My first few months at the Compughar, by Manoj Kumar

Hello, I am Manoj. I want to share with you my experiences at the Compughar in the few months after joining it.

I have been with the Compughar for four months now. Let me tell you how I came to join it. My friends Raju and Dheeraj used to go to some computer lab. They also wrote texts. These texts used to be on just about anything - thought, an incident on the road, friendship, identity. What was interesting was that they used to keep writing something or the other. This computer lab was called Compughar, and along with writing these texts, they also worked with computers, sound recording etc. Then one day they asked me to join the Compughar as well. I too thought it was a good idea, and I went to the Compughar with them.

There I saw everyone was busy with their work. Texts they had written were pasted on the walls. Some were sitting, discussing a text, others were working on sound and computers. I sat down. I was introduced to everyone. I liked meeting them all. After sitting for some time, I was told about the lab, and then they asked me some questions. When they were asking me questions, I became a little nervous because the space was unfamiliar to me. Then, as I started going there, I began liking the space. They asked me to write some texts, and when I had written them, I read them out. When I would read my texts, I would feel a little hesitant. But that lasted only a few days.

I liked going from place to place to take interviews and click photographs, and also enjoyed playing with the computer. We would all sit down together and start discussing any topic. Some people would come from outside and chat with us, or see how we work. I liked all this. And I also liked the relationship of friendship between the different people at the lab, among the peers and with the "teachers". I want to continue this relationship and working at the Compughar, and learn more about working with sound, image and text.

Rakesh Kumar will now present before you some questions that he has.