Ganganna

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will engage eighth-grade students of the Government High School, Channalli, in Sindhanur taluk, Raichur district. This 15-month project titled Konte Rotti-Suggiya Sambhrama—a celebration of harvest festival—connects students to the food practices and folklore of the region. Ganganna is the project coordinator for this project. 

Ganganna is an assistant teacher with 16 years of experience who teaches Kannada and is well versed with Kannada literature. He comes from a pool of trained facilitators who underwent the Kali Kalisu training conducted in Koppal last year. Ganganna, has a good relationship with writers, dramatists, and creative teachers in Sindhanur, and is enthusiastically involved in various Kannada literary activities in Raichur district. He is also passionate about documenting different folk genres found around his native town, Karatagi, Koppal district. Given his experience, Ganganna is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

Folklore and food contribute to building connections across cultures. Just like a painting that can evoke expression, a well-prepared dish can make us feel and share a common experience, even if we don't speak the same language. Folklore and food become important ways to share stories, celebrate diversity, broaden our view of the world, and bring different communities together. The project Konte Rotti-Suggiya Sambhrama aims to explore this timeless and intrinsic relationship between people, folklore, and food culture. Students will connect to the tremendous richness that exists in the indigenous practices and knowledge systems within their community.

The project expands its activities in two directions, exploration of the harvest celebration and the local food culture in the village. Konte Rotti Habba, a five-day celebration during the harvest, is one of the few festivals in the state that celebrates the community bond to soil and physical labour. The celebration involves the preparation of jolada rotti or jowar roti, the staple food in most districts of North Karnataka. During this festival, the women make small votive sculptures and figures made of sugar, in various colours, of Gauri, Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, horse, camel, elephant etc. On the sixth day in the evening, the family celebrates the festival of 'Konti (Kontemma) Roti' by installing Konti idols on terraces. The festival concludes with women playing Kabaddi and singing folk songs. Students will participate in the festival and document the games and songs connected to this festival. 

Students will gather information about the local food culture from Kannada poems, literature and articles. They will document indigenous food processing practices through interviews with elderly women and compare them with modern processing practices and ingredients. Further, Ganganna will invite cooks, housewives, folk artists, writers, and company theatre artists to conduct workshops for students to engage in a series of demonstrations related to not only traditional recipes but also to share memorable incidents. A combination of interviews and workshops is planned to reflect on the cultural diversity of the village and document these community recipes. This information will be transformed by the students into stories and dramatic presentations. 

Ganganna will invite artists who make sugar idols and folk singers from the community to conduct a series of workshops on idol making, and folk songs (at least six). Further, Students will be encouraged to document Konte Roti celebration students through illustrative narratives. These two activities will complement their curriculum in Kannada, social science and to some extent science texts as well.

The outcome of the project will be a series of performances, an exhibition, and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report are copies of the publication, photographs and the video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the local communities they live in. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens promptly and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.