Kalandri Diaries

We hosted a children's camp at Kalandri Library inviting the children to engage in few activities. We had a drawing session for  kids under age 6 and above 12.

I gave out the circle games to the elders and youngest to color the circles.  Young girls and boys didn't want to sit together. They were shy. On being asked why they don't like to sit with boys," this boy swears a lot and says a lot of words," said all the girls. The other boys didn't have any issue to sit but, due to one boy, there was a lot of disturbance. Didn't want to exclude the boy by the complaints. I asked them to form a circle.

 

Once the kids began drawing, they showed great interest in the activity. They finished it pretty much fast. 

I looked at the drawings and I got reminded of the drawing that I learned as a kid in the 5th class. Darken the paper and create an image by an eraser. 

 

Watching kids reminded me of how mischievous I was. I can always see myself in a few kids. There was this kid Chiraag who was in the 1st class. He enjoyed having fun with his brother. He followed whatever his brother did. And there was another kid Girish who was quite playful. Wanted to play around in his own world.

 

There was another girl, Pooja who was quite mischievous and had the charm. Looking at these kids, I got reminded of my childhood which was full of energy, warmth, and loads of fun. Even Kushal reminds me of me. I used to talk a lot. I was never told to stop talking. And that gave me boldness. And I remember giving tongue in cheek answers to adults. I thank my parents for not being in awe of my energy or embarrassed of my energy. They just let me be myself.

Thanks, kids for reminding me of my childhood. 

Day-3

Few minutes passed after we opened the LRC in the morning, we had kids who were quite enthusiastic to enter and play with us. Start of the day and we were ambiguous if we can host them or arrange for the day.

 

Kids keep humming, "Paaniyonki Gaadiyo." It's heartening to see them enjoying the day.  Few kids walked in, excited to play. We gave out the India map and list of few places to spot them. They had a good time.

 

While they left for lunch, we began our arrangements and plans.

 

Kids walked in at 4pm and took out the books, reading whatever they're pleased with. After informal conversations, talking to the children who visited for the first day. After due attendance, we gathered and started with the Balgeet "Aaha Tomatar..." hosted by Mukesh. We took a feedback session on their experiences for the two days. They remember the Balgeet quite well. They recalled all the things they've done. On being asked about the experience, "good." "had great fun." were the answers by most of the kids.

 

Kids were also enthusiastic to sing Paaniyonki..  Many students volunteered to sing in front of the crowd.

 

After gathering, we divided the kids into two groups. Group1- 1-5Class. Group2- 6,7,8.

 

This time, we had 66 kids. We had 24 kids alone in the group2.

 

We divided the group1 further into 4 groups.  There was a discussion on Food, vegetables, sweets, fruits & utensils used in the home with all the groups. It was more of a conversation emphasizing on EVS perspective. There was a discussion on all these and the kids were also asked to draw all the shapes.

 

Another session was held giving out various 3d shapes. Kids were asked to think of the things that resemble the shapes given, cone, cuboid, cube, triangle & cylinder.

 

With the group-2, we organized math games and further acting on their interest played the game, Guess the song. Many showed their interest to sing and dance. 

 

On the occasion of Eid, we played a screening of the movie, "Idgaah", a Doordarshan movie based on the story by Munshi Premchand. 

It was a success to arrange them to sit in order. And also everyone enjoyed watching the movie, without making much disturbance.  Further watching the movie, Mukesh had a discussion with children asking their opinions on the movie. It was a beautiful conversation to see them understanding what's been told in the movie. "Buy things according to the needs of a home rather than according to the personal interest" were the conclusion everyone came into after the conversation. Kids joined in univoice to do the same being altruistic.

 

We called it a day after the distribution of snacks. Looking forward to the next day.