[Reader-list] my belated posting04

nilanjanb at 123india.com nilanjanb at 123india.com
Tue Aug 17 18:27:15 IST 2004


Postings 04
What to write what to leave: So many interesting
experiences and revelations were taking place as the
fieldwork commenced! Initially the kids were little
confused as they couldn’t realise what we intend to do
and what would be their role. But as soon as the
initial hesitations have cleared up they turned out to
be an enthusiastic gang. They took my phone number and
called me up the very next day from an STD booth to ask
me about our next field visit. Bhim told me that they
are ready to go out everyday (except the Saturdays and
Sundays as they generally play football matches in both
the days) and spend the whole day except the afternoon,
as that’s their ritualistic ‘games period’. Talking to
them I realised that they found a new exciting business
in those field trips. I have tried to follow their
everyday schedule- it mostly involves roaming around
the localities - Kalikapur, canal side along the
By-pass, Purba Diganta, and a few close by places,
whenever they want. They search for ripen fruits, bird
nests to catch birds, catch fishes, crabs, from the
small ponds, or otherwise just chat. These school
dropout kids who are close friends too (Bhim from class
VI, Bhola from class III, Gwaja from class II and Shanu
from class II) have all the characters of true
‘vagabonds’. Another little girl, Shyamali, who is a
regular school goer and now studying in class III, has
joined the group. She seemed to be quite enthusiastic
about her studies. 
At that point of time I was facing a problem to plan
the field trips as the urban kids have more occupying
schedules. Apart from their regular studies and
tuitions they are involved in several other
extracurricular activates like, music classes,
swimming, violin classes. Their presence in the field
trips became irregular. So I have done an improvisation
by involving Debasmita, a young student of social
communication in this group. She has good understanding
of computer and basic animation which I thought could
be useful. 
Later on another young graduate Saikat have joined the
group and started accompanying the kids in the fields.
By that time we had several field trips, which had
generated a significant data mostly about the plants.
At least 20 varieties were identified by the kids which
have different usages. Gandal’ and Telakuco leaves for
diarrhea, Basak leaves for cold, Beto Shag for
rheumatism, Jarmoni leaves for fever, Rangachite leaves
to relieve pain, Jhaupata for wounds, white Bheranda
for toothache, Kulekhara for anaemia Shankhachur leaves
for snakebites, are few of those. 

Then I thought it’s high time to introduce them to the
computer. And I have done accordingly. About the
experience I would like to quote a segment from
Debasmita’s note: 

“Apart from the regular members of the group there were
two new kids from Kalikapur-- Raju and Anup. Rimly and
Teerna were there too, who know computer applications.
The session began as Teerna started to reveal the
functional tools of Paint Brush to the Kalikapur kids.
It was their first interaction with the computer- a
fabulous performance from their end. I could not
believe that they can have such a strong grip on the
mouse at the first go. They painted four colorful
images of the sun. 
I found it was a both-way learning session. As the
Kalikapur kids were getting familiar with the computer
mouase, Teerna and Rimly were learning about birds,
plants. Bhim and Teerna were exchanging some notes
about their ways of learning basic numeric. Bhim was
referring to a traditional rhyme, ake chandra, duiye
pakksha... the way they learnt it. 

Though except Bhim and Shyamali all of them have
persisting problems in spelling their own names but
finally at the end of the day they all were able to
write/draw their names in Bengali by using ‘paint
brush’. 

At the end of this participatory interactive session I
found, the kids showed more interest and enthusiasm in
painting rather than writing. They rely more on visuals
than on letters.” 

				 
							
				 

				 

				 

				 

				 
	






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