Ravichandra D

Ravichandra is an assistant teacher at the Government Higher Primary School, Malkapura, Maski Taluk, who is also a writer and a theatre artist. Stories written by him have been published in regional newspapers. He is fortunate to have a nurturing community in his region who have recognised his work with the children and promoted his efforts by contributing to publish a children’s magazine called ‘Mandara Kannada’. Given his interest in theatre arts he has conducted several theatre workshops in the school. He has made the best possible use of technology by using mobile phones to document several folk songs involving all his students.

Ravi’s project aims to involve all 40 students of this school to explore language and environmental science texts from the school syllabus by introducing them through the folksongs of the region and to work towards documentation, publication and a folk theatre performance Janapada Sambhrama. He hopes that when children learn through these creative means, they will remember better and be able to express their own understanding about the subjects better. There are seven families in Malkapura who sing these songs through generations. They will be the main resource for this project. This project is also a partnership between the community and the school.

The outcome will be a stage performance which will be presented at two to three school venues in the neighbourhood. The deliverables will include photographs from the performance, copy of the publication and a 10 to 12 minute video as well as audio documentation.

This grant is made possible with support from Citi India.