When puppets do the talking

I walked into the cavernous, dark room and drew back with a start. In that imperfect light, there were hundreds of eyes looking at me. Some were at my level, some lower and some, larger than my body. One of those faces sprang to life to a drumroll. It was a beautifully crafted puppet wearing the garb of a village mukhia.

"Let me introduce myself to all you city folk. I'm Jokhim Chacha, and I'm here to talk with you about... well, anything you want to talk about," he said. Then, prancing all over the stage while musicians sang to the sounds of local instruments, Jokhim Chacha told us about conditions in the villages nearby. Every now and then, he'd direct a question or comment to one of us in the audience. For almost an hour, he and the accompanying musicians were able to hold us in thrall. At the end of the show, the lights came on and Poonaram emerged casually from behind the stage.

He'd been our guide in Tilonia, and had been showing us all the innovative projects that the Barefoot College was working on. And although he had mentioned he was in the media and communications department, I'd thought it would involve the community radio, not something as homespun as puppetry. "Here in Rajasthan, puppet shows have been one of the oldest forms of rural entertainment. So, we decided to use puppets to communicate with villagers," said Poonaram.

He had a point, I thought. When organisations work at the village level, often the key to their success lies in how effectively they are able to communicate with rural audiences. "In the last few years, we've noticed that people don't respond as well to lectures as they do to our performances," said Poonaram.

In keeping with the Barefoot approach, the seven people in the puppetry department - all unlettered villagers - had also received merely six months training in the art of making puppets, singing, playing multiple instruments and more. The room we were in was full string puppets, small glove puppets and puppets whose heads were as big as an average person. Each had a unique personality and performed in the different stories the puppeteers told. "We have puppets that look like the local policeman, a regular village housewife, a farmer, as well as puppets of our founder Bunker Roy and Dalai Lama," Poonaram grinned.

Every performance of the Barefoot puppeteers is unique. "We do like telling stories, but often we just use our puppets to chat with our audience," said Poonaram. He gave us the example of one of their most popular themes, right to minimum wages. Jokhim Chacha, the headman puppet, played the stellar role in it, dancing all over the stage and asking individuals in the audience how much they earned. Using humour and wit, song and dance, the puppet would explain to the audience why they should expect to get paid the minimum wage and no less.

Every year, the Barefoot puppeteers travel to over 100 villages with their growing repertory of puppets, performing in dharnas, public meetings and village commons. "We're proud to say Jokhim Chacha has travelled from village to village and spread awareness about all sorts of issues ranging from hygiene, education and health, to RTI and voter rights," said Poonaram. As we walked out of the hall of puppets, I mused that we needed more such mediums - to effectively get the message across to rural communities.