Date:26/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2007/05/26/stories/2007052650240100.htm
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The tough get going
A Sri Lankan professor, who successfully uses art to mend battered minds, writes T. SARAVANAN
Photo: K. Ganesan
Bold attempt Sivagnanam Jeyasankar (extreme left) trying to prove a point to his fellow performers
Father” for many is the first role model. From children’s point of view, he is the most powerful person capable of doing anything. He is loving, caring, sharing and who takes care of all needs.
But give a thought to those children for whom father is just a relation or simply an image. For, the father might be away in a battleground particularly in war-stricken countries like Sri Lanka. Or he may be whiling time playing cards while the mother toils to make both ends meet in order to feed the family.
“Psychological trauma these children undergo can rattle anyone,” says Sivagnanam Jeyasankar, senior faculty in the Department of Fine Arts, Eastern University, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.
To help such children overcome imbalances in life, he launched with his friends “Third Eye Local Knowledge and Skill Activists Group” which involves these affected children in different activities. The prime idea of the organisation is to initiate and establish self-sustainable societies and create a world free of violence and oppressions.
Cultural activism
“The group uses cultural activism as a means to achieve the objective,” says Mr. Jeyasankar, at present in Madurai to work on a Dalit-oriented play tracing the evolution of ‘parai’, a music instrument. He is working in collaboration with Nigazh, a Madurai-based alternate centre for art and culture, at Centre for Experiencing Socio-Cultural Interaction (CESCI).
Mr.Jeyasankar believes strongly in theatre which can usher in a change in peoples’ mindset.
“The problem is not just child-specific. It affects adults too as most of them living here are ‘internally displaced.’
A child who sees his or her parent living on goodwill has scant regard for them. Such a situation motivates us to involve the entire family in theatre and provide them physical, intellectual and spiritual refreshment,” he explains his work.
“At present we are working on theatre in education, children’s education in particular, and conventional stage and street plays. We see ‘koothu’ art as the organic form of community theatre and involve the whole community for our activity,” he shares.
Mr.Jeyasankar shuns the idea of modernising ‘koothu’.
“In the name of modernising it, people fail to capture the essence of the traditional art. For most of them it has become a pure academic exercise without realizing practitioners of this art are illiterate and have learnt it with experience, which is a part and parcel of life,” he says.
Mr. Jeyasankar considers community activity to be the essence of this art.
He emphasises on community interaction, which is also the core aim of his group.
“We try to retain the art form and perform as per the rituals. Besides, we arrange for publishing their works and invite them for discussions. This works wonderfully as confidence levels go up. Such alternative education system helps participants improve their critical thinking.”
The group also facilitated formation of children’s, youth’s and men’s clubs. For instance, the children’s club encouraged kids to draw, write and motivated them to participate in sports and games.
“It boosts their confidence and makes them realise their responsibility to life. Once this target is achieved, these people become peer educators for others in neighbouring villages as they are major motivational factors having tried and tested it all,” Mr. Jeyasankar cites his success stories in villages such as Seelamunai, Karuvappamkerni, Pukudiyiurruppu, Thevapuram, Mugathuvaram, Kaluvenkerni, Kannanguda, near Batticaloa.
Untiring effort
“In bringing the old koothu art form back to life, some aspects considered negative for development and welfare society, like the hierarchical social set up and marginalisation of women, are naturally pushed to the background. New interpretations evolve. In fact, our men’s club has started to approach issues in a feministic perspective. This is a plus point in our untiring effort,” he beams.
Mr. Jeyasankar’s visit here is also for a children’s theatre workshop, produced in association with CESCI involving kids from the villages of Kadavur, Vemparali and Chathirappatti near the Temple City.
The Third Eye is an all out effort to bring hapless people back to the mainstream.
In a war-ravaged society when threat to life dangles before the eyes every minute, it is even difficult to think about theatre but involving the community to evolve a new dimension of the art form demands a lot of courage. But Mr. Jeyasankar and his friends have set themselves on a unique path and their efforts are rejuvenating scores of emotionally hammered people.
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