Books of Hope

The monkeys she sees every evening are now part of Meena’s own story book. She, like her other friends, are now writing, and illustrating, their own stories. Artist and educator Rikki Asher brings you a heartwarming account of her time at the Pardada Pardadi school.

Text and photographs: Rikki Asher
 

 
Inside the school building, a strong wind blows windows shut. It is about to rain and one can hear the sound of girls voices against the sounds of dishes being washed. The lights go out suddenly and there is a moment when everything stops. A few minutes later the lights come back on and classes resume. The wind is even stronger and doors slam shut. Hail begins to fall from a grey sky. Girls run down the hall covering their ears. Some will write about this hail storm and illustrate it for their book project.

Twenty fifth graders in green school uniforms, pale yellow aprons and sashes greeted me with , “Good morning Madam.” I asked them to drop the Madam and call me Rikki or Ms. Asher. No luck. The classroom is up a narrow flight of stairs in the back of the building. There are no lights the morning we begin, no chairs or tables and the girls sit on the floor. I sit on the floor too and begin class. One of the school administrators is in the room to translate my English into Hindi and their Hindi into English.

The fifth and seventh graders I worked with had limited experiences with creative writing and fine art - though their vocational training does place considerable training in aari work, appliqué, shadow embroidery, and zardozi. The school has a retired art teacher, who emphasized teaching traditional motifs and patterns with colored pencils and markers on paper. My approach differed from their previous art classes in that I used their own experiences as part of the lesson. 

As an initial motivational strategy I described what I noticed on the way to class. Having grown up in New York, one of the first things I noticed here was a blue peacock on the road. I asked the group to share what they noticed. Part of the description had to include something seen on the way to school, a color, and a place. This approach was so new for the girls that at first they were at a loss for words. They looked at each other, and then slowly began to share. Since there was no blackboard, I listed what they said on a large piece of paper I taped on the wall. Brown monkeys, blue peacocks, yellow bananas, green sugar cane loaded onto the back of a bull cart, grey hail, red houses, and pink flowers were among the list. Class ended with questions. What did you learn today? And what would you like to know more about? The girls said that they all noticed different things even though they took the same road. This indicated that they had begun to view their natural surroundings with a new appreciation. They wanted to know what else we will be doing. >>
  

Page 1 - Page 2
  

© mindfields 2007