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The day started with interaction with children. The school had a be-
lief that there would be a drawing competition held. By the time the
truth unfolded that it is not a competition the children showed mixed
emotions. The chart papers which were brought by them were tore
into A4 sheets, which added to our advantage because the stationary
did not arrive at time. The workshop proceeded amorphously and
beautifully.The word workshop was then fragmented to understand
together the language of comics .Fun frolic and learning rather in
short masti in the children’s voice in 3 days.
Some white sheets were distributed to them and they were told to
shade the entire paper with pencil. When the shaded paper were held
in front of them any kind of image that they could think of and that
was immediately formed in their mind were shared by them. Before
every story the base that support it, is an issue or more academically
a subject that the story is based on. The images that flooded in their
minds were all environment related.
That showed the children in their subconscious mind had thought and related their childhood in
the midst of images that they named like pollution, black clouds, grey, gas emission and ‘ some-
thing bad’. Then the next word chalked in the blackboard was childhood. They pondered over the
word for a while and distinguishingly named all that’s colourful, fun frolic and all that’s nice. They
showed us that their colourful childhood has been enduring in the midst of all that is.
grey in the city of Bhopal. When I say grey here it is not a mixture of black and white but only
shades of black some of which are lighter and some very dark.
DISCUSSION OF ISSUE
We took the discussion further and talked about various comics they are aware of and the comics
that they as participants would be doing in this workshop. While we saw that talking about issues
and forming story was a bit confusing for them we showed them wallposter comics sample and they
decoded the comics language quickly.
Now they knew that the story is not an essay that they write in school but their personal or formed
narratives divided into four visual frames.
The Bhopal gas tragedy is a history that long lost, unrelated though the children could not see the
relation their childhood had in the midst of the environment problems. Like for a particular genera-
tion the freedom struggle is a history. They wrote the story techinically all the facts of Bhopal were
correct like all history remembered without emotions. But when they spoke earlier what childhood
means to them they spoke with lots of energy because they have been a part of it.
It is a learnt and lived fact for them. This
was not the same when they wrote about the
issue of Bhopal Gas tragedy.
For many the 3rd December holiday in school was the triggering effect to form the story. A participant
narrated a story where he questioned why is it a holiday on the 3rd of December and then the story fol-
lowed where her teacher communicated to her about the incident.
The stories finally formed brought out the agony and the sense of wonder children carried cognitively
even if born after the incident. They were storytellers of the various events of a tragic issue that just
completed 25 years history of suffering. They emerged to be the voice of their parents, grand parents
and some who might be invisible in the story but very much remembered by them 25 years hence.
DAY 2
Postures and then facial expression were drawn before the children. The participant observers came up
from their stool to add to the exercise. They confidently drew some expressions making us understand
that they comprehended. What proceeded then was the rough visual scripting. A4 white sheets were
given to them and they sketched the visuals and added narrations in four frames.
The younger children were swift in understanding the exercise but faced difficulty in forming the dia-
logues. The older participants of 8th to 12th standard helped the younger ones while learnt the division
of visual frames from the younger ones. It was such a visual treat to watch the collaboration of the dif-
ferent age groups in speaking comics language.
The rough visual script was prepared with ease and successfully. wallposter comics that was stuck on
the wall was referred by them quite often as they prepared the visual script. The comics manual book
was distributed to them.
They now took fleeting
looks in both the manu-
als and the wallposter
around them.
Speech bubbles were drawn before them and now children knew the space they have to create for both
the visual and the speech bubbles.Some children finished inking (only the visuals as we suggested to
keep the the dialogue box empty) while all the others had already grabbed fresh papers for the final
artwork. By the end of the day all children had finished preparing the final artwork in pencil while
some majority already finished inking the final artwork. The dialogue box now remained without ink-
ing for some.
DAY-3
We started the day earlier than the last two days. Children were waiting for our arrival at 9 am in the
morning at their school’s entry gate. As all the children settled we distributed their final artwork and
they started inking them.
We showed some of them inking again as we did for some in the last day. The black sketch pens were
then given to them and black shading was explained to them. They articulated their final artwork with
black shading in houses they made, floors, and dresses patterns and around dialogue boxes. For some
children whose script was not very long, we suggested them the use the black sketch outline for the
dialogue box while some just outlined the four frames.
After completion of the final visual script came the
time where they could be suggested titles for their
story. Some children were ready to discuss their title,
as we finalized theirs we moved on to discussing titles
for the others the titles are to be made attractive so the
children highlighted the fonts and made small visual
gestures to make their wallposter comics look signifi-
cant and nice. After completion of all final artwork the
children made corrections with correction ink where
they thought necessary to make the comics better.
FIELD TEST
The children walked with their comics through a nearby lane near the school. We spotted a place lo-
cated at the backside by-lane of the school which they name as Mahamai temple place and this is where
we performed our field testing. As children shared their comics some of the people sobbed reading their
comics, they could relate with the story. It was a different mode in which the workshop unfolded in the
last day. The children were unaware of the visual communication they were doing with the adults in the
lanes as they shared their comics. They did it without transaction of purpose but simply to share their
individual story. After sharing with the people they asked their permission to stick the comics on their
house or shop walls, they got the permission lovingly. The children became confident to share their
stories in public.
CRITIQUE SESSION