Day 5 - Re-Cycle our Waste and Sculpting with Clay

We explored new mediums and new techniques, learnt a little about re-cycling and also of how to work with clay.

Renuka Taneja, founder of Wincraft Studio, an art studio for children in Delhi, came to the kendra and spent the morning teaching them how to make artworks using old materials like card boards, tetra packs, chocloate wrappers, thread ends etc. She let them follow their heart in creating their own "masterpiece" as well as began the activity with a little warm up and loosening exercise for the mind and body.

He soft, gentle voice and warm attitude got the children really working on their pieces.

In the afternoon we had a surprise visit by Mrs Rajani Balasubramanium, our sponsor for the Delhi Tour and also a huge supporter of Tara Trust. She spent time with the children post lunch, chatting with them about their school, the activities that they participated in for the last four days. The children really opened up to her and shared their ambitions in life, and also sang the famous anthem which has now become a tune that they are always humming wherever they are. 

The afternoon session was with Santosh Kumar, a master potter and a member of the Blue Pottery Delhi. He came in the work with the children and teach them some basic sculpting techniques as well working on the wheel. The children were fascinated with the work they produced. Children always love mud, and smooth clean clay, its a "field day"

Ruth Buck, is a one of the resident artists from Switzerland staying at the Kendra, and she has been observing and interacting with the children for the past couple of days, and then came up with the plan to use them for her next installation project. All we did was record our own names in her voice recorder, which she shall project in another space  as a part of an installation. There was initial hesitation amongst the kids as it seemed strange to them to saying their own names into a mike, but then it also became fun once everyone did it in their own style.

The week is turning out better than planned. The resident artists at the Kendra, Cynthia, Anna, David, Ruth, Jane, Mackenzie, are all wonderful people and though they never heard of us before, just watching the children and us everyday has tempted to join in and contribute in our work and learning, and it is amazing for the children, as it is helping them to open up to different people and learn about newer and far off places.

"Its a Small World After All "

Day 4 - Sunday ! Funday ! Delhi Dheko !

Our 10 little Cranes were taken for a Delhi Tour, a treat for having worked hard the first three days, and also because for the children of Goa it was important to see the city they had travelled all the way to. 

Thanks to Mrs Rajani Balasubramanium who sponsored this tour, and organised for the school bus of  SSHRISTI, a school for the slum children near Vasant Kunj to take us thru town.

We set off by making India Gate our first stop, where they were told a little bit about the great soldiers who fought for out country, and the a little history of the space around India Gate. 

We then took them across to the presidential palace or Rashtrapati Bhawan. The children of Delhi had but obviously seen these places before but now they have built a decent bonding with the Goan lot, and even though there is a little language barrier, they gave out information about the same to them.

We also used this spot to speak to them about leadership and the qualities that they can start imbibing in them if they aspire to be a leader later in life. We did have our youngest enthusiast Kavita, who very confidently said - 

" I want to be the president when I grow up ! "

Then we went to the famous Shankar's Doll Museum, as I felt that the form of a doll was a very good way of  teaching them about different countries of the world. It was wonderful to watch their expressions and hear their comments while walking thru the museum. Some of them were so fascinated by the dolls, that they used to forget that there is a glass partition between them and the dolls and bang their head trying to reach out to the dolls !

They also then identified the dolls with countries or states of India that they knew.

Post Lunch, we went to the Zoo, there was much more planned but the animals took over the children and they walked thru every nook and corner of the zoo, we had to miss out some places cause we started our walk thru around 3pm but by 5pm when they were shutting down we had seen enough but had more to see but had to stop.

The day ended with tea at Apurva Pandey's home. He is a young professional, born and brought up in Delhi. He is a great sports enthusiast and a supporter of our work at Tara Trust. The boys of our group were most happy to meet a young guy like him. Sitting in his home lawn, with his mom, we shared a couple of thoughts and insights about our experiences with them.

All in all it was a lovely Delhi Dheko ! loads of singing in the bus, and the younger lot from Goa were happy to see another part of India.

Day 3 - Moving Towards a 1000 T-shirts & Meeting some Role Models !

We started the mission to complete the 1000 T-shirt mark. Thank You to Levis, who have been generous to donate these to us.

We had children from SSHRISTI School, Vasant Kunj and Udayan Care come in the morning to interact and work on an activity together with the kids. 

They also met Chikako Yamamoto, a freelance journalist from Japan, who together with me, gave a presentation on Nuclear Energy and its hazards to the children, and also informed them about the current situation of the children in Fukushima, Japan.

We then came on to the lawns and painted the T-shirts. The Cranes were painted with messages of peace, love and friendship for the children in Japan. 

The afternoon was an exercise called Working With The Expert, so we had 10 artists from New Delhi and some resident artists at Sanskriti Kendra who volunteered to give their time to the children. It was an afternoon aimed at building interaction skills, putting the children into an environment which is familiar but needs to be made comfortable with a total stranger, and learning to work in collaboration with a person who can possibly be a role model for them.

It was a lovely exercise for both the expert and the child, with the biggest challenge being language, but somehow the results showed otherwise.

The collective exercise resulted in some wonderful pieces of art which have messages of peace, love and friendship. 

" This is how we want to be !

Flying high and feeling free ! "

It was a day filled with making new friends, meeting people of new cultures, and discovering new people. 

Day 2 - Lets Bring Out The Drama in US!

It was a 6.00 am wake up call to a morning of bird watching and yoga. The importance of appreciating nature, and taking in the fresh morning air, filled with beautiful sounds of birds. 

Then the group got ready for the day, by re-capping their first days experiences in their daily diaries, where they could choose to write, or draw, but fill it with their thoughts. 

Post which each of them painted their art bags with their names !

Day 2 had been planned as GET TO KNOW YOU ! GET TO KNOW YOUR FRIENDS and SURROUNDINGS ! 

And the best person who could do this with them was none other than Pawan Sharma, founder of Khoj Foundation, New Delhi. A theater enthusiast, who has dedicated his life to working with street children of New Delhi.

He got them talking, walking, lifting, sharing, smiling, crying, laughing, singing, dreaming, swaying........

Thru the day, he worked with them to enhance all their senses, especially, listening and feeling. 

Even the facilitators of the children's homes and schools, who are present to help and support got excited and joined in learning these exercises.

Loads of role playing exercises and attention building skills were imparted.

Team-Building and Team-Working.

The children then went on to learning techniques about story building, and enactment of a play.

They learnt how to enact various expressions alongwith feeling opposite reactions thru role playing.

Towards the end of the day, we took them out in the open, to add more energy and play some exciting games but still sensitizing them to listening and attention skills.

The day ended in the children really keen on working together, and taking up challenges, and were given the challenge to building a wall or pillar by using each other as bricks one on top of the other. This was a huge endurance and trust building exercise.

The teams confidence in each other reached so high by the end, that they were ready to be human balls to be thrown around like a catch practice. They took turns and happily participated by no inhibitions to anyone.

Finally, the day ended in this wonderful group photo, where it was just impossible for them to stay still and not continue to act. Thank you Pawan, you made our day, and the children will remember you for a long time to come. 

I will end with the lines of the song taught by Pawan to us, which teaches us to go forth in life and face all challenges, cause we are alive and there is sunshine after rain !

"Tu Zinda Hai, Tu Zindagi Ki Jeet Pe Yakin Kar ,

Agar Kahin Hain Swarg To, Utaar La Zameen Par,

Tu Zinda Hai ! "

(you are alive, and believe in the triumph of life. and if there is heaven anywhere aspire to bring it to earth, you are alive ! )