“How can you hate something that you like so much?”. I woke up early in the morning with this philosophical thought as the alarm in my mobile promptly went off playing my favorite song. After hitting the snooze button with vengeance and lavishing some curses on great inventions, I dozed off to sleep again. But alas, that electronic marvel dutifully played back the very song soon after 5 minutes. GRRRR, how I hated the song that instant, which was responsible for ending the last few ecstatic moments of my sleep. Slowly I opened my eyes thinking yet another routine day in office. But wait a minute, it is ‘Saturday’. I sat upright in excitement, “Yippee... This is not just another day; it is my day with the school kids”. I leapt out of the bed with a spring in my feet and a hum in my lips. Lo! I was ready in a trice and off I went to the wonderful school.
The Government high school, situated in Viveknagar is adopted by the Wipro Cares Team. The school in turn is divided into 3 more sections as Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. The school mainly consists of lesser privileged kids from the nearby slum areas. The Wipro Cares team manages around 250 kids from the classes 3rd to 7th. A huge number indeed, considering the fact that there are just about 25 volunteers available on a typical Saturday.
I walked into the familiar school premise that was bubbling with joyful and beaming kids, only to be embarrassed by the fact that so many volunteers had already turned up and had started off with the ground work for the day’s activities. Well, I can’t find enough words to describe the dedication level of the Wipro Cares volunteers, simply amazing. “Hmm, guys, let us see what happens next week”, and thus I made up a silent resolution to be the first to school next week.
All of us, the volunteers gathered together to be briefed upon the activities for the day and how to go about the same. There were three kinds of activities decided for the day,
Planting of trees by the kids.
Video clipping on Global Warming
Stressing the importance of discipline and cleanliness.
After the little briefing session, we the volunteers separated off to go to our respective classes and I made my way to the Tamil section, the naughtiest set of students I had ever come across.
I entered the class expecting chaos and disorder, but to my disbelief, the kids were all quiet and neatly seated in the class. It was like a fairy had put a spell on them gluing them to their seats.
We started the class by asking the kids to repeat the little prayer song that was taught in the previous class, and we were immediately rewarded to hear them recite the entire prayer with so much of zeal and passion. We finished all the grouping, tying up the little ribbons according to the house color and made the kids sit house wise. We then proceeded to teach the importance of trees. Each student was asked to come up with a unique point that says how trees help us. They compiled up a huge list of usefulness of trees that included trees giving us air to breathe, food to eat, a habitat for the birds and animals, keeping down the temperature, bringing cool showers, etc.. Whew! Great thinkers they are.
The purpose of making the students understand the significance of trees was very important because, it would lay the foundation for the gardening activity and also make them more socially inclined.
The next activity, teaching discipline to the kids, was not a very easy task We actually taught them how to maintain pin drop silence by dropping a pen on the floor ( may be we should here after call it as pen drop silence). The importance of using the words ‘Please’, ‘Thank You’& ‘Kindly’ were stressed by asking them do role plays, where in one kid borrows a book from the other using the pleasing language. We also stressed upon the fact that they should be on time to the class and not give lame excuses for coming late to the classes by having another funny role play.
Now it was the time for most exciting activity of the day, yes the planting of trees. Kids were taken in a line and were asked to plant the trees according to their houses. Wow, you would not believe the enthusiasm that the kids displayed when planting the trees, so much of enthu that they actually went around planting the trees allocated for the other groups also. It was not just planting the sapling, adding the manure, covering it up with sand and sprinkling water, but they also cleaned up the place around the young plant, gave it a brick border and bonded with their plant immediately. The bonding of the kids with the nature was what we had wanted and we were extremely happy to see that happening.
The kids were then taken to the video room to watch a clipping on Global Warming that again reiterated the importance of trees. Kudos to the Visual Team for arranging the video session successfully against all odds.
And that concluded yet another fruitful and enjoyable Saturday. Kids are always kids no matter what, they inspire you, make you think differently, convince you that there exists nothing but happiness in this world. They are full of energy and life which are so contagious that, just a few hours with them every week can make a huge difference to our lives.
End of the day as I laid down on my bed recollecting all that I had done for the day, it was a very satisfying feeling that warmed up my heart. I closed my eyes consoling myself that the next Saturday is not far away.
Malar Balan
