Lets Paint

Guilt has been gnawing at eachtime I icaught sight of the paints brushes and paper lying at home. I had found these treasures after a lot of scouting in Saiha and finally found them in Aizwal. The idea was to doodle around a bit and keep boredom at bay. But thankfully I was not bored often enough to warrant much use of these.

Had been contemplating giving it to the kids who drop in every once in a while , but then again there was not enough to go around. So this week when a small bunch landed home we let lose the colors. I'd decided on just handing it over to them without any suggestions on what to paint or how to use. Well they took to corners and sides of the chart and it seemed enough for all.

Initially, all bottles were opened and colors tested and their appeal could by judged by scrunched up faces or some excited shriek. A little paint on the paper a lot on each other finally they set to what seemed like serious business. I loitered around and came back for a dekho in a while and found the TV to be the most popular image.

I'm hoping its cause the straight lines are easier to paint! 

Skipping as I've never known

Its summer and not at at its worst yet. The children are all out of their woollen clothes, looking leaner but happier and definitely looking more their age. They keep paying fleeting visits in the midst of their hectic school and tution schedules. This week they turned up in a large group, wanted to sing songs , dance and have an impromptu fashion show . We had a bit of a pinneapple squash and someone yanked out a long string of rubber bands tied to each other. Before I had time to wonder what that was all about , some frenzied discussion took place and soon two of them were holding it knee high and a third did some pretty impressive skips around it. A skipping rope!!

Well they'd say I was easily impressed as for the 15 minuted that they kept at it , i witnessed a variety of stages and steps in skipping which I as a kid had never imagined! The job of the ones holding the rope was just to keep raising it in height according to the stage the players were at. Complicated manouvers involving , leaping, stepping on the rope , entangling it with the ankle/knee , jumping backwards and releasing it, almost diving over it etc. Maybe I'll get to shoot a video of this someday and share, I'm hoping that the skipping rope and the game as we knew it  never makes its way this side, we'd be laughing stock!

9th Jan - Drawing

One of the activities we'd thought of while the children continued to visit us was drawing. This again was something Nimesh and John took up with the schools around as a part of conservation education. The group visiting us was definitely on leave from school and we thought ideas like the film and drawing sessions would not only entertain them but also provide an opportunity to talk about wildlife and forests.

About ten children came in to draw and  magazines were scattered around for them to pick up images they would like to copy. There was no pressure to draw anything in particular.  Most children over the eight years tried to attempt at a picture from the magazines while the younger ones were more comfortable drawing homes!

Remrem at her focussed best.

We had  had about an equal number of children outside the house peering and peeking inside but hesitant to walk in despite our invitation. Many came up to the door giggled and sprinted away. It was quite festive, the colours, excited chirpy voices inside and out!

A child called Zuali has been a regular in her visits. I was surprised when she declined paper and crayons saying she didn't want to draw, but even more pleasantly surprised when I saw her rushing around from one child to the other giving suggestions and comments, bringing our attention to broken pencils and the need for sharpeners or erasers . I don't remember ever having such classmates or friends, who'd not only be happy in not participating (voluntarily) but also derive joy by actively helping the others. As far as my interactions as a child or my informal interactions with a group children are concerned this was a fairly new and delightful experience.

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                                              This is Zuali studyting the drawing of Puipuia.

When all were done with the never ending finishing touches we wrapped up by putting up the drawings on the wall and door.

Since then we've had many young visitors pass by to take a look at the drawings. The group also bring in their friends for a dekho.

Its a film today!

7th January

The visits from the young ones have been quite regular much to my glee. It follows a pattern. The first knock on our door is at 6:30 in the morning. A little chatter and morning tea together they are on their way only to return at about 11 and then again between 2 to 4.

Since they flip through the wildlife magazines with great pleasure, we felt they might also enjoy watching some films on it. Nimesh and his colleagues have been working through schools on conservation education and film screenings and discussions have been one of the means used, so organizing this was not difficult.

The group was here as has been their routine at about 2:30 and they were in for a surprise. Tables and chairs were being re arranged for them and the laptop was being set up speakers and all. They comfortably ran to the seats and observed all of this wondering what was in store.

The film was Point Calimere and since I’ve seen it before it was good to sit with the kids as audience and watch them discreetly instead. Mild mannered Marin kept her eyes firmly on screen, an attention seeking senior kept shushing and correcting the others, while Vidya seemed to be commenting on most things on screen and off it. Jenny came in a bit late but fresh from a bath and was very concerned when a friend pointed out that she had some mud on her sleeve. The group seemed to be enjoying the experience.

My language handicap hit me quite hard today. It would have been wonderful to truly be privy to their discussions. Since that was not to be, I watched John interact with them in his soft tones and warm eyes.

Next they looked at the field guides and were talking about whatever they recognized. John later shared that the discussions were indeed quite colorful. The children informed him that somewhere close a pig had given birth to an elephant and while the elephant kept growing the pig obviously had died in the process. Pointing to a picture of a dead elephant Vidya claimed it that it was killed in Aizwal , Puja was quick to point out that the people standing around were not Mizo so it couldn’t be in Aizwal! We gathered Remrem gets quite creeped out by snakes. A book on snakes was lying open, she flipped a page accidentally and jumped back and fell down in fright when her hand touched one of the images! She did get bak to the book but shuddering at every page. Nimesh went through the pages with her.

Vidya ran through the bird book with great interest pointing to birds he’d shot at with his catapult. He also took on the role of explaining to the younger girls the different categories of birds which I think broadly were parrots, ducks and pigeons. I had noticed him on a previous occasion weave stories about the birds in a magazine to the younger ones I now realize some of it may have been autobiographical encounters!

We had a swell time! We must do it again.

 

 

More the merrier

6th Jan

They were back, but in hoardes! A commotion outside our front door made me take a peak. In a semi constructed house just opposite our own there were about 15 children! I then noticed that at the point most visible from our door, they had set up kitchen again, and were handling the task in manner which took care that I had almost unobstructed view! I think, they thought of the activity as bait! What they also wanted I got a sense of was to introduce their new friends. The ones who were known to me yelled out my name in greeting and soon it was a chorus of sorts, Vidya made some vague gestures which I thought meant camera and I promptly obeyed him. By the time I got back with the camera the kitchen play had been abandoned and a group song was in process!

The half built house across our own serving as stage.

We couldn’t do much shouting across to each other so they decided to come over to where I was. A few found the prospect uncomfortable and about 10 of then turned up including a three month old strapped to the back of a nine year old! They looked around office and seemed to love the posters made out of drawings of children. The original four lead the others around the place, supplied all with magazines, chatted a bit. Then we sat outside and there were impromptu performances of song and dance and I gather that for my benefit they picked English songs to sing and Hindi songs to dance. The sensitivity extended really took me by surprise as did the spur of the moment fashion show! Then like the last time (yesterday) they raced out yelling bye-byes and thank you way promising to drop by tomorrow.

Making friends - How we met.

5th Jan

A strange phenomenon is unfolding these days and we're caught in the midst of it all. Children aged 3 months to 14 years have descended into our lives and taken over my days. Here is how it started and more in later posts on how it is catching up.

While returning from a delicious but taxing walk I met a couple of children, playing house (or should I say playing kitchen?) . This seems to be a popular game with children all around. The game has rarely held any fascination for me apart from when i went visiting to Kerela and on another occasion in Dungarpur, Rajashthan. I’ve now added Saiha to my list.

Here, with half a piece of blade, the little ones were cutting cabbage and beetroot (I think!) remains. Mixed with water these were served/displayed in the lids of wee little tobacco containers. An empty fruity bottle stood by many other such beautifully colored proxy meals in surrogate crockery.

The kids aware of my curiosity moved aside for me to have a dekho. I asked them if I could click and to their nods of assent I took out my camera. The eldest ran away yelping spotting it and the younger ones carried on their game semi conscious of the gadget.

We tried to learn each other’s names and I failed miserably and their success was unknown to me till today morning when they yelled out for me from the road opposite my home!

A little later the foursome plus a new addition marched into office and began their explorations of the area. Pictures of tigers, tortoises, and snakes etc on the walls seemed to hold their fancy. Egged on by their hyper curiosity I offered them seats around the office table and put a bundle of magazines at their disposal. Hungrily, the turned from page to page scanning the colorful images of animals and birds. I was scared of questions as I wasn’t equipped with enough knowledge on the same. But they seemed to be happy looking at these images and  V charmed the baby of the group  with what I thought were stories of various birds that she was looking at, slowly slowly she moved closer to him completely mesmerized by the tale she was hearing.

Wanting to be hospitable I offered them some aval a Kerala snack made with beaten rice, jaggery and coconut. I asked them to try a spoon each and eat only if they thought it was ok. They kept it thoughtfully in their mouths and I gathered …mmm maybe not and left the room to give them privacy for exclamations. My return found one of them furiously spitting out the vile stuff in her mouth out of the window! I fell into a helpless pile of laughter and pleaded with the others to spit it out if they so detested it!! As though waiting for the go signal they all but leapt out of their seats and spitting it all out with a ferocity that made me feel terrible for having put to them this taste. So it was bananas next and this was received with great joy!!!

Bananas and their curiosity for the animals were almost done, when one of them spied the dustbin in office and nudged the others too into throwing their peals in it. V, the big brother gathered all the magazines from the table including the table’s original contents of diaries and notebooks and arranged them all on the rack. They were done for the day and ran  out the door with loud byes-byes , leaving behind the echo’s of their chatter and a beaming me!