The yellow Rose

     The kids were escorted to the first floor ‘green room’ for make-up. Some of them were excited, some all lost. A boy fascinated by the lip color demanded the make-up didi to apply some for him; the girl went on hating her costume until she was convinced she looked pretty.  Yet another little girl, proudly took care of the boy (just a little littler than her) –  she wouldn’t leave his  hand. Some were waiting, all set & prepared to go to the Stage-Hall; one or two of them started dance inside the green room as soon as they were ready, lost in their own world!

…...

     The show was about to begin. One of the hosts gave a pre-start call and then the program kick-started.

     One by one, the participants were called out. The groups of kids / adults alike, not taking time, immediately took their places for performing, as & when they were called out. The kids happily danced to the tunes they recognized were theirs – a few mocking their teachers (who were dancing side-stage). Nevertheless, they danced and sang their hearts out. The anchors, in between performances, gave their thank-you’s and dose of audience-entertainment. And there were also performances by the show supporters, Mothers and the Staff. The atmosphere was a typical cheer, fun & talent filled with energy.

     A super-kid, who had recently won an International gold-medal in para Olympics was honored. Show-stealer as she was – she took everybody’s breath away with her dance performance (one could not forget)! Three hours of time floated fully alive; with passionate singers, dancers, speakers, photographers & organizers at work – all with just their hearts and a spirit to make a difference.

     The show ended with a final dosage of 'Thank-yous'; and then a happy note of declaring a school day off.

     Soon after the show ended, one of the show anchors prepared to wind up (she had a bag of mixed emotions to carry and contemplate). Just then, a little boy stood in front of her from no-where, showing her a yellow-rose. Surprised, she gestured the boy asking whether the flower was for her, and that she wanted it. The boy signaled it was not, and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared in front of her. Little importance did she give to it, when the little boy returned to her and patted on her back, with another rose in his hand – gesturing this one was for her. There was an innocent grin, a joy of selflessness, on his face...and the anchor..was 'awe-struck'! (....and so a friend who was watching all this!)

Yes. The child was Special – not in the sense the world calls him; but in a way that he had demonstrated what it meant to make someone 'feel special'...


                                                  Goodness does not need a state-of-mind. It just needs an open heart…

Courtesy: Annual Day Event at Sambhav Foundation – a center for rehabilitation of mentally challenged, disabled children and slow learners…

                                                  

Another walk into a Govt school..

Importance of ID cards – Take 2!

     This time it was a visit to a more interior Govt school. The talk was to be delivered during the first period, since the teacher was on leave. I was asked to come few minutes earlier (which I did). It was 9.20 am, precisely. The kids were already standing in their respective Queues, in the school ground, and were just about to start their prayers; when I entered the School gate. The teacher (who was my contact point), signaled me to join the staff on stage. I just stood at a corner, waiting for the prayer session  to get over.

The Prayer Session:

      The minute the session started, nostalgia started playing its chords in my mind – the prayers, followed by news-headlines-reading, and then proverbs-reading took me straight to my school days (experienced this typical school-prayer atmosphere after a little more than a decade!). The only difference being, I wasn’t doing any of those this time :P

     Some of the kids gazed at me, simultaneously while reciting ‘Jai Bhaarat maate, Jai Karnatak maate’  [no! I was not their Bhaarat maate; they were just suspecting me to be their new Miss [teacher :P]

Enter into Class 7^th:

     The school does not have a high school, hence the authorities decided to keep 6^th and 7^th class kids as my audience. Fair enough.

     Before I could begin, unexpectedly, the students once again filled me with warmth by chanting Omkar and few other morning shlokas (as a gesture of welcome) – and then gave a sweet collective wish of -  ‘GOOD MORRNIIING MEEES’. [Purely Indian!] I was humbled!

     Quickly dusting off the clouds of emotions (before they could take over me), I started the Introduction section [which was in the same format as the last time, since it had worked out then. The 3 points I have listed here]. And then slowly, we slipped into the world of ‘chalk-piece-and-blackboard’, through my half-cooked-kannada – discussing ID cards for the next 40 minutes. [this time I somewhat felt like Amir Khan of TZP, perhaps because the kids were comparatively younger than my previous audience, and I had to keep them engaged; by being one among them]. To add to it, I learnt another kannada word from the kids - ‘Mane vilaas patra’ that is synonymous to ‘Residential proof’ [learning is always mutual, u see B-)]

     Post the session, was the Q&A – where again – the kids left no stones unturned in answering to all the questions that I and the teacher [who accompanied me, to supervise the kids, just in case] had asked. Every kid I pointed out, walked up confidently to write the answer on the board. This was my victory.The purpose was again – served!

     The Q&A was followed by a counter ‘Q&A’ – this time the kids really bowled me over by asking questions ranging from ‘White board - yellow board vehicles’ to asking ‘LIC policies’. The time was almost up, when I finished clarifying them about the difference between the ID cards, LIC policies and LIC agents. Quickly, I closed the session by, once again, taking a promise for getting their ID cards done – and receiving a collective yell of ‘YYYYYessss’

After a short thank you speech from my end, I packed my bag and walked out of the classroom, to find the kids opening up the windows to bid me a good-bye (they had realized I was not their ‘hosa miss’, but just a guest speaker)

     Another feather in my cap! After few formalities with the school staff, I walked out of the school still basking in the warmth the kids had showered on me.

Wonder if while volunteering for something.. are you really Giving? Or in fact, Receiving….

Express my gratitude to: Govt High school staff, Thippenahalli ; iuindia; Mohan from iuindia. And Aunt, who once again, was the main connect!

Cheers!

[This is about my talk on Importance of ID Cards – Voters ID, Aadhar Card and LL-DL – a part of my assignment from iuindia. The experience of my first talk, you can find here]

A-Z in Dots and Signs :)

...gone are the days when 'I wanna grow up once again' was just a song lyric...

     Ever since I happened to randomly watch a group of students communicating in Sign language at a bus stop ( a couple of years back) - a strange chord had struck me! Inspite of being a people watcher - strangely enough - I was not able to comprehend a single action of theirs. Wouldn't mind missing a bus or two, just to sit and watch them (yes! have done that :P!) and try to understand their communication - but all that I could grasp was - just their state of mind (by their body language). nothing else. A clear message out of this was - I need to learn sign language!

     The 'Fun World' experience (October, 2013) added my interest in learning a New language - Braille.

     Come Jan 11, 2014 : When a long-awaited dream witnessed a start! Quickly enrolled the Batch 2 of  'GiftAbled's Mini Braille and Sign Language Workshop' class [an initiative organized by Gift-abled - http://www.giftabled.com/; further details shared at the end of the post]. A perfect package!


All about the Session: Role-plays, Fun-n-Learn, Signs and Braille:D

     'Aao school chalen hum' – the song kept running in my mind, while travelling all the way to the i-volunteer venue. [of course, we were gonna learn just 'A-Z' - all in a new and different way :P]. After the registration formalities, the Session started with the series of events - all in an order:

Role-play: 

     Soon after the introduction session, we had a quick role-play wherein the participants were paired into groups of 2 - one was blindfolded acting as a visual impaired beneficiary; and the partner was a  helper. We had to do an exercise of 'road crossing' with our respective pairs [Did u ever know that there are certain 'techniques' to follow to help a visually challenged person? - I didnot until I did this exercise]. The 15-minute session was just enough to make us understand what kind of challenges might be faced by the Visually impaired in their daily lives, and how diligently we can assist them. The role-play eventually turned into an ice-breaker among the participants - who were now little familiar with each other. We moved onto the next session - Sign language.

Fun-n-learn: Sign language:

     The session started with our ' Prarthana teacher' demonstrating and teaching 'A-Z' in signs; and then the students practising the same. It was a totally 'school-like' atmosphere, and learning felt amazing! The session was followed by a test [and I was one of the toppers -yay!! :D]; and then we had a short exercise, wherein we had to communicate with our partners in Signs! [ain't as easy as it sounds! if you lose your track you might well end up wondering, what the hell are u doing with your fingers and fist - and then, erase everything u wrote in the air - and then start afresh :P!] The sign-language session was truly knowledgeable, and fun too! (we were literally acting like kids playing dumb-charades)

The Braille-session:

    The sign language session was followed by Braille-training. It was wonderful to learn every aspect of the Braille basics. Each alphabet consists of a specific punching pattern within 6 dots (6 dots - is where the braille basics starts from) [some additions with marking 'upper case' letters - u need to join the basics sessions for more details ;)]. Again, as a simple assignment, we were asked to punch our favorite quotes in braille [which was quite a challenge too, nevertheless fun!]. Our art of copy-from-others-notes literally went for a toss, as we had to put our independent imagination into it (after 2 failed attempts I managed to punch my quotes correctly in the 3rd!) :P. 

     Along with the fun we had during the entire session, we also got to learn new techniques - some do's and dont's while giving a helping hand  - and more importantly - gave us an awareness in terms of volunteering with the HI's and VI's. 

The session was truly an enriching session - an attempt to bridge the gap between the differently abled and abled. Serving the society had been a thought since childhood, and few additional gyan that our 'Prarthana teacher' used as fillers, helped in putting some of my own thoughts in place:) 

A big Thanks to Prarthana, Gift-abled, and all those who were involved directly / indirectly in this initiative. Hats off! The session was truly a start of one of my dreams-coming-true :)

P.S: Loved attracting public attention, when Shilu & I were trying to communicate in Sign language while walking towards a restaurant for lunch (after the session got over :P). The 'new learning' just ended up making us feel like a child :)

Gift-abled Store links:

Official website: http://www.giftabled.com/

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/464549333613878/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GiftabledAnInclusiveGiftstore?ref=br_tf

Cheers!

Swatz

My First talk of 2014!

Jan 04th, 2014

It was a nice Saturday morning at around 9.35 am [the first Saturday of the year]. The school was buzzing with kids of all ages chirping around classrooms, as I entered the Nagasandra Govt High School premises.

 The teachers had gathered all the students from 7^th and 8^th Class, for my Voluntary talk.

Topic was: ‘Importance of ID cards’->; a talk that I have had been planning since a while (an assignment from iuindia).

So here I was - standing right in front of a 150+  pre-teenage kids in a long classroom (2 combined into 1), along with few teachers.

I had to be slow..not because my audience were kids. But because I had to manage my just 10-year-old language skill – Kannada [one of Karnataka’s regional language]! My only funda was -> Keep it simple and clear!

The Start:

One of the school teachers kickstarted the program, by giving a brief introduction of myself and the audience. And then, Over to me!

With half-cooked kannada, I started off with the below 3 points:

1.  Wished kids a Happy new year

2.    My name, of course!

3.   And then shot out to them – “nange Kannada baralla” [meaning - I dunno kannada]. I could see the little surprised expressions in my audience (as expected) –  this was an intended move!

     

After confessing my level of expertise in the language and a heads up to the teachers’ that I might need some shadowing, in case the kids were unable to comprehend my way of talking kannada language, I started my ‘Actual talk’

So here goes the show…

Firstly, I had to put across the basic idea of ‘Identity’ to them. And so I randomly chose few kids by identifying them with the color of their sweaters, and asked them to call out their names. Exemplifying as to how the color of their sweater had become a part of an ‘identity’ for the moment, & taking them to school ‘Roll numbers’; I went on to explain the greater meaning of ‘identity proofs’ and why is it necessary in the outside world. This gave a clear picture of the agenda to the students; and in the process, I too learnt that in kannada - ‘identification’ is called as ‘gurthu’ [which invariably meant that..I was on a right track..:P]

I continued by stating few examples of identity proofs (the core matter) ->; Aadhar card, Voters’ ID and LL-DL (had selected a few that would be the most relevant to them in near future, and sufficient to cover 45 minutes of talk). The students were all set to take the gyan. (not going to put down the content hereJ)

The rest of the 30-35 minutes turned out to be quite interactive! [and strangely but slowly, i came to realize that ‘language’ was hardly a concern in the process!]. The knowledge of these ID cards, was meshed with explanation of the terms – ‘proof of Age’ and ‘proof of Residence’ , wherein a couple of students were picked to read out few important points from the notes that I had got for reference. I circulated copies of these cards and showed them the fields (of course - cracking jokes in between :P)

The entire program was in a flow – smooth sailing, lively and interactive. [just loved the energy that had built up in the classroom!]

Show climax:

After spending the 30-35 minutes of the ‘core’ talk, I had a brief 10-minute Q&A session (partially to test their knowledge, but more to test whether ‘I’ was successful in the attempt). The surprise was – the children not only gave satisfactory answers to my questions – but also kept asking for more [‘Akka – please explain about Birth certificate and Death certificate also’ – (none of which were in my agenda!) now what more does a Speaker wants than – audience asking for more!

With a brief account of some uses of Birth and Death certificates, I finally concluded the session with a brief thank you speech, and took a promise from the kids to get their ID cards done at the appropriate age. The response was – ‘a collective yes’. My task was accomplished!

After the show ended, the kids started walking out of the room in a line, to start for the mid-day meal that had arrived. Loved the ‘celebrity-feeling’ when all of a sudden few kids took a detour from near the door and walked upto me to just ‘shake-hands-and-thank’ – [this was a ‘real’ takeaway for me!].

All said and done! My first talk of 2014 was thus successfully accomplished. Thanked the school authorities and then, after winding up with few formalities, I winded up my show. It had been a highly energetic morning, the first weekend of the New year, with a difference!

The walk back home:

With the energy that I had picked up, I started walking out of the premises, feeling like a school kid myself. 

Was just basking in the feeling, when a boy [cycling back home] turned back at me, gave a ‘thanks’ and asked me as to ‘when m I coming again’!..couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the day….

My learning – When it comes to sharing knowledge, language is hardly a barrier! 

Credits & Motivation Courtesy: iuindia, Mohan from iuindia, School HeadMaster and teacher who helped in orgainizing the talk. Last but not the least -  my aunt [retd teacher from the same school], who was the main connect! J

Cheers!

just a short story

11 year old Ayesha was sitting on a bench of a park. It was a breezy weekend evening and the children from the nearby locality had come out to play. Ayesha did not belong to this locality, her aunt had just brought her along for company.

[Aunt had to pay a short visit to someone in the apartment. On the way, Ayesha was fascinated by the park bubbling with energy, and chose to wait there, while her aunt finished her visit. This wasn’t a big deal for her aunt – she let her do so]

Ayesha was thoroughly enjoying the aura of the place – that of the children chirping around merrily in groups, the cool breeze of the wind and the leaves swaying in glory along the wind. ‘how I wish I could play with them’ – she wanted to! But nobody here knew her, and it was supposed to be too short a visit to go introduce and play. She sat back.

Just then, she heard cute little sighs from her right. A child sitting on the same bench, was whimpering and mumbling over something. He seemed to be a 5-6 years old kid.

She turned to the child and lovingly enquired – ‘Whats your name? why are you crying?’

Child – ‘daddy gave me only 20 rupees. I wanted to buy the new chocolate. It costs 35 rupees. He refused it’..and then suddenly remembering…’my name is Rohan. What is your name?’

‘Ayesha. But you can still buy another chocolate right. You get many good ones with 20rupees too’

‘nooo. that Nishan was showing it off yesterday. He ate away the entire chocolate without giving it to me. I too want one. I also want to show him’ – he cried.

Ayesha smiled to herself. This was something new she was experiencing this day.

‘so you want the chocolate only to show him? I thought you wanted the chocolate to enjoy it!’

‘ummm..i want to enjoy it and then show to Nishan’

Poor little Ayesha still couldnot clearly figure out what was running in the child’s mind. Nevertheless..

*** 

She extended her hand and showed few coins that she had held, to the child.

‘will you be able to count the total amount of money these coins will make up’ – she smiled.

The child nodded – ‘yes’ – he meekly answered.

‘its totally 15 rupees’ – the child tried to hand over the coins to Ayesha.

‘keep it with you. 15 added to 20 rupees will make 35. You can buy the chocolate now’ – she glowed.

‘..and  show to your friend now’ – she mimicked smilingly

The child was dumb struck – ‘then what will you do? You don’t want to buy anything?’

‘not exactly. My school teacher says you should help everyone who is crying or is needy, and then God will help you’

‘huh? But my daddy told you should not take money from strangers’ – the child innocently blurted out.

‘Oh..okay..then you can leave the coins beside me..on the bench itself’ – she smiled and again went into the aura of the park.

 ***

Half-heartedly, the child left the coins on the bench and started moving towards his apartment. 

Just then – ‘Hey kiddo, why is your nose so red. What happened’.  It was Riya didi. Rohan’s neighbor.

‘nothing..i want to buy a choco….’  Riya happened to drop a print out from her hand that she was taking out from her bag. this distracted tiny Rohan.

‘what’s that didi?’

‘that’s a list of people and the amount of money people have given to me’

‘Money? But why did people give you money?’ – innocently.

‘ah.. let me explain you in brief. There’s this little girl who cannot see, she is blind. She can regain her eyesight, but her operation demands a lot of money. Her parents did not have sufficient money, and so they reached out to my school for help’

With mouth and eyes wide open – ‘haaa…and then?’ curiously.

‘My school chose few students from my high school, who need to collect money from our locality for this purpose. I am one of the selected volunteers. Remember the other day I had come to your place and your mumma gave me some money….?’ – she explained proudly.

He nodded assertingly - ‘So you will give this money to them?’ – curiosity increasing.

‘Yes. She needs it very badly, right? We felt we must help her’ – explaining further –‘I need to give a copy of this list to her guardian. She had come to visit us, she is talking to my mom. She will be coming down in few minutes’

The minute Riya finished explaining this, Rohan ran hastily towards the bench, crying out – ‘Riya didi. Don’t go away until I return’

Riya was puzzled. Nevertheless, she waited.

‘Ayeshaaaa’ – he gave a hasty cry. The coins still lay beside her on the bench. ‘I am taking all of your money’.

‘Okay. So finally you decided to buy your chocolate’ – she smiled. The kid had already fled towards Riya didi, Ayesha’s words were unnoticed.

***

‘Here is the list, aunty. The school will hand over the cheque to you’ – Riya was talking to the blind girl’s guardian.

‘Wait' - cried Rohan. 'Here it is.  Take these. 15 rupees added to 20 will make 35’ - repeating Ayesha's words

Riya was surprised - where did you get this money from?

'15 rupees is my friend's. She wanted to help others. 20 are mine. i too want to help'

Riya affectionately – ‘awwww..that’s so sweet of you kiddie. I will add your name too in the list…and will not forget to tell your mummy papa about it’ [but mummy-papa would have already known about it before she could have informed them. Rohan was already jumping towards his house excitedly to narrate the turn of events..]

The aunt took the list, and thanked Riya. After bidding a good bye to the lady, Riya turned towards her apartment [in the same direction where Rohan ran]. The lady walked towards the bench…

***

‘Ayesha, beta? Shall we go?’

Turning towards her aunt’s voice and smiling – ‘jee chachi’

‘your stick is fallen down, beta. Guess you did not notice it. You did not stroll around anywhere?’

‘no chachi. I was enjoying the park from here itself. Did not feel the need’

‘Don’t worry, we will not need them much longer’ – the aunt handed over the supporting stick to Ayesha.

 

Aunt remembered something suddenly, and confessed – ‘So sorry, beta. I was in a bit hurry, I forgot to tell you that the number of coins I gave you was totally 15 rupees. Did you come across any vendor? Was the money sufficient? Hope you had something to eat’

‘No’ – as she directed her way through the stick, head held up high and smiling.

‘I helped a little boy, to buy his favourite chocolate…by now he must have got it.’

unaware that her money, alongwith the child's, had travelled back to her; she gleamed as she imagined the happiness the boy would have felt after buying the chocolate...

what goes around, comes around...

…