Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, India

Today is the third day our workshop and we were all eager to know what type of exercises for flexibility, will be offered, for which Ranjan De had asked us to come in loose fitting dresses! The day started with mounting curiosity.

Everyday we get to know something little more about Ranjan De and how he believes to contribute towards Nation's growth. Today it was his approach towards traditional customs. Develop a questioning mind; do not believe anything just because it is tradition. Learn to question and find out the answers and have nothing but absolute faith.

The best and easy way to make him talk about his beliefs and practice is to call him Sir which he severely condemns. Today one of our guests Mrs. Geetha Ji had called him Sir and he instantaneously told, Lets send the British out of our minds too, for we have chased them out of our country 60 years before. For me, English is just a link language and nothing more. The respect what we generally believe to give by calling a person Sir cannot be real. For without knowing a person deeply or about his contribution towards the society the respect what we give, cannot be sincere. I would like to break the traditions, which are followed without giving any thought to why we are doing it. I feel strongly when it comes to things like this.

(The reason why I give an elaborate description of what happened at he workshop is because the workshop is not just about learning how to make puppets, write stories, generate tailor made lesson plans etc. Ranjan De strongly believes that through the workshop he would break off the inhibitions and stumbling blocks we have in our minds and start working spontaneously, which will trickle down to Nation building at some level.

And I am sure you will agree with me that we all have faced many a situations in which tradition, which was created for better living, becomes a stumbling block. One simple example could be wearing of sarees by us Indian women. I do agree that it is an excellent tradition and does tell us a lot about our culture. But when the need comes, how many women are able to change it to a more convenient dress like Churidar, which gives more freedom of movement?

Let us learn to be more flexible. Let us respect and follow our tradition, but when the need arises let us not hesitate to follow a better practice! Jai Hind!)

Today Ranjan De started the session by adding one more layer to story building. Yesterday we had set the hooks of the story and had added characters. Today we will be learning to add dialogues to the characters, allowing them to interact with each other and take the story forward.

By 10.00 we started to write scripts for the story and had an hours time to finish it. It was really a learning experience. Not because we learnt to add dialogues, but we learnt to put our individual thoughts, to go along with the team team spirit! We had the freedom to assign dialogues to our character but again it has to respect the story which had developed so far and allow it go ahead!

We had the responsibility to make our stories interesting by applying all the skills which we had learnt for the past two days. We sincerely tried to become little more spontaneous than the previous day. To quote Ranjan De it would be let us learn from yesterday. Let today not be like yesterday, which is itself a stumbling block. Be open and little more spontaneous everyday, making ourselves a little better than yesterday.

Ranjan De had a request for teachers. Let us become more approachable. Have open mindedness and little more humorous. Let education make the child independent and not a handicap. One simple example could be to present mathematics as an interesting game or puzzle. And not as maths problems, which then will remain a problem for whole of the childs life.

By around 11.30 am we all assembled again to learn a new finger puppet which was to be done using coiled newspaper.

We all followed his instructions, and learnt how to make puppets which are tailor made to our finger sizes. By 1.00 pm two eyes for our finger puppet was ready. We could see how much of effort goes into the handicrafts and Ranjan De believes it will help us respect and value the work of craftsman whose work is displayed in crafts exhibition.

Let me quote a small incident of what happened just before that. While Ranjan De was showing us how to add more layers to the paper coil, by pasting each stick of paper to another suddenly there was a burst of laughter. When we saw who it was from we were all really stunned! It was from a teacher, who was generally very quiet and always wears a saree. She kept on laughing uncontrollably for nearly ten minutes, and it made us also to laugh. Later when I enquired she told me it was because the way how Ranjan De had asked to attach one stick of paper to another that made her laugh.

Readers kindly note that, how the teacher had become spontaneous! She could see humor in an ordinary event, and be bold enough to come out with it without offending anybody!

Thanks to you Ranjan, I think you have succeeded in breaking out a stumbling block it is not ethical to laugh loudly in front of audience, especially if you are a lady.

After lunch we started our swinging exercises by 2.00 p.m. No, we dont swing from branches in the AVP campus nor does Ranjan De has special equipments for it. We swing our hands naturally to the front and back, allowing our body to flow without any stiffness.

After our shoulder, hand, wrist, finger, thigh and ankle exercises we went for the humorous voice modulation exercises. Just as all other components of the workshop the phrases for our voice modulation is also an original of Ranjan De.

I would like to share them with you, so that you can see how simple phrases can be used to teach, voice modulation in a fun filled manner.

1. Hahaaah! (the voice has come from the diaphragm and not from throat)

2. The mouse squeaks

3. The lion roars

4. The waterfall crashes

5. The mountain stream burbles

6. The cow mmmaah

7. The temple priest ululululuates

You might read them as simple phrases, but believe me readers we really make it ring in the ears of the listeners when we express them. These voice modulation exercises have helped me in reading stories to my children in a much more expressive way, through which I am able to add life to the characters in the story.

One more interesting thing which we learnt about Ranjan De today was he was a speed walker of 18km/hr few years back and now cycles at an average speed of 35kms/hour.

Let us all learn to flexible within and without, spread some laughs in our everyday life by adding an unexpected twists, learn to share and grow and revive the lost glory of our wonderful country! Jai Hind!

One more interesting thing which we learnt about Ranjan De today was he was a speed walker of 18km/hr few years back and now cycles equally.

Let us all learn to flexible within and without, spread some laughs in our everyday life by adding an unexpected twists, learn to share and grow and revive the lost glory of our wonderful country! Jai Hind!