Navrang UTSAH

The DSF conducted an ice-breaker session at the Rajajinagar 2nd block (Navrang) school this Saturday, the 24th of June.

Volunteers had turned up at the school from different parts of Bangalore –
Ashwini, Avinash, Nisha, Pacchi, Pavithra, Sowmya, Thiru, Vikram and me.

We had noticed a couple of things concerning this school in our previous two visits.
One was that the Head Master was quite open to our involvement, and assured us that the kids and the teachers would co-operate with us in anything we planned.
And the other more significant point was the behaviour of the kids. Discipline, which is an almost alien concept to the kids at the Malleswaram school, seemed to be in plenty among the Navrang school kids.

Both these factors aided us in spending some fun time with the kids, and possibly laid the foundation for sustained involvement.

The school has a skewed class strength – 60% of the 110 kids belonging to 6th & 7th, with 1st to 5th making up the remaining. We decided to split them into groups along this parameter.



We played Pass the Parcel with the bigger kids, the box containing the chits of actions provided to us by Megha. Barring a few shy kids, most were quite enthusiastic to come forward and perform the act. In fact, for every activity, there were always a bunch of extra volunteers.





Ashwini, Pavithra and Sowmya took the smaller kids under their control, and conducted their games. The highlight of this was the running race where chota Chethan, despite facing senior competition, hung on to complete the race. Here is that kid…



A lot of kids asked us whether we would be coming every week.
Hope that their enthusiasm continues to remain unabated, and we can make a difference in their lives with the co-operation of the teachers.

Thanks to all those who could make it, and the others like Pooja who helped us with the ideas behind the games.

(Posted at the DreamSchool Forum as well...)

I finally have the time to sit in leisure, in front of my computer, in eager anticipation of the words to come flowing out of my horribly cluttered and miserably distracted mind. And…nothing. Absolutely nothing.

So now what?
Do I just hit Publish and move on?
Do I rack my brain hard and get some words to fall out…albeit incongruous?

Laughter is the best medicine. Time heals everything.
And I find myself immune to both these possible panaceas.

Not completely immune…I must add. Laughter has been able to get through my defenses in the last month and a half. Occassionally. Thanks to my friends. So as I said…not completely immune.

On the other hand…Time…aw! It’s all one cruel joke. Time does heal everything…but…that is only if one is capable of forgetting. And with my curse of memory, I can only sit and watch time pass by, failing in its attempt to erode that wretched part of my brain.

Just read this in Other’s blog:

Read this sms the other day...

"Life has sucked enough for me to know the worth of a friend"

Hmm... life is probably worth the trouble for those choice moments.

The last line makes so much sense.
In our selfish world, happiness breeds happiness…yes. But sorrow? More often than not, it just breeds solitude. Unless of course you have the people around you for those “choice moments”. That’s when life doesn’t seem so futile.

Women are weird.
Men are arrogant.
Some people are arrogant.
Others are manipulative.
Still others (a select few) are both arrogant and manipulative.
Men are immature.
Women are immature.
People are such babies.
…
…

That’s quite a complex vortex of thoughts we people of the world are living in.

“It’s not an idealistic world.”
The above line was told to me by a close friend. He had heard it from another friend of his. A part of me wants to just let that pass and say, “to each his own…maybe the world is screwed up after all”. And a louder part of me wants to say, “that’s a very nice way of assuaging one’s guilt. Do something wrong…and blame the world for it. Nice going!”

Not everyone gets what they want.
So? Does that stop people from trying? If the world really was filled with people who stopped after the first attempt, we wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are right now.

Where are we though?
In a bad state.
People are either selfish or shallow or sad. Or all the three. Or any two of the three.

That’s the world in a nutshell. Quite a comforting thought, eh?

I have been working.
A lot.

I never thought I would ever be saying/writing those words. But I just did.

In the few hours that I am a bit free to think...it's been on
Shirts-
Our pal Premo has quite a huge collection of metrosexual shirts/kurtas/kurtis/kurtus and what not. So we decided to gift him some more of those for his birthday. One of those shirts has a faded left arm, and a bright right arm. Quite fascinating.

On the other end of the wardrobe spectrum is me. I have just 4 shirts that I have been recycling for the last 2 years. In fact, if you look at the last few photos on Monkeys Dancing, I would be wearing the same thing...on different days.

All that I want is one shirt...or rather...10 copies of the same shirt...and I would be contented for the next few years.

Was it Shakespeare who said "Clothes make a man"? Hmm...I guess he was wrong.
Or even if he was right, I am just proving that I am the same person throughout the year by wearing the same thing.

Gifts-
Hmm...
Hmm...

Yup...that's all I think about gifts. I am bad at choosing them. I generally consider them a big pain. I stay out of most of the gift choosing decision making discussions.

Unless of course, 10 copies of the same shirt is a good gift. In that case, I make my choice public. Henceforth, I shall only suggest that.

Thakadhimithom-
A Telugu song. I can drive people to their graves with my incessant okatoudham okatoudham chants!

Singing & Whistling-
I suck at the former, and am quite good at the latter. And I mean the "non-lecherous" kind.
And there are others who are very good at the former
(and prefer the compliments to be withheld)

Secrets-
Apparently I am quite good at keeping them. Hmm...I hope so.

And finally, I am having a lot of fun-F1 debates. Just wish Rajjo was there with me as well. Sigh...

To sign off...okatoudham okatoudham okatoudham okatoudham okatoudham okatoudham.