Yes. The one month break seems to have become a trend with the ever busy Neha Joshi. And yet again I am armed with an excuse! I was in Goa attending WAVE: Women Aloud Videoblogging for Empowerment...
On October 12th Jo, (that's my boss for the uninitiated) sent me a mail about a two week film making workshop in Goa. My first response was WHOA GOAAA!!!! And then after I finally read the whole process and spoke to the concerned people I was skeptical to say the least, a woman representative from each state?? The mere logistics of the whole thing seemed suicidal. But who am I to complain? It sounded like an experience of a lifetime and definitely worth the two day travel to Goa. Plus incase it turned out to be fraudulent project: I’ll be in Goa with no work! Ah the joy of being the poor victim!! How bad can that be right? (Wink, wink)
But WAVE had a different idea. They turned out to be real and focused! I must say well done team! You managed to convert this cynic into a fan despite the lunch (How can I not mention that!!!) GREAT JOB!!!
WAVE for me is a visual platform that cuts through all social, economic, religious and regional boundaries. It was a whole 15 days of creative, dedicated and absurd women (and two men!!) bringing their best together.
The best part of the project was that the learning did not end with the end of the classes. The dormitories were a big feeding ground for education! Each woman at the workshop felt passionately about her cause. This passion helped all of us to unlearn a lot of what we thought we knew.
If I had fun breaking myths about People with Disabilities, I too in the process was jostled out of my comfort zone. Child sexual abuse, the water crisis and its effect on woman from slum areas, half widows in J&K, lack of basic healthcare in remote areas of my state.... There is a lot that the world needs to know and work for. WAVE offers us that platform. Yes, we will talk about the issues that concern us but we are not going to take the beaten down path. We are the youth, we don’t just talk about the problem we find solutions. That's what this group of WAVErs intend to do. In our small way we will bring about a change, a revolution in how issues are to be looked at. Yes the world is grim and life is grey par kal ko hum aapne haatho main le kar chalte hai, yeh badlega, isse hum badlene ki poori koshish karenge....
Well as I said this training was in Goa so there was obviously no way that one could not have fun right? Even though the training sessions ended by 6, dinner was at 8 and we were meant to report in by 9 am everyday, we went out and partied our hearts out!! Though our facilitators (especially Kurt and Sapna) tried their level best to persuade us against it!
Goa is as beautiful as they say in fact even more so. The first assignment we had was to shoot profiles of our group members. Now my group had a group of insane girls just like me, there was Avni, Mugdha, Laheru, Venisha and me. The reason why I loved this group was simple they knew how to have fun and give their best to whatever was assigned to them. Each one of us had something to offer and each one of us learned from the other.
Since we all wanted to see Goa as well as shoot we decided to go to Old Goa and shoot our profiles at one of the churches there. It was great! The place was conducive for our creative juices and our shopping desires! The was a certain comfort level that we all had with each other, which was a little unnerving because I had never met these girls before and here I was feeling like I have known them for years! We decided that every girls profile will be shot and each one of us will get a chance to shoot. We were all here to learn and will therefore not allow anyone be left out. And we managed that, though we did need a little extra time.
This was also the day that I drove my group mates up the wall with my stubbornness! I wanted authentic Goan food and there was nothing else I was ready to eat so we went around town looking for what suited my taste buds! I was both amused and shocked to see lots of north Indian restaurants all over. It was funny, ironic really Goa main Goan food nahi milta aasani se... that’s when I realized that somewhere we are all loosing our identities and maybe that’s why we try to hold on to them so strongly....
See as I said the education didn’t take place only in the sessions...
More to come soon...
C’mon I can’t possibly mention 2 weeks in one post now can me?? Plus I need to keep you hooked ;)
