Creativity Adda Newsletter — August 2021
Welcome to Creativity Adda’s Newsletter — a Self-Design Learning Space in Delhi
We restarted our journey this month at Creativity Adda after a break of few months due to the pandemic. After a rough time, Delhi is slowly opening up. We bring to you our latest issue of the newsletter with highlights for the month of August and a peak into some of our learners’ journeys at the Adda.
Highlights of the Month (August 2021)
The students of Creativity Adda celebrated the DS Foundation Day and Independence day together with a bang! Adda learners organised an ‘Acts of Kindness’ day. Shashank, a facilitator at Adda, worked with the students to plan and organize the entire program and the Music Hub came into action as well during the event.The motive was to reconnect with the community after a break, and to present what the students have been learning at the Adda. Around 400 people from the community came together for this celebration event. The students got a chance to experience what it’s like to gather so many people and handle everything together to have a successful event. The students, facilitators, as well as the community thoroughly enjoyed the celebration. Our Music Hub also jammed in the community with some of their performance pieces that they had been working on.
Media Hub
We set up and cleaned the space to make the Media Hub functional again. Students learned some basics of photography like taking pictures manually and using a Tripod, Monopod, and Gimbal.
One of the most interesting happenings of this month was that the students of the Media Hub worked on a project to make Visiting Cards, sell them, and market their graphic design skills. Most of the students on this project were new learners and they had a great time working on the project. The learners went into the community and marketed their product, negotiated the terms of buying-selling and delivery date, and some of them even started earning through orders on making the visiting cards.
Two of our students made visiting cards for people in their community. Jitendra (class 7) made a bunch of visiting cards for a neighbour who runs a courier outlet. Jitendra decided to design the visiting cards for them and gave them as a gift. Through that process he was able to work on his communication and negotiation skills. He soon plans to think of ways to start earning money through designing cards as well.
Another one of our Media Hub students Rajat (class 8) also designed visiting cards for his father using Photoshop software. Rajat’s father has a business of paint brushes and so he decided to help his father in marketing.
There was a retreat called Raw Life Celebration, RLC at Karnal, Haryana from 3rd- 9th August 2021, where our advanced learners Chirag and Ritesh from the Media Hub went to shoot and document the entire event. They then edited a little documentary about the event.
The Media Hub also collaborated with two different hubs internally. They worked with the Dance Hub in making a theme-based video on Teem Suicide and with the Music Hub for another performance piece (see both below).
This month, Rohit from FilmArt Delhi, joined us at Creativity Adda as a facilitator for the Media Hub. Within a month, he has made a very comfortable environment for the learners at the Adda. He brings a very lively energy to the hub space. Rohit has also spent time understanding learners and their dreams, and counselling parents wherever need be. He is very invested in improving the learners’ skills and their lives.
During the Independence Day Celebration in the school, students from the Media Hub covered the entire event and shot videos and photographs. They were highly appreciated for their skills and talents.
Special Workshop for Filmmaking
Sumit Sisodia, who is a freelance filmmaker from Assam was invited at Creativity Adda to talk to students about his experiences in filmmaking and share his learnings. He particular talked about the need for continuous lifelong learning and new techniques that children can learn in filmmaking. Sumit also shared about the Green Hub Fellowship. Green Hub Fellowship is one year residential fellowship in Assam especially encouraging people from marginalised communities to work in the fellowship on topics of concern using filmmaking. He said that it is important for the learners to be aware of the opportunities that they can take to build a professional career.
Sports Hub
In the Sports Hub, students learned basic skating, roller and sliding skating, and T-break skating. Apart from that, they also practiced Table Tennis where they learned the basic four-hand skill.
During the Independence Day celebration at the Sarvodaya Vidhyalaya, Mukherjee Nagar school, students from the Sports Hub gave a stunning skating performance.
Special Workshop on Frisbee and Juggling
Ajay from Shikshantar had hosted a session on Ultimate Frisbee and Juggling with our learners. He shared his passion for frisbee with different kinds of throwing and catching techniques.
Special Workshop on Skating for Advanced Students
We also invited Zahid, who is a state level skating coach, to come to our space. There we talked about what we can do for the skating students to advance in this field. He shared some training tips for the learners for state competitions.
We also have a Table Tennis player Manish, who is very skilled and works hard and practices daily. Manish (class 8) and his two friends Rahul and Shamim (both class 11), decided to make Table Tennis regular so all of them practice everyday, help their peers and encourage them to learn more Table Tennis.
Humans of Adda: Rahul
Rahul’s father repairs bicycles for a living, and his mother is a homemaker. They are a family of five people. Before joining Creativity Adda, his life was very much the same: home to school and back.
Ashish bhaiya came to our school to announce a summer camp that was supposed to happen at Creativity Adda. That is how I got to know about the Adda. I attended that camp about four years ago and I have been here ever since. I like skating here at Adda, and I enjoy being here. School seems more of an obligation or burden and I don’t feel excited to do something there.
One of my biggest challenges was to manage studies and activities of the Adda. When I got into IX grade, I had similar timings for my coaching and Creativity Adda. Back then I had to take a break from Adda to focus on my school education studies, but I joined again as soon as I could.
Every day is a learning at Creativity Adda. But I really enjoyed a particular trip that we took to Janwaar Castle in Madhya Pradesh which was very adventurous for me.
I really wish to become a skating champion one day. I want to perform internationally and win a lot of medals.
My parents are very supportive of my decision to be at Creativity Adda. They see my skills and hope that I will be able to use these skills for my livelihood and career someday.
Through Creativity Adda, I tried things like skating and table tennis, and identified my potential in those. I find it very good that I was able to understand and self-reflect.
It makes me happy that I can actually use these skills in real-life for uplifting my life. And I got all of that only through Creativity Adda.
Music Hub
Students learned basic skills in guitar like strings, majors and minors. They also learned about different singing techniques, like how does one sing through stomach and chest. They experienced firsthand the difference in their voice and methods by using these techniques. Apart from the guitar, students also spent time learning the Harmonium. They learned and practiced the Sargam and Palta in Harmonium. Towards the end, students were introduced to music production and its basics.
In the Kheer distribution event that happened this month, learners of the Music Hub jammed in the community with their performance pieces and livened the entire celebration.
In the Independence Day celebration at Sarvodaya Vidhyalaya at Mukherjee Nagar, learners of the Music Hub performed on stage. They were informed of the event only a day prior and they took it as a challenge. They prepared the performance in a day and managed to do it on stage so well!
One of our talented vocalists is Suraj. He is an 11th class student. Suraj is also a vocalist of a Mahatmanand Band in Delhi but their practice and work became irregular ever since the pandemic hit us. Suraj decided that he had to build his online presence to make more people aware of his talents and craft. He ended up making social media accounts and now regularly posts on them in order to get more visibility. On Facebook, he goes by the name Raman Arya. Suraj, who was introverted and shy to social interactions, stepped out of his box and started showing his face and talent to the entire world through the internet. He has become so disciplined that even if he is alone at the space, he continues to practice and not wait for anybody.
Dance Hub
It was a month full of activities and movement for the Dance Hub. The learners were taught basic and advanced forms of warm-ups, jumps, and turns. Later, popular Bollywood songs like Brown Munde were choreographed and practiced.
Students also designed choreography on the theme of Teenage Suicide and shot it in collaboration with Media Hub. Prior to dancing, they had had a powerful sharing circle about each of their experiences and feelings about suicide.
On our ‘Chai pe Charcha’ Parents Meeting, the mothers and fathers were invited to participate in different activities and go around the different hubs in Adda to explore and understand how their children spend their time. When they asked about the Dance Hub, Deepu Pandey spontaneously decided to have a mini dance workshop for the parents. This mini-workshop was not a part of the Chai pe Charcha meeting schedule but that did not hold Deepu back. He ended up taking an amazing workshop and the parents seemed to enjoy it so much.
We have also added another team member at Creativity Adda — Vijay Rawat from Dance Kabila. Vijay joined us as a facilitator for the Dance Hub and has already become a mentor and friend to the learners. He brings his expertise in the Hub around fitness. He has designed and planned diets and fitness programs for the students. He believes that this greatly affect a person’s agility and strength, ultimately contributing to their craft.
Humans of Adda: Tarun
We are eight people in the family — five sisters, my parents and I. My father and sister are the breadwinners of the family. My sister is a very talented and hard-working nurse.
My school life was not extraordinary. I was doing fine; and my teachers and parents seemed satisfied too. I don’t think I was a very bright student in school but I would manage.
In my journey, I faced a particular challenge of convincing my parents to let me join Creativity Adda. They were adamant that they wanted me to study and make my career. But I was fascinated by dancing and I wanted to pursue it. At first, it was very difficult. But thankfully my sister and my friend Nitesh understood my passion for dance. They sat my parents down and talked to them about dance being a career option as well. It took a while but my parents finally agreed to let me pursue dance and come to Creativity Adda.
I like dancing and learning here at Creativity Adda. In the school, I would study but it never interested me as much as Adda did. Because of my dance skills and performances, I have been able to make a unique identity for myself in school.
I remember I had been to Rajasthan to participate in a workshop on communication and presentation skills. I learned a lot about myself on that trip and so it remains a very memorable experience for me. I learned how to solve my problems, I made amazing friends, and learned about communicating better. It was a five-day experience but it will stay with me for life.
Here at Creativity Adda, I learned dance, how to communicate with people, I made really good friends here. I now support my family as well, and I learned this skill of self-sustenance from Creativity Adda. It also helped me face my fear of public speaking and building confidence through effective communication.
In the future, I wish to be a professional dancer and I want to support my family better so that it can reduce the burden off of my father.
Someday, I want to take my family in my car to shop for whatever clothes they want. I want to spend a lot of my money on giving them the luxuries they deserve.
I think my parents now believe I can manage responsibilities around the house after I came to Creativity Adda. Earlier, they would not let me out of the house except for school or any other studying purpose. But now, I run errands, shop for vegetables, and go to the bank as well. I have become responsible and my parents now encourage me to pursue what I want and they trust me with my decisions. They now tell others about my dancing skills and journey with pride. However, they still want me to focus on formal education as well.
I have benefitted a lot from Creativity Adda. Now, my teachers don’t think I am just another student. They talk about me as a dancer. That is the identity attached with me now, my hunar.
MakersSpace
After the third wave of the pandemic, Deepu (class 9) decided to help our facilitator Maheep in repairing the electrical equipment. Deepu repaired the switches and fans and helped Maheep greatly. Because of Deepu’s helpful nature, we were able to finish the work faster and better. He then used the practical knowledge he learned to repair fans at his home.
Collaborations is one of the qualities we always encourage our students to adopt. In the Makers’ Space, students were struggling with the finishing of the wooden products and they thought they could use a helping hand. Abhishek studies in the 7th class and is one of the hub learners. He kindly offered to invite his father, who is a skilled carpenter, to help students learn finishing. Together they all arranged a one-day workshop with Mr. Raghuveer Sharma. The students enjoyed it so much that we planned to have an extensive one-week workshop seeking Raghuveer ji’s expertise and knowledge to help our students become better.
Learners made different types of light using wood, bottle lights, fancy lights, wooden honeycomb pendant light, and paper cup lights.
Maheep, who is a facilitator at Creativity Adda, got an order for the learners of Makers’ Space. They made three beautiful lamps from plastic waste and completed the order. They earned INR 1,200 for a total of four lamps. Look how beautiful and radiant those lamps are!
Janmashtami Celebration at Adda!
On the occasion of Janmashtami, students at the Creativity Adda from different hubs performed, it was like an open-space for the learners to do what they wanted to. And you know what they did?
Open mic, dance, stand-up comedy and so much more. While some students brought their poetic side to the stage, others were occupied in quizzes and trivia about the festival. They also talked about the life of Lord Krishna and shared their ideas around the Janmashtami celebration.
‘Chai pe Charcha’ with the Folks!
One of our most important stakeholders are parents and with the two intentions above, we hosted ‘Chai pe Charcha’ with the parents of students at Creativity Adda. More than 60 parents attended. And our hospitality was top-notch! Students served them with chai and pakodas. Our learner Deepu Pandey showed his skills and talked about what he learned at the place. The parents also seemed to enjoy different activities that they tried their hands on. They played the drums and some of them went to the studio to record some of their Bhajans.
The meeting overwhelmed us. Parents who didn’t know about Adda now did, and the ones who knew came out as even stronger supporters for us. And hence, we decided to have this meeting, and interact with the parents every once in a while.
And that’s it for August. With some new and exciting plans, see you next month!
We absolutely love hearing your thoughts about the learning space and the activities we do. Our learners and facilitators work day in and day out to make themselves a bright future that is filled with learning and unlearning. If you ever wish to talk to us, share your opinions, drop suggestions, or join our team, feel free to reach out to us at sashish3@gmail.com and we will get back to you at the earliest.
We wish you good health and safety in the times of a Covid!
Made with ❤️ from Delhi.
Creativity Adda is a project developed by Shikshantar Andolan and supported by Dharampal Satyapal Group and the Mukherjee Nagar Boys Senior Secondary School. It is connected with Swaraj University and the Indian Multiversities Alliance.
