Kaleshwari Mela

(1st March 2022)

About Mela

The Kaleshwari (cultural) Mela is held on Mahashivratri day at Kaleshwari, 16 km north of Lunawada, Panchmahals. The Mela has been bringing to life Kaleswari Ni Naal, an archaeological site in Panchmahals, every Mahashivaratri. The Mela was organized for the first time in 1999, by Prof. Kanji Patel as a gathering of nomadic communities, stigmatized by history. In the Mela, mostly Adivasi, NT, DNT, and some other marginalized community artists gather to present their theatre, songs, folk epics, dance, and music. Every year more than 15000 visitors including people, writers, artists, perform in the Mela.

Poetry recitation from ‘Nirdhar’

Since after the two years of the pandemic the Mela was initiated by Kanji bhai again. We were invited to present the poetry and songs in the Mela. The artists from the group ‘We the Kalakaar’ participated in the Mela and presented poetry and songs in the Mela. More than 5000 people had visited the Mela. The performance of sufi songs from Rajasthan groups, local folk music, dance, and struggle songs had performed in the Mela.

AatishIndrekar, Anish chhara, Umesh Solanki, and Hozefa had participated in the Mela and presented songs and poems from the ‘Nirdhar’.   15 books of Nirdhar were purchased in the Mela. Besides us, the poet from the Adivasi community had also recited their poetries.

It was decided to participate every year in the Mela with prior preparation and with different performances.

The Mela is enriched with performances of diverse community artists.

International Women’s Day Celebration – 30th March 2022

Parwaaz had organized a celebration of international women’s day on 30th March 2022. We have allied to organize the program. It was a bit delayed program due to the exams of the students and a few emergencies. More than 100 women and girls participated in the program.

The program aimed to felicitate the girls and women who have resumed their studies after being a dropout and to hear their struggle stories. They all have given examinations from NIOS and succeeded. The guest Prof. Raghvan from (Ahmedabad University), Swati, Shraddha from Sewa, Supriya from (Infoanalytica), Sayani from Driverben, and Ajaz Shaikh were presented in the program.

With the hand of the special guest, the trophy and certificate were given to the girls and they have shared their learnings. After that guests were given the platform to speak in which almost all of them have appreciated and encourage the women and girls for their future.

The one session was kept for the poetry recitation from ‘Nirdhar’. AatishIndrekar, Hozefa, Umesh Solanki, Mushtaque, and Sunny Patni have recited poems from Nirdhar related to the Women’s movement and present scenario.  5 books were purchased in the program, and 10 were presented in honor of the guests.

The program was organized collaboratively and we have done an active role from its design to the content of the program. For two days, Hozefa had given training to the young girls on two songs ‘Vo hamare Geetkyon Rokna Chahtehai’ and ‘Geet Gaa Rahe Hain Aaz hum’. Both the songs were beautifully sung by the girls at the beginning and end of the program.

Participation:

  • Facilitated three days of theatre training workshops with DNT children of Bedia community (caste-based commercial sexual exploitation prevalent) organized by Samvedna from Bhopa from 2nd to 5th March 2022. The theatre training was organized to bring out the aspirations of children through theatre and map out plan to work with them. The workshop was facilitated by Hozefa and Aatish Indrekar. This workshop was very well executed and future alliance with the organization had also discussed.
  • Gave a speech on the history of International women’s day and the current women’s movement on 8th March 2022. The program was organized by Driver ben at ‘Ordo’ Mirzapur, Ahmedabad.
  • Participated in filling out admission forms of drop out girls in ‘NIOS’ open School for the centre (Savitribai and Fatima Shaikh Learning Centre) run by the Parwaaz organization. The admission of 11 dropout girls and boys has been confirmed in 10th Std and 12th Std.
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