It might have been hot and humid in Varanasi but not for the 40 students from classes 6 to 12 who participated in the Gobar Times media workshop here. The Gobar Times team from CSE was helped in this by a local cultural organisation, Jnana Pravaha.

After an initial training on investigative reporting, photography, editing and designing, the students from four schools (Rajghat Besant, W H Smith, St. John's, Sunbeam Bhagwanpur) of Banaras were let loose.

Teams investigating waste problems went to landfill sites near the GT road in Palang Shahib, visited municipal sweepers and ragpickers, and interrogated doctors, nurses, patients and attendents in BHU hospital. The water team visited the ghats, queried purohits, devotees and boatmen, got water samples from differents spots of the city and river for testing, interviewed Veer Bhadra Mishra of Sankat Mochan. There was a separate water harvesting team that drew up plans and calculated water harvesting potentials of the Rajghat Besant School and the grounds of Jnana Pravaha. Air pollution shouldn't be a problem for a city like Varanasi but ht students felt we should start when there is not too much of a problem. It is another matter that they learnt about adulteration of fuel from the attendants of Sigra Petrol pump and then queried a number of customers and other petrol pumps about it. A visit to the local Pollution Control Board taught them the basics of air pollution and fossil fuel damage, and similarly interviews with car and motor cycle dealers and customers taught them the workings of the machines and what do people look for when buying a car. The manager of the Matiz (Daewoo) agency at Sigra did not lose out on his chance to boast about the CSE three-leave award. In his favour though, he told the students that there was a long way to go.

After the collection of reports was over, the editors, illustrators and designers got down to work. Ratnika, the tiniest of the lot and an efficient designer, was soon giving editors like Poonam word counts for their stories. Cutting and chopping of stories took plenty of time though some reporters like Shruti make the editor quite redundant. Illustrators like J. Arvind and Pallavi Jaiswal were busy cartooning and pitching in as last minute photographers.

And finally, the Gobar Times Varanasi edition was released (a computer printout because the local printers just could not take in the fact that a newspaper could be printed in a day!). The students had been brilliant with their work and the GT says it all!

NOTE: The issue will be available for net viewers soon.