Coming Together as a Community to Drum
People of Jaipur encountered something uniquely enchanting on 26 June, 2016.
An enthusiastic crowd showed up for the first community drum circle event in Jaipur, a positive sign that Jaipur is ready for more such community driven events.
Hari was the facilitator for the event; Taal Inc being the organizer.
The whole event turned out to be relaxing and energetic, which might sound paradoxical, and that's why you should read on to know the hows and whats of it !
Hands on drum
Our dost and host, Hari began the event by introducing people to Djembe or jembe, a west-African instrument. He showed us how to perform some basic drumming techniques which were very easy to grasp. Base and Slap are two methods to hit the drum with your hand, base is when you hit the center of drum with your whole palm and slap is when you do hit the edge of it with your joined fingers. For simplicity and fun, hari renamed base and slap to "Boom" and "Pa".
Most people were holding the drums for the first time, and their faces seemed somewhat skeptical about whether they could really play it. Hari has managed to reduce the anxiety in the group to its minimum with his friendly presence at the center.
He started with some very easy to play rhythms, and the group followed, pretty much precisely ! As we went ahead, the drumming became louder, more energetic, and more variant. It was wonderful to see the confidence gaining in the group, ready to play whatever that is being asked from them.
By now, people have started to come up with their own rhythms. And some of them sounded truly brilliant !
The "Aha moment" was to see a little girl creating a beautiful rhythm and everyone paused while she did that.
For one of the fun games we played, the whole group was divided into two teams. During one round, one team was "makers" when they are supposed to come up with a rhythm and play it for a while, and other team who is "breakers" for this round will try to break the rhythm by making all kinds of possible sounds. This was super energetic !
Sad, but like every good thing, drumming circle came to an end.
As the event came to the closure, Hari told us the many benefits of community drumming, stress buster being the primitive one. And all of us had just experienced it. Last one hour, we were completely indulged in this vibrant activity, not letting even a single thought about the routine work of office or the ups and downs in relationships take over the joy that we were experiencing.
You can listen to drumming session in parts on sound cloud - https://soundcloud.com/jaipurmerashehar/sets/community-drum-circle-june
Organizations like Jaipur Mera Shehar and Home For Artists supported the event in promotion, registration, and management.
About Hari
About an year ago, Hari attended a two day workshop on drumming circle conducted by Taal Inc's founder in Banglore. Later on, he interned with Taal Inc and facilitated many drum circles in colleges and communities while working with Taal Inc. As Tall Inc. is expanding to north, and Jaipur being their first stop, Hari will be facilitating / organizing most of their drum circle events in Jaipur.
During the whole event, Hari is supported by Manu. Manu is a musician and a friend.
About Taal Inc.
Taal Inc. is an organization that brings people together in rhythm and positively influences the areas of health & well-being through music & arts.
Will there be more drumming ?
It sure was a thrilling experience for everyone. The energy was beautiful, faces were smiling even when the hands were tired, even harmed a bit. Many of us were wondering if we can drum for one more hour or if we can do it every week. How beautiful that would be ? To come together as a community, form a large circle, and engage in this intriguing activity often ! Later, it was promising to hear from Hari that Taal Inc has plans to organize one drumming circle event every month.
Missed this event ? No worries, there would be more ! Join this group to get updates about the future drum circle events - https://www.facebook.com/groups/TaalIncDrumCirclesJaipur/
Photographs by Raj Lalwani
FIRST MOVIE SCREENING OF JAIPUR MERA SHEHAR GROUP
Jaipur Mera Shehar as a group is gradually moving from ideation phase to more-of-action mode. Movie screening of the film "Leap of Faith" was the first step forward in this positive direction.
Jaipur Food and Farm group along with MELA came up with idea of organizing this event. AhimsaGram, Adityanath, Shrey, Krishna, Vidisha Saini offered an appetizing Potluck food/snack/drink variety spread for the film screening. It was an open event for everyone to join.
ABOUT THE MOVIE
LEAP OF FAITH explores the lives of three families who are making sustainable choices by allowing the children to learn naturally at home, self healing and doing organic farming in three different cities in india. The film also takes its inspiration from Fukuoka's ideas of 'do nothing' and extends it to our daily lives.
Leap of faith was filmed 10 years ago, and the message resonates with the same intensity in present times. It acts as a great resource / tool for motivation for people who are keen in exploring alternate ways of living. It also brings up and makes us question some of fundamental concepts related to health, nature, learning and unlearning, that we have been wrongly taught by various institutions.
Watch the full movie -
Shammi Nanda, the director of the film, along with few crew members were present during the screening. Post screening, the group had a profound discussion on Unschooling, homeschooling, and the importance of bringing out such stories through the medium of films. Many people expressed their dissatisfaction towards the current schooling system and conversed about how to support each other during the journey of exploring new paths towards a more sustainable society. To know more about Shammi, visit - https://courageouscommunication.wordpress.com/about/
Vision
To celebrate the spirit of humanness, artistic expression and diversity.
In this process -
1. Strengthen interconnections amongst communities
2. Become a joyous medium of accessing, promoting, and providing experience of various art forms and creative disciplines.
3. Make artistic expression an integral part of lifestyle and policy making which would help Jaipur become a creative city.
Mission
To celebrate the spirit of humanness, artistic expression and diversity.
In this process -
1. Strengthen interconnections amongst communities
2. Become a joyous medium of accessing, promoting, and providing experience of various art forms and creative disciplines.
3. Make artistic expression an integral part of lifestyle and policy making which would help Jaipur become a creative city.
Mission
- Providing more opportunities and platforms for citizens and travelers to experience the traditional as well as emerging art forms in Jaipur, which would in turn help people to build more diverse and deeper connections with Jaipur.
- Use artistic expressions to challenge stereotypes, to introduce experiential art, for therapy and healing, for unlearning, and as a tool to empower youth.
- To spread awareness about various traditional and contemporary art forms.
- Self exploration through indulging in various art forms.
AIM
AIMS
|
Lead (responsible to make draft proposal)
|
Supported by
|
· mapping mela spaces in city
|
avinash
|
aditya, anjum, swati, kriti
|
· workshops for awareness for art forms
|
chinmay
|
anjum, swati
|
· bringing art to the street
|
kriti
|
vatsala, anjum
|
· spaces for public performances, artists,exhibition
|
chinmay
|
aditya, rekha, kriti, nimisha
|
· art camps in schools
|
chirag
|
anjum, rekha, swati
|
· magzine/ newspaper
|
nimisha
|
chirag, aarav
|
soundscaping
|
avinash
|
rekha
|
· find cafes with open mics and weekly jamming sessions. ( alternate space - home for arists )
|
avinash
|
chinmay, nimisha
|
· work with existing bookshops
|
avinash
| |
· assignments around art & craft workshops-hands-on. ( doodle pyaau )
|
chinmay
|
avinash, nimisha, kriti
|
· learn specific arts
|
swati
| |
· artful family camps
|
Chinmay, Vatsala
|
kriti, chirag, nimisha
|
· JKK art workshops
|
rekha
|
anjum, swati
|
MELA Interest Group - Minutes of the First Meet
MELA
MOM - 21st May,2016
Purpose
was to create a community which reflections on the current state of Music, Entertainment, Literature and Art in our city, share their ideas of how MELA as an interest group be and create and make action plans for near future to bring awareness of MELA in the city. Meeting was organized by Jaipur Mera Shehar Facilitated by Mr. Shammi Nanda & Avinash Maurya.
Brief of full meeting:
1.Introduction of each participant
2. Introduction to sociocracy
3. Introduction to MELA
4. Creation of Vision, Mission, Aim for MELA
5. Election of Operatioanal Leader and Representative
6. Closing
Vision
· music : constructive tool to build communication
· strengthening interconnections
· access and exposure for art
· creating nurturing systems for artists
· awareness of traditional and contemporary art forms
· art as therapy
· art as integral part of policy making
· tool to empowering youth
· celebration of humanness of expression and acceptance
· unlearning with art
Mission
· making city walkable
· art for stereotype and experiential art
Aim
· spaces invites to move
· mapping mela spaces in city
· workshops for awareness for art forms
· bringing art to the street
· safe spaces for artists
· spaces for public performances
· art camps in schools
· spaces for exhibition
· magzine/ newspaper
· soundscaping
Proposal to be made
· find cafes with open mics and weekly jamming sessions. ( alternate space - home for arists )
· work with existing bookshops
· assignments around art & craft workshops-hands-on. ( doodle pyaau )
· learn specific arts
· artful family camps
· kalaneri arts
Election
The group elected
Avinash Maurya & Nimisha on the position of Operational Leader of the group for next 3 months
Kriti Gupta as Representative of the group for next 6 months
Wholesome Living and Healing Interest Group - Minutes of the first meeting
Wholesome Living and Healing
MOM: 11-5-2016
We had our third meeting under the Umbrella of 'Jaipur Mera Shehar' project, where we talked about Wholesome Living & Healing, We discussed about what and how can we adopt a more wholesome state of being in our lives.
Initially all friends shared their thoughts and feelings
about the idea of what can be Wholesome Living & Healing practices, many
interesting things came out during this time.
Some shared that for wholesome living we can focus
● On the use of more and more of natural ways of daily
living rather than just depending on the products that are not good for our
health and even for the environment,
● Working towards waste management, how people and
communities can manage waste and also how can they differentiate between
different kinds of waste,
● How we can use alternate ways of healing
● Restore the natural water and air cycles.
● How can we be more conscious and balanced in our state of
being, while taking care of our all sorts of emotions?
Based on these
discussions we came to our vision, mission and aims, which will be to make a
nature friendly system recognizing our interconnections with the whole
universe, using and promoting alternate ways of healing for our health,
nourishing and empowering communities and creating self sufficiency in
ourselves.
Using Sociocracy, we also elected people from the group for
five roles with full consent of the whole group. Operations Leader Shrey
Srivastava, Facilitator Nitika Nadgar, Circle Administrator Piyush Bansal and
Shrey Srivastava, Group Representative Rashmi and Vandana Nadgar and
IT/Documentation Coordinator Piyush Bansal and Ashish Khandelwal.
In case you want to
know more about the group and join them you could contact them.
To know more about the Jaipur Mera Shehar Project go tohttps://goo.gl/I8JmKh
Meetings will be held in the coming days at Samarth School –
C26, Gulab Path, Gali number 2, Chomu House, Jaipur, from 5.30 to 8.30 pm.
Learning City Interest Group - Minutes of the first meet
Learning City
MOM: 6-5-2016
MOM: 6-5-2016
Purpose
was to create a community which helps to make city alive by joining hands together. Discussion about how we can solve problems goes around city which is demolishing our heritage, tradition, Culture, Mind, skills, art etc. Meeting was organized by Jaipur Mera Shehar Facilitated by Mr. Shammi Nanda.
Brief of full meeting:
1.Introduction of each participant
2. Introduction to sociocracy
3. Introduction to Learning city
4. Creation of Vision, Mission, Aim for learning city
5. Formation of team to lead learning city
6. Closing
Participants: Shammi Nanda (Facilitator of Meeting), Piyush Bansal, Vidisha Saini, Prakash Gurnani, Kapil Menghrani, Abhishek Gupta.
All were very excited and active to lead learning city.
All were very excited and active to lead learning city.
Introduction to Sociocracy: Shammi Nanda gave the idea about sociocracy, that how we can convert complexity into simplicity by having Equivalence, Effectiveness and Transparency in the system.
Introduction to Learning city: Introduction of making a city, a better place by sociocracy. How to connect people for making this city more enjoyable and learnable?
Vision so Far:
· Grow with others growth
· Symbiosis collaboration
· Identifying needs of growing city
· Co-design and co-create a solution for growing city
· Life serving traditional values
· Nurturing our creative potentials
· Integrating and interconnection of human nature
· Pluralism
· Celebrating diversity
· Equivalence
· Acknowledging living history
Mission so Far:
· Conservation of architectural heritage
· Rural-urban connection
· Working through commons
· Medium to connect different skills people together
Aim so far:
· Online directory of villages
· Real time documentation workshops
· Creating podcast & blogs
· Webcast,offline Meet-ups
· Street art
· City walk
· Mapping and making learning resources accessible
· Creating sustainable gift economy cafe
Team of learning city: Group nominates people to lead learning city.
These people will work for 6 months as a team to lead group.
Prakash Gurnani (Operation Lead)
Vidisha Saini (Representative)*
* In absence of Vidisha, Abhishek leads as a representative
Abhishek Gupta (Circle Administrator)
Kapil Menghrani (Facilitator)*
* Piyush will support Kapil and can seek help from
Shammi Nanda
Kapil Menghrani (Document and IT)*
* Supported by Vidisha
Closing:
Everyone was ready to lead this group. Fixed next
meet on
14-5-16 Sat at 5PM in JKK, Jaipur. Meet will all about Summaries the vision and making plans for future to lead this group. Contact sharing, making whats app group and other social group to get communicated.
14-5-16 Sat at 5PM in JKK, Jaipur. Meet will all about Summaries the vision and making plans for future to lead this group. Contact sharing, making whats app group and other social group to get communicated.
Jaipur Food and Farm - Minutes of the first meeting
Jaipur Food & Farm
MOM - 5-5-2016
Today the Food and Farm group of Jaipur Mera Shehar project met. We sat for almost four hours and framed our Vision, Mission and Aim.
Using Sociocracy, we also elected people from the group for five roles with full consent of the whole group. Operations Leader Keshav Modi, Facilitator -Piyush Bansal, Circle Administrator - Mukul Choudhary, RepresentativeSangeeta Patni and IT/Documentation Coordinator.
Am glad that people gave their time to it and talked about how the food systems for the city can be more nourishing. The group will be active and now announcing its programs. Coming soon could be a workshop on composting.
We now have series of meetings lined up for the coming days for different groups. Today we meet to talk about the design of the city and what all can we do to make the city more enriching for the people and life that lives there. Welcome to the meeting of
Learning City – Heritage, Architecture, Design today evening.
Using Sociocracy, we also elected people from the group for five roles with full consent of the whole group. Operations Leader Keshav Modi, Facilitator -Piyush Bansal, Circle Administrator - Mukul Choudhary, RepresentativeSangeeta Patni and IT/Documentation Coordinator.
Am glad that people gave their time to it and talked about how the food systems for the city can be more nourishing. The group will be active and now announcing its programs. Coming soon could be a workshop on composting.
We now have series of meetings lined up for the coming days for different groups. Today we meet to talk about the design of the city and what all can we do to make the city more enriching for the people and life that lives there. Welcome to the meeting of
Learning City – Heritage, Architecture, Design today evening.
Meeting Schedule of all Interest Groups
Here is an opportunity to walk in and meet face to face with people with shared interest to create a peer to peer support groups in the city over the next two weeks.
Together we will re-imagine our city so that we have the power to enrich and nourish the life of the people of this city in an autonomous as well as interdependent way.
These groups are from various areas of interest, and also connected to each other through a network. To know more about how the network will be organised see http://goo.gl/7Wjaiy
We will be conducting a series of meetings where we will call separate meeting of each interest group. Initially, the anchoring team for launching this network will also be with you and once the groups are formed it will strive to become a self operating system.
Agenda:
In the first meeting, by using Sociocracy (Consent Based Governance) we will together frame a statement of purpose specifying the vision, mission and activities of each group and nominate the representatives to join the larger network.
Meetings will be held at Samarth School – C-26, Gulab Path, Gali number 2, Chomu House, Jaipur.
The schedule is as follows.
If you have any suggestions please feel free to write to them at jaipurmerashehar@gmail.com.
Besides it will support us and the network if you can fill this form.
Shammi, Chintan, Piyush, Avinash and Aditya
Anchor Team
Jaipur Mera Shehar
Together we will re-imagine our city so that we have the power to enrich and nourish the life of the people of this city in an autonomous as well as interdependent way.
These groups are from various areas of interest, and also connected to each other through a network. To know more about how the network will be organised see http://goo.gl/7Wjaiy
We will be conducting a series of meetings where we will call separate meeting of each interest group. Initially, the anchoring team for launching this network will also be with you and once the groups are formed it will strive to become a self operating system.
Agenda:
In the first meeting, by using Sociocracy (Consent Based Governance) we will together frame a statement of purpose specifying the vision, mission and activities of each group and nominate the representatives to join the larger network.
Meetings will be held at Samarth School – C-26, Gulab Path, Gali number 2, Chomu House, Jaipur.
The schedule is as follows.
Date
|
Day
|
Time
|
Interest Group
|
Venue
|
5th May
|
Thu
|
6:00-8:30pm
|
Jaipur Food & Farming
|
Samarth School
|
6th May
|
Fri
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Learning City
|
Samarth School
|
11th May
|
Wed
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Wholesome Living & Healing
|
Samarth School
|
12th May
|
Thu
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Economics of Happiness
|
Samarth School
|
17th May
|
Tue
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Learning Unlearning
|
Samarth School
|
18th May
|
Wed
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Ecology
|
Samarth School
|
19th May
|
Thu
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Gift culture & spirit of service
|
Samarth School
|
20th May
|
Fri
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
Communication & Counseling
|
Samarth School
|
21st May
|
Sat
|
5:30-8:30pm
|
MELA
|
Samarth School
|
If you have any suggestions please feel free to write to them at jaipurmerashehar@gmail.com.
Besides it will support us and the network if you can fill this form.
Shammi, Chintan, Piyush, Avinash and Aditya
Anchor Team
Jaipur Mera Shehar
