Presentation Day

After all our hard work we had finally reached the day when our groups would perform their presentations to Anup and hopefully to some of the school governors.

At assembly we told the groups that they had the opportunity to choose their costumes, although I think the regular school staff had a bit of a heads up on this as they brought all sorts of extra things in to supplement the costumes and displays. Mrs Mangar had brought a variety of jewellery and saris etc to compliment the display she had worked so hard on for the Essence of India. The team working on festivals suddenly produced a whole selection of fireworks and firecrackers to complement their display. All I can say is that I will know for next time! Our group rummaged through a very smelly dressing up cupboard, navigated a dead mouse and found some sari fabric for a back drop, some green dresses for the little girls to be trees and a white coat for our doctor. We borrowed a motorbike helmet for the Good Samaritan who was arriving to help on a motorbike and fortunately Hannah had brought a stethoscope with her for the children to hear their heartbeats. The priest in our drama wore my clerical shirt and dog collar that I have brought for Sunday service, Oh and because I was rapping I put my baseball cap on backwards. As our presentation was being done in the same place as Dan and Lexi’s group we took it in turns during the morning to run dress rehearsals with the usual degree of herding children to ensure they were in the right place altogether. I am fairly sure that I can say I have never put so much time and effort into an academic presentation throughout all my studies but somehow this mattered more, that may have just been because some of the school staff were quite worried that we wouldn’t be ready and I was determined to prove to the otherwise.

A quick discussion about the running order resulted in the practical decision that we could start in one place and work our way along the school corridor and end in the music room where the last group had decided to perform. Fairly promptly after lunch (considering our experience of Indian time) the first presentation began. Anup was there but the governors weren’t, I’m not sure if it was because they got stuck in traffic or were unwell but anyway each performance went off without a hitch and everyone was really happy with how it had all gone - Anup gave a speech at the end that rather made us feel as if we were about to leave 2 days before the end of our trip but in many ways was the climax of why we were there. As for me I think that my rapping needs to be hidden in the annals of history, I really don’t want the video of the event appearing on YouTube for all to see.

One more tabla lesson although by this point my ability to concentrate was seriously impaired and some of our enthusiastic men were keen to speed up faster than I could keep up with so I kept going wrong, fortunately one of sets being shoehorned into empty suitcases is for me so I can practice lots in my own time, I have even ordered a tabla book from Amazon to be at home when I get back so that I can learn more.