Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

Deepalaya School, Kalkaji Extension rocked to the beats of Jazz on 29th January 2008 as the world famous Theloniuos Monk Institute of Jazz put up a mind blowing performance for the children of the school. It was a proud moment for Deepalaya to host the event and be graced by the performance of musicians Alan Hampton, Helen Sung, Pierce and Otis Brown. The event was also attended by Peter Eisenhauer, Sudha Gandhi, Ayesha Gideon and Shweta Midha, special guests from the US Embassy. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz offers public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the world, helping students develop imaginative thinking, creativity, curiosity, a positive self image, and a respect for their own and others’ cultural heritage. They are in India on an educational and cultural tour.

The event started with an excellent Jazz performance by the group. Within minutes the entire audience was swinging and ‘rapping’ to their foot tapping music. The artists built an instant rapport with the children by interacting with them and sharing their energy and knowledge of Jazz with them. Music transcends all cultural and language barriers. The children were completely enthralled as if transported to a different world. For the first time they were exposed to knowledge about musical instruments like base guitar, drums and keyboard used in Jazz, as the group explained about each instrument in very simple language for the children. The musicians taught the children to create rap music with the words ‘salt peanut’. Adding some dance movements to the catchy words the children were easily on the road to creating their own rap music. Four school boys volunteered bravely at a request from Pierce to come on stage. Pierce was a favourite with the children as he got all the volunteers to dance to his music- “Hip Hop Bee Pop”.

Their programme was followed by lively dance and song performances by the very talented children from Deepalaya schools at Sanjay Colony and Kalkaji extension as well as Ramditti J. R. Narang School partnering with Deepalaya. “Brown girl in the ring” and “a 100 miles” were two of the English songs the children sang. They also sang two Hindi songs – “Papa kehte hain” and “Taron ki roshni”. Gujarati and Bengali folk dances put up by children were also much appreciated by the audience.

Deepalaya endeavours to not only provide quality education at low costs to underprivileged children but also ensure their all round development. Getting exposure to international culture and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds is a step in building life skills such as confidence, sensitivity and acceptance of diverse cultures and people; and developing appreciation of various cultural art forms.

“Such programmes are extremely important for us to gain confidence on stage. We must participate in as many such events as possible to build our confidence to face life” said one little girl from the spellbound audience. “I was scared initially when I was called on the stage but slowly gained confidence and enjoyed Jazz very much” said one of the volunteers who came on stage to dance. The entire auditorium reverberated with a loud ‘yes’ to a question put up to the children ‘Should we call them again?’