Blog | The Modern Story

Getting around in Hyderabad is always an adventure. From crossing 8 lanes of full-speed traffic to colliding with a motorbike during a late-night auto rickshaw ride, getting from point A to point B often includes moments of mingled terror and excitement. The bus, our most frequently-used form of transportation, is by far the most unpredictable. Sometimes it’s so crowded that you miss your stop because you can’t squeeze your way out. Sometimes a fight breaks out because a man refuses to give up his seat in the section of the bus reserved for women. And very often, people jump into the open doors of moving buses. Recently, I decided to mimic this last behavior. I was headed to class, almost but not quite at the bus stop when I saw the 8A, my ride to school, begin to pull away. In the few seconds of sprinting to close the distance between us, I psyched myself up to do something I had seen so many others before me accomplish. I leapt onto the bus, just barely making it onto the step. My body slammed against the side of the bus and I gripped the railing for dear life. When I finally managed to pull myself inside, I was met with a mix of shocked, confused and concerned faces. But along with a wave of embarrassment and a badly bruised leg came another important lesson about life in India: things won’t always stop for you. Sometimes you just have to jump in.

This is definitely a lesson I’ve had to put into practice in the classroom. Holidays and a collection of unexpected hurdles have made working on schedule for our first project a challenge. But time doesn’t stop to give me another 20 minutes to talk about point of view or another week to get to know my students before I ask them to photograph their hopes, worries and desires. As a class, we’ve had to jump onto this bus already in motion. But unlike the gasps, chuckles, and stares that greeted me on the 8A, our big jump has produced two projects I can’t wait to share, and a level of trust between myself and the students I could not have imagined to find so early.

This new ease with jumping carried beautifully into our plans for this past weekend. The majority of my travel experiences have taken months of planning and preparation. But in this life of objects already in motion, deciding on Sunday to go to Mumbai on Wednesday seemed perfectly reasonable. And though the overnight bus did stop to allow me, Karis and Dara to climb on safely, the experience still required a leap. The decision to jump is always rewarded, whether by a weekend full of memories, a productive and supportive classroom, or a fun story and battle scar. In all cases, I’m glad I managed to coax my feet off the ground.

Aug, 12

Dara

Uncategorized

Happy Friendship Day!

Last Monday morning while I was setting up for my morning class at Bansilalpet, a student came up to me, grabbed my wrist, and tied a red ribbon around it.

“Happy Friendship Day, teacher!” she said.

I looked around and all of the students had red ribbons tied around their wrists. The ribbons had white letters that said things like “My Special Friend”, “My Best Friend”, and “Happy Friendship Day”. Some students had different colored bands, some only had a few, and some had so many that they filled both wrists nearly to their elbows.

Friendship Day is a popular holiday in India which takes place on the first Sunday of August. One of my teaching assistants, Gita, told me that within the past three years the holiday has become increasingly more popular, especially within junior high and high schools.

“It’s a really cute holiday that the children get excited about,” she said. “But I think it is an important day too. It promotes peace and understanding, caring and sharing.”

I wasn’t surprised that friendship was an important theme in many of my students’ lives. Two of the four schools that I teach at, Bansilalpet and Railway Girls, both decided to center their first big project, a photo story, around friendship. Each school has spent the last two weeks exploring the notion of friendship. What is a friend? How can you be a good friend? Why is friendship important?

It made me reflect on the role of friendship in my own life. Bouncing around from place to place, it can be difficult sometimes to make and keep friends. But already in Hyderabad I feel like I am falling into a really supportive and fun community. I have had an amazing month and am excited to continue learning about the city and meeting new wonderful and exciting people.

Aug, 7

Nandini

Classroom News, TMS Fellow Updates

Entering Pre-Production

The previous week in Hyderabad was a humid, hazy one, punctuated with rain. At our apartment, we’ve grown accustomed to planning around the power cut cycle, with regular 2-hour outages in the morning and just after noon. What we can’t always anticipate is the furtive nighttime outage, which leaves us in darkness save for the light of our laptops, until those run out of battery as well. We have ~~not yet invested in~~ recently purchased candles. For me, after the initial frustration at losing our internet connection (!), I began to enjoy the momentary pause that being cut off from technology provided. It was a chance to clear my head, reflect, and remember the value of stillness in preparing yourself for action.

In many schools, we began work on our photo stories – the first major project, marking completion of Unit 1 in the TMS curriculum. Students in different classrooms are gearing up to tell stories about friendship, family, school, and the different states of India, among other topics. It was exciting to see students’ progression as they worked through the pre-production phase of their projects. After some action-packed, hands-on classes where they learned about and practiced their photography skills, we were now asking them pause from using technology and use the time to think and plan.

For some of our classes, the process of writing scripts and storyboarding were new concepts. It took some time for students to wrap their heads around what we were asking them to do, on top of the responsibility we were putting into their hands, in place of equipment. Still, their creative energy was in full-force and there was a palpable thrill in the air as ideas started coming together. Mental work spurs a new sort of dynamism, but it is hard, time-consuming, sometimes plodding. Although we impressed upon the students the importance of planning for the production stage, we also had to trust that they might not fully understand that lesson until they get there. In that way, the first project truly represents a landmark, not only for what students can create, but also to help them reflect on what they have learned along the way.

Jul, 27

Karis

Daily Updates, Project Tracks, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship

adjust, challenge, class, classroom, fun, good, jugaad, Railway

Packing “jugaad” in our toolbox

They said it takes about three weeks before you feel comfortable in front of a class, comfortable with the language barriers, surprise holidays, and commuting confusion.

Well we’re about three weeks in, and I’m happy to say that I, along with my fellows, have started to become comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Classes have been cut in attendance and size due to holidays and festivals that have dotted nearly every weekend of this month (particularly in Hyderabad, as the sizeable Muslim population has been celebrating Ramadan). Miscommunication with school administrators led to some classroom snafus. The language barrier has led to many an altered lesson plan, finding ways to communicate with students who have so much enthusiasm but without a verbal way to convey all their ideas.

But part of the beauty of these moments, while infuriating, has taught us the importance of thinking on our feet, and embracing “jugaad.” Jugaad is a Hindi phrase that Piya and Remy taught us when we first went though training. Roughly, it translates to “an innovative fix or a simple work-around” and is used to signify applying creativity to make something simple work. I’ve found that this is something learned best by experience, and the last few weeks have offered experience by the ton.

Then, when something finally works, the reward is that much more gratifying.

For example, in our Railway class last week, Nandini and I spent two classes devoted to audio recording and photography. The tasks were simple (record a sentence about something you like to taste, smell, touch, hear, or see, and take a photo of the drawing that represents the student’s sentence), but it didn’t entirely go as planned. Many students were thrilled for the chance to use the equipment, but struggled to record audio without cutting off their sentence and not burst into giggles, or take a satisfactory (in their minds) photo. Regardless, all the students completed the task, and Nandini and I put together a short video that combined all their recordings and photos into one video montage that showed off all the things that Railway Girls like to taste, smell, touch, hear, and see (ranging from smelling lotus flowers to seeing new words –see below). When we brought the finished project into the class to show the students, they watched it over and over, grinning with pride at their work and brimming with ideas about how to make it better. All were filled with a newfound confidence on the equipment. It was a good reminder that even if it feels like your creative solutions do not work, these little efforts pay off in the end.

Outside of class jugaad has also come in handy. From realizing that Uber is much less likely to overcharge you than an auto driver to Rachel’s impressive creations on our one-and-a-half burner stove, adjusting has just become a part of everyday life. And going with the flow has led us to meeting some wonderful new friends and exploring Hyderabad. Below, you can see one of our adventures, a trip to the Bonalu festival in Secunderbad.

From here we move onto our classes’ first project: photo essays. No doubt it will bring little challenges, but at least we have jugaad in our toolbox.

Jul, 20

Rachel

Classroom News, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

#dal, #first day, #food, #hill street, #west marredpally

The One and a Half Burner Cook

I love to cook. In college when I moved off campus into my first apartment, complete with four burners and a nice sized oven, I blossomed. So when I read that TMS fellows often cook for themselves I thought, “No problem.” Arriving in Hyderabad, however, my confidence deflated. In place of four burners and an oven, I have two burners, one of them less than consistent in its functioning, with an intimidatingly complex lighting system that feels vaguely like setting off a bomb. Needless to say, we spent our first few days here living off Maggi Noodles (the Indian equivalent of Ramen) and toast. But finally, once we got a little more settled in, we set out to make dal, a staple Indian dish of lentils and spices. Though far from perfect, our first real meal sent a message. In the sizzling of garlic and ginger, in the high-pitched whistle of the pressure cooker, I heard the words, “You can do this.” From there, I bookmarked a list of recipes to try out and quickly became what Karis has coined The One and a Half Burner Cook. After learning to work with the appliances and ingredients available to me, I can say I’ve made some things I’m genuinely proud of.

Stepping into my classrooms on the first day felt a lot like my first time stepping into the kitchen. At West Marredpally, I found out about two thirds of the way into class that the majority of the girls there had gone through the TMS program last year. So I’ll be starting over with an entirely new group of students this week. And when I showed up for my first day at Hill Street, fresh off the West Marredpally confusion and ready for something to go right, I was notified that the class time we had agreed upon would no longer work. After 45 minutes of discussion and compromise, however, we reached a consensus that the original time would work after all. So I used the remaining time to teach a very compressed and somewhat frazzled version of the lesson I had prepared. No four burners here. No nice sized oven. Just like in the kitchen, I’m learning in the classroom to make the most of what’s available to me. I’m sure somewhere in the clap of the chalk eraser, or a student’s voice calling “teacher,” I’ll hear those same words, “You can do this.” And just like the garlic butter pasta, spiced cauliflower, masala potatoes, and turmeric chicken pictured in this entry, I’m sure West Marredpally and Hill Street will end up with creations the students and I can all be proud of.

Jul, 13

Dara

Daily Updates, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

The Beginning

This week met the first of many milestones. First, was the end of our training period. Piya and Remy took us out for an outrageously delicious Farewell-and-You-Survived-Training Dinner and then dropped us off at our apartment where we said our goodbyes. The Fellows all agreed that the feeling reminded us of when our parents dropped us off at university for the first time. We were, somehow, on our own.

The beginning of the week was spent rickshawing acrossed Hyderabad to visit our schools. We survived our first week in India, and now we were to begin our navigation into the government school system, and into teaching. Each of us had to meet with our respective headmasters and teaching assistants, and also to finalize the class schedule.

By Wednesday all of our schedules for the next six months had been finalized. Between the four Fellows, we each have two schools where we will be teaching. Additionally, all of us are teaming up with one other Fellow to teach at The Railway Girls School.

This marked another important milestone; our first class. Rachel and I were paired up to teach at Railway, and spent all of Wednesday scripting our lesson plan for our first class on Thursday. We spent a lot of time thinking about important teachers in our life. What makes a good teacher? Which activities will be the most effective? How can we create a classroom environment that is fun and welcoming, but also one that will create equal learning opportunities for all students? How can we be liked, but respected?

Luckily, the Railway girls were welcoming, attentive, and ready to learn. We spent the first two days of class doing icebreakers, learning names, and preparing to dive deeper into the art of digital storytelling. The girls were just as excited as we were, and I can tell that we are going to have a great semester with them! Here are two pictures that we took to commemorate the first day of class!

Jul, 12

Nandini

Daily Updates, Reflections

Hello Hyderabad

Part of the journey in discovering a new place is discovering who you are there. Change can test you, but it can also be rejuvenating. It can reveal you to yourself. Returning to India, where I have not lived since I was 3 years old, has had me thinking a lot about how I will be tested here and what I will learn about myself as a result.

In our first week, this included understanding how to cross traffic here (audaciously), pull oneself up onto a moving bus, and make dal-chawal for four. Many more lessons will come, I’m sure, as we begin teaching, interacting with students, and working in the schools. There have also been moments ripe for reflection: over an afternoon chai sipped leisurely, seeing the full moon glowing between laundry hung up on our terrace, or when the urban geography suddenly opens up, like it’s taking a deep breath, as we ride Bus 8A beside the Hussain Sagar.

Someone I met here last week described Hyderabad as a city that’s hungry for opportunities to unleash all of its creative energy. I’ve felt that way myself in recent years and that energy is certainly evident in the students that we’ve met so far. I’m excited to nurture that creativity, build something together, stretch our imaginations, and discover new capacities in ourselves at the same time. Perhaps we are well-matched then, this city and I?

Jul, 7

Dara

Daily Updates, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship

Finally, in Hyderabad.

Greetings from India! Even as I sit here now, inside the fellows’ apartment in Hyderabad, there is an element of disbelief that I made it here at all. Amongst our daily activities which has included training, school visits, and searching for the best local coffees and delicacies, every once in awhile when I step back I think to myself: “Wow, I can’t believe that I am actually here.”

Two weeks ago I was stuck in West Africa without my passport. When I found out that I would be joining The Modern Story in India I began the visa process from abroad, which required me to send my passport and visa application from Ghana back to the United States. Generally this process, applying for the visa by mail, should take about ten working days in total. But due to the switching of visa outsourcing companies and the huge backlogs of applications as a result of the switchover, my application (and passport!) was held hostage for nearly two months.

Between the frantic emails to Piya and Remy about the unknown status of my application (and thus, actual arrival date in India), and my emotionally draining more-than-three-times daily calls to The Big Bad Visa Outsourcing Company, my stress and anxiety levels skyrocketed. All of this while also being alone abroad in Ghana. I felt like a stateless person; unable to go, and unable to leave.

On June 27^th I finally got word that they had processed my application and everything moved very quickly from there. I had a good friend of mine get my passport in New York and ship it to me in Ghana. And three days later I booked another ticket to Hyderabad, picked up my passport in Kumasi on Wednesday morning, and traveled straight down to Accra, where I left Ghana the next morning. After I boarded the plane in Accra, I had no more worries. I was finally on my way.

I arrived in Hyderabad on Friday morning. Remy picked me up, we dropped off my bags at the apartment, and we went straight to Railway Girls School. Even though I was pretty exhausted from the journey (I couldn’t sleep on the planes!), I was so happy to finally meet Piya and Remy, and of course my new co-Fellows!

Even now, as I sit here at 3 o’clock in the morning, unable to sleep from jet lag and the migraine I had this afternoon, I can’t help but think about how lucky I am to have finally made it here. I am so happy to be here in Hyderabad and to be connecting with my co-Fellows, and to share this journey with friends, family, and other followers. Until next time!

7
Jul

Rachel

Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

That Big Red Bag with the Brown Ribbon: My Fresh Start in Hyderabad

What is a fresh start? If I were to explain it, I’d say moving across the world one week after graduating from college is a pretty solid example. But in my first few days in Hyderabad, I found that even in this time of transition, and in this unfamiliar place, I had been holding myself back from the beauty and value that can be found in the start of something.

This lesson came to me in the disappearance of one red suitcase, distinguished by a brown ribbon on the handle and full to bursting with every comfort I could fit within range of the 50lb weight limit. Long story short, a fellow traveler mistakenly took my bag at the Mumbai airport, leaving an identical bag- save for its thinner size and lack of ribbon- in its place, and leaving me without the belongings I’d packed for my time here.

What’s incredible is that this mixup has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Spending my first week in Hyderabad without the suitcase full of items I’d curated to make myself feel as at home as possible really forced me to immerse myself in the city more than I would have otherwise. And it wasn’t long after buying my first few pairs of loose, patterned pants and trying out coconut oil as a substitute for the hair products I’m used to that other areas where I’d had the urge to skip the starting stage began to present themselves. I wanted to bypass the point of building initial connections with my co-fellows and get to the part where we all feel like we deeply know each other. I wanted to slide past feelings of unfamiliarity with the city and get to a place where I’d know where to go, how to get there, and whether the auto rickshaw driver was trying to overcharge me for the ride. I wanted to avoid the the nervousness of speaking in front of the students and feel like a pro in the classroom. But I’ve come to see that acclimating to a new place, a new job, a new community, is a lot like Monopoly. If you don’t pass GO, you don’t collect $200. Skipping the scary or uncomfortable stages of a new beginning means missing out on what comes along with them. Even if that means getting lost in a new neighborhood or getting a few butterflies in the stomach in front of the class, it’s worth it to commit to the fresh start. Because that’s where learning happens.

To give an update, the airline has found my suitcase and it’s currently on its way to me. (When it will get here, no one knows. That’s another lesson about India for another time.) And though I’m definitely excited to be reunited with my contact lenses and granola bars, I’m grateful I had to spend my first week in India without that big red bag with the brown ribbon.

Jul, 7

Karis

Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

Hello from Hyderabad!

Already I have found a hobby: active instagramming! Follow @themodernstory for more!

Already I have found a daily hobby: instagramming! Follow @themodernstory for more!

Hello! Karis here. I write this from our living room table, sweating in the 80-degree heat (though it is well into the night), and mind buzzing with the events of the last week.

I had an uneventful (even – dare I say it – pleasant!) trip to Hyderabad. My 15-hour flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi was mostly filled with sleep and catching up on movies. I was bumped to business class from Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad. Though my second flight was slightly delayed, Remy also ran into a delay (in which the cab driver ran out of gas on the highway and they had to push the car to a gas station in order to get it running again), so we met at the international arrival gate at the same time. Despite visa, luggage, and flight anxiety, it all worked out quite smoothly. I am very thankful, and also hoping this doesn’t mean my luck will turn and my next flight will be a disaster (knock on wood).

Thankfully the theme of this past week was also easing anxiety, namely about teaching, living in India, and our responsibilities as a TMS fellow. From welcome activities that immediately got our mental gears turning about our own cultural identity, to teaching methods boot camp, to discussing ways to encourage and evaluate creative confidence, I felt immediately immersed in the TMS mission of telling personal, community, and global stories through building self-confidence and technical skills. It is what initially drew me to the organization, and having the chance to actually see what that will look like over the next six months was truly thought provoking and inspiring. It has also been wonderful getting to know my co-fellows. We often remarked throughout the week that we all come from very different backgrounds and have very different strengths, but we meet at our love for education and storytelling. What a great thing to have in common!

That being said, this week really laid out the challenges that lie ahead. Navigating language barriers, organizing with administration, and a brand new culture is quite intimidating and I am certainly feeling the pressure. However, I also believe the most beautiful moments in life happen when you feel lost. I found those moments this week when we visited Railway Girls School, and had a chance to see the bright, smiling faces of our future students, and a centering night of community with local teachers, artists, and filmmakers at a Hyderabad community center (where I even ran into someone who previously lived in the same neighborhood that I did in Boston!)

Hyderabad can feel kaleidoscopic in its chaotic traffic, cultural diversity, and overflowing streets. I’m looking forward to finding more little windows into its soul through moments like the ones above in coming months.

In other words: I’m thrilled to be here. Stay tuned!

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