The book of Adivasi Songs-Dongaratli Gani.

After recording several songs and going through the poems that the school children gave me,i selected a few that were original and made a small book of poems.

Collecting Songs from Adivasi Children-Padsare Zilla parishad School.

This school is nestled in very beautiful natural surrounding.This region about 30kms from Khopoli and has about 10 small Adivasi villages or padas.

Most of the tribal villagers, right now are busy farming,cultivating rice.

This  school has maximum children coming from from these adivasi padas. 

They sang their traditional folk songs  related to their daily lives like farming songs or marriage songs.

Since these songs are passed from generation to generation it seemed like they evolve all the time.Lots of things get added and sometimes deleted.

They had their own marathi dialect some of which was very difficult to follow.I got a chance to record these and get images of their immediate surrounding in which they live.

School at Padsare

School at Padsre

School at Padsare

School girls dancing the traditional adivasi dance while singing.

School girls dancing the traditional adivasi dance while singing.

Girls singing.

Girls singing.

Students performing their traditional dance.

Adivasi house in a small pada.

Adivasi house in a small pada.

Rice field just after they sowed the grain .

Songs from the Adivasi children.

I have been looking for tribal songs that have not been documented or recorded or printed.After travelling through several small villages i finally reached a tiny village called Padsare about 30 kms from Khopoli high in the mountains.This village is surrounded by many Adivasi Padas(Tribal clusters).

The school in Padsare was founded by two teachers in 1993,and they had to go to each tribal family and bring the students to school everyday.Now this seems to be the most populated school from class one to ten with 350 students.

Most of the students who come to this school belong to the tribal families.I requested them to sing their tribal songs and to my surprise the children sang songs in their own dialect,and most of the subjects they sang through the songs were very contemporary.

Anand Dayi Shala,Kansal Zilla Raigad.

 This was the third project to create a play area for the school children most of which come from tribal families.

The information that i gathered over the last two months of working in these villages was not something i knew before starting the project.

The intention for creating these kind of play structures had come to my mind after visiting these schools and the starkness in their environment. 

Most of the parents of these school children are Adivasis who abandone their homes and leave their children behind by themselves in search of work.

They only return home after 3 to 4 months.

The school becomes a focal point in the lives of the children as they get two pairs if uniforms and one meal a day free from the school under the government scheme of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. 

What i understood from the teachers is that it is very difficult for them to convince the children to come regularly to the school and attend their classes.

By creating these play areas the school premises became a place of attraction where everyone from the village wanted to come and get the experience of these play structures, young and old.

The Zilla Shikshan head (Authority  Local Education Deprtment) told me that this will be an interesting experience,that once the children come to play at school it will be easy for them to bring them into the class rooms.

I could observe this by the eagerness the villagers and the children showed and how they were waiting patiently till we completed and installed the play structure.

Anadadayi School Kansal Zilla Raigad.

Children playing with their handmade toys.

Joining the tyres.

 

Finished Work.

Finding Recycled Material for the Project.

It took a lot of effort to find the material to build the play structures for the project,we were looking for all kinds of junk at the scrap yards,old thrown away tyres on the Mumbai Pune express way ,and other metal parts which were abandoned.
Finally after a lot of search finally we discovered the actual source from where we could source tyres which were in good condition and woul not harm the children while playing.

Raigad Zilla Parishad Shala,Parali.

Finished piece at the Zilla Parishad School Parali

Welding the piece with the help of the villagers.

Welding the slide and pipes to the tyre structure.

The children of the school were waiting for the work to be completed!

Play Structure with recycled materials at Tara School,Tara Village,Karnala.

This work is a part of the Project am doing for Khoj , Negotiating Routes and Ecologies.

This work is a part of the Khoj Project Negotiating Routes and Ecologies