Fundraising with Nalamdana, Kalakshetra and Perch

PERCH volunteers did a very loving flower kolam on 21st and 22nd November 2009 at the entrance of Kalakshetra koothambalam. PERCH the theatre group headed by Rajiv Krishnan had offered their very successful English plays based on the famous Malayalam author Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer's short stories for fund raising for the activities of Aseema and Nalamdana. We at Aseema use traditional performing arts for message dissemination and Nalamdana uses theatre. We are partners in projects with World Education. It was Nitya Balaji of Nalamdana who suggested we have the fund raiser jointly and we went along though we were doubtful if we can raise any funding and sell tickets at all. The plays are brilliant and provide vignettes of life of ordinary people in Kerala in fun filled action packed stories. I asked Leela Samson an amazing woman who heads Kalakshetra for the space. She readily agreed to give us the Koothambalam as we do our projects in Besant Arundale school and Besant Theosophical schools run by Kalakshetra foundation. We had a really good time. On 21st I thought there may not be more than twenty people but more than three hundred people turned up with Tamil film actors Surya, his wife Jyothika and brother actor Karthi turning up long before the crowd began to come in. They stayed till the end and enjoyed the programme. On 22nd I thought there would be a bigger crowd. there was a crowd, but not bigger than the Saturday crowd.
We had the satisfaction of a perfect coalition event with all partners, Aseema, Nalamdana, PERCH and Kalakshetra coming together in great camaraderie. It was worth doing even if to discover the possibility and values of friendship and team spirit.
V.R.Devika

Gnanasamudhra award to V.R.Devika

more pictures at

http://picasaweb.google.com/trustaseema/AGnanasamudhraAwardToVRDevika#

Samudhra magazine for the arts awarded "Gnanasamudhra" title to V.R.Devika for her work in linking arts and education during their 7th anniversery celebration on 15th November 2009. The award was presented by philonthrophist Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty and Mrs.Y.G.Parthasarathy, dean and director of Padma Sheshadri Schools. Dr.Srinidhi Chidambaram inaugurated the function by lighting a kuthuvilakku and Mr.Natarajan, former director of Doordarshan and Mr.Nagai Muralidharan participated. The citation reads "Samudhra is proud to confer the title "Gnana Samudhra" on V.R.Devika art educator, writer and critic during its 7th anniversary celebration in recognition of her innovative approach in linking art and education and using it as an effective tool especially among children. May God Almighty bless her with long life and strength to continue rendering service towards the cause of fine arts" signed by Dr.Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetti, Patron and Dr.Radha Bhaskar, editor.

read more at http://samudhra.org/

Childrens Day

14th November Children's' Day.
V.R.Devika was chief guest at a sharing session with children with social and economic disadvantages organised by play school Yellow Bus at Shastrinagar women's association premises. They presented costume dance and a puppet show for children and gave them gifts. There were some collage work also. Kalanjiyam, our partner organisation came and distributed free audio Cd's of Pappara Mittai consisting of stories told by children to children. V.R.Devika did some story telling too.

more pictures at

http://picasaweb.google.com/trustaseema/ChildrensDayWithYellowBus#

Reinventing Education

On November 11 and 12, V.R.Devika, managing trustee of the aseema trust took part in a two day conference on smarter education for a smarter planet conference organised by IBM in its reinventing education project of activity based learning for primary schools. She is on the advisory board of IBM's reinventing education projects. She introduced our partner organisation Kalanjiyam to IBM.

Ashok Leylands School

A session on gandhi for classes 8 , 9 and 10 of Ashok Leyalands school in Hosur on 6th November got great response from students. Wonderful interactions.
Afternoon was a presentation on Traditional Performing arts in Education for teachers with story telling. Wonderful response again. Teachers were really full of fun and great participants.
Pictures are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/trustaseema/HosurAshokLeylandSschool?authkey=Gv1sRgCJHL-fadn8maKA#

the drive to Hosur from Chennai was just beautiful with a very good road, a very pleasant weather and great scenery. Driving back from Hosur to Chennai was very interesting. We lost our way and were on the way to Salem and had to turn back to come to Chennai. The rain in Chennai was just unbelievable.

Kathai Aruvi with Kalanjiyam

more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/trustaseema/Kalanjiyam#
We had a workshop on Gandhian ideals in education and story telling for schools teachers from various little villages in Kalanjiyam centre at Kalluppatti village near Madurantakam. Please see the mail below. We gave away 20 sets of Kathai Aruvi sponsored by Ramanan Lakshminarayanan. Raviraj and his wife Mansa Devi bought 5 acres of land at Kalluppatti and have been doing great value addition to panchayat and governement schools around that area. They are cultivating the land and all the produce is for the children. Amazing work with Kalanjyam staff being the women in the area who go around to the schools and see to clean toilets, health cards for children, ensuring children wear slippers and look for other needs of the school. They are doing a library and strengthening the govt primary schools in the area. check out http://www.kalanjiyam.org/

This is a reaction from Raviraaj

Dear Devika,
Greetings from Kalanjiyam. I, Mansa and all at Kalanjiyam were extremely happy with your visit today and all will cherish the time you spent with us. As always, I learned a great deal from you, as did our staff. The program today will be very useful and valuable for our teachers who participated. They will really benefit from the Kathai Arivu and hope that you will come again to give more inputs to our children and teachers in this regard. We will share with you on how the teachers use the Katahi Arivu in the near future. Primary Schools participating today were:
from Kalpat, Dharmapuram, Periya Vellikkadu , Chinna Venmani Periya Venmani, Ariyanur,. Melakaandai, Kizhakaandai, Maruvalam, Zamin Endathur, Ozhavetti, Athivakkam, RC School, Pavunjur, RC School, Nelvaipalayam, DGSEA Vilvarayanallur, Gurukulam, Maduranthakam, Thiruvangunam, Melapattu, Mambakkam, Kandaracherri, Maduranthakam, Nelvai, Vedavakkam, Nethapakkam, Nesapakkam
with regards
Raviraaj

Ahimsa Devi

Ahimsa Devi The Aseema Trust is very happy with the success of the performance of "Ahimsa Devi" a dance on attributes of non violence choreographed by V.R.Devika and Premnath with the students of Avvai Home. This choreography was a part of discourse on non violence along with a project on reproductive health, sex and sexuality and HIV Aids that we are doing in parternship with World Education. Sessions on HIV and Aids were done by Nalamdana and on sex and sexuality by Raviraj of Kalanjiam, our partner organisations. Bombay Jayashri sang the sixty Sanskrit names of Ahimsa Devi's attributes with Ananthanaryanan on Mridangam and Ganapathy on percussion. Music direction and recording was by Sai Shravanam A Tamil translation of the words written and tuned by Lakshmi, music teacher at Avvai Home was sung by the girls before the performance. The girls also enacted a play on HIV and AIDS and sang a song on health and empowerment from their sessions with Nalamdana

more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/trustaseema/AhimsaDevi#

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report in the Hindu Young World

http://www.hindu.com/yw/2009/10/13/stories/2009101350091400.htm
Tuesday, Oct 13, 2009
Setting Ahimsa to dance
MADHUMITHA SRINIVASAN
Students of Avvai Home presented "Ahimsa Devi" in dance form to a rapt audience.
The girls explained how Ahimsa devi grants protection, bounty, access to knowledge and happiness.
Expressions : Explaining the significance.
You know Ahimsa as something that Mahatma Gandhi preached and followed till the very end, but did you also know that Ahimsa was personified as a Goddess in Jainism? Twenty six girls from Avvai Home enlightened all present at their school about the concept and her various names. “Ahimsa Devi” was a production conceived and organised by Aseema Trust as a part of their extended Gandhi Jayanthi celebrations.
In dance form
The girls, dressed in knee-length cotton sarees and pyjamas, depicted a third of the Goddess’ 60 names through dance that was set to a song sung by Bombay Jayashri, accompanied by Ananathanaryanan, the Veena exponent of Kalakshetra and musician Ganapathy on Mridangam, Tabla and Pakhawaj. The soulful music blended well with the smooth choreography by guru Premnath, a long-term associate of Aseema in its workshops.
In the dance, the visibly nervous but excited girls explained to the audience how Ahimsa Devi grants protection, bounty, access to knowledge, generates happiness and bears our sins.
“When I was reading a book on Ahimsa, I stumbled upon this ideology of the Jains where a concept is personified as a Goddess, just like how we have personified ‘Mother India’.
I was also reading about the 60 different names that she has and then it struck me that it would be interesting to make it into a dance production. That’s when I started working on it,” explains V.R. Devika, Managing Trustee, the Aseema Trust.
The girls, all of them students of Std XI, who participated in the programme were also equally enthusiastic about having a different outlet apart from just academics and also put up a social awareness play on HIV AIDS as it was important to raise awareness and educate their fellow students about it.
Apparently, the girls were involved in a discussion about the “Ahimsa Devi” production and they examined each name and its significance, and also suggested possibilities of concepts like how Ahimsa ensures wealth — possibly, by not destroying the environment; we only stand to benefit from Nature’s bounties in return.