DAYA News Bureau, July 27, 2024: As a part of Durgapur Adda Young Association’s unique initative ‘Jeevanpath Kendra’, three life lesson centres have been running in three peripheral areas of Durgapur under the aegis of the social organization. With 95 students from these three centres, Jeevanpath Divas was celebrated on July 26 in the mini-auditorium of Srijani, Durgapur.
Additionally, a discussion was organized on the contributions of Akshay Kumar Dutta, pioneer of science education in Bengal, and science professor Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, with eccentric Rupak Das as the discussant.
The program began with offering wreaths to picture-portraits of the two sages, accompanied by a choral singing of the organization’s anthem.
It was followed by Jeevanpath 3’s presentation of a music-drama on the song “কতই রঙ্গ দেখি দুনিয়ায়” from Satyajit Ray’s film ‘Heerak Rajar Desh’. They conveyed the meaningful lyrics of the song through their gestures and movements.
In their first presentation for the day, the students of Jeevanpath-1 then highlighted the plight of lakhs of migrant worker and their desperate desire to return home during the Covid-19 lockdown period. They sang “গাঁও মাটি দূর তোহে ছোড় আয়ে” and again embodied the powerful the lyrics and thought of the song.
The students of Jeevanpath-2 subsequently staged Leela Majumdar’s comedy play, “Bali Sugreev Kathan”. The satirical play takes a leaf out of Ramayana-the episode where, in order to rescue Sita, a forest-dwelling Ram helps the monkey king Sugriva to obtain the kingdom of Kiskindha by defeating the erstwhile king Bali in an unfair war – to suggest that there is, essentially, no difference
between the human-epitome Lord Ram and a non-human Money in terms of stooping low to fend their own self-interests. This 35-minute long play was turned into a watch delight by the amazing act of the students amidst the wonderful stage-craft and light-play. One could hardly judge that it was not a performance by some theatre group!
The concluding presentation of the day was the second performance by the students of Jeevanpath-1, wherein they demonstrated that rice, hunger and poverty have no religion, no caste. The song—on which they performed their embodied act, was sung by ten resident-students of DAYA’s Project Sinchon. It is the members of the very organization that have arranged the lyrics and tune of the song.
To bring the day to an end, Mr. Rajesh Sen, Secretary of the organization, delivered a speech highlighting the main idea behind the Jeevanpath project adopted by DAYA. The Jeevanpath centres, he said, constitute an alternative education project to educate the children of marginalized areas in the practical ways of life. He mentioned the independent and original elements in the conceptualization of this project along with the fact that the mode of teaching deployed in these centres takes its inspiration from the teaching approach recommended by Paulo Freire.
In the presence of more than 200 people, including many dignitaries of Durgapur, the whole programme offered a food for thought and delight for everyone!