing includes over 200 cartoons, old and new, made by Laxman.

RK Laxman exhibitionSpeaking at the inauguration, the Governor said, “Few cartoonists have held forth such a long sway over readers as RK Laxman has done with his remarkable work, day after day and year after year for 60 long years. He has been a ‘people’s representative’ in the real sense of the term for all these years.  He gave face to the aam aadmi in our country. Through his cartoons, he has represented the silent millions of the country, voiced their real problems and raised their issues forcefully in the corridors of power.

“Very importantly, Shri Laxman has explained to the readers a range of complex political, national and international issues using his master strokes and a few simple lines. Personally, I rate the cartoonist a few notches higher than the Editor.”

The Governor exhorted the public to visit the exhibition as it “brings to light some of Shri Laxman’s best and yet less known works.  It has also brought out Laxman, the artist. His sketches of personalities and landscapes are outstanding and prove his brilliance as an artist.”

A new book,  Finely Exaggerated, will also be released during the exhibition period.

Head to Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Worli, from 11 am to 7 pm. The exhibition is on till January 5, 2014. Call 022 24963426 for details.

(Pictures courtesy Raj Bhavan, Mumbai)

 

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