SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 16: Students from Mumbai’s KES Shroff College visiting the Ranchi University’s School of Mass Communication under a 5-day student exchange programme on Thursday said, “We had a completely different perception of tribals before our visit here and had several misconceptions. However, upon visiting the places and meeting the communities, we realised that we’re all the same.”
The students informed Lagatar correspondent while discussing their impression of Jharkhand and the tribal culture and communities. They further added, “Our friends had asked us to be wary of the way we dress as women, while many others had expressed doubts regarding our visit and the kind of people we would meet here.”
“But we were welcomed with open arms and everyone treated us like family here,” said Ishita, a student from Mumbai.
When asked about the difference between the cultures that they experienced here, Ishita said, “It was an unexpected welcome, where the students and teachers interacted with us, felicitated us with these ‘gamchas’, and celebrated our arrival like a festival. It is very unusual to find people like them in Mumbai, as people are usually busy with their own lives, however, here everyone treated us like family.”
Satyam Dubey, another student said, “With the kind of expectations that we have of villages, wherein women are covered. It seemed that women had more freedom than the urban structure. We felt as if they were more evolved than the people in the city.”
Discussing their daily programmes of documentaries, lectures and their visit to the villages, Satyam said, “Watching these documentaries, we realised how minimalistic their cinema was. These days, when someone thinks of making films they focus on huge topics like aliens, or sci-fi, and rely on VFX, graphics and animation; however, here we realised that films just need a story which interests and binds the viewers. Here we realised how stories can be grounded and be related to the true stories that happen in our daily lives.”
Another student Vaibhavi said, “Despite being mostly involved in Photography and Videography, we realised that books aren’t the only window to knowledge. We’ve learnt so much on this trip about life, films and ideas; which we would not have if we hadn’t had this opportunity.”
Talking about the lectures, the students shared the different topics that they were taught about. Satyam said, “The teachers here have so much experience, they’ve seen so much and have a lot to offer. For instance, listening to former Doordarshan Director P K Jha sir, we realised, how different things were from now and what they went through.” He further expressed interest and stated that he was influenced by the storytelling capabilities of Santosh Kiro.
Later, sharing their experiences of the trip to the nearby villages, the students said that they were floored by the welcome to the village. “They welcomed us with music, and dance and even came to drop us off when we were returning. I plan to learn this dance and teach my friends back home,” added Vaibhavi.
