Shrusti '12

During the summer vacations of 2012, we decided to have a lecture series called Shrusti. These lectures were spread across a variety of age groups and were based on improving their social skills. A list of names were quickly drawn up and lectures were planned, each targeting different age groups. Given below is the series of lectures that were conducted along with the age groups that they were targeted at. Details of a summer camp that was held as a part of Shrusti '12 have also been supplied.

7th May to 12th May

Weeklong summer camp for kids
Age Group: 3-8 years

The summer camp was planned as an activity packed learning experience for little children during their summer vacations. 3 volunteers from high school had planned a schedule for 3 hours each day, packed with activities such as shloka recitation, art and craft, literary games etc. The camp concluded with an exhibition of the various activities that the children had engaged in, much to the delight of their parents.



12th May (Saturday) 

Life in the Indian Army
Age Group: (Std 5 onwards)

Brigadier Murali spoke of how the duties of the Indian Army extend far beyond what we witness during war time. It is imperative for the army of a country to be in a mode of continuous preparation and planning during peacetime so as to keep itself sharp. The key message is to never let one's guard down and ever be on the alert. This would require a strong sense of patriotism, discipline and dedication to the duty one performs towards the nation. These values are imbibed by the soldiers of the Indian Army and form the backbone of their stellar performance on the battlefield. 

Careers in ecology
Age Group: (Std 6- Std 10)

As environmental destruction and the unmitigated and unplanned use of natural resources become the basis for the development of a fast developing nation, the repercussions of these actions become visible and threaten to curtail that very development. In such a scenario, the country would definitely require experts in the field of ecology. To highlight the various opportunities available to young students in the field of ecology, Ananya Rao, a PhD student at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, IISc, made a presentation.


The essence of our scriptures
Age Group: (Std 9th onwards)

Mr Venkateshwaran has made a deep study of our scriptures, through the decades. This talk was held for us to benefit from his knowledge of our ancient knowledge of religion and morality. He spoke of how many prominent personalities of our times exercised the message contained within our scriptures in the course of their ascent. Through handouts and stories, he illustrated this message during his presentation. 

13th May (Sunday) 

The importance of hobbies
Age Group: (Std 5 - Std 10)

Anupam's presentation dealt with explaining how hobbies enriched one's life. By using the pictures of the slideshow to get his point across, he related incidents from his own life and explained how his hobbies have benefited him. The forum was then open for the audience to relate their own experiences and two interesting perspectives were narrated on how two off-track hobbies were nurtured. 


Effective Communication
Age Group: (Std 5+)

The Effective Communication presentation was delivered by Mrs Shobha Sundaresan. Her session was wholly interactive and engaged the audience very well. In the course of her interaction with the audience, she pointed out those traits of a public speaker that enhance the effectiveness of her communication while mentioning the various pitfalls that can serve as barriers. With role plays and demonstrations, the presentation concluded with a lot of learning. 
  

Binny Layout Clean-Up

18th March, 2012

Adjoining Goodwill Apartments is a layout called Binny Layout. The very lane adjacent to the apartment complex has a gutter for the flow of rainwater. This gutter is frequently used as a dumping ground and has an assortment of garbage ranging from household waste, thrown there in tied up plastic bags, to leaves and dried up vegetative matter. Armed with gloves and dust masks, we set about cleaning this gutter. The leaves were raked up using trowels and sacks. It took us a  couple of evenings to finish the task. Once the clean-up was done, we put up posters that implored people not to litter that place. The posters were lettered in both English and Kannada. The printing of these posters was very kindly sponsored by Mr Mahendra Munot, the owner of Maruthi Medicals.

The clean-up

Do not litter

The album that contains a few pictures of this clean-up can be accessed here.

On performing this clean-up, we saw that the gutter that we cleaned with backbreaking labour was dirty again in a few weeks. We then realised that there was no alternative for residents to drop off their daily garbage because BBMP had done away with public dustbins to encourage door-to-door collection of waste. The pourakarmikas who are carrying out this collection themselves use gutters such as the one we cleaned up for dumping waste and a truck would come and pick it up periodically. The flaws in this system were highlighted and a note was sent to the commissioner of BBMP, which went ignored. We realised that the clean-up of our streets requires our meeting with the local corporater and his cooperation would be essential for its success.

Republic Day, Talent's Day and Food Court, 2012

A modest function that saw us salute the national flag and recite the national anthem was our way of greeting the Republic Day for the year 2012. We then opened up the forum for anybody interested to say a few words on the occasion. After a few quick but enlightening speeches, we were done with the morning's show.

Standing up for the National Anthem

There was a Talent's Day show planned for the evening of the Republic Day. Here, we allowed the youth of the apartment to exhibit any talent that they have nurtured. We were greeted with a huge list of talents and a wide variety of shows ranging from the rendition of Bhajans, Carnatic violin recitals, dances, a capella, stand-up comedy and even beat-boxing. It was a fun filled evening which made us take pride in the fact that we were giving the children of Goodwill Apartments a platform to showcase their rich talent rather than sleeping away our Republic Days.

A Carnatic violin rendition

The following Sunday, the 29th of January, 2012, a Food-Court was organised. This time, we ensured that specific people were allocated sufficient quantities of certain types of filling dishes to make sure that we didn't run out of food and no one went back hungry. However, at this Food Court, we saw that the event was given a colour of salesmanship and this commercialisation was something that led us to decide to not continue this event thereafter.