Map For Karsang Takar Youth

“It was 12.30 noon, 6 May 2016. I boarded the bus named Airbus near St. Thomas School, Shantipur-Sadiya in Assam. After an hour I embarked on a ferry that took us to Dhola Ghat across the mighty Brahmaputra after cruising on its turbulent waters for an hour or so. As I sat atop the roof of the ferry with the handy cam in hand, I had a wonderful experience of God’s wondrous creation – the roaring sound of foamy waves hitting our motorized boat, the criss-crossing of various types/sizes of mechanized boats, some boats even manually-piloted by brave fishermen, variety of water birds flying in different directions…and then the awe-inspiring sight of the newly constructed (to be inaugurated shortly) Sadiya bridge, 9.58 kms long, longest river-bridge in India and second longest in Asia…” DL Editor, while returning from Karsang Takar, Sadiya. Fr. Thomas Kalapurackal sdb, director of I-CARD, Jorhat, organized a two-day long intensive Media Awareness Programme (MAP) for the Mising youth of Karsang Takar at Shantipur-Sadiya, Assam, from 04 to 05 May 2016. Fr. Jonas Kerketta sdb was the resource person and was locally assisted by Mr. Rajen Pegu and Miss Genevieve Pegu (graduate in Mass Communication from St. Anthony’s College, Shillong).

The resource person through interactive sessions explained to the youthful participants the meaning, process, elements and types/forms of communication. The participants were made aware of the long history of telecommunication: from oral to literate culture, the mechanization of writing – birth of mass media, the audio-visual revolution till the advent of social media. The participants were also introduced to the Visual Media like pictorial and textual posters, different types of collages, etc. They were also introduced to dramatization skills like skits, street plays, one act/three act plays, et al. In the brief period of theoretical-cumpractical sessions the three teams of participants came out with three beautifully prepared collages on the themes of ‘Importance of Sports’, ‘Festivals’, and ‘Cleanliness’. The three teams combined their talents and performed a street theatre on the exodus of youth seeking for jobs in Bengaluru and other mega cities of India. The participating youth were all Hindus (with the exception of three Christians). But they skillfully and with great devotion enacted the “Way of the Cross” in which the part of Jesus was remarkably played by a Hindu boy.

-DL Correspondent