Speaking Archaeologically™

An Album, a Stock book and the sheets from the Workshop If I have to talk about this workshop, it was probably one of the hardest we had to organise. Stamps are almost impossible to link with archaeology but what's harder is getting them 'Workshop ready', especially since the Panel was borrowing from a private collection, which already had  been exhibited. The risk involved was too much! So, was the security I had already paid for it. (I was handling stamps worth a million dollars that afternoon and taking them amidst my bunch of loons to a place where coffee spills aren't uncommon, wasn't exactly risk free (we had some stamps right from the 1850s!) So, amidst all the stress and the tension, the Philately Workshop finally happened on January 31, 2016. The first job was to talk about what is a stamp, really? The Roland Hill idea behind paid postage, the history of this tiny scrap of paper which we were going to link with the past... There were also qu...

Shriya, the Recruitment Team and the New Volunteers   Finally the post you've all been waiting for!  The Orientation Event of the Speaking Archeologically Volunteer Wing, the fruit of the efforts of our talented recruiters,  was held on August 13 at the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10-C, Chandigarh.Panel member, Shriya Gautam joined in the team at 11 am at the Museum Entrance, with an ethnoarchaeological dress discussion drill for the new hands and a good news for the old one: she won't be alone on the next recruitment drive (but more on that later!) It was tine to show those who had joined the beautiful world of archaeology at the base source itself. Uma Maheshwari Sculpture from the Stone Sculpture Section, Chandigarh Museum As soon as a quick headcount was done, the tickets were  bought and the participants were advised to fasten their seatbelts for a tour in the world of antiquity. The twenty new history enthusiast, along with five...

Looking for Volunteers  Day 2 of Recruitment:  Our team  sent forward Athira Jamwal for Day 2, who held an interactive session with the First Year students during the class of History and Culture of Punjab of Mrs. Baljeet Tiwana, to introduce them to  Speaking Archaeologically. Athira deftly captured their minds with a light start, promising to wrap up the entire session in just  5 minutes. As soon as the murmuring died out, twenty five faces then stared at her with one question in their eyes, ‘What do you have to offer that nobody else does?’ Athira then addressed the whole basic concept of the organisation, giving examples from the daily life of the students, just to familiarise them to the idea itself. She,then, introduced the panel members and the three possible ways they can get themselves enrolled with SA. When the session ended, Athira waited for the students to pose any questions they had. Though there weren’t any question, it was evident tha...

Recruitments for SA is the hype in this season, A team of our very talented Volunteers-Anubhavpreet Kaur Nirankari, Athira Jamwal, Rakshanda Thakur, Tarannum Caur, Vidushi Chandel and Vedant Chandel-took up the responsibility of recruiting new hands from Chandigarh's premier institutions. As a part of this, they have been constantly meeting,  talking and organising events for the Recruitment and our Orientation Event Scheduled 11 am on August 13, 2016. They are also addressing students in various colleges in town and as a part of our first day of recruitment,  Rakshanda Thakur addressed History students of Bachelor of Arts, First Year in MCM DAV College for Women. Here's what she did today,  to set the ball rolling:  I met Athira and Tarannum today. We discussed about the classes we had to address and what all was to be said. I went to the 1st year History class of Mrs Mini Grewal , and acquainted the freshers with Speaking Archaeologically and the dif...

The first memory that I have of a museum visit is the one when my father took me to the International Dolls Museum, New Delhi. It was the day when my little hands rested upon the glass surfaces, my frantic mind observed the decades old figures and my eyes fixed upon the windows that invited my senses to a whole new world. It was the day when I stepped outside the virtuality and limit offered by the texts. It was the day when I wanted to learn and discover more.  The visits outside the school campus are always our favorite memories of the childhood days and, if these outings are combined with the practical ways of teaching and learning, no student will ever look for an excuse to miss a single day of school. The same objective of reviving the importance of practical knowledge and awakening the young minds with the study of past is now the work tool of The Heritage Lab. It’s an organisation that aims to create and adress amateur and expert interest in the areas of archaeolo...

There's always a picture, no matter how tired we are! Or as I like to call it — Our first official road trip. We started bright and early at noon. Or maybe we were supposed to reach at noon. Much of the details evade me. What I do distinctly remember is that we got lost. Three of us were driving down together, we were consulting Google Maps, and we got lost. Insert sexist joke about women, directions and maps. But before you do, know this, we found our way and made it to the site in one piece. All that can truly be demanded, if you ask me. That's not actually true, but I digress. We reached, and the first thing we did was stock up on supplies (re: junk food). Then we found a lovely tree under which we sat and spent some quality time with Ishan, Sharad, Shiv and Varun. It was, after all, Valentine's Day. That Plan drawing. Before you reach the conclusion that Speaking Archaeologically is actually an organisation devoted to setting you up on date...

It was close to the end of 2015 when Tarannum and I get a text from Shriya. Seeing our knack for art, we were offered the ginormous task of making the official logos for Speaking Archaeologically. Each one of us had to make three drafts  out of which  only one would be finalised as the SA logo. To make things easier for us,  the panel off ered to exempt us from the upcoming tasks, t o  aid us focus on the logos. Now  this is where the pact of secrecy came  into existence. So, S hriya informs the volunteers that their partners ( the tasks being partnership ones) Tarannum and Aditi w ould not be taking part in the upcoming essays as we were involved in a "Special Task". Now all this made us sound important and gave us the edge over the others except that after a while it became absolutely crushing to keep  the secret , specially for me! Now  every  single volunteer  w anted to know about this so called "S pecial Task" that Tarannum a...