BENGALURU : To make history interesting, artist Harish Bhuvan will sing, act and dance to narrate the tales about India's freedom struggle. Bengaluru-based artist is known for using therapeutic clowning to work with terminally-ill children in hospitals across the country. Harish has been roped in for the event 'Ekdali brings history alive'. It is being by Ekdali, an e-commerce company that works towards making learning fun with educational charts, books and toys. Harish will explain two of their posters on India's freedom struggle through songs, drama, stories and dance.
Harish came up with the idea of storytelling in teaching, when he did an experiment in a school. "I had to teach history about industrial revolution. I dressed up in long robes and stoles and told children that this was the renaissance period were people made their own clothes. Underneath, I wore pants, shirt and tie. I revealed this to them that I was dressed just like they were in uniforms to make them understand that the industrial revolution meant there were mills that could make standardised clothing in bulk for people," says Bhuvan, adding that the children enjoyed storytelling and scored better than their fellow batchmates who received the usual blackboard education. "I heard about what Ekdali was doing and we decided to make this a storytelling event. It will be fun and playful. Children will always remember the story, even if they forget the exact historical dates," he adds.
The aim of this event with children is to provide a condensed session of the educational posters. Roomana Basha, co-founder and CEO of Ekdali, says, "We have a set of two posters on 'Our Freedom Struggle', that explains our journey to independence, right from Vasco da Gama's arrival to British leaving India. While we sell these posters to schools and individual parents, this is our first event to get the word about history out there." She adds, "Our historic freedom struggle has been put into colourful graphics in an abridged version. The posters are self explanatory. The first one will be pre-1857, showing Vasco da Gama's arrival in the 1400s, entry of British East India Company by defeating Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey and subsequently, Buxar.
The second poster focuses on the first war of Independence in 1857 and the struggle by Indian National Congress leaders and other freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh and Subash Chandra Bose. It also talks about Jallianwala Bagh massacre and all the important events way up to 1947 when we gained freedom, she adds.
Their website shows posters on subjects such as the solar system, history of life starting from Big Bang to dinosaurs and the cave men; life cycle of a butterfly, fun facts about penguins and the respiratory system. These are sold to schools and some interested individuals as well. "Our poster on 'My body my safety' went viral, as it helped children recognise abuse and reach out for help. At one point, we distributed 200 of them for free because it was the need of the hour," she says.The event will be held at Atta Galatta on April 15, 1.45 pm. The kids will also get to take home the freedom struggle posters for free.