Women inmates of Vadodara Central Jail heard the inspirational story about the dilemma of pregnant deer

Paint on paper the experience of the story with natural colours made from vegetables and food colours.

Women inmates of Vadodara Central Jail heard the inspirational story about the dilemma of pregnant deer and get to know about not to lose courage in difficult situations. They later draw their emotions on canvas after the story and try to connect with the story.

Under SaMvitti ‘Sharing Story’ initiative SahityaMitra Neela Gupta shared the story titled ‘Here and Now’ taken from an inspirational story ‘The Dilemma of a Pregnant Deer’ to the women inmates.

The session started with the question of how forests are in a story. As the talk progressed, all the animals of the forest gradually came into the room in the form of hand puppets. Women participants actively participated in the session with the hand puppets. In the jungle that was made-up in the room only one animal was missing, that was the deer. SahityaMitra entered wearing a deer outfit and narrated the story as a singular-character.

1 of 7

The deer came and started talking about the circumstances of her life. She was pregnant. As the time was approaching to give birth to the infant, she was searching for a safe place. After looking-around for a while, she found a place with high grass near the banks of a river and she decided to stay there. As the deer reached there she developed labour pains.

At the same time, dark clouds began to gather in the sky and lightning sparked a forest fire. When the deer looked to her left, she saw a hunter aiming an arrow at her and to her right a hungry Lion was slowly moving towards her. The deer was facing life-threatening situations from all sides. On the basis of this incident, many questions were raised for the participants.

There was a moment in the story when she was experiencing intense pain. That moment proves to be an inspirational one. The deer contemplates and listens to her inner voice. The voice was telling her to be free from all the worries and focus only on giving birth to her infant, and she did so.

Then it so happened in the story that lightning struck right when the hunter was about to shoot the arrow. Due to the flash of lightening, the hunter’s vision blinded and he missed the mark. On missing the mark, his arrow struck the eye of the Lion standing on the other side. The wounded lion roared and fled out of fear. On the other hand the hunter too ran-away on hearing the Lion’s roar. Due to heavy rains the forest fire too doused. Unaware of all these happenings, the deer gave birth to her fawn and at the same time the rain stopped.

At the end of the session the participants discussed that everyone should bravely face the difficulties of lives and must recognize and follow the inner voice. They also understood that the situations that come-up in life are not predetermined. No situation is permanent, whether it is good or bad. The participants made an expression of creativity by painting on paper the experience of the story with natural colours made from vegetables and food colours.