Sadanand Byandoor

Sadanand Byandoor, a teacher from Government High School, Koni Village, Kundapur, Udupi has been a recipient of the Kali Kalisu Master Resource Persons Training in 2010. With a Masters in Kannada, History and Political Science, he has also been trained at Ninasam as a theatre artist. Given the dearth of both Kannada and English language teachers in the school for the last four years, he has been asked to fill in for these roles on several occasions. This year having taken the full responsibility of the subjects he is driven to make language an interesting subject of priority which is otherwise treated as less important when compared to Mathematics and Sciences. In his view, the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) as the mandated evaluation process in schools has further ruined the essence of language teaching in classrooms. To counter that, through this  grant, he intends to take up poetry and through innovative modes, make studying poetry an experiential and sensory engagement that brings alive the essence and spirit of poetry.

In addition to the poems in the text books in Kannada, Hindi and English which students have to learn, he will draw up another list of poems in Kannada from across the years to give students and exposure to the wide variety of and rich language traditions in Kannada. He will also invite poets, writers, singers and theatre artists to conduct workshops on discussing, reading and performing poetry in ways never done before in the school. He believes that this process of engagement with poetry will enable the students to delve into the depths of layered meanings of poetry as well as appreciate the visual imageries built through nuances in language. 

He plans a series of workshops on theatrical readings of poetry and has identified a group of artists who will aid in the process. By the end of the grant period students will present many renderings of poetry in a festival organised by the school for the community.

This grant was made possible with support from Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.