The process of self-discovery

It was clear that adults didn’t have time for my poetry. So I plodded on, alone – until years later when my work started getting published in local magazines in Kolkata. I suddenly became a small time celebrity. But alas, no one was interested in reading my poems. So writing was a solitary experience for me and I had no clue where I was headed.

I needed someone who was older and maybe wiser to read my work, help me talk about it, shared their views on what was special about it, offer me a safe nurturing space where I could be myself, take risks, unafraid of judgement, make a fool of myself and feel a sense of purpose.

Later, I did find such possibilities but they were short lived…until I learnt how to deal with that empty spot inside.

Today, after all these years, I feel safe and inspired in the space that has become my Mentorship Studio. Children of all ages, young people, young adults and of course adults, fill it with life. They are seasonal birds of passage who bring me news of their worlds, carrying away shards of experience. Sometimes they return and it is a pleasure to see how they have evolved.

They have discovered that the Mentorship Programme on offer provides an intimate, nurturing, space in which they can safely be themselves and explore their own experiences, ideas and feelings and learn how to express them creatively through written, visual or performed work. They realise that this is not a tutorial class but an exciting process of self-discovery and reaching out through the arts.

Mentorship Studio

Today the Mentorship Studio has grown to provide the following:

• Creative Mentorship for children and young people to help them find their own unique ways of expressing themselves and connecting to others through the literary, visual and performing arts.
• Grooming of gifted children and young people to enrich their latent talents and skills and showcase their work in the community through readings, presentations, publications, exhibitions and performances.
• Mentoring of children and young people who may have social, emotional or physical challenges, to help them find creative ways to express themselves and enrich their sense of wellbeing. In the process, encouraging them to reveal their uniqueness.
• Mentorship for parents to help them understand their children and participate in their processes of enriched learning.
• Creative Mentorship for emerging and practicing writers, artists and performers.
• Creative Mentorship for Teachers to help them enrich their own approach to their profession and deal with day to day challenges in the classroom