Jaipur puppeteer teaches puppetry to school children

JAIPUR - Renowned puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee organized a workshop for schoolteachers of Jaipur in order to promote the art of puppetry and puppet-making in the schools.

The three-day puppet-making workshop, which will conclude today, was attended by over 40 teachers from private schools of Jaipur.

The teachers said that the workshop is teaching them how waste materials like plastic bottles can be used effectively to convey messages.

“The motive of the workshop is to prepare the puppets in different methods, like they taught us how to make puppets with gloves, how to make puppets with rods or sticks, and then hand-puppets. It is not necessary that you need to have a puppet to convey your message. He taught us how the puppet can be dramatized or dramatization can take place through even with shoes, and with bags,” said Kalpana Singh, the principal of a school.

Pudumjee says there is an urgent need to popularise the ancient form of entertainment, which has been taken over by modern entertainment, such as television.

He said that educational institutions should include puppetry as an extra-curricular activity like dance and music.

“The government or cultural institutions should understand that we only think of puppetry after other art forms, like dance or music. This is a misconception and should be ruled out. The traditional art forms should not be neglected in favour of modern art forms. Every art forms face problems. Production values and story-making is a big problem for both modern and traditional art forms,” said Pudumjee.

Puppets can also be used to improve teaching methodology by making learning more interesting for children. (ANI)