Writing workshop – ‘Writing Life’ led by Vidya Rao
Each one of us is on this journey called life. Each one has had experiences of joy, hardship, sadness, and moments of deep understanding. Each of us has lived lives from which we have learned much. We know that with all its hardships and pain our lives are beautiful, and are an opportunity to grow in beauty and understanding. And hopefully, we see our life as an opportunity to spread this sense of beauty to all.
How do we recall our lives? How do we tell our stories? What are the significant moments in our journeys?
This workshop will allow us to share, through recollection, imagining, experiencing, reading, and writing, the beauty and pain of human existence and our potential for coming through suffering to a space of pure joy. This joy does not preclude the understanding of suffering. But it does see our living as deeply transformative, both for our own selves and for others.
We will begin each day by reading aloud and discussing a passage from existing books. I will share these passages shortly. Thereafter we will write to prompts that I will give. We will then share our writings and then discuss our work. Why did we choose to write the way we did? How did we respond to each other’s stories? Etc.
Importantly, towards the end of the workshop period, we will also discuss how recollecting, writing, and sharing, can be a form of healing for difficult memories. Or can be a deep sharing of beautiful ones. How writing can be a healing and a blessing for ourselves and for the world.
Participants may remember that all writing MUST be done by hand, with pen or pencil on paper (preferably a notebook). No computers or mobile phones are to be used. In this regards, we will also discuss the differences of writing by hand/working by hand, and working with a machine-like tool. What is the aesthetic of writing by hand? Does the writing feel different both physically and emotionally? Is it slower or faster, and how does that change the way we think and express our thoughts?
Who may join this workshop?
Open to anyone above the age of 18. However, people wishing to join must send BY 15 FEBRUARY 2025
– Information on previous writing experience (if any), and/or workshops previously undertaken. A sample of their writing (if any)
– A clear statement –of 500 words minimum, and 1000 words maximum– of why they wish to do this workshop.
Tentative daily Schedule – 9:00 am to 12.30/1:00 pm with a tea break
About Vidya Rao
Vidya Rao is a singer and a writer. Her writing work is mainly on music and the performing arts.
She brings her experience and her long years of work as a researcher, writer, and also, importantly, as a book editor to this Manuscript Intensive workshop.
She has worked for nearly 40 years as an editor—dealing with text editing, commissioning, and book development—with Orient Blackswan (previously Orient Longman), creating a significant list in the social sciences, culture studies, and women’s studies.
She has written and published extensively—a memoir of life with her guru Vidushi Naina Devi (Harper Collins, 2011); several essays that have been published in academic journals and as chapters in the book, and is currently working on a new book on a relatively less-known form of women’s music. Her work is included in reading lists in several university departments, internationally, of music, culture, and women’s studies.
Apart from her work as an editor/publisher, she has worked in research institutes (the Administrative Staff College of India, and the Centre for Women’s Development Studies), and has conducted independent research with grants from the Ford Foundation, the Department of Culture (GOI), Institut d’etudes avancees, France, and the Sangam House-ISRO Residency.
She has been, among other things, a Visiting Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics (JNU), a Visiting Fellow at the School of Cultural Texts and Resources, (Jadavpur University), a Fellow (Artist-Scholar) at the Institut d’etudes avancees, (Nantes, France), Artist in Residence at the Smith College and the Five Colleges Inc., etc. She has guided several M Phil and PhD students in India and outside India and has also served as an external examiner for their M Phil and PhD dissertations.
Please note- “attendance in all sessions is mandatory.”
For queries, registration & accommodation, please email: info@deerpark.in