Two childhood friends — Dr. JS Rajkumar and PB Sai Sudhakar, both in their early 60s — are on a mission to connect with college students in Tamil Nadu to get them to be more informed about freedom fighters and the Indian Constitution.
Their approach: a musical instrument, a film song and sometimes a light jig before the pep talk to grab their attention.
Yes, it works even if these are topics that Gen Z do not easily relate to, they say.
Since they started the mission early this year, the duo have reached out to more than 40,000 students through the colleges, and plan to connect with one million youngsters across the State by 2025.
While Dr Rajkumar uses his singing skills to attract the audience before he gets talking about a freedom fighter, Sai Sudhakar makes it engaging with his storytelling.
Each session is different and there is a lot of homework that goes into it.
“We do not preach rather we make them understand about women’s rights, secularism, democracy and their rights as a citizen with anecdotes and examples,” says Sai Sudhakar, an entrepreneur.
For Dr Rajkumar, who recently authored a book on freedom fighters of India Heroes: Tales of Courage, Love, and Sacrifice, the job must have been easy, but there is still a lot of reading to be done. Close to 100 freedom fighters have been identified.
Sai Sudhakar
“I speak about the lesser-known aspects of their life to make it interesting. For instance, not many would have heard of Preetilatha Waddadar, one of the youngest freedom fighters who died at the age of 24,” says Dr Rajkumar.
How do they gauge the response of the audience? The two agree that sometimes getting the attention of students is not easy, but some colleges motivate the duo to come up with new formats.
At a few women’s colleges, students were seen taking down notes, which is encouraging, they say.
One of the best responses Sai Sudhakar received was from the students of AM Jain College. “It was a topic on women’s right that I shared it with data, a factor that made it engrossing,” he says. At Guru Shree Shantivijai College for Women, they found many questions being posed to them.
To drive the message home, participants get a preamble printed in colour with their name on it. “It is about youth and young women, so we want young people to stand up for their rights,” says Dr Rajkumar.
As an offshoot of this initiative, we are creating 55-second insta reels on freedom fighters, for the benefit of students.
“We are bringing out 75 reels to celebrate 75 years of India’s freedom,” says the doctor.
