Miriam's sampad blog

Saturday 5th May 2012 — posted by simi

My three months at Sampad are going to end and I have many wonderful memories to take with me to Italy. Thanks to the “Leonardo da Vinci” European project I was able to have this fantastic experience.

My first contact with Sampad came in my room in Rome. After my interview by Skype I thought: “South Asian Organisation?? I’m not an expert on Asian culture, help!!”.

So, at the beginning, I was a bit worried about what Sampad would expect of me. But once at Sampad, day by day I discovered and learned a new culture and literature that I didn’t know through the projects I’ve worked on together with the Sampad team.

My main project during these three months at Sampad was a literature project ‘Inspired by Tagore’. This is the title of the book on which I worked under the guidance of the Programme Co-ordinator, Anne Cockitt. Inspired by Tagore is a collection of stories and poems written in honour of Tagore’s 150th anniversary by adults and children and selected by a panel of judges in an international writing competition.

I was very glad to follow the whole editing process, from the selection of all the 244 entries, to the final version of the book sent to India for the publication. Now, I look forward to having the book in my hands!

Through this project I learned so much about editing production, and I realise I really love this work!

During this period, I also had the chance to work on another project, the Asian Spring event, an Indian dance festival with 12 dance groups at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Me, Anne, Katy, Clayton and Urmala were backstage. Rabiyah was the photographer. Everything needed to be perfect, every group needed to be ready in time for their performance. The atmosphere was a mixture of tension and joy. It was great to see every dance group, and above all children wearing traditional Indian clothes and ready to enter the scene. The event was a success, and the audience filled the huge hall of the Conservatoire.

It was a very good experience for me to understand how Sampad works on an actual realisation of an event.

Furthermore, in these months I had the pleasure to attend other wonderful performances, such as LITE – Live in This Environment, a clever performance in which, through humour and irony, shows the stereotype of the perfect woman according to our contemporary society. It was also really interesting attending the Technicolour India event, where I could learn more about Indian life and culture through short films, amazing animations and an impressive performance of traditional Indian music!

For all these extraordinary experiences I would like to thank all the Sampad team: Simi, Anne, Rabiyah, Katy, Buzby, Clayton, Jan, Urmala, Kavita and Piali:

I already miss you all!
A huge hug
Miriam