It was time to do something different. It was theatre time at Disha Foundation. Rahul Dey, one of the volunteers at PeaceWorks had planned to do a play with these children based on ‘ The King and the Little Man’ by K. G Subramanyan.

The children showed a lot of excitement to do the play but there was a very important element missing in them. It was teamwork. Though they were essentially now a team, they lacked a certain element of trust and companionship.

It was then that Deepak da another volunteer with PeaceWorks came up with idea of making them do an exercise where one child would fall back on his or her teammate standing behind him. In the first round they were unable to fall back due to the fear of falling on the ground. The next rounds were different from the first ones, as they had gained the confidence and trust that the teammate standing behind would not let them fall.

This exercise proved to be very helpful as they learned to trust each member of the team. They also developed the confidence to perform in front of an audience because they were going out there as a team and not as individuals.

The other problem that was faced was language. Some of the children were more comfortable in Hindi, some in Bengali. This problem was overcome with regular rehearsals.

This play also helped us discover some hidden talents and innate capabilities that the kids had. For example, we found that Shiuli was an excellent singer, in fact she sang four songs in the play. Others showcased brilliant dramatic skills and voice modulation.

We were able to provide the children with a platform to showcase their talents in front of an audience. I hope that this experience will be a motivation for the children to enhance their skills and capabilities.

– Vedika Tikmani