Magadi Days

Cubbon Park on a bright sunny Saturday morning, hundreds and hundreds of school children converging on the place and just five groups to tell stories every 20 minutes….Sounds like a recipe for disaster? Wrong!!!!

Hippocampus, spearheaded by Aravinda and Vimala actually pulled off a gala event where everyone, children, storytellers and parents went home reluctantly but contentedly with the fare they had enjoyed.

As for us, we were happy that after many years, Patara was getting a chance to flex its wings and wonder of wonders, could still soar and fly!

Patara was a movement some of us had started way back in 1992 to see if we could re-enthuse children to read and love the wonderful books that are available to the discerning. We had a treasure chest, a puppet weary of reading and a fund of books that we discovered in the box as we interacted with our audience. Invariably the puppet would get engrossed in the story and ask for more! We would weave in activities to further the reading . We travelled around with the chest so it was a fun event when we landed in a location and began our act!

Now that Times of India in the Sunday Bangalore edition of March 9th has featured us, we need to think seriously of reactivating Patara.

Any ideas or volunteers welcome.

Once upon a time, there was found a small room in a large compound of schools in a town called Chamarajanagara near Mysore. There came to it a team of magic-makers who had the will, the determination and the persistence to make that room a vision and a dream for all the schools, teachers and children in the district. Did they do it? This is not a mystery story so I can safely tell you that they did. A most wonderful transformation came about whcih was seen, appreciated and most important, used, by all those who were thirsting for it. There came out of the team, a film about the centre and its services, myriad photographs to show its evolution from a slow-moving caterpillar to the sparkling butterfly it is today. The Chamarajanagara educational resource centre.

The saga of the open library at the Guddahatti school continues. Already there is so much for us all to learn.

Abhimanyu, Ini, her sister, Indu, Dhee and old-young student, Tanu and I took on activities at the school last Saturday. The things we did seemed too simple at one level but as I shared with ShashiKumar, the ground for a successful open library has to be laid very very slowly. Children at any location need to experience and assimilate what it really means to have an open library. Just telling them and leaving it open results in chaos as they discovered just that morning.

So we began with four simple activities after explaining what each of them were for.

1. Making of mobiles through origami. Abhimanyu as the master. (Both activity and A were a great hit! This was to make the library location attractive and inviting so that children want to come in there.
2. Making shelf labels and colour coding the books according to their subjects. Choice of subjects was made by teachers and students together. This took off very well under the calm and able guidance of Ini. This activity helped the children to see that they could find their needs, browse and also replace the books when they are done. They realised. I feel, the value of participation in decision making and ownership of the library.
3. A large colourful poster to show the key to the colour coding. Tanu and Indu took this on and it was amazing to see how quickly Tanu had a group of 12 children combining to make the poster while she sat on the outer fringe relaxed and yet aware. Indu turned out to be a very committed worker with great attention to detail in label-making. This helped in making the place bright and also educated the users on how to search for material.
4. Dhee willingly took on the activity of strengthening book spines and covers with cellotape. A bit of a thankless job but very soon we could spot those who had the flair and the inclination. This activity was to reiterate the importance of caring for the books.
5. Younger children from each group who were not able to do the activity were taken on by me to create book ads of their favourite reading. These colourful charts were then put up on the walls.
   So all in all, I feel that by using children to do these library-related activities with the Guddahatti children, there was a learning that these are important and enjoyable things to do enroute to having a truly functioning open library. Intangible learning which will have to be reinforced every now and then but a good start was made.

Now next they will go on to book talks and other book-related activities as we go deeper into the use of the library!!

Just picture a small Government school with children from very poor families. Then sketch in a team of extraordinary teachers and a headmaster, who function in amazing harmony. Don’t forget to highlight an ex-student who went on to become an engineer and wants to give back to the school a fraction of what he gained from it.

What am I tring to convey? Just that on Saturday, September 29th at 9 a.m. the school inaugurated its open library in a separate room dedicated to the library! The children and teachers were thrilled to have Shri G.P. Rajaratnam’s daughter present, to tell them about her father and read out some of his stories and poems.It was quite amazing that there were no locked cupboards and all the books were accessible for the children to pick up. The headmaster began his talk by saying that there were going to be no speeches(!) He asked the children to come in anytime to read, borrow and browse. The library was theirs to use, to take care of, and to be responsible for. The head teacher then spoke and said, “ Ask questions, come and read, tell us your difficulties, never be afraid.”

This- at a time when every other day, we read horror stories of teachers punishing and harming children for no reason.
I call it a miracle because the headmaster told me that everything seemed to move favourably towards this outcome. I too recollected that it was in January this year that Mr. Shashi Kumar of Wipro came to attend the Educational Conference at CFL and went back with some ideas and plans buzzing in his head. That enthusiasm and sustained contact with us made us respond too and in just 8 months the idea, the philosophy and the actuality of an open library has emerged. More follow up is needed and will happen, but the attitude of the students is heart-warming. They show confidence and trust and affection. Mr. Shashi Kumar spends every Saturday morning with them at the school, reading, discussing and communicating.

A small story — but what a big difference it has made in the children’s lives!

Two days ago, Leela Garady and her intrepid group chugged to Malleswaram to interact with the girls at Seva Sadan, a home for orphans and abandoned children. The children ranged from age 6 to 18 so Leela’s ingenuity was stretched to the full. However, as we might have guessed, she came up with a very delightful set of activities for all the ages. This included the ever popular painting with natural colours but also had the older children make stick and string puppets which they dressed up imaginatively with cloth pieces and decorated with gee-gaws. We were all struck by the enthusiasm and persistence of the girls who returned after a simple lunch to complete their craft work.

We started the morning with the presentation of Punyakoti through the string puppets made by Leela and her friends. This was a professional performance thanks to the new Seva Sadan stage with overhead lights and graded seating. After this Leela talked about the difference between Janapada stories and other tales and read out the Kannada version of ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. This has been written by Kuvempu who has translated it brilliantly and breathed his own life into it. Leela loves it and was happy to expose these youngsters to it. But she was also saddened to hear that though the Kannada language is these children’s strength, they had only known of the poem in English!!

Hats off to Leela and her gang of six!

Last Thursday, a group of us took on a mob of 50 children aged 5 to 11 for a three hour workshop on reading and related activities. We actually enjoyed it! We had a mix of activities which were taken on by each of us. Craft, drama, poetry and art. What chaos it seemed to be but what fun the kids had! Leela Garady repeated her natural colours activity. We were a little uncertain how these affluent urban kids would respond to painting with spinach paste, beetroot juice and using a broom stick for a brush. But young children are very open as we discovered and the defining moment of the session came for me when a young child came running up to ask, “Aunty, can I have another paint brush?” i.e. broom quill!!! They made some lovely paintings too.

In the afternoon we had the older ones, 35 of them, aged 12 to 16. This was rather different and made us ponder about the mainstream education these kids were exposed to. Fisrt of all, we could see a reluctance or diffidence to move outside their familiar spheres. Secondly, when asked to write down their favourite book as the first stage of an activity, they were blank, confessing that they had not read!!!!! After this we talked and read out to them from different genres and during the break, we got our breakthrough. Many of them went to the library’s computer to check out some of the books we had talked about!! The final activity involved making a miniature book with 14 mini panels which they could fill with any sequential ‘story’ or events. sad to say,too many of them sat with a blankness which indicated a paucity of imagination. We also spotted boys who had been dubbed ‘difficult’ or ‘troublesome’. These were the ones that tried to draw attention to themselves through snide comments. But when they saw we were not judging or punishing them, it was very moving to see how they came forward tentatively and volunteered to do things or talk about anything to the others.

We learnt a lot!!!

There was a palpable sense of excitement as we struggled through dense traffic last Tuesday morning on our way to Guddahatti with a group of eight. The reason? We were to present a puppet show of the story of Punyakoti choreographed by Leela Garady. When we reached there were already a small group of eager children awaiting us. The stage setting proved a bit of a challenge initially but with enthusiastic hands, rocks, walls, books, benches and chairs, a stage emerged. By then the crowd had swelled and now we began to see parents hesitantly sidling in. By the time we began, there were at least 60 children and 20 adults. The narrow space, the sharp sun, the pillars were no obstruction to total enjoyment. We could see some of the children mouthing the songs. The appearance of the tiger was a big hit and we all had a lump when Punyakoti came back to keep her promise and the tiger refused to eat her up preferring to fast and die.

After the show, Leela had planned an amazing activity of painting with all natural colours which she had made. beetroot juice, spinach paste, Turmeric paste, red mud and broom sticks for brushes. After a minute of sitting blankly, the children got into it with great gusto. The talents revealed were much appreciated by the teachers.

This school is special because it has a very open-minded headmaster, an amazingly energetic head teacher and of course our Shashi Kumar an old student of the school who now works at Wipro and lives in the same village and spends every sat. morning at the school doing extension activities. Thanks to all those who made it possible!