annual week

a huge gargantuan undertaking it turned out to be. the workshops- all 5 of them with kids scrambling all over the place making things, writing things, discussing things and running away from things. the urban flashes workshop was the central theme of the week with the flashers telling us about their work in evening lectures- that began by being well attended and gradually disintegrated to the end of the week, until ravi sundaram’s friday lecture on the dark city. parallel ran paro, tushar and sarnaths workshops in rooms all over the place for the junior years, while the first years built bridges to nikhils heart. besides these were the annual party games- where kids ate pani puri in woerd configurations, tied blindfolds and ran around the lawn, etc..

by the middle of the week i was exhausted and by the end dead. the ‘micor urbanism’ seminar on the final day (sunday) started with the kids showing their solutions for the oshiwara river system—which unfortunately also included three young distinctly foreign looking girls painting some stones along the nalla yellow as an ‘urban tactic’.

all this talk of ‘positive terrorism’ left me rather cold. perhaps i am much too much of a ‘master plan’ kind of person. madhu, abhay and rupali also showed their work in the afternoon. i loved bits of madhus film- i found some of the scenes fantastic.

the same discussion continued in the panel discussion- what makes the community; what in the world is “micro” urbanism. kt in the evening lecture made it to be about forgotten ‘indian’ culture in the city’s quest for a futuristic metropolis. the more i think about it, the more i agree with prasad and rupali about the need for a serious look at literature on urbanism, especially in mumbai.

i had spent all day running around and it tired me out far more than even my trek to khajiar, the party in the evening was the so called talent night in the auditorium. mad. kids hopping around on stage- some actually who might have had some talent- but most just merely there to perform. it was hilarious and very funny. my favorite moment: “smells like teen spirit”; and of course ‘kajra re’ which is default great song to dance to.

the next day we were in the papers – page 4 – times of india. two weeks in a row. hmm.