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!