All the world's a stage, Shakespeare famously wrote, and all the men and women merely players. Chandrasekhar Indla, drama faculty at the Academy’s theatre arts department, would take a dim view of such a simplistic description of a stage play. As director, lighting designer, sound technician, mask-maker and writer, Chandra has been a part of hundreds of performances and, talking to him, you would believe that the stage is possibly more than the world, and players perhaps more than merely men and women. “Drama is an important instrument that can build a sense of consciousness in society,” he shares. “There is a need to save and reinvent drama.” For over five years now, he has dedicated his career to introducing children to the world of theatre arts.

A prolific academic, Chandra was among highest scorers in the National Eligibility Test, an exam held nationwide by the University Grants Commission (UGC) which qualifies people to teach performing arts at a collegiate level. His work since his first tenure as a master’s student at the University of Hyderabad has been about introducing drama to a young audience. He was among the first members of the university’s Theatre Outreach Unit, created to expose children all over the state to theatre arts. He joined the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad in 2015 to continue in this effort. “Our Academy is one of the best places where the teacher-student relationship is so strong in terms of respecting each other and sharing thoughts,” he says. Chandra, not a technical direcor for drama at the Academy, was very happy to teach at the Academy because the IB curriculum gives theatre arts the importance of a elective, rather than just tacking it on as a co-curricular activity as other school programmes do.

With two master’s degrees and a PhD on the way, Chandra surprisingly admits he wasn’t very good at school. In fact, he even struggled through his first degree, a bachelor’s in computer science. “I don’t remember any programming today,” he confides. Once Chandra relieved himself of his pursuits in technology and began honing in on theatre, his academic performance drastically improved. He finished his master’s in performing arts with a gold medal from the University of Hyderabad, and went on to earn two prestigious research fellowships from the UGC to write about theatre arts. These fellowships sustained him for nearly six years. “My family was happy to find out I was going to pursue theatre arts, because my paternal uncle is an author, and they thought he could help me.”

Chandra was born in Kanduluru in Andhra’s Prakasam district where his parents worked for daily wages, often at construction sites or in the tobacco fields of of the coastal district. “He was into old, traditional theatre arts,” Chandra says of his uncle. “Today I’m in national theatre festivals. I have more contacts than him,” he adds, laughing. Indeed, Chandrasekhar Indla has become a recognisable name in Telugu literary circles. This began when his final master’s project, a play adaptation of the book Gopathrudu by K.N.Y Pathanjali, became a sensation in theatres across Andhra Pradesh (before the creation of Telangana State). He followed this with another adapted play called Miss Meena, based on the tragicomedy The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Ms. Meena was performed over a 100 times statewide, earning Chandra a reputation as tested thespian. Apart from this, Chandra has also spoken and presented about Telugu theatre at international conferences.

“As a professional admirer of drama I would like to hand over the future of drama to the students to take it further,” he says. Since his joining the Academy, our students have held performances across the city, attended several festivals and plays, and most notably, entered the Amaravathi National Theatre Festival in 2017. “I had the freedom to run and develop the department,” he says of being the first drama teacher at the school. “I have used this freedom to develop the students’ abilities in acting, communication, confidence, creativity and thinking skills.” With the addition of George Macpherson to the drama department as of August 2018, the programme has only gained in strength. “We’ve built a whole new teaching strategy together,” Chandra says of his friend and colleague George. “As a practioner, I'm more comfortable teaching the the practical aspects of theatre, whereas George is very good at teaching theory."

Inevitably, Chandra went from adapting literature to the stage to creating literature himself. As of date, he has been published in Telugu literary magazines 12 times, and has a collection of short stories on the way. One of the major motifs in Chandra’s writing is social equality and social reform. At the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad, where pluralism is one of the tenets of the school’s ethos, Chandra is a person students can look up to who shows these values in his work and personal life. Chandra met his wife Ezhilmathi in 2009 when they were doing their master’s of philosophy in performing arts at Pondicherry University. His area of focus was drama while hers was music. “She taught me Tamil,” he says, “I think that’s where it began.” The two had to convince their parents before they could get married. “My marriage is inter-state, inter-faith, inter-caste,” he laughs. In August 2012, Chandrasekhar and Ezhilmathi were married in a wedding with both Hindu and Christian rituals.

“Drama can build self-confidence in a person. However, most people do not have proper understanding or admiration of drama,” Chandra says. Looking out of his office window at an overcast December morning, Chandra’s thoughts about his art turn bleak. “No one reads scripts,” he says of the culture of literature in the subcontinent. “People will just read Shakespeare as a play, but that is not the case for Telugu literature.” The shields and trophies on his desk gleam in the wintry light. “Maybe this culture of drama will die out one day."

Though the thought is dark, Chandra doesn’t let it get in the way of his work, and rather uses it to fuel his work as a teacher. He knows that many of his students will go on to pursue, say, computer science, but that doesn’t deter him. “I want my students to be good humans who are not only responsible but also sensitive to others’ emotions and culture. Drama needs to be handled more as a legacy and its nuances need to be inherited and passed on generation after generation. This is possible only when I take up the role of a teacher.”

Written by Ajay Sundaram

Look below for a video of Karishma speaking at the Passion in Science Awards.

Last year, 20-year-old Karishma Bhagani of Mombasa, Kenya was awarded a seed grant at the NYU Reynolds Changemaker Challenge, beating out eight other teams and 46 other projects. Bhagani won the seed grant for an innovative water purification system that makes the most of natural resources in cash-strapped communities that need clean water. Her initiative, Matone De Chiwit, came about as a solution to a problem she noticed: more and more diseases were emerging as a result of fluctuating weather in the country, ranging from floods to drought conditions. She knew that something had to be done.

Matone De Chiwit means “drops of life” in three different languages. Matone means drops in Kiswahili (Kenya), de means “of” in Spanish (Latin America) and chiwit means “Life” in Thai (Thailand). These three languages represent the three parts of the world that suffer the most from clean water scarcity. It also speaks to the global nature of her venture, as Bhagani intends to expand her project to these three regions and beyond.

Aga Khan Academy as an Inspiration

Bhagani is a fourth-generation Kenyan who recently moved to New York City where she is studying drama, history and South Asian studies at New York University. The Aga Khan Development Network has always been a part of her life as she was one of 17 students at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa who made up the first class to have been educated from pre-school to IB graduate.

The biggest lesson that Bhagani drew from her education is to be a holistic student. She strives to be as well rounded as possible, striking a balance between a social life, sleep, work and school, all with the goal of making a global impact. This pursuit of balance was inspired by her many years at the Aga Khan Academy.

“I think that at the end of the day what everything comes down to is how we can be citizens of the world and how we can change the world that we live in to make it a better place for ourselves and children that follow us. And part of that also means giving back to your own community,” said Bhagani.

When she was in middle school, she was required to carry out a personal project on something that inspired her. Having noticed the drastic fluctuations of weather and rampant diseases in her country, Bhagani decided that she would come up with an innovative water purification system that uses readily accessible natural resources. Her initiative uses locally available materials – sand, gravel, charcoal and cotton cloth – to purify water for villagers all across Kenya. The initial version of the product also used chlorine tablets called Aquapur. Bhagani received generous sponsorship funding from Davis & Shirtliff, a local water supply company, for donating 20 units to a community to test for effectiveness. “A lot of the families said that the water was ‘tamu sana’ which in English means very sweet,” said Bhagani.

Before Bhagani came up with her product, local families were typically just drinking untreated water, using a lot of energy to boil it on charcoal-heated stoves or using Aquapur chlorine tablets.

Testing and Improving

Through testing and implementation in villages, Bhagani and her partners came to the realization that using chlorine in a plastic container might not be the best idea. These tablets can actually be dangerous to human health — high doses can be potentially harmful as the plastic in the bottles reacts with the chlorine, resulting in the spread of more serious illnesses. So they decided to change it to moringa oleifera, essentially dried seed kernels of drumstick tree powder. Then, she carried out a lot of testing by collaborating with the Coast Water Services Board. She found that the new version worked just as well as the chlorine unit did.

When she was in the IB program at the Academy, she had the opportunity to take her unit to the Golden Climate International Environment Project Olympiad. That’s where she carried out even more research and testing to modify and improve the system. Her project ended up advancing to the national round, then the international round, where she won gold in its category.

It was at this point that she decided to patent the product. She applied before starting at NYU and received the patent while she was a first-year student.

Why Matone De Chiwit?

What sets Matone De Chiwit apart from competitors is that the device is both chlorine-free and cost-effective. Since it’s made up of natural resources common in rural Kenya and other parts of Africa, they can be replaced easily, which means users don’t have to rely on Matone De Chiwit to replenish the filter. Charcoal is easily found and other ingredients, like the drumstick tree powder, can be grown in their backyards. Additionally, Moringa olifeira grows in a variety of climates and doesn’t need much water to grow.

In terms of cost, it’s much cheaper in the long-term than what is currently used. Even so, Bhagani intends to ensure it’s affordable for rural villages by applying for sponsorship and grant funding from large companies all over Europe and North America. Her venture is also bridging the gap from the city to the village, because she is working with people from each of those communities and bringing them together to achieve clean water and sanitation for all.

The Future

With the seed grants that Bhagani recently received, including the Reynolds grant, she plans to carry out her first beta testing. The biggest challenge for her at the moment is having an adequate source of funding to collect data.

“It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg situation because we need more evidence of this product working in practicality in communities so that we can apply for more grants to sustain us, but without the grants it’s difficult to go out into the communities to actually grow these projects with that seed money,” said Bhagani.

With the little funding that she currently has received, she plans to establish the purifiers in at least two or three communities. Bhagani will continue checking on the units to get enough data so she can apply for larger grants and potentially work with philanthropies like the Gates Foundation. She also hopes to conduct more research on its effectiveness through beta testing in communities.

“In five years’ time, I hope to have conducted at least ten beta tests in Mombasa, and have expanded the venture all across Kenya. My intention is to begin applying for larger grants by that time so that we can expand to other countries around the world,” said Bhagani.

Additionally, she plans to collaborate with other Aga Khan academies in Hyderabad, India and Maputo, Mozambique. That collaboration could build on student organizations that can work with the rural communities that they already engage with.

Her long-term plan is to create a sustainable community, which not only bridges the urban/rural divide but also allows families to provide for themselves.

This spotlight is republished courtesy of AKF USA.

Ajey Balaji, who hails from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, joined AKA Hyderabad in 2013. He is a French language facilitator, form tutor for grade 11 and the Academy’s fervent Francophile. Ajey holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and did his post graduation in medical microbiology until finally deciding to pursue several specialised certifications and degrees in French. Currently, Ajey is a PhD scholar at the University of Artois, France. 

Ajey’s professional journey into teaching French at the Academy happened much later in life. He moved to Hyderabad in 2000 after having found work at a laboratory. “When I moved to this city, I was working for a lab producing vaccines for cattle. As a matter of fact, my first friends and colleagues in Hyderabad were hamsters, rabbits and sheep!” Ajey recalls with a smile.

He channeled his spare time by successfully completing an advanced diploma in French language and civilisation in 2003. However, Ajey being a man of determination and dedication didn’t quite stop there. His journey towards mastering the language gained traction at the University of Nantes in France, where he obtained a master’s degree. His master's dissertation on “The linguistics of medical evaluation forms in French for doctors and nurses aspiring to work in francophone countries” is now a textbook on the subject. And, in the midst of this whirlwind French romance, he secured a position at the Academy in 2013. “I had finally found my calling,” he says.

Today, Ajey is one of the most adored members of the teaching staff, praised for his abilities in pedagogy and for his abilities in baking in equal amounts. “Having worked all my professional life with adults, I was uncertain of rising to the challenges of teaching at a school. However, Ms. Meenakshi Joshi (MYP coordinator) set the tone for my MYP journey. Thanks to her unfaltering faith in my abilities, today, I have discovered the innate paternal instincts in me. This challenge has taught me a precious lesson that it is important to nurture equally both, a child’s emotional and academic well-being.”

His innate talent for French has garnered him many exciting opportunities. One such recognition that he cherishes the most was his appointment as an official interpreter for eight senators of the Republic of France who visited Hyderabad on a diplomatic mission. One of the meetings he translated for was with the activist Ms. Sunitha Krishnan, a co-founder of Prajwala, an NGO that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society.

The academic year 2018-19 has been fantastic for Ajey as he accomplished many professional titles and international recognitions. For instance, this year saw his selection by the Embassy of France in India for the teacher training program at the Centre for Applied Linguistics in the city of Besançon, France. This position enables him to be trained under a pedagogical expert from the International Centre for Pedagogical Studies, Sèvres, France which will help him soar higher as a master teacher in French at a national level.

Also this year, Ajey has had the distinction of working as a teacher-mentor; being a referent translator-interpreter; and working as a jury member of the examiners of the DELF-DALF exams of the Ministry of National Education, Government of France. These are benchmark achievements in the field of French language acquisition. Reflecting upon the year, Ajey states, “The unconditional love and acceptance I receive from my students is the best testimony to my professional accomplishments.” 

Should you find yourself in the dining hall during lunchbreak, you would find Ajey walking ahead followed by a trail of grade 7 students. The convoy travels from Senior School like an excited atom with Ajey as its nucleus and orbiting around him are a bunch of recent Junior School graduates, all immersed in deep conversation. At their lunch table, students will sit flanking Ajey on either side and sharing key insights of the day.

Post lunch, the crew may take a couple of minutes to test if the tree outside the Commons is still sturdy enough to hold a few 7^th graders. On a hot summer day, Ajey will join them at basecamp under the benevolent shade of the tree, deeply invested in both, the safety of the children and to see just how far they can go.