{"id":3354,"date":"2018-08-31T12:47:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T12:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/?p=3354"},"modified":"2018-10-01T10:40:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T10:40:44","slug":"anne-frank-a-history-for-today-in-mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/?p=3354","title":{"rendered":"Anne Frank – A History for Today in Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 August 2018<\/p>\n

I approached the World Trade Centre at 8.30 a.m., all set to conduct a regular, routine day of workshopping with a group of twenty-five students. Having facilitated the Peer Guide Training, which is part of the Anne Frank\u2014A History for Today project, several times, the only thing I was really concerned about was the physical energy it would take to setup the exhibition.<\/p>\n

We began the session five minutes before schedule since the students were visibly excited and restless to begin. The group comprised of class 9 and 10 from the R. N. Poddar School. The usual ice breaker was not necessary since they knew each other, but I anyway did start with an ice breaker since I needed to get familiar with their names and also wished to establish a light hearted tone before moving into the serious discussions.<\/p>\n

So we did a round of introductions with each one of the participants demonstrating a dance move. Sufficiently energized post some incredible moves having been demonstrated, we sat down for a round of discussion around the Diary of Anne Frank, the Holocaust and the aims and objectives of this project.<\/p>\n

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For me, this discussion round turned out to be quite an eye opener, making me step out of the complacency that had involuntarily crept in due to having conducted this workshop several times. The students were incredibly knowledgeable\u2014not only about the story of Anne Frank, which is part of their syllabus in class 9\u2014but also about the Holocaust, the historical background and the very complicated human angle from the victims, perpetrators, helpers and bystanders point of view. Very passionate about the subject, their reading and exposure to the topic ranged from a wide variety of films to serious literature, including writings of Primo Levi. Later I learned that the response for call for participation to this workshop was so huge that the teachers conducted a test to select the twenty-five who finally got the opportunity.<\/p>\n

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We could have carried on the discussion through the entire day. But there was work to be done\u2014the exhibition needed to be constructed, the layout needed to be planned and we had to be ready for the opening in just six hours. So the boxes were opened up and one panel was constructed by me to demonstrate how it was done. But before proceeding further with this task it was important to talk about the concepts of space, movement and visitor comfort and expectations. This too did not need much doing as unlike my earlier experience, most of these students were regular visitors to art galleries. Soon we moved on to constructing the panels. Working in small groups the task was achieved fairly quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\t\t