Summer camp - some pictures

Around 25 children participated in the summer camp Tamil heritage Trust conducted yesterday and today at the Ragasudha Hall, near Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore.

Day 1, first session was a multimedia introduction to Gandhi by VR Devika.


Second session was Arvind Venkatraman talking about bronzes, bronze making and bronze statues.


Third session was Bhushavali doing a workshop on block printing. A piece of cloth transformed in to a சுருக்குப் பை (cloth bag with strings).






After Day 1, children left home, happy and dirty with acrylic paint, but also a bag that they could show their classmates and teachers.

Day 2 started with a short session by Pradeep Chakravarthy, explaining a "double-meaning" poem of Poet Kalamekam (காளமேகப் புலவர்). The poem, comparing and eventually declaring a coconut and a dog to be the same is given below:

ஓடும் இருக்குமதன் உள்வாய் வெளுத்திருக்கும்
நாடும் குலைதனக்கு நாணாது - சேடியே
தீங்கான தில்லாத் திருமலைரா யன்வரையில்
தேங்காயும் நாயுமெனச் செப்பு


Session 2 was Udhayakumar talking about 50 common vegetables consumed in India today. We started planning for 100 vegetables in the beginning, then cut it down to 50, but eventually managed to only talk about around 30 or so for lack of time. 


The last session was Oviar Chandru, interacting with children, getting them to understand the basics of drawing and painting. Children sketched flowers, vegetables and leaves and coloured them with water colour. You can see what they have done here.


I have videographed the four lecture sessions and will add them online soon.