AIRED

Sept 24th is celebrated as the “International Girl Child Day”. On this occasion, my company (Aricent) organized a commemorative event for the girl students of Government Primary School, Sanjaynagar. The concept intrigued me the moment I read about this in my e-mail but what triggered me most were the words of someone close saying-- “I HATE DAUGHTERS !”…. The feminist in me was provoked and impulsively I decided I’m going ahead with this.

Although impetously decided, I was excited nevertheless. For long now, I’d been thinking of doing something worthwhile for children so this was a good chance. So on Sept 24th, 10 volunteers from Aricent set off to the Government school. We gathered around 50 girl students from class 5th, 6th and 7th. Each class was assigned three volunteers based on linguistic abilities, since the children were a mix of Kannada, Tamil and Telgu tongues and not to forget they understood rudimentary English too! Needless to say, I was heading a group for my Kannada background. As the girls lined up in their schoolground, their faces had a mixed expression of confusion and eagerness. After they settled down in the bus, I started breaking the ice, asking if they had seen planes? Some nodded enthusiatically, some silently acknowledged and some shouted “Yes Mam”. I continued saying “Have you seen them from very close, have you touched them?”. In unison they replied in negative. So that is where we took them, to an educational tour to the HAL Aerospace Museum. Listening this all the children clapped.

Once inside the museum, the whole grp was split into two, with one guide attached to each team. The tour had 3 parts. It started off with the photography exhibit on the growth of Indian aviation for the past 60 years. It was interesting for me to take a sneak peek at a piece of history but the kids were getting restless. The next leg of the tour was the prototype displays of various models of fighter jets, LCAs, MIGs, Helicopters, radars… etc. Wow! This was amazing. I became a child too as I explored these flying gaints. The last leg was the interior view of flights, the engines, the navigation systems and the pilot maneuvers. Our guide was saying Bangalore has the biggest HAL museum in whole of India and it looked like it. The tour ended with a quick look at the Air Traffic Control and for the kids a pilot simulation game which was simliar to one of those games in a playstation like Ameoba.

After the tiring tour of the museum, it was time for relaxation. As we distributed snack boxes, there was a sparkle in the child's face. Well! they had not expected this. We were told that some of these kids were below poverty line, so the simple snack of chocolates, cookies and juice was like a platter from a five course meal for the kids and they relished it.

COLOURS OF INNOCENCE

Following this was some interaction with the girls. We distributed papers, colors and paint brushes and told the children to draw anything they like. The girls playfully enjoyed this...... it was as though they were pouring their imaginations out. And that very situation reminded of the drawing competition scene from “Taare Zameen Par”............:) Every child busy putting his creativity on paper. Being pathetic with lines, curves and paints myself, when one of the little ones asked me to help her out to draw a pigeon, I was hesitant........ and the outcome , a disaster. The white pigeon that I was supposed to draw resembled a fish! And the girl next to me remarked “Mam, why did you draw a fish in the air!”, I laughed helplessly............:)

We concluded the day with distributing momentos to all children. They were thrilled. As we were departing, one girl told me "Mam, come to our school everyday" and an other one said "Mam, come to my house, I'll cook chicken biryani for you" and on clarifying my vegetarian habits, she said "No problem mam, I'll cook veg biryani for you". When we got back to the bus "Everyone was offering me a seat right next to them!". Thats when I realized that our one small effort made such a big difference to their lives.

Back in the bus, one girl told me this is not the same bus we came in. I casually overlooked it but after seeing the driver I realized the girl was right. She pointed out that the color of the seats and the curtains were different. We are blessed with comforts so we brush apart such simple things..... smart kids they were, all they lacked was a direction. I was more impressed with one of the teachers who accompanied the students, she was a big source of encouragement for the kids, a firm believer of the concept "Children of today are the citizens of tomorrow - gender no bar ".

On the ride back to school, all kids were excited enough to scream some movie songs. As the children got down from the bus each had a geninue smile of satisfaction and with a firm handshake they gratefully said "Thank you Mam", "Bye Mam". One of the kids was so emotional that she gave a warm hug to an Aricent volunteer. Later we came to know that the girl was earlier in a slum and all this was a terrific new experience to her and was overwhelmed with joy. The innocence that shined in the childrens' faces drastically changed my idea of government school children.

This event was organized in collaboration with Youth For Seva volunteer group. It’s a sort of an NGO which takes up several such socio-community initiatives. Latest one being the look out for volunteers to teach in Govt Schools....…. Naresh and Darshan, think about it.......... :)

Read more about the organisation at http://www.youthforseva.org/