"Colorful fun” is what Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust founder Dadi Pudumjee termed the parade through Delhi’s Lodhi Gardens of his company’s puppets on November 17, 2023. The large puppets that Ishara is known for included birds, animals, swathes of colorful swirling fabrics, garlanded and moustachioed masks. Pudumjee told Parsiana on November 19 that "this parade was actually a celebration,” alongside an educational conference called RISE 2023. The title is an acronym for ReImagining School Education.
Top: multi-hued fun with marching puppets;
above: Dadi Pudumjee (2nd from r) with members of
Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust and others
Organized by Alliance Française de Delhi and One Teacher One Scientist, this is an initiative to empower those involved with children’s education. Pudumjee stated that "so many of our (puppet) characters work as representations of what they wanted to depict… Biodiversity… gender equality and the like.” There was a walking band that he described as a shaadi (wedding) band. The parade involved children from government and private schools "as well as children from the Salam Baalak Trust that we work with occasionally.” F. J.
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