I-Day at Akkiappa Garden!

15^th August at the library was a big day. The kids under the guidance of Ms. Vijayalakshmi put up a show for themselves and us the volunteers--patriotic songs, “Des Rangila” dances and short speeches on the freedom struggle.

We went in a little early and were pulled in to the tiny room which served as a dressing room for the girls and well, I think it gave any West-End backstage room competition! F applied kajal and lipstick doubling as rouge on one little girl with expert hands in one corner while in another N combed out her long, tangled hair. There was barely enough room to breathe but at least 6 girls twittered over their appearance as if they were performing for the Prime Minister. All I could think of was, I wish I could capture these moments without taking out my camera and ruining the candour and excitement in the room.

I did manage to take some pictures of the programme though.(picasaweb.google.co.in/ilpindia/IndependenceDayLibraryCelebrations#).

Although marred by a brief power cut, the enthusiasm and the planning was almost tangible as they presented their efforts to us with confidence, small blunders and overall panache!

By the end of the whole thing we were being mobbed by requests for pictures. Absolutely memorable. Kudos to Vijayalakshmi ma’am for organizing the kids so admirably!

Tharindri

A Perfect Day

It was one of my best weekends ever, with bright young kids at the library performing cultural activities,we had a great time on Independence day.I've known quite a few of them by names already viz., Sunil,Gyanendra,Santosh,Murali and few others.There was this small kid who came upto me and asked if she can take the rose given to me.She was overjoyed when I gave it to her.Got her name,it was Sparshini.It was nice to meet other volunteers Arvind,Tharindri&Roshni who were capturing those smiles in their cams! Wish to see all those pics next week.There's a great job ahead of us to mould these kids into responsible citizens.Looking forward to amuse these kids with computers (I promised one to show him a laptop next time I go there) and teach them English. Hoping to make many faces smile in the coming days :)

-Bhargav

Kannada Goththilla?

Going in with the enthusiasm of a new-comer to volunteer at the Community Library, the importance of a common language as a starting point didn’t strike me. My last session at the library started off ordinarily enough with two little girls coming and sitting next to me for a story-reading session. Both in 8^th standard-but like most of the children there, very small for their age- M was quite the outgoing one and read the story in stumbling phrases but with reasonably good pronunciation. S on the other hand with her retreating smile, shied away every time I asked her something-including her name!-with a “Miss English goththilla”. Helplessly I would say “Kannada goththilla”, my usual ticket to eliciting at least an attempt at English, but to no avail.

However, one thing I really love about the library is how a story or an activity can spark the interest of the most recalcitrant child. Soon, S was vying with her friend to read and there was a general battle….but the thing is that even though she read the story, most of the words were empty expressions followed by colourful pictures to her. Also, even after reading almost three stories, she wouldn’t speak in English to me.

There are some words you can explain with gestures and picture but even so there would be a constant poking in M’s ribs after I explained something, and S would ask in muttered Kannada what so and so was. Without even the advantage of basic Tamil, you feel helpless sometimes because the kids DO want to learn, they want to do rhyming words (Sometimes with disastrous results-“Why can’t hill rhyme with smell, they have the same ending letter?”!), they want to be given dictation and they really want to be part of everything.

The same happens even to people who can in some way communicate with a close-enough language- Rosh who speaks Tamil was wracking her brains trying to think how you explain why the past tense of “go” becomes “went” and why “he comes” is the present of “he came”.

The system is doing and awfully shoddy job is the children in Public Schools are taught to read but not to understand what they’re reading out, because in that case the whole joy of learning a language is lost. Idealistic joys of language aside, it is of minimum practical use as well.

On a happier note, thanks to this little handicap I’ve started picking up little bits of Kannada, although I have to say that when I explain a tree to be a “mara”, and then say a wood is “place with a lot of maras”, I can’t help but join them in the giggling!

Tharindri R.

A Non-Partner’s perspective of the Partners Meet

A Non-Partner’s perspective of the Partners Meet

How easy it is to label things and get carried away by the implications of that label. A Partners Meet must clearly be for our NGO ‘Partners’. The themes and discussions must be beneficial to their work and from a development perspective. It would probably help them to work more effectively for the marginalized sections of the society.

Ergo, if you are not a partner or working in this field, this might probably be of little relevance.

I think this attitude probably sums up why problems never get solved in our country. .. Because we never think of ourselves as part of the solution.

This partner’s meet was about ‘Inclusive Education’ and ‘Child Participation’.

Are these really just relevant only for child rights activists? And of course the ‘government’, our favorite target for anything and everything. With the term conveniently meaning a set of people somewhere in the periphery disconnected from us of course.

Sitting over the three days at the workshop, and learning so much I never knew, I couldn’t help but wonder why I came into this thinking it would be beneficial only from a point of view of my work. I probably took away more for myself personally. I remember wishing there were more non-partners- parents, students, mentors- privy to the thought provoking presentations and discussions.

Not so we could empower others but ourselves.

How many of us, as students, have really looked around to see if our colleges and schools were/are disable friendly? While dropping off your child to school or attending a PTA meet, do you think about inclusive education? Is the same school practicing that?

Do we know what effective child participation means? Is it being practiced in our own homes with our own children?

None of these issues will be tackled effectively if we don’t stop labeling and delegating the responsibility of solving it to ‘them’. Them- the government. Them- the NGOs. Them- the activists.

What about you and me?

-Pooja