The Summer Camp Chronicle 2

Theater rehearsal in progress

Summer Camp in a Khadi Village :

Heggodu in Sagara Taluk of Shimoga district is famous for Desi brand kurthas. This small village in the western ghats is known for all sorts of social and cultural experiments. Starting from K V Subbanna’s theater company of the fifties that is now a resilient theatre reparatory to the latest Women’s Dollu kunith team, you find many adventurous personalities perceiving many careers’ that most of us would never even think of .

I would not like to act!

A girl block printing

Theatre personality and thinker Prasanna through their Kavi kaavya Trust initiated Charaka a multi purpose Industrial cooperative Society a kilometer away in Bhimanakindi village. It is a success story of a women’s cooperative that produces natural dyed handloom cotton garments. Beyond providing more than a decent livelihood to hundreds of families Charaka addresses the cultural well being of the community. It runs a small journal aimed at its working staff and conducts an annual fair that invites artists and performs from across the country. Since the past two years, they have established a beautiful campus that addresses sustainable lifestyles. It is called the Shrama Jeevigala Ashrama and runs on similar edicts of Gandhian ashram.

women in the wrap room

The Ashram has simple mud buildings that are decorated with ethnic colors and patterns. The entire process of dyeing, Weaving, and block printing on linen goes on from morning till evening. The Ashram wishes people with simple lifestyle and willing to work for their cause to join hands. Kavikavya and Charaka together conducted a ten days summer camp. Children from nearby villages and those who came to holiday at Heggodu took part in the camp and enjoyed the unique camp site. Nenasam the theatre school of National fame provided the teachers to engage the children in theater activities. I had the privilege to interact with the children through audio visuals and take them out for Nature walks. In spite of the campus having a standing plantation of an exotic species, it campus had more for a child to learn than the topics dealt with the Nature camp.

Kids learning about expressions

Summer camp for Special Children at AIISH: 

All India Institute of Speech Hearing is one of the oldest establishments of its kind and serving those children who need special attention and care in the process of communication. Run by the Govt. of India it is an academic institution with the latest facility in the field of research and therapy of the hearing impaired. It attracts and caters to the needy in the southern states and people throng the institute all through the year. Most of the wards are children who come here for diagnosis and many of them would have a hearing and speech impairment due to one or the problems related to genetic or neuro-motor deficits.

Children playing with the chyme

Kids inspecting the texture of a palm

The institution also runs a preschool training program for catching the disabilities in the early age and providing remedial measure for better results. Parents, mostly mothers of children from all the southern states stay here to under go the therapy. The parents are given counseling and tips regarding caring their children better. This division also conducts a summer camp for the special children and their parents. In fact even we had given invitation to several special schools in Mysore to send in children for our residential camp at Melkote. Unfortunately there was no response at all.  None of the parents were prepared to leave their children even for a single day.      

Mother and child in nature

Parents help their kids climb a tree

My job was to expose the special children to Nature and involve them in some outdoor activities. The children were of the age group of 6 to 13 years and were having different disabilities- Downs, M R and Palsy and plain hearing disability. Some of them were totally dependent, and their parents spoke different languages. The therapists translated whatever I addressed to the parents in other south Indian languages. My call was not to be over protective to their children but expose them to every sort of environment possible; they must first realize that every thing they come across is not a bed of rose. The parents were encouraged to take their children to the out doors and made to walk bare feet, touch and feel different surfaces such as rocks, barks and leaves. There was a sudden transformation among the crowd…. many of them were experiencing the joy their children were going through doing very simple things. On collecting seeds and leaves of different shapes and color along with their child the parents too became children. They felt as though they found some magic wand in small things that made their child happy and kept them engaged. Some parents started thanking me in their own languages even before my session was over! In the second session we had been to the Garden of Regional College of Education. The following day was totally dedicated to screening films. The films were chosen keeping the parents in mind. With the contention of showing these depressed souls a window in nature to a positive world I left. The children and the parents gave a hearty    good bye.

- Manu K

walking on the lawns with the children