Kuttikalude Charchavedi, an online collective formed by four schoolgirls during the pandemic last year, has brought down the curtain on its activities with a podcast on a translation of Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Bet’ in the voices of students.
The target is to have podcasts by 100 students on the Malayalam translation of the work by V.R. Santhosh, says Abhirami S., one of the girls behind the initiative. The collective has brought out as an e-book of the work, using free software, as well as an audiobook.
Like other children, Abhirami and her friends Devika Santhosh, Gouri Priya P.S., and Asna S.N., then class 10 students of Government Tribal High School, Meenankal, were stuck at home last year. Bored, unable to meet each other, the close friends reminisced about their school life, the discussions during the school mid-day meals, and wondered if they could be revived online. The girls started holding online discussions. On the suggestion of a former teacher, they decided to open up the platform to other children too. Adults, they realised, had platforms to hear and express themselves, but not children.
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On lockdown
Their initiative received support from teachers and parents, and in the Malayalam month of Chingam in 2020, the platform was formally launched by Asna with a talk on lockdown experiences.
With the support of their teachers, guests such as Anvar Ali, P.K. Rajasekharan, Anitha Thampi, Biju Longhinos, E.A. Antony, S. Gopalakrishnan, Anjali Rajan, S.D. Biji, K.K. Krishnakumar, Vijayakumar Blathur, and S.L. Sanjeev Kumar spoke on topics ranging from Basheer and poetry to environment, Malayalam computing, and employment. Students from schools in other districts too participated in these discussions.
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Abhirami says the four friends would discuss what topics or areas they wanted to know more about. Depending on the availability of speakers, the topics were finalised. More than 10 discussions were held over a four-month period. They also held reviews of the discussion to ascertain how these could be improved further.
While the podcasts from children are still coming in, Abhirami, who is now in class 11, says the girls have not decided what lies ahead for ‘Kuttikalude Charchavedi.’