Explore, Make friends, Squabble, Reunite and have fun!

Preparing their introduction with their self portraits

The first of the camps of this summer for children of 8 to 18 began at Hosa Jeevana Dari campus at Melkote in a very informal way. The participants were as diverse as ever and trickled in ones and twos. A child from Valley school, to the one from the school for the hearing impaired, gathered on the platform of the beautiful old building. The participating children and the parents had a common task of drawing their own portraits and listing out what they wished from the camp. While the children wished for games and time out in Nature for appreciating birds and trees and having long treks, the parents had an opportunity to express what the camp had to do for their children. Like for the children, it was not another ice breaking exercise for the parents but was a shattering of pent up thoughts. I am no psychologist to assess what their mental makeup was but could clearly say most of them were worried in one way or the other. Each one of their opinions or wishes was intriguingly concerning- about their child and the world they would live in. They carried concrete challenges for teachers.

Mr. Chandregowda putting forward his opinion

Self portrait of a parent

 It is past midnight and the children have all slipped to sleep snuggling in their tents. I sit looking into the drawings and the wish list of the parents.              
Mr. Chandregowda, a retired head master, and grand parent of Viva was deeply concerned about values. He felt that values, like discipline are all simply on a run out and hence the camp should incorporate prayer, yogic exercises and games to keep their spiritual insights in glow. In fact one mother who didn’t make it to the camp site had already made a special request with me to wake up her ten year old son half an hour earlier than the rest of the children as he had to do yoga in the morning. But Mr. Vishwanath who had driven all the way from Bangalore to give his daughter some leisure, good friends of her age and lots of time to explore nature got perturbed. Probably he was thorough in his home work and clearly knew that we were not a group who were experts in that department. Mrs. Sudha Divakar was a teacher from a small town K R Pet, and was more judicious in her approach. She did not expect much from these five days, yet she elaborated a long list of things-building good social and communication skills, writing skills, good behavior and a gamut of talents. These issues must be touched upon through suitable activities she felt. Regular schools never did justice in this regard but successfully put a lot of stress upon the students in the form of homework and deadlines. She was of the opinion that we really had to prioritize to give them free time to explore, learn and enjoy their holidays. 

Getting acquainted with the campus

As though to add a strange twist to the discussion Dr. Rajani felt that we take care of girl child and empower them for the harsh society of ours towards them. Without mention of the everyday tragedy of harassment, atrocities and crime against a girl child, her tensed outburst opened the Pandora’s Box. The ‘stranger danger’ bug had crept in her psyche and deeply set its roots. She was not ready to take any explanation.  No matter what your background is and where you are, women in this country are not safe and she felt their safety, and efforts to empower them should be prioritized over protecting a tree or an endangered species!

A friendly chat with parents over the lunch-Kavitha and Gouri Lankesh

Her husband Mr. Lokesh Mosale however, tried to ease the situation by mentioning some of the basic tenets of human relations essential for sustained friendship. Getting to know one another, being open and sincere to each other are to be inculcated during the camp. They need to be curious to know others emotions and feel for it said Mosale and stressed upon imparting experiences of mental, physical and emotional hardships. He opined that small quarrels and patch ups are essential ingredients of good human relationship.

Pitching the tents

All said and done the participants in the camp have something different to say. More than three fourth of them are girls. They have all outwitted our boys and cornered them in every facet. In the days to come they will experience equal physical and mental hardship. We hope by the end of the camp that every girl child is more confident and bolder enough to challenges of the society.

 

A Film show for the evening.