Monday, April 3, 2006

I never knew... Sun can be Blue!!

This weekend only three of us were there. Sapna was ready with some A4 sheets, Prashant brought some candies and I was entering there with "no ideas what to do" in my mind. But once you are in, you really don’t need any idea. Refreshing smiles, curious faces, "namaste bhaiya" sound in the air...and you are totally into a new world.

Our "A for apple" team was busy doing some hard-code math this time:-). Moment I think of teaching something, very next moment they make me realize that they already know much more and I can really learn a lot from them. I sat in the middle and they were jumping over me.."bhaiya meri book dekho..bhaiya meri book dekho". I took one of the notebook in hand.. "2+3=5" was first entry on it. I remembered the day when, to add 2 and 3, I used to draw two bars...and a circle and three bars and count them all together. From counting..to sums..I thought to teach them some tables. I asked.."2 ka pahada kisko kisko aata hai" and there was Lalit (he is really good at many things) behind "bhaiya mujhe 20 tak aate hai".. I said "kyaaaa????" and thought.."graduation ho gaya par aaj tak mujhe 20 tak pahade yaad nahi hue"... It was so much fun teaching them some math tricks. They loved the one..using which you can generate (without remembering) the table of 9 just by writing 0 to 9 forward and backward.

At the other end, where Prshant was busy with camera session with kids, Sapna was enjoying drawing classes with them. I sat with one group and asked one of them make my sketch. If you dont care about the ratio of my head to my tummy...I was looking
cool:) with 5-5 fingers in both my hands. I would really recommend all the advertisement agencies to meet such creative minds. Looking at many concentric circles on a paper.. I asked "ye kya hai".. and he replied in a soft voice "ghar". Who knows he might be the first in future to make circular pyramids with top views as concentric circles? There were multicolored Indian flags, orange stars, triangular kites, one wheel car.. I was really lost into those colors. When I came out... the sun was really blue!!!

13 comments:

  1. Hey i missed this time :(

    Where are the pics ??

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  2. Looking forward for pics??????

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  3. Missed digicam last time... will take pics this saturday for sure!

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  4. hi!
    it was 2 days back when i got a call from deepak regarding what all activities u all r doing in gurgaon as mc.today i could log on to ur blog and really felt the heavens in ur hearts..... u guys r simply wowen into ur activities which shows how much u all r enjoying this and its really heartening for me.......but a little sad too because inspite of felling like being there i cannot be there....why? well because on saturdays and sundays i m in my coaching institute preparing for post graduate exam....uff.
    oh my .... i think i didnt even introduced myself to u properly.... i m sorry.... well i m rahul ... i m in gurgaon since 1983 belong actually to delhi and have done my schooling in ggn only .. in 1999 i went to kerala to do mbbs and returned in 2005 oct only ......... and since then i m bussy with my preps for post grad entrance... u must be hearing bout mass cheating racket in all india pg exam and stufff.... well i have exams in may <> pgi chandigarh <> after that if i dont qualify which is very likely i will have exams season in nov only ... so i have to wait till june mid to be free and be physically there in ur mc with you.
    but well suggested by deepak i can still be with u all till then by the means of this blog! and so i m here ....actually speaking .. guys i really liked what all u r doing ...u really contributing nice to our society and we should try our best to keep it up....well going through what all u teaching those kids that is maths <> drawing <> and computers <>.......etc... i would like to add something for ur work and ofcourse i m there if u think i can guide u in that.
    the thing i would like to add are-
    1>regular health charts for the kids u involve with...... might be i m sounding difficult ..... do read furthur and i know u will find it interesting.... what all u need to do is just to make a head to toe workup of kids enlisting ... if these children have their nails.. brushed or cleaned their theeth<>...... do they have white spots on the corner of there face near lips which shows worms in stomach... and just tell them right good quality food which is cheep too.
    2-tell them bout good habbits ... clean food clean water etc which will make message reach their homes too and that will have great impact on their disese mobidity tooo
    many mor suggestion i have but i know by now only i might have sounded little impractical to u all ...... but beleive me its all possible and u all can do and u dont need any doctor to do that...
    stay in touch and do comment so that i can make it all invincible really dam possible for u all to do.
    thanks for ur time!

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  5. hi
    i m sorry to put that as reply to one of the posts there whereas i wanted to put that as a new post.... was unsuccesful... i m trying ... till get it ... hope what i wanted to say will reach u all.
    thanks.

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  6. hi all


    the things suggested by rahul have already been brainstormed by Peeyush and other AID volunteers. Peeyush is known for his exploits with education intiatives and joy of learnign kits not only with AID Delhi but also with AID Bangalore. He will lead AID Delhi's focus area called "Education". I would suggest that you guys talk to him soon about course structure in MC.
    His email address is

    peeyush DOT kul AT gmail DOT com

    (the email address has DOT n AT to prevent spam).


    cheers :)
    anirban

    about me : I am associated with three AID chapters : AID Delhi, AID Kolkata and AID Calgary. I have mostly volunteered for AID Delhi till I left for Calgary on 14th march 2006. AID Kolkata is the latest chapter I have been trying to push.hoping for the best.

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  7. Hey great to see you rahul here....

    I didn't exptected that you will make out...

    Great man!...

    Your suggestions were awesome, but regarding health chart i don't know if children there even know that they need to brush their teeth too.. or there is something like tooth brush...

    We are here to teach them.. cool..

    So finalized, this saturday the topic for children is going to be Health and food.

    But Doctor saab we really need somebody like you... there are few small kids who really are not in a good state.. bleeding, wounds, soreness etc can be commonly seen on thier body...

    We even don't know which medicine to bring up...

    As of now i'm thinking of discussing this with one doc in my department. I guess till Rahul is busy with his studies we may get him wih us. infact his name is also Rahul :)

    Need to discuss lots of things for this Saturday visit, meet you all there....

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  8. It was really good to read entries from rahul and anirban.. I feel that the ball is rolling now!! :-)

    Lets meet this saturday then and put some actions on our discussions.

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  9. hi!
    thanks for appreciating what i tried to convey........ with regard to my earlier post i would like to put some additional point in favour of what all i have said earlier so that what looks like unknown hill with daunting skill to climb may look very factual and attainable to you all........
    in this mail i m going to write only about what i ment by health check and formatting it in ur teaching schedule to make it a part of their life.....
    any education is not complete till it is put into practice... and so what should be tought should be understandable and acheivable affordable etc to be really part of their daily life....
    so what i ment to be done by a health chart was to point out what needs to be done immediately to make children more healthy..... so the the thing of utmost priority is delt 1st.... for eg if u see that dental hygine of most of them is very bad (90%)... they dont have any basic idea regarding brushing etc then our 1st thing to be tought is dental care.......
    so this is 1st task to know what has to be tought...... so lets say its dental hygine......
    now the second part of this is really dramatic and really need only and only common sense... beleive me its just common sense what we need......how ? .... well i m explaining...
    1st thing u have to understand that it should not be done with a motto to take a class on dental hygine or health in specific... even doctors will sleep in such a class...lol yes it is true.... so how u go through it... well suppose u teaching them drawing.... draw tooth brush or draw a face with big smile and teeth and then ask them how many of them have a dental pain and tell them a small two liner story as how cruel devils called bacteria attack teeth and cause pain to them... they should defend their enemy by .......... continuee and tell them how often to clean etc etc....... its just a frame work i have given and would request to have more innovations with ur common sense and humour sense to make thing more lively and very impotantly part of what all u teaching them and not as secluded health talk( which is truly boring).
    now as i have explained this eg with tooth brush and also i wrote in prev mail also brushing teeth but i would like to warn u..... seriously i m warning ..... surprise? welll because i know its my mistake to tell brushing but do u know the cost of brushing?its the most imp factor which decides accepibilty of what u teach them........whether they can afford it or not....yes a small brush cost min 10 rs and a paste cost rs 10 of small pack wich lasts one week do u think they going to invest after listening to u? rather their parents will?
    so what imp is look for cheeper options and best is dant manjan which will be arrounk 10 - 15 rs and all family members use them togather........ i hope neem datun wont be available in local..else it is also good option.
    then next point of importance comes is to teach them how to use the weapon..... that is twice daily ... u shoudnt swallow ... done for atleast 5 min each time... massage gums also with teeeth.... do with clean water .... gargle nicely ... if using brushes dont share......etc etc



    so guys a simple one task to teach and so much to think about ... so better go in stepwise manner do ne teachin one day but to depth and truely combined with routine teachings... other things should make a way in......

    some interesting facts to boost u-
    in blindness control programe of india school teacher is with primary responsibility to screen poor vision children
    in villages health guides and multi purpose workers by govt of india at anganwadis and subcenters are all with usually 10th pass or even something lower than that....
    etc etc...
    when they can do why cant we well educated ?
    we all can do it!
    things are open for discussion....
    get ur heads spinning
    cheers!

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  10. hi
    deepak! i hope i have tried to answer what u ment to ask in ur comments ... if any thing left ... go ahead and ask...
    regardind soreness of body bleeding etc and drugs to precribe i would say u need a physician to actually see and prescribe and u know........
    but i would say that in mean time u get dr rahul from ur dept to do that u can tall those choldren about 1st aid thing in wound to keep wound clean dry and dust free and beleive me they have better immunity to take care of their healing than any hi fi society kids what they need is cleaniliness hygine and proper diet to combat infections!
    migt be it seems an assurance but it willl help if put into practice



    and one more thing i would like to add is ... i may not be physicall there ... but i will always be there...
    thanks for the suppport and acceptance.

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  11. hi all

    if you need a doctor for health related classes then you can contact AID volunteer gunjan sharma

    (gnjn DOT shrm AT gmail DOT com)

    He is a dentist. Email him and see if he is free to take classes. He did take classes in couple of projects and they were good and the kids had loads of fun during his class.

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  12. Hey Anirban,

    thats cool..

    can you mail me hi number so that i can call him right away. I don't want to delay it by one more week.

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  13. Was out of town earlier..
    Read the new posts and comments..
    Great goin guys.

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