Arivu Education and Cultural Trust

This Foundation Project, titled Common Man—Malgudiyallondu Mane Maadi, implemented by IFA, will engage fifth to seventh-grade students studying at Arivu Vidhya Samsthe, a school run by Arivu Education and Cultural Trust in Mysuru to disseminate the literature and creative expressions of RK Narayan and RK Laxman through a series of art activities. The project attempts to engage students with their local literary heritage and foster creativity through filmmaking, reading, writing, theatre and caricaturing.  For this project, Manohara MC, a medical practitioner and a theater actor of Arivu Education and Cultural Trust, will be the signatory. Praveen Belli, who works on theater in education, will be the project facilitator.

Arivu Vidhya Samsthe is a shared endeavor of a group of parents, teachers, students, and citizens to explore the possibilities of a better education system, a sustainable lifestyle, and a culture of respect, joy, and pride. The school has a staff of around 38 (which includes teachers, visiting faculty, resource persons, and administrators) and around 285 students. The school also hosts a community resource center and a butterfly park in an environmentally friendly campus. Students at Arivu learn through direct experience, experimentation, model making, visiting historical and natural places, observing birds and plants, discussing, playing, and many other activities. Given their experience, Arivu Education and Cultural Trust is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this foundation project of IFA. 

There are many ways for students to express themselves creatively through seeing, experiencing and responding to events. But the education system today is limited to measuring a student's knowledge based on marks and examinations.  The brothers RK Narayan and RK Laxman of Mysuru made a mark in the literary landscape as writer, novelist; and cartoonist and illustrator respectively. They created lasting material by responding to changes in their neighbourhood through the characters of the Talkative Man and Common Man. In most of RK Narayan’s short stories, the Talkative Man is the narrator of the story, often commenting on current concerns that are often ironical and satirical. Narayan’s childhood experiences are beautifully reflected in his writings, and his short stories have an autobiographical touch –a child’s world viewed through an adult eye.

The Common Man appears in cartoons and illustrations by RK Laxman. He is a man with a striped coat, moustache, and bespectacled; his gestures and facial expressions reflect surprise, wonder, and confusion. Through the Common Man, Laxman comments on the socio-economic and socio-political aspects of Indian life. This legendary creation became synonymous with the Times of India for years. Like his brother, RK Laxman too is a keen observer of the minute absurdities of life; and engages with situations with a light and humorous vein.

Ironically, this mobile age, with its magical web, has imprisoned us, including children, to see the world only through a device and not experience our surroundings. In this context, it is surprising that even though such famous people resided in Mysuru, they are not known to the locals and the school textbooks do not include many details about them either. In an endeavour to bridge these shortcomings, this project nurtures an engagement with these figures and their work.

This 18-month project, Common Man—Malgudiyallondu Mane Maadi familiarises children with RK Narayan and RK Laxman through four key perceptions: seeing, reading, sketching, and enacting – encouraging creative expression. The project envisions an activity of making short films on mobile phones, exploring the expressions of people and encounters in the marketplace. These films will then be projected on a big screen, encouraging students to share and speak about their story ideas. It is hoped that this activity sparks imagination among them to create a character or to write a story in a short video format. 

This project takes further shape by exploring the life and literature of RK Narayan, and arranging a series of discussions with his contemporaries, who have read his stories and novels. The main writings that students will engage with would be Malgudi Days, Swamy and His Friends, and Banker Margayya. Having done all these tasks, children will once again visit the market, parks, crossroads, railway station, and other places in Mysuru to observe the activities there. This is done to motivate them to write stories inspired by their surroundings which will be published at the school level.

Arranging an exhibition of 100–150 selected caricatures by RK Laxman is also part of the project. During the exhibition, a week-long caricature workshop will be organised with students. Once the workshop is concluded, students will once again revisit and explore the various areas in the city to observe and sketch caricatures inspired by their environs. This activity will culminate in an exhibition sharing the illustrations made by students.

The final engagement will include classroom-based theater activities - with grade five working on Swami and Friends, grade six on Malgudi Days, and grade seven on Banker Margayya. These plays will be staged and performed at the school level as well as in public. A special feature of this project is that one of the activities will be held at RK Narayan's home. With this experiment, the hope of the project is that residents of Mysuru, students, and the public will meaningfully connect with the literary legacy of the city.

The outcome of the project will be an exhibition, performances, a publication, and a process document. The satirical caricatures created by students will reflect their experience of the world around them, the publication of stories will foster creative readers and young writers; and the plays they perform will bring alive the stories and characters from Narayan’s writing connecting them to this local literary legend. The project coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, copies of the publication, the process document, and video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education program in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the places they inhabit.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and that funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an implementation memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a final evaluation to share with the Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company.