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| Sangamesh..nurturing young naturalists |
It is a decade for now since we
started involving in the Chinnara mela –the mother of all Summer Camps in
Karnataka. Way back in the early nineties, the director of Theatre repertoire
Rangayana, Mr. Basavalingiah’s forethought of providing a creative time for
children during their summer holidays is the genesis. His intention of giving fun-oriented,
creative, hands on, activity-filled vacation to children who miss their grand
parent’s house is more than a success. With its innovative game plan and never
thought of fun filled activities it became an annual feature of Rangayana.
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| Children exploring ... |
This year must be their sixteenth
edition and one could count at least a hundred such replicated summer camps in
Mysore city alone. They range from a mole to a mountain in terms of the quality
time they give to the children. Most of them are very general in their approach
and not focused on any one activity-the choice of location not meeting the
requirements of the activity. Story telling to disco dancing and Karate to
meditation- the list goes on. Most of them are school premises of private owned
by cultural trusts. The resource persons are mostly hobbyists and
rarely a person who has experience in communicating with children.
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| A carefree time in nature..! |
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| Children enjoying unguarded leisure time |
State run Rangayana on the other hand
has a wonderful five acre plot at its disposal for the event. There is enough
space to handle their three hundred and fifty energetic children. Its repute
lies in selection of a theme every year and the plethora of resource persons
they manage to rope in. Nurturing Theatre culture in children being the core of
intentions of Rangayana, all the varied activities gets streamlined into
dramas. Eight to ten theatre productions are made and performed as a festival
at the end of fourth week. Apart from the in house stalwarts several eminent
hands are pooled in to add strength to the children’s fair. Eminent
personalities ranging from sports star to Chief justice and ministers to
interact with children.
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| Millipede on hands...bravo! |
Ten years ago we humbly wished to get
on to the stage in this festival and show case a bit of nature related
activity. Of course we were instantly given a chance to interact with children
en-mass. But we very well knew that our activities are not for a crowd of 350.
But the following summer we changed our game plan. We decided to take the
children for nature walks. A batch a day and before their every day routine
began. The obliging coordinators encouraged our intention of sowing green seeds
in the young minds. We did try out
several locations in the outskirts of Mysore like Chamundi hills and several
lake beds but finally settled in for the good old Kukkarahalli Lake.
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| Nithya facilitating a closer look at the water birds |
Having got a favorable opportunity we
really need to do the job in a different way- beyond the run of the mill kind.
So, only one batch of thirty to forty children was taken out every day. We
maintained a steady battery of a minimum of four bird watchers on every outing
so that the group could be conveniently broken to small teams for easier
interpretation of Nature. In ten days time we would reach out to all the kids
and show them the wonders of Nature just in their backyard. In these ten years
I have had the opportunity to meet the same children in various other camps
across the state making me more serious in our delivery system.
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| Authentication with the literature |
Just as all the enthusiastic bird watchers of
Mysore Amateur Naturalists who have supported this rare venture, the kids of
Chinnara Mela of yesteryear are joining hands to keep up our legacy of paving
a green path at Chinnara mela.
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