Organizers: Yamuna Katha
Venue: Delhi
Yamuna Katha is a collaborative effort to understand how the river-city-dyad has formed over the years and what has been the relationship between the river, the people, the flora and the fauna. Yamuna Katha brings to a common zone, representatives of various stakeholders who are directly or indirectly connected with the river for a collaborative exchange.
Description:
A core group of eight people, that consists of a river specialist, two school teachers, a social scientist and historian, a hathi wala (elephant owner), a fisher couple and a farmer will live together in a common zone between 11 and 15 October and undertake various travels to the riverbanks and reflect on the river collectively.
The view of a river specialist might be a different one than that of somebody who lives directly from and along the river. So far these different views and perceptions have not been shared among the concerned (and unconcerned) people. It is not yet truly known what disputes an environmentalist and a riverbank dweller would possibly have. Nobody knows whether someone who stays on the riverbank is as equally indifferent about the water quality of the Yamuna as someone who stays in South Delhi.
Yamuna Katha is an attempt to bring in various stakeholders to a collaborative zone so as to strike a dialogue to explore a common future for Yamuna. Experience teaches one does not have a common vocabulary to discuss and elaborate on all the aspects of this project. The hope is to merge different codes in order to produce one language that encompasses viewpoints of all the characters in this Katha.
Yamuna Katha attempts to create a negotiation zone where collaboration can happen. This will not only happen in the typical mode of workshops or seminars. Panel discussions will be held at exclusive venues and participants will engage in many informal discussions and unique activities along the riverbank itself. Whatever is happening during these events will be documented in writing, filming and photographs. Eventually the collected material will lead into an artistic expression that will complement the “Yamuna Elbe” program.
Anyone interested can contact India Water Portal (IWP) contact@indiawaterportal.org for more details.