How do objects become precious to us? How can one object hold the multitude of our desires, dreams, fears, aspirations and inhibitions– sometimes pushing us away and sometimes propelling us towards itself?
Aashiyan has the air of a scout. Squeezing through gullies lined with garbage, whizzing past the worn-out, exposed brick-and-cement houses, she, along with around 15-20 other girls and women of Welcome Colony, Shahadara, looks at her neighbourhood anew.
It’s been over 20 years since I started working on women and adolescent girls’ literacy. Twenty years, and I still continue to feel that letter writing is a significant pedagogical tool in the teaching-learning process of any literacy or education programme.
In Part Two we discuss the limitations of anger, the potential for empathy instead if accompanied by rigour, and the underrated merits of using joy pedagogically.
