Mr. Pancholi is a member at the Government secondary school, Railway station in Alwar. I visited his school today to ask for permission to do a workshop with his students. One of the reasons why this school is important is that the school is around the village where the Artists come from. Many children from Mungaskhan village go to this school. In fact two of the artists themselves have studied in this school.

Mr. Pancholi as expected was somewhat vary of my intentions. The first question I was asked was that which organization do I belong to. And if I am doing this on my own then what is my intention behind this project. From his experience in working in Alwar and being closely associated with Mewati art and cultural activities, he thinks that most people who have come to Alwar to work with this community have “used” the children and have gone ahead and won awards. I think this conversation was very important for me since, while talking to him , I could re articulate my intentions and my stand in this project.

I told him how this is a student project where my motivation lies in applying my learnings in this local context. I am not claiming to preserve Mewati art and culture. My aim is to work with a group of these particular four artists and capacitate them to share the knowledge that they have. This is an experimental project, and if it is successful, It can be used as a model and built upon to be applied to other communities.

I have always kept in mind that I should not be leaving this process half way and make sure that the artists don’t feel that they were just being used in this process. But this conversation has made me all the more sensitive about my responsibility towards the people I am working with. I am not sure how convinced Mr. Pancholi is with what I had to say to him. He has given us the permission to do the workshop. I am looking forward to some more conversations with him during the course of the workshop.

Another concern that he had was what can be taught to the students in 2 days. I think this might be a concern for a lot of people. I believe a kid can learn in a second as well. Its about what is the objective of the workshop. Are we saying we will teach the kids to play Bhanpang? Or are we saying we will introduce them to this kind of music. We will try to engage them in the process of the production of this music and give them a chance to reflect on their relationship with music in general and this art form in particular.