We Are All One Family.

The Screen Printed T-shirt with all the water doddles from the children

The above sentence has been used as the topic of the last day for the last 2 camps in New Delhi and Mumbai, and there is no better way of summing up the camp.

Sparsha Trust, Bangalore , Mark Fernandes High School, Goa, Jaaga, IIITB, Revanna & Manjunatha from Dream A Dream, Shabari Rao & Maitri Ramakrishnan, Sairam & Meghraj from Infosys, Digu from Infosys, Samuel Raj, Kumaran School, Bangalore, Fields of View, Shaona Sen, Magic Bus, VASP, Vibha Ramaswami and team, DrumCircle, Siddharth Gaikwad from GaikyGrills, Prof.Sadagopan from IIITB, Prof.Rajagopalan from IIITB, Prof.Prasanna from IIITB, Prof.Jyotsna from IIITB, Mr.Ramachandran from IIITB, Sridhar – Shruti – and students of IIITB, Srinivasa from IIITB, the administration staff, the security…… It is all of us coming together that have made this possible and at the end of it the 12 children have become a family and we are all a part of this family now !

It was a great Day 10, starting with the team of DrumCircle coming in to work on some music exercises using the drums. It was great fun for the children, just that there was a delay in the starting the workshop but all went smoothly.

The kids trying their hands with the drums

The second half was when the kids and students of IIITB painted a mural together. It was a fun exercise, because it involved students who usually only think, talk, walk, sleep, eat, dream computers had to hold a brush and play with colors along with the children, who guided them through the topic of Water and also had fun with them through the exercise.

The students of IIITB and the children working on the canvas

There was exchange of ideas and then just choosing each corner to build the canvas collectively together

Manjunatha engrossed in his brush alongside his older partner

Everyone admiring their work together

A proud bunch !!!

The children also painted a retrospect sheet where they had to paint each day J some really nice results and amazing memory the kids have. It also helps us measure how much was assimilated by them through the camp days.

In the evening we set all their work up around the common foyer area of the main institute block. Since there were still activities, Sophie and Lina worked on the display to help the children quicken the process.

The kids also got their printed T-shirts that they had worked on Sunday at Jaaga.

The retrospect painting from Kumar an Aruna

The collective posters from the kids

The recycled aquarium

The student community keenly admiring the works exhibited

The kids had invited the student community for their presentation and put up a little cultural program, showing them the kathak and movement pieces learn by them through the workshop days.

Kumar & Manjunatha performing a  sog for the group

The children at the start of their Kathak performance

The children all set for the movement dance

Finally they broke into the free style dance mode !

At night we organized for a little Barbeque Party with the help of a good friend and fellow NIDian, Siddharth Gaikwad (GaikyGrills) as a finale to the camp. The kids enjoyed a change from the mess food and it was a totally new experience for them. They also got to make their own pizzas J We ended the evening being a little silly, singing, dancing and laughing a lot !

Gaiky showing the tricks of grilling to Ragavendra

Gaiky showing the kids how to assemble a pizza

Young chefs at work

It was the "if you love me bite ?" for abhi from everywhere 

There was a mini henna party also that happened at the BBQ

Finally it was all of us going crazy 

We shall miss each one of these children – Ramzan, Mahesh, Andrea, Jyoti, Darshan, Ragavendra, Kumar, Manjunatha, Pooja, Deepa, Aruna, Kanaka – we wish them love and luck till the next time we meet atleast the Bangalore group, the Goa group we shall continue the weekly workshops at their school so will see them in June but we know we will see a new person in them.