yanidaksh

A Short Visit into the Past

Friday, 30. March 2007, 19:04:31

A Short Visit into the Past

It was an “as usual” Sunday. The friends who would have otherwise slept in their homes were called to Thiruvannamalai for being a member of a group which had planned to have a short visit into the past.

As per Dakshin and Kalyani it was a sudden idea as they had visited the ‘Perumal’ temple in a place called ‘Chengam’ only two days before that Sunday. There they happened to see the paintings in the roof of the main hall, describing the Legend of Ramayana. The paintings are of nearly five hundred years old. Unfortunately the natural paintings are almost destroyed and it was told to them that the temple authorities are planning for renovating the temple which would indeed cause in washing away the antiques with newness and without knowing their values. There came their idea to take some children to the temple so as to introduce them the beautiful past which is there present but may not be there in the future.

Here is again our Sunday. When all of us gathered near the sacred hill of Thiruvannamalai, we were a good team to explore the beauty of the past (as well as the past of the beauty!). Let me introduce the team first… there were Dakshin and Kalyani as navigators; twenty one children from the village of Alampundi; James who facilitate the functioning of the Eco-Art centre for children in Alampundi; three volunteers from Italy who are now working with the children of ‘Alampundi Eco-Art centre’ in their own innovative ways; and myself.

As I told you the visit was planned to visit the ‘Perumal’ temple of ‘Chengam’, a place which is 30 kilometers far from Thiruvannamalai. It was really a musical journey as the children kept on singing on our way to the temple.

When we reached the temple, the mid-day sun was there above the tower to welcome all of us. Dakshin gave a small introduction to the children about the purpose of our visit and a little about the temple (Especially the greatness of that big wooden door!). There was only a little shadow in the temple premises for all the bare-foots to stay cool. By that time the door was opened to enter the main hall. The whole team must have experienced a kind of quantum leap into the past when entered the main hall.

When everyone were into the beauty of the past, Dakshin started explaining the facts about the temple, the King who built it, when it was built, what is depicted on those paintings, how it would have been drawn, what might be the materials used, and it went on. When he was about to finish, almost all the team members were lying down on the floor and were comfortably (!) looking at the paintings of the roof.

But our mission has made us to wake up and work. All the children were given a chart and a pencil each and were asked to draw any object or painting of that temple. They really enjoyed the task and started exploring the artist inside. After sometime there were lots of artists tracing down the past in their charts. It was an authentic trial to save the past so as to present it to the future.
We could manage to get some red soil, leaves and flowers by the time the young artists finish their mission. Then started a fresh task to introduce a form of Eco-art to the children, i.e., to create paintings with natural materials. Dakshin came out with an expert show by explaining different forms of paintings that can be done with red soil, leaves and flowers. Both the children and we the elder(!) people have become the ‘amazed-spectators’ of the show.

The children were allowed to experiment the new eco-art for some more time before closing the doors of the past. There was an ending session to share all our experiences and excitements.

The children made again the way back a musical one and our time machine stopped when we were dropped in our worlds.

When we were back to our places, I just thought it was not an “as usual” Sunday
-- manikandan

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Summer Camp at Salem

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 18:01:00

camps

We had a long journey all the night to Harur to a friends house before going to Hogenakkal where the river Cauvery enters Tamilnadu from Karnataka. Umpteen number of waterfalls drooping down into the river the river being the border of the states. The scorching heat of the sun shone bright overhead but we could also enjoy the eco tourism with the bamboo boat over the river, women frying fresh fish and making their livelihood, floating shops selling cool drinks and snacks to attract the tourists. It was a great time.

The first day was with the children of the bonded labours of Aundipatti near Salem. Dakshin had already been there to work with the same children on eco art hence this time he decided to do it in an advanced stage. Different strokes with mud and charcoal, exploring the texture of the lines on the art. Though the children refused to get organized in the earlier session he could handle them afternoon.

The next day Dakshin and me went to the next camp at Deviyakurichi near Athur. This time the parents of the children were leprosy patients. They had ceased to live in the Government run homes and made their own settlements detached from the village. Some had own land with mud houses. They have a community hall done by an organization. Their children go to nearby schools. Around 40 children attended the camp. So we started with Eco art, and the children were excited as usual. They tried in newspaper first and then they took up charts. They were made into 4 groups and each group started identifying their natural resources. They collected different types of green leaves, dry leaves, dry sticks and mud. They had a small discussion on these trying to understand the resource of trees and fertility of their place.
The next exploration was making pieces of newspaper and making a facemask out of them on their faces. The children enjoyed this with jokes and laughing all the time. They were astonished by the three dimensional character of the mask – it was not flat !!
The children collected different shapes and textures of leaves around their houses and created a chart of shades and textures. It was important and interesting to study the leaves so closely. They took much interest in collecting more and more. They had a good knowledge of the names of trees and their uses in general. This was a good sign to be identified in those children. Their existing relation to their environment was good enough.

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worshop at Behind a Sunrise

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 17:58:02

Dakshin and me decided to get introduced to the neighboring children to extend our resources to them. Hence we visited neighbours and friends to invite children for an introductory session with us.
Though we were not expecting more than 8 of them, to our surprise 19 of them turned up on the 14th of May 2006. ‘Behind the Sunrise’ with the lake view was decided to be the venue since we were planning to create this place into our home with a studio space where children can feel free to come and enjoy the resource place, that it is going to be.
Early in the morning we started cleaning the entrance green yard, the stair and upper floor. Kanchana (Kalamkari trained) and Shanti (doing her BCS) were very much happy to volunteer the event. Hence we all got ready after a short breakfast – bread and eggs.
The volunteers took care of registering the kids with needed information simultaneously. We had a poster at the gate for the kids to find their way to Behind the Sunrise. After introduction and explaining the main concept of why the children were there for the event and its future the children were introduced with a memory game to brush up their enthusiasm and break the ice. Children enjoyed that with claps and laughs. Then Dakshin simplified the concept of Eco art and did some demonstration on charts of different themes. The children were on the brim of excitement and made their way to charts and mud not being able to control their energy to create some more. They were astonished on the tones and strokes they could create in mud. The children were given lemon tea for refreshment. They enjoyed it too.
Some parents flocked to get introduced and understand what was happening and excited to see what their children were trying to do.
The children promised to come back for many of such camps and share knowledge whenever they got time to sneak into ‘Behind the Sunrise’....yani

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ICF camp

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 17:51:10

Eco camp
32 Children was a good number to have a camp. The
children had a Memory game for an introduction
session. It was surprising to witness the children
recollecting every child his name in the camp in a few
minutes. The campsite was airy with a few trees. Dakshin and
Yani the resource persons of the camp started by
throwing light on Colours from nature, the
children started with a great enthusiasm drawing on
the chart with natural medium like flowers, leaves,
turmeric, mud and Charcoal. The next session being was Mud Art, It was again
Dakshin who did magic with his hands and mud on chart
leaving the children dumb and excited. The whole camp
group came out awe doing their best.
Lemon juice and sprouts were served for more energy.
Symmetrical sketching was introduced with again mud as
the medium. Yani explained the need for use of both
the hands at the same time, helping the brain
activity, to stimulate the analytical and creative
expression of a person to be balanced and nourish our
future, obviously.Children relished lunch with Vegetable rice, curd
rice, chips and Fresh vegetable salads.
Twig Sculpture was really creative and
inventive.
Making Eco frames was value addition for the art
already done by children in earlier sessions.
Mask Making with bits of old newspaper was for more
excitement for the children, one of them lying down on
whose face the mask was done. Tracing the whole outline of one of the children on a
newspaper and hanging that out on a tree was great.
Again some sprouts and Payasamï was very tasty.
Children gave a good feed back recorded by Dakshin in
the camera.
The Children were eager to join the next camp like the
same very soon. The children heard to the
announcement the international level Green
Power poster Contest. The campers started home with enthusiasm after a vote
of thanks.

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Interaction with Cocos school

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 17:47:21

Interaction with Cocos school
We started our journey after having a hot tea at home.
It was a fresh travel to the bus stand because
Dakshin prefers to take a bus from the Central bus
stand so that we are sure of getting a seat. I too
agree with that amidst the crazy rush of Chennai. We
reached Alampoondi by 12 noon. Yani interviewed
Thulasi on Cocos School, a supplementary centre of
education started in 1997, which Dakshin covered in
his handy cam. All other friends; alessandra, laura, a
Nigerian, one more alessandra, kumar; joined with us
for nice lunch prepared by Thulasi. Alessandra
presented her idea of Cocos School with Dakshin again
behind the camera; she did also give her opinion on
Khadi, Vinoba and the lifestyle of the recent urban
society. Alessandra was very much worried about the
Television and its negative impact on the children and
their future.
Yani and Dakshin had an interaction session with the
Cocos school children. Thulasi and Selvam of the
Cocos school and helped the Children play games with
great enthusiasm. Laura and the other alessandra were
having a nice time with the children. Dakshin has
given them an exercise to select a tree, sit in front
of it and pencil sketch on a paper, looking at the
tree and colour it with guidance at Cocos school. The
children enjoyed and accepted with bright energy.

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camp at tanjore

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 17:41:45

eco camp at Tanjore
In harmony with nature

"Siragu viri" an eco-awareness camp organised by INTACH and YHAI for students

Thanjavur: The programme was titled "Siragu Viri", meaning "Spread the wings". True to its name, the camp was an opportunity for 25 students to learn and exhibit their talents.

The eco-awareness and nature camp for students aged between seven and 16, organised jointly by the Indian Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and Youth Hostels Association of India for school students on December 28 and 29 at Bhakthavahcalam Memorial Trust Krishi Vigyan Kendra campus at Usilampatti village, 40 kms from Thanjavur, was a "combine fun with education programme." The students had all the things under the sky to do.

On the first day, they painted environment-related arts, wrote creatively about environment, prepared clay models and masks to cover their faces, trekked and gazed stars in the night.
The programmes ended on the first day with a campfire. Next day was an educative exercise for them. They were taken on a "nature walk" and made to identify plants.They were taken on a heritage walk also and asked to identify heritage monuments. There were children sports also for them.

The students were guided by V. Dakshinamurthy and Kalyani from Gandhigram University.

"Unique" "educative" "informative" and "thrilling" was how the students explained about the camp when asked about their experience. "We learnt to live in harmony with nature. The camp place itself was like a forest and we enjoyed the camp a lot," they said.

Certificates were given to the students at the end of the programme.

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camp at kadavakuruchi hills

Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 17:37:38

Thursday, January 12, 2006
Spread your wings – “Siragu viri”

During the first week of May, “Kaadu”, a club
formed for environment conservation organized
a 2-day camp for 20 children in the age group
of 9 – 16 years. This camp was mainly intended
to provide students from Madurai an opportunity
to get in touch with Mother Nature. These
children also had an exposure to eco games
played by our nature school children.
Mr. Dakshinamoorthy, environmentalist taught the
children various methods of interacting with
nature such as eco art – with clay, flowers, leaves
& charcoal; clay modeling, paper mask making,
trekking, etc.
The children thoroughly enjoyedtheir stay in our centre,
where they were in close
communion with nature.

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ecoart

Tuesday, 23. May 2006, 16:29:09

An artist is not a special kind of human
but every human is a special kind of artist

Although every man and women cannot become an artist, it is necessary that there should be arrangement for art education for everyone in the society, whichever walk of life he or she belongs to. Lack of knowledge about art makes people lose their mental balance. The atmosphere of tension and conflit in the world is also due to ignorance about the essence and the essentiality of art in life.Children’s drawing are not just scribblings or splashes of colours, they can be beautiful artistic creations. Moreover, these creations open the window into the world of the child and his inner life to a greater extend. Art activities are also the most effective way to the road to peace and fulfilment.

For the balanced development of the personality of the children, the growth of the mind and the body should be interlinked and integrated. For the children an exposure towards art is much confined. They can be brought together in our WORKSHOP ON ECOART, where a stimulating environment will be provided for the children to express their feelings, experiences and dreams with freedom.The aim of eco-art education is to sensitize the rural children so that they may learn to respond to the beauty of line, shapes, form and movements. The materials used in these activites are from nature, which are very much locally available like mud, charcoal, leaves and flowers.

When children come together and involve themselves in eco-art activities, some may see it to be a hobby but it also generates joy, developes creative thinking, communication & expression, improves co-ordination, builds concentration, improves visualization, heightens aesthetics, provides problem solving capapcity, increases self understanding, strenghtens self concept & confidence, encourages spontaineity, developes work habits and sense of responsibility, serves as an emotional release, aids adults in understanding the child and so on ……….

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