CHILDREN

Birthdays are not anymore a simple affair with a bunch of friends, cake, balloons and candles. Today, childrens' birthday bashes can be quite a fancy event with everything from bouncing castles to magic shows, all managed by professionals. Pic: Wikimedia commons Hotels/party halls have tie ups with event management companies for the décor and theme of the party though it is optional. "The basic décor starts at Rs 3000, magic show at Rs 2,500, tattooing at Rs 1,500 and caricature at Rs 2,500", says Srinivas N, an event manager. "My five year old son is always excited to go to…

EntertainKids is a group working to make entertainment reachable to underprivileged children. If your question is "Why entertainment?", my answer is that food, shelter and education were not my only necessities as a child; I loved watching movies too!EntertainKids tries to bring some fun in the lives of underprivileged children, and also motivate them towards education.We plan to achieve this by:• Getting access to children by connecting with government schools, NGOs, orphanages etc. We are in talks with many organisations including Friendship Foundation, Hope Foundation, Sparsh, Runner's High, Ananya Summer camp and UW Bengaluru.• Getting cinema halls, theatres, circuses etc…

What shall he do this summer? That's the question I have been asking myself now that March hits the midway mark. The temptation is to answer, ‘nothing.' But who am I kidding? I am not strong enough to withstand the now near compulsory pressure of having to enrol the tyke in a ‘Summer Camp.' River rafting at Frolic Boonies. Pic: Frolic Boonies These days not fixing up a summer camp is almost like denying your child an important developmental milestone. Doing nothing is no longer an option, almost up there in the banned list as sleeping late.Even if you are…

While summer classes are de rigueur today, the last few years have seen a gradual shift from the art and craft classes to exploring wilderness and hands-on science. Absorbed in activity at Hippocampus. There are established players like Rangashankara that specialise in arts and theatre, and conducting classes for nearly eight years which are still popular with parents and children.Uma Bharath, mother of a 10-year-old daughter who is attending Rangashankara classes, believes that workshops which are rooted in the Indian context or are truly multicultural, will help improve her child's understanding of her own country or another's. Many of the…

I had the opportunity to attend a Children's Ward Sabha in Vijnana Nagar on February 23rd. It was organised by CWC (The Concerned for Working Children), an NGO for child rights.A Ward Sabha in urban areas is similar to a Gram Sabha in rural areas, wherein citizens of a village come together to voice their demands from elected representatives; these demands are supposed to be incorporated in the development package for that area. In 2006, based on the experience of other countries which have such children's sabhas, the Karnataka government took the initiative of making children's gram sabhas mandatory in…

Once, when the older brat was two years old, I was visiting relatives in Delhi and came across a bubbly young lady who was thrilled at having won a very special gift hamper. It turned out that her son, also two, had just been judged ‘Best smile'' baby in a Healthy Baby Competition he (or rather she) had participated in. My eyes had almost popped out of their sockets. Did such competitions still exist? Weren't they rather regressive, pitting one baby over another purely on the basis of their looks and if I may add, chubbiness? Pic: Wikimediacommons I may…

Today..An email from my young friend Anvitha Satish, whom I often exchange emails with...Just felt like sharing this with u.... :) I had told you that a teacher helped me in saving the black kite. That teacher not only told about the kite story in the assembly one day but also said it to her friend Meera. Meera is a wildlife conservator and she came to my school today. She is really passionate about saving forests and wild animals. She shared her experiences in the wild and showed many beautiful pictures of tigers, birds, snakes, leopards, gaurs, bears and many…

It's very difficult being a non judgemental mom. Turns out, being judgemental comes wired into your system, the moment you become a mom. Not about yourself of course. We are judgemental about other mothers, the one who bottle-feeds her infant; the one who sends her kid to Karate ALL ALONE despite the fact that he has to cross a busy road; the one who thinks nothing of serving her kid Pepsi. In other words, the mother, who in our eyes is "wrong" while we ourselves are obviously doing it right or at least hoping that we are. Pic: Wikimedia commons…

"Yeaah!! St Louis, here we come," chorused the NXTremers - a team of 6th and 7th graders - thumping their fists, huge grins on their beaming faces, as they struggled to keep their feet on the ground. They had just been declared the national level champions in the First Lego League (FLL) 2011 competition. Their next step will be the FLL World Festival in St Louis, Missouri, USA on April 25-28, where they will represent India.The young champions are a group of six friends studying in National Public School, Indiranagar - Aditya S M, Anuj Tambwekar, Arnav Mhaske, Chaitanya Sindagi,…

"Uncle Sam, put on back your pants" a line from one of the compositions of Jamaican-Canadian-African dub poet D'bi Young Anitafrika is one that rings in my head on a regular basis. It works as an essential reminder of the number of soulless 'uncles' who abuse children sexually. But according to Young who performed at the Jaaga Creative Common Ground in Bengaluru on 28th January 2012, it is also a metaphor for how selfish capitalists continue to rape and ravage life on earth without sparing a thought about the adverse impact of their actions. Well, if they take the good…