Beyond borders

                                                                                                             Roshni Ghosh

                                                                            Teacher,Loreto Day School Sealdah

In the month of February, 2011, a group of enthusiastic teachers and students paid us a visit. We have shared a very fruitful partnership program with John Scottus School in Dublin, Ireland for a long time. The student group comprised girls and boys of 15 to 17. Their time here was spent in joyful interaction with students of Loreto Sealdah on topics ranging from differences between the geographical, historical, cultural features of the two countries to the youth of today, their lives, dreams , aspirations, frustrations as well as their thoughts about society, its norms, important social institutions like marriage and so on. Many of the students fearlessly voiced their preferences as well as grievances and were surprised to see that in spite of many differences in lifestyle many of the problems faced by the youth of India were similar to the ones faced by their counterparts in another part of the world. Also, the realization that there were very serious problems existing even in first world countries dawned on them, pointing to the fact that not only is money not the solution to all problems, but often it creates some rather unique ones. On the lighter side students exchanged views on music, dance, literature, film and many demonstrated their musical and artistic talents. Both groups learned new things and shared them in an open house. Their experiences on a trip to the Sundarbans and a school construction project there as well as their trip to the village schools with the Loreto girls also filled up a large part of their exchanges and indeed proved to be an eye opener to many of them about how life can be led contentedly within very limited means. The communications between the John Scottus and our Rainbow children also helped them substantially to see how adversity can be dealt with, learnt from and turned into success. It also became clear what a long way a little help and cooperation could go in building lives and making them meaningful. The interactions between the children of the two countries were illuminating, educational and above all, fun-the icing on the cake being the time they joined us to sing our national anthem which they had practiced before coming to India. We will miss our Irish friends and eagerly await their next visit.

Posted by Debasish 

A STUDENT'S COMMENTS ON HER SCHOOL FILM CLUB

Dear Friends

Our school, Mahadevi Birla Girls' H S School has a Film club in which we watch films and discuss them.I had asked my student, Shreya Madhogarhia, who is now in Class 11, to write about her experience of being a member. Am posting her article here, for it reveals the immense possibilities the medium of cinema holds in a better understanding of the self.

Rupali Sachdev

Film Club-my experience (uptil now)

The very first days...

When I first walked into the classroom, greeted by a smiling Miss Sachdev, I was naïve, out of all things. And blind, more or less.

But I had an empty cup.

I realized later, that it was all I needed…

We got an introduction before we saw a film or a documentary. But we were never fed conclusions. Somehow, it was just not another class where submitting a hard cover file full of blindly copied information (almost always from the same sources) could help get good grades. Most of what we saw forced us to think. That was all that was asked of us, to think, discuss, opine, ask and react, in our own ways…

Learned a lot...

We did not have the best infrastructure for film screenings. There were times when something or the other wouldn’t work. Equally stubborn, we would find other ways.

We may not have had a projector but we had a computer, and a large screen.That seemed to suffice.

I learned a lot from things like that...

We were few in number, most times. Sometimes, very few. I thought it was sad, disappointing, a disgrace. Miss, however thought it was a great, in a way.

“A few, but a dedicated few. Someone’s better than no one.”

I learned a lot from conversations like that…

When I saw Skin Deep, Bombay Our City, A Narmada Diary, Rashomon, I went back home with an uneasy feeling. These were not some films with a pleasant and comfortable happy-ending. I felt challenged everytime. Challenged to figure out what had disturbed me and why.To reflect and infer.To study what’s around me, without a book...

I learned a LOT from films like that.

Swarnavidya

Then we set on another journey, within the larger one. We had to make (yes, make!) a documentary on our school (for our golden jubilee celebration). Together, we got a taste of what its like to do everything from directing to editing a 30-minute documentary over a period of one whole year. It was bitter at one point, with all the running around and disappointments, but other images linger in the mind now. Images of us laughing as we cried and crying as we laughed in places like our editing room, that corner in the hall, corridors, lobbies, the school ground…

Dear film club,IOU...

If the film club was a living being (it already seems to be a living space, with a collective spirit) I’d owe it so much, its hard to imagine the magnitude of that ‘much’.

It’s a weird thing, that I’m not indebted for answers.

Rather, for questions. Questions that are like hungry wolves in my head, with nothing to pacify them, except for, an unbiased, clear, perfect answer.

Now

Almost two years after I wrote the word ‘film’ in my ECA form, I know about Kurosawa, montage, Anand Patwardhan, editing lingo etcetera, but more than that, I feel like I’ve grown, in many ways. In the way I see things. In the way I feel about things..

In the way I look at my life, which, of course has been and will be, the most difficult film I’ve ever had to cast, direct and of course, edit at the same time!

Note-

When film club was not a part of our extra-curricular activity period in class 10, I was quite disappointed. What’s ‘extra’ about films in our curriculum, I mused. It’s a much better way to learn anyway. But I wasn’t frustrated enough, for I did nothing about it. We’ll have those film festivals, I told myself. I was convinced with ‘but’s and ‘atleast’s…

Now in class 11, we still don’t have club periods anymore : (

This time I’ll do something about it.

But I’m still a film club member. Yes, very much.

(And don’t you dare ask me for proof.)

Shreya Madhogarhia, Class 11

An Update:
Not only do we have Film Club in our school in Class 10  (from April 2010), but also, the school has included it as a club activity for Class 11 (from April 2011 onwards). 

We also had a 10 day international film festival from 27th Sept- 11th Oct. There were 2 silent films, 5 were black and white,  and none of the films had stars, or star directors, or  songs and dances (except Singing in the Rain). They were from Italy, Russia, UK, US, Japan, China and India. If we feel that our 15-16 yr old children, would not sit through Battleship Potemkin or Rashomon or Bicycle thieves, we can rethink. Will get back on this within a few days.

R Sachdev