CHILDREN

We often lament about our children using tablets and X-boxes all the time...but I find, often that even our urban children are quite in touch with the traditional games of childhood. Today, when I went to Kaikondrahalli lake for the kere habba, I found this pile of flat stones, with a young girl piling them up carefully.   I knew that a game of   Lagori was in progress, and waited a bit while the girls surrounded the pile of stones and began their game. The game involves a ball and a pile of flat stones, generally played between two…

Having heard about the   Dhaatu Puppet Festival   I went with my daughter and two grandchildren to watch the parade, which started from the Dhaatu Bus Stop in Banashankari,      and ended at the JSS Auditorium, where several shows are to be held over the weekend.   The parade was a riot of colour, as you can see from this video:   There were puppets and puppeteers from all over the world:   Here are two  home-made puppets...Vaishnavi, the young lady on the right, is looking as happy as her puppet !   The group all posed for…

In a fun and fascinating session at the Bengaluru Literature Festival on Saturday afternoon (17 December 2016), Roopa Pai, Bengaluru-based bestselling author of The Gita for Children, convinced kids (and their parents) of the importance of the Bhagawad Gita even in today’s modern world - explaining how it was a math puzzle book, a weight loss book and the oldest self-help book in the world! She briefly ran through the story of the Mahabharata. Through her narrative, she made children laugh out loud by combining humour and references to daily life experiences. The session was highly interactive. Enthusiastic children listened…

Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF) in collaboration with JSS public school, HSR layout launched 'Happy and Safe Route to School Program' in HSR Layout. The launch was marked by cyclathon and walkathon. Nearly 100 people, including students, teachers and parents walked and cycled in a planned route to create awareness on the importance of active transportation to reduce pollution, congestion, leading an active and healthy life style. In cities, rights of children to move around safely are infringed on various accounts. At the same time, the sedentary lifestyles to which children are exposed have contributed to various life style disorders…

This Children’s Day when school principals and teachers were on stage creating memories for their students, the volunteers and facilitators at Childrens' Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) send out a silent kudos to the 5400 plus members they engage with during the Civic Club Programme  across the city. These children of Class 7 and Class 8 are a part of CMCA’s citizenship and life skills programme conducted across a total of 91 private and government schools in Bengaluru. CMCA’s intervention involves a limited number of students in each school every year but the goal is to spread the civic message…

For children….   Once a year, Children’s Day (celebrated on Nov 14 in India) comes around, and we have many initiatives just for them. One of these was   “Maya Bazaar” a story of mythology and fantasy, which was made into an epic movie in both Tamil and Telugu.   Over the years, this story (loosely based on characters in the Mahabharata) has been treated as a subject on many stages...folk, street, and mainstream theatre.   So, when Bangalore Little Theatre sent an invitation to the staging of the original English language adapation  of this tale, on the 13th of…

“And through this having and giving and sharing and receiving, we too can share and love and have... and receive.”– Joey Tribbiani, in “Friends”. Funny that this quote, part of Joey’s intended speech at the wedding of his friends Monica and Chandler, would be apt for a nationwide festival of giving! Daan Utsav is not just about the receiving, we know, it is about the giving. A festival that turns the lens on to itself, like a particularly gorgeous selfie. When I began volunteering for Daan Utsav, I had not seen it up close. I had read about it in…

As I was sitting in my drawing room, binge-watching a TV show, my mother sat right across the couch focused on her (almost full time) hobby – scrolling through Facebook. She announced, “Hey! there is a photo of you celebrating Diwali at Chitra aunty’s place. You are in that cute paavadai that you loathed back then, Look at your scorn”. I hate them, true! My mom had this stern belief that I would grow tall every single day and hence she would religiously buy dresses at least three sizes ahead of my actual one.  I ended up having frocks that…

I was attending a book launch ("Junkland Journeys", by Ajith Pillai) and from where I sat (apparently it had been the bar of the Mallu restaurant which used to be there earlier!) I looked down and saw this scene below.   Having clicked it, I found that the gentleman and the two children came and joined the book launch event, so I took their permission to use this photogrph in my blog. Love of reading is a great gift given to us, and it's even more heartening when one finds an adult willing to take the time and effort to…

Our little man went back to school on Monday. We watched him put on his new t-shirt, wear his new pair of  shoes. We watched him walking with his new school bag, new lunch bag, new water bottle, new name tags And he looked so handsome and smart, and happy, that my heart swelled with pride, with love. I watched him walk beside his father and prayed he would be safe and secure in the world out there. As I went back inside our flat, I happened to look out the window of our living room. A small figure was…