Foreign Feel : This Norwegian group was one of several to participate in Patang 2004, the annual theatre festival of Mahadevi Birla Girls? Higher Secondary School. The event showcased the skills of many youngsters, including a team from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi. There were performances at Deshapriya Park and Prinsep Ghat. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

They came, saw and lost their hearts, won over by the love and affection. A team of five from Pakistan was in Calcutta earlier this month for The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence 2004. Krishnendu Chakroborty, a student of Asutosh College, a TTIS tiger and a member of the team that visited Karachi in January on a peace mission, writes about the experience.

November 1

9.30 am: Drums beating loud, cheers echoing in every corner of Sealdah station, posters and flags of India and Pakistan flying high... Rumours started spreading of Inzy, or perhaps Afridi, turning up. It was, in fact, phase two of our Bonding Beyond Borders movement, started in January by a group of 44 peace ambassadors on a trip to Karachi. It was the welcome organised by us, the Indian students, for the Pakistani delegates ? Ammi (Parveen Quasim), founder-principal of Karachi High School, her daughter Faiza and three musketeers, Bilawal Abbas, Ayesha Siddiqui and Saffa Ahmed.

Exhaustion forgotten, they left Tollygunge Club (their address for the next week) in the evening for a tanga ride at Victoria Memorial, admiring the fountain, race course, Birla Planetarium, Fort William and Eden Gardens. The day ended with a ride on Vidyasagar Setu, or ?Yuva bridge?, as they called it.

9.30 pm: We had yummy Chinese food for dinner at Bar-B-Q.

November 2

A day to discover Calcutta, for our Pakistani friends and us.

10 am: We went to Rabindra Bharati, birth place of Rabindranath Tagore. Marble Palace followed, a trip through Lewis Caroll?s Wonderland. Shoppers? Stop was last. Then, it was authentic Bengali food, with rosogolla and mishti doi, at Kewpies.

5.30 pm: Back at Tolly Club, there was a surprise ? actor Sharad Kapoor. We had an hour-long adda. Then Ammi took centerstage, getting us all rolling with mirth.

November 3

11 am: Meeting with Aniruddha Lahiri, managing director, ABP Pvt Ltd, over tea. The promise: lots of exchange programmes in future. We were taken on a tour of ABP, to learn about the making of a newspaper. We then took Bilawal, Ayesha and Saffa to New Market. A ride on a hand-pulled rickshaw through busy lanes, bargaining at roadside shops, phuchkas and egg rolls and a Metro ride ? a taste of the real Calcutta.

5 pm: Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society organised a colourful, vibrant and homely Iftar party, with music and dance. Ammi launched the magazine Excuse-Me.

8 pm: Dinner at Barry Sir?s home.

November 4

9 am: Saifee Hall. Ammi presented a portrait of the school on behalf of TTIS.

Noon: A long drive took us to Aditya Academy, in Barasat. The warm welcome left us refreshed. Students stood in rows on both sides, with words and flowers. Up next was a short cultural programme. The emotional exchange of greetings between the two principals brought a tear to every eye.

3 pm: Hariyana Vidya Mandir showered us with flowers. A wonderful show was followed by an interactive session. Principal Basudeb Bhattacharya was at his best while giving the vote of thanks, even presenting a poem to Ammi.

At night, Purti and Ankit, two TTIS tigers, Faizadi and me were engrossed in Bengal?s favourite pastime, adda, till dawn.

November 5

9 am: Apeejay School. Akash Gupta gifted Ammi an exquisite calligraphy work.

11.30 am: Calcutta Girls School welcomed us with the sacred sound of conch shells. Rakhi was tied on our hands and tilak was put on our foreheads. After a great show, Ammi addressed the gathering in a choked voice, leaving not a single dry eye.

3 pm: St Joseph and Mary?s School and Sarada Ashram put up short cultural programmes. Bilawal had the distinction of being the first male visitor to the ashram inside the school.

5 pm: Faizadi, a classical music fan, met Girija Devi. She received a music lesson from the veteran singer.

7 pm: Our gharoa adda was captured on camera and broadcast on STAR News. The sleepless night was spent giving tips to Bilawal to stir the audience with his melody the next day.

November 6

7.30 am: Science City auditorium, for The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence 2004, with Sonia Gandhi as chief guest. Bilawal wowed the audience with his singing. We witnessed great wonders.

2.30 pm: Celebration lunch at Kim Fa in China Town.

5 pm: We attended an art exhibition at the invitation of Seagull Art Foundation.

7 pm: Our Pakistani friends were the chief guests at the Usha Uthup night at Tolly Club.

November 7

8 am: Room service delivered two beautiful saris ? from Usha Uthup. The gesture was a reciprocation of Ammi?s gift of adrak churan.

10 am: Shopping at 22 Camac Street ? casuals clothes, dupattas, salwars, saris, chocolates, games, khadi, panjabis, Bengali folk and Bangla band music. Favourites: churis, especially sakha and pola.

6 pm: A carnival with a cause, organised by Chowringhee High School. Bilawal displayed his basketball skills at a game stall, while Nihar (a TTIS tiger) and me showed off our accuracy at hitting the stumps. At night, after nariyal pani and malai, practise of blowing the newly-bought conch shells began by Ammi and Faizadi.

November 8

9 am: Breakfast party at Don Bosco, Park Circus.

11 am: Back at Tolly Club, Ammi got ready for a phone interview on radio.

1 pm: The moment arrived to bid goodbye. Ammi gave us traditional topis and we gifted them T-shirts, signed by the TTIS Peace Team, which they promptly donned.

4.30 pm: Heartbreak. The Rajdhani finally departed. Suddenly, a passenger, while alighting from a moving train, fell and became senseless. Together, we helped him ? the true spirit of bonding at work. We promise to keep it up, within and beyond the border.

The Respectful Prostitute, based on Jean Paul Sartre?s text, was staged last week by Theatrecian. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Festival high

The festive season might have ended for most, but not for some. The weeklong proceedings of Patang 2004, a street theatre festival, was nothing less than a festival. Organised by Mellow Dramatic Society of Mahadevi Birla Girls? Higher Secondary School, it had five days of workshops followed by two days of performances by different schools and colleges, as well as a short documentary film festival.

The workshops included sessions on introduction to street theatre ? what it?s all about, the different aspects of acting, etc. Also under discussion were alternative theatre movements, proper use of space in theatre, adaptation of scripts for street plays from poems, short stories and newspaper articles, and more. The workshops were conducted by Parnab Mukherjee and Aveek Chatterjee, both theatre personalities, two students from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, who were also guest performers in the festival with Freedom Song, and a Norwegian group ? Innspeal and Rosenborg Theatre.

The first day of performance held at Lion?s Children Park, Deshapriya Park, saw most schools performing. The last spot was reserved for the Norwegians. They put up their production Into Fatherhood, on the possibility of men becoming pregnant.

The second day was at the James Prinsep Memorial, Prinsep Ghat. It began with the hosts putting up a show portraying the misery of Tibetans. Asutosh College, La Martiniere for Girls, Apeejay School and Lakshmipat Singhania earned loud applause. St Xavier?s College, too, got appreciation for portraying violence against women. JU stole the show with Anko, appealing for unison of one billion Indians on a constructive revolution, not riots.

It was a platform for protest by the youth. The issues dealt with included the killings of innocent Kashmiri pandits, the Muslims in Gujarat, the Sikhs in 1984, the oppression in Manipur, the violation of human rights in Keshpur, Garbeta, Amlashol and more. The message: dead bodies of victims of carnages the world over look alike.

Subhajoy Roy, Vivek Mukherjee & Sangeet Shirodkar

Painting the town

The CRY Calcutta office got a facelift on Child Rights International Day on November 20 with new coats of paint and the creations of the Nabadisha kids from the Lake Police station and the Cossipore project sites. Helped and egged on by famous cartoonist Chandi Lahiri, the 12 kids involved in Paint for Change jazzed up the walls of the front office with pictures depicting wildlife and nature. Budding magician Moubani Sarkar was also present, joining in with the kids and encouraging them.

?CRY is doing a great job by providing these kids with the opportunity to hone their inherent aesthetic and artistic capabilities, which is often subdued due to social and economic pressures,? said veteran cartoonist Lahiri. He also praised the teachers who trained these young brush-wielders. The three accompanying teachers, Ratna Pal, Rita Mahato and Atri Shome, felt that the kids would gain confidence and would pass on their knowledge. Lahiri also held an interactive session with the kids. The children had a great time ordering the cartoonist to draw animals like tigers, lions, giraffes and birds, and the veteran artist was pleased to oblige them.

A visibly excited trio of Swarupa, Parbati and Rajesh revealed that maths was not their cup of tea, and they would rather indulge in painting. Soha Moitra, assistant manager, CRY, (youth and volunteer action), said: ?It is the brainchild of the dedicated volunteers of CRY, who wanted to do something special for the organisation as well as the little ones.? Indrani and Sumana, two volunteers who toiled round the clock, took a break to add: ?The essence of the festive spirit is sharing. Sharing the colours of joy with the Nabadisha children brightened our day.?

Aritro Ganguly & Aparajita Dasgupta

Pool and play

It was time for one of the most awaited events on the Martinian calendar ? the Inter-Martiniere Meet, held in Lucknow this year. This is when the four brother and sister schools, La Martiniere, the girls? and boys? sections, Calcutta and Lucknow, founded by Claude Martin, separated by distance, come together to celebrate the spirit of the Martinian legacy.

The Calcutta contingent comprising the debating, swimming and the basketball teams and their coaches received a warm welcome. The competitions commenced after paying respect to Claude Martin by the captains of the teams.

The first day saw the basketball players sweating it out in the heat. The Lucknow team emerged victorious. After a mind-boggling war of words on ?Overprotection leads to a stunted development of the child?, the Lucknow speakers walked away with the laurels.

Upset by the consecutive defeats, the Calcutta water babies pulled up their socks and returned with a splash in the swimming pool and collected the top prizes. Finally, there was a social, where the students let their hair down and the atmosphere of competition was replaced by that of revelry and friendship. There was a touch of sadness as the students bid adieu. Bonds were forged and new horizons discovered at the Inter-Martiniere Meet.

Theatre Evening ?04, presented jointly by Expressions and Abhigyan club of La Martiniere For Girls, was another good event. Blowing In The Wind, directed by the Class XII members of Expressions and scripted by Mrinalini De Bakshi, portrayed the dilemma of a Hindu woman when her Muslim friend leaves her daughter with her, never to return. The Class XIs staged The Inner Eye, written by Shubhani Mitra, directed by her and Anjali Lakhaney, about a blind girl and her four friends.

Abhigyan Club presented Aande Ke Chhilke, on the importance of family values and changing lifestyles. Another production was Kalyug Ki Maya.

Oindrila Bhar,
Class XI, La Martiniere For Girls

whatsup

Awards ceremony

The International Award for Young People, India, has organised the annual awards function on Sunday, November 28, 3 pm, at Rotary Sadan. David Manson secretary general, Duke of Edinburgh?s Award International Association, will be chief guest.

Verbal warfare

Birla High School is concluding its nationwide national debate on December 10, with the final round. The 5th Inter-institutional LN Birla National Debate will witness 16 students vying for the top spot.