A vividha is a collaborative learning experience. At these festivals, practitioners in various fields reach out with their work to the public. The participating visitors, there to play and learn, are exposed to a diverse range of experiments in education and social change around a given theme. Such resource festivals, carrying the tag vividha, have been a feature of Comet's calender since 1997.
There is bal vividha on the theme of alternative approaches to school education, stree vividha on women's empowerment, paryavaran vividha on environment issues, planned are swasthya vividha on health and nutrition, yuva vividha and others, on related themes which bring out the relationships between science, technology and society for particular audiences.
These fairs have been an exhilarating experience for all the collaborators, a chance to deal with people of all sorts in huge numbers, in an intense and happy way.
Typically the vividha knowledge festivals are collaborative events, consisting of:
an interactive exhibition which showcases the work of various players in the specific subject area, i.e. educational innovators in the case of bal vividha, or women's groups in the case of stree vividha
workshops with an emphasis on experiential learning, conducted by innovative resource persons.
café area in the midst of the exhibits, where visitors and participants interact to forge new partnerships, develop critiques and play with creative ideas
a film festival of films related to the festival theme
an amphitheatre offering live performances
a special seminar on current policy issues
The festival has evolved through a series of such learning events developed by Comet since 1997. Thus far twenty five vividhas have been held in cities and rural areas in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal. The name of the fairs, vividha, is based on the root word for diversity, vividhata. The festivals celebrate the diverse approaches taken by the participants who come to the fair from different perspectives and places.
In 2008 we have three vividhas committed to so far:
These festivals work on the principle of collaboration. If you would like to host such a festival in your premises, or can pull together some people in your area who may like to pool in and host it jointly, please write to Comet at cometmediafdn@gmail.com and we can start the process off.
