How does it really feel to ring the bell?

Leaning back on my seat in the bus, on my way back home, I knew I was overwhelmed with mixed emotions. There was no one word that could define or describe my feelings and thoughts at that point, after spending four days, being an active part of the Bell Bajao campaign. In those four days, at a very personal and emotional level – there were many new relationships formed, many new lessons learnt, new challenges confronted, new ideas introduced and exchanged, thoughts provoked and new stories heard.

I was very anxious on the first day. Will I be able to interact with the public without any inhibitions? Well, I was as excited to find the answers to these questions myself.

It turned out that getting along with group was not at all a problem. I knew those guys pretty well and so it didn’t take long for me to feel settled and comfortable. We were to put up 3 shows in 3 places on all 3 days I stayed with them. So we would begin the day with a simple breakfast of neerdosas and shyavige – what a nice way to begin the day! Traveling in the open canter through the utterly gorgeous forest areas, the Western Ghats, huge coconut groves, banana farms with typical little South canara houses popping up every now and then, was an amazing experience by itself. And above all it was a pleasure to watch the expressions on people’s faces as they saw us pass by. Kids would want to run behind us waving and smiling, busy women would stop their work and throw quick curious glances at us, some people in the vehicles would follow us and ask endless questions…of course we were more than happy to explain to them what it was all about. A group of auto drivers (who would have watched our show the previous day) would shout behind us with their thumbs us “Bell madi” , and we would not be able to stop smiling.

The first show in the day would always be difficult. The sun would be blazing above us and the ground would be burning hot under our feet. But we would not care and nor would the crowd/audience watching us. Around 200 to 300 people would gather close to us but also there would other people watching from all corners of that particular neighborhood. Young men would climb on the vehicles, tall buildings and electric poles to get a bigger picture of it.

Well, I was only working for 3 days, so I don’t think I had enough time to watch or identify any patterns between the crowds or the audience. But I did notice that within a crowd, there were hundred different ideas and approaches and between crowds there would be hundred similarities. People would be shy initially. It would take us some effort to gather all of them around us. But the games and other activities we would conduct before the play would work on them beautifully. The minute we announce that there would be gifts for the winners there would be a big queue of people who would want to participate in the games….some people would laugh and say “it’s all their tricks to get us, don’t fall for it”. But once people started playing they would not want to stop. These activities really helped us in many ways to break many barriers between us and the audience. In fact it made people feel very comfortable and it helped us establish some kind of relationship with them. After the activities people would very promptly wait and watch the whole play and very few of them would get distracted. Sometimes they would laugh at inappropriate intervals during the play which I thought was due to some kind of resistance towards accepting what was shown, as reality. And most often people would be shy of scared to voice their opinions aloud. But once you approach them, you’d get a sea of different kinds of responses. It was just too amazing many different kinds of responses we were getting in such period of time.

Here are a few of them…

A short man in his 40s who was a pambada (pambadas belong to a particular special tribal community in south canara and they are skilled at performing the bhootharadana which is a tradition of worshiping spirits) said confidently and quite confidently that this kind of campaigns are quite unnecessary when the only cure for all the problems lies in the hands and power of the spirits. He says “if you believe in the spirit, he’ll definitely save you, there’s no doubt about that.”

Many women expressed their discomfort by very hesitantly saying “How can you say husband doesn’t have a right to beat his wife up? He owns her, he can do it whatever he wants.”

Young confident looking college girls of my age came to me quite willingly and said that they were really excited by the whole campaign and they would definitely like to do this kind of work in future.

Some men (feeling rather insecure after the play) would ask haughtily and demandingly- “well, all this is good…but women have tendency to misuse things…so we this message will not be taken in the wrong way to harass the men folk.”

In small village called Duggaldka in Sulya I overheard a group of boys discussing the way the women are treated in their own respective houses.

“My aunt always gets beaten up in the evenings…”

“My brother used to come and beat up my sister in law quite a lot, he’s stopped it now, since my father said it’s wrong to hit anyone according to the Quran”

I also met many men who said….”that they have always been against violence in their neighborhood and they think it’s the whole society’s responsibility to stop any kind of violence anywhere.”

I would be overwhelmed by so many different kinds of stories and anecdotes. My biggest challenge was to talk to the public without any biases and listen to them without judging them.

I knew I was not allowed to get either emotional or worked up. There were beliefs that had been passed on from generations to generations. I had no expectations of changing those beliefs and traditions just by a campaign.  Nevertheless I was very happy to be a part of it because it was powerful effective in its own way……it was making people think, it was making us, who are always busy and caught up in our own little worlds, wake up for a few minutes and give this new idea a thought.

So after our first show in the day, we would take a slightly longish break after our lunch. By 4’o clock we would have regained our energies and would start all over again with the same excitement and enthusiasm. There would be two more shows till nine or ten in the night after which we would be so excited and sweaty that nothing on Earth would seem to us more appealing than a cold water bath and sleep.  But I could feel within myself some kind of energy, excitement and satisfaction.

The following is the table recording all the shows which took place during the 3 days I was with the bell bajao campaign.

I was quite appalled by the stamina of the group, both mental and physical, and their dedication to the work they were doing. The response we got in the feedback sheets from the audience confirmed this. Most of the time the audience said that they had found the street plays most effective.  This was the play, the group had performed several times but as an outsider I could see that there was the same kind of commitment and effort every time they performed it. It was extremely impressive, the way they were refining it and fine-tuning it.  The feedback sessions at the end of the day and their abilities to give each other open and frank feedback showed how healthy the team was. I know from my own personal experiences. Personally my interaction with team has been very pleasant and memorable.

This has been a very rich, learning experience for me.  In these three days I have learnt to be particularly alert and observant. I had to watch each and everyone in the crowd carefully searching for different expressions on their faces as they watching the play… I would see someone nod, someone shake her head out of despair, a group of people watching the play intensely…I had to note all these in my head, so that I can approach them later. I learnt that It is so important not to offend the crowd in anyway…..well, in many situations, one had to confirm to them. I also realized that if I wanted the public to talk to me, I had to stop putting the division between myself and them. I had to become one among them to get a real feel of what they think of this whole idea.

Personally I have seen how difficult it is for one to be present anywhere fully…and not wander away by oneself.  I discovered many new things about myself. I saw that I have also been conditioned in many areas just like everyone gathered as our audience. I found it pleasantly challenging and refreshing to step out of my usual comfort zone and do new things I have never done before… The whole process has been rewarding in its own way.  However after interacting with a whole lot of different kinds/ classes and backgrounds of people, I realized that- in front of so many fixed notions, world views, images and beliefs that we still have a long way to go. Yet, by the end of these three days, I was happy and content to have been a part of this small step towards a huge change in our massive society.

I would like to thank all everyone and particularly Breakthrough for giving me this wonderful opportunity and experience that has become so close to my heart.

- This post is written by Ini Periodi, a college student, who accompanied the Video Van in Mangalore and around.