Category: Shaurya Paren Mashruwala

Something that I thought that I’d never do is, teach a class. Standing up in front of everyone, expecting you to teach them something worth their while. This activity required me to teach a class of underprivileged children ranging from age of 7 to 17 years. Catering to each student according to their maturity level was difficult. One of the other problems that I identified was that there would be a language barrier. Teaching what I have learnt in English in a local language would be a task. This activity collectively taught me how to handle attention, how to interact with each and every student and make them feel comfortable to create a healthy learning environment.

There are certain responsibilities that come along when you teach a class. There are certain ethics that need to be taken into consideration, such as not passing on knowledge that is incorrect. To make sure that I taught the class the right things, I had to prepare myself. I started brushing up my knowledge regarding clay modelling such as, the different techniques used or how to use tools.

Another skill that I learnt was to coordinate with my peer mentor. I realised that working collaboratively and dividing work made things a lot easier and smooth. What I realized is that when these children utilize their time for such extra-curricular activities, they learn new skills, which might give them a productive way to pass their time, probably keeping them away from bad influences such as drug abuse.

From wondering what “lights, camera, ACTION” would sound like from hearing it yourself while being in front of a camera is a long way. Retribution gave me this opportunity to actually experience it. A fellow friend who intended to make a web series approached me with a raw idea of the show. At first, I thought of myself as incapable of doing the role as the nature of the character was in contrast with my personality. That is when I saw the challenge in it. To learn something new and to help a friend in need. I was one of the lead roles and I knew that I would have to put in more efforts than anyone and that my performance was directly proportional to the impact of the web series. I knew that commitment and sincerity were always my weak point and to make this effective, commitment and sincerity were crucial. To execute this with our best effort, we decided to meet for one to one and a half hour sessions for at least three prior to the day decided for shooting. The shooting went on for 2 months(November/December. Not every day but on weekends when we could give more time to it). I had to manage my academics and this activity that I had taken up. I learnt how to plan ahead so that I can attend practices and not miss out on my academics.
During the rehearsal, I felt something was missing in everyone’s performance. That element was the reaction. Each and every actor including myself was failing to give a reaction to each other’s dialogues. The actors were failing to collaborate and develop an understanding as to how each dialogue would affect the dynamic of the plot, the plot progression and the each actor’s character. The synergy between actors was missing which made it look like everyone was different elements of different stories. To overcome this obvious flaw in our performance, we all decided to watch TV shows and movies more observantly. One ethical concern that I would like to reflect upon was that some scenes for dramatic effects had curse words and the video does not have an age restriction. This way children who are not of a mature age might be influenced negatively. If they are of a very impressionable age they might include such words in their daily vocabulary and other children might be affected by it thus creating a domino effect or a chain reaction. The outcome of this was not perfect but better than expected. The process taught me things I wouldn’t have learnt otherwise. Also, I learnt that there is no better feeling that earning your friend’s gratitude for helping him out.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3dOIU-7ogM