Hello there!  Way back in July my students at Seethaphalmandi and I became fascinated by the idea of cross-cultural sharing via Digital Postcards.  Lucky for us, Hyderabad’s festival season swung into high gear just as we were getting ready to embark on our second video project.  When the neighborhood around the school began to be crowded with pop-up sweet shops and Ganesha temples, I was confused, and immediately turned to my students for the low-down.  They explained that Ganesh Chatruthi: the 11-day celebration that would culminate in a massive citywide celebration at Tank Bund, was almost upon us!  Because our surroundings were so teeming with potential material (beautiful statues to photograph, plenty of folks to interview, spontaneous dance parties to film) we decided to devote our energy to educating the masses about this incredible festival.

Jai Ganesha from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

At first, I was a bit reluctant to go along with the student’s insistence on incorporating photography, interviews, videos and stop motion animation into the project, but they quickly divided themselves into teams and proved they were more than up for the task.  Apart from one special field trip that we all took to some of the neighborhood idols, the students honed their skills in small groups, dutifully checking off items on our production checklist.  The final product is not only visually stunning, but also provides a wonderfully comprehensive understanding of the festival.

The class with their letters from Breakthrough students!

One of the most rewarding aspects of this project, however, was actually getting to send the postcard to a group of Digital Storytelling students in a Boston, facilitated by our own Piya Kayshap.  The students were thrilled to share this aspect of their culture and even more elated to receive letters and power points about Halloween and Thanksgiving.  We had a great time comparing and contrasting the holidays and drafting letters to our new friends!