Wow, what a Success!
Living up to its expectations, the unstoppable bandwagon of Pow Wow created the buzz, the liveliness, the energy, the vibe which set the tone for all the new Pearlites before stepping into the world full of creativity and innovation. All the young entrants of the Academy participated in the event with full zeal and enthusiasm. Happy faces, cheerful moods, hi-fives, chirpy groups were making the inaugural event an affair to remember for the years to come.
The purpose of PowWow’2015 is to help new Pearlites unlearn, undo, unveil and unravel all the hidden mysteries which have occupied their minds during their schooling phase. Pow Wow is a series of super crazy workshops which introduces the fresh incoming students to a plethora of multi- disciplinary, energetic and multi- sensory activities- through active involvement – that is, through first-hand, investigative experiences, both hands-on and minds-on in nature. The young minds would be engaged both physically and mentally in investigating and manipulating elements in the surrounding environment.
Take for instance; a workshop on ‘Bamboo’ by Suresh Kumar helped students exploring the possibility of the material being a beacon, material of the next century. The workshop aimed at making the students develop not only art but also products which have a good aesthetic value. Students are making different objects and products with Bamboo. Two Bamboo experts have come in from Mehrauli and own a shop in Rajiv Chawk. A total of 30 students enrolled for the workshop. According to the mentor, Bamboo is a substitute for steel and plastic. Even houses in Uttarakhand are being rebuilt from the material due to its sturdy nature.
‘Sixth Sense’ is considered to be an ability of an individual to perceive the subtle-dimension or the unseen world of angels, demons, heaven or hell, etc. or to connect with it. An interesting workshop – ‘The Creative Connexxion’ by Renuka Taneja is inspired from this untapped dimension. Aimed at developing the senses of the young shining minds and enhance their intuition or sixth sense, this workshop will help students to design or create a better world in the future, she said. The touching motive of this workshop is to instil the feeling of gratitude, kindness, honesty and thankfulness among students towards each and everything present around them in this whole universe. We must say that is a beautiful initiative in the right direction to nurture the young minds!
Drama, acting, imitating, show business, et al have always caught our fancy since the childhood stage. At some point in our lives, we all have wanted to become a Hero or an actor who performs for the large crowd and entertain them with his style and moves. ‘Action Express’, a theatre workshop by Himanshu Mehta (Actor & Director) helped students in exploring themselves and shedding their hidden inhibitions through a series of games, activities and various exercises. Interesting storylines, funny concepts, spontaneous actions, cheerful participants have certainly enlightened up the whole workshop. The level of energy and enthusiasm shown by the freshers were commendable.
Everybody loves to Dance; this is one such word which gets our feet tapping, moving and grooving. A unique workshop ‘Dancing Bodies- Shifting Spaces’ by Aastha Gandhi focusses on movement generation through elements like geometry and images. During the workshop, the students were taught how costumes affect the movement of the body. The central line of the body is around which the body forms different shapes in various dance forms. Geometries of the bodies are formed around the central line of body. Changing dimensions of space is what this workshop aimed at teaching. It emphasized on opening the creative buds, so that the students see design, shapes, spaces and patterns and think with a design perspective. 
Students thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this workshop as they showcased some of their favourite moves on interesting Bollywood numbers.
A popular saying goes as “Almost everyone with a camera on their Smartphone is a photographer.” Then there’s the other one that goes like “Anyone with a DSLR in his hand considers himself as a photographer.” Photography is an art which needs to be preserved for the well-being of our society. ‘Exploring beyond the Image’, a photography workshop by the well-known photographer Sandeep Biswas proved out to be a huge hit among the new entrants of the academy. He not only discussed the history of photography but also shared his wealth of experience with the participants about the contemporary advancements in this field.
He taught the students the art of reading an image; understand every single detail of image, perspective of photographer while clicking the image, the thought process while choosing the subject. Our budding photographers and young photography enthusiasts looked super happy after learning the new tricks from the master himself.
A super interesting material/craft workshop on ‘Rejuvenating Beads’ by Afsana Chaudhary explored the possibilities of creating products and a range of accessories to familiarize the students with the work culture of the artisans.
The workshop has been aided by Aghaz Group: a group started by 60 women who are skilled in the trade. Four artisans of the group, including the group leader and her daughter have come to teach the students the art. The experts are from Hapur, a village in UP. A group of 30 students attended the workshop and tested their skills with proper guidance from the experts.
This year Pow Wow worked around the theme ‘Ping’ which tends to generates response. Ping is considered as an online expression and is a measure of the latency we feel in everything we do, whether it’s clicking a link, posting a status update, sending a message, playing a game, uploading a file, streaming an online video, or anything else.
A gentle poke on the social media helps draw attention. When you poke your friend, you get poked back. Then you poke again, and get poked back again, and so on, called Ping-Pong poking. Response to stimuli- it encourages curiosity, awareness and tolerance towards new experiences.
Similarly, the sole idea behind POW WOW PING is to generate response or gather feedback from the participants by involving them through an array of activities and exercises. More than 1200 participants from four different cities made this fun-filled event a huge success and helped all the new entrants of the Academy to write a new beginning for the most the important chapter of their life, The College Life!
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