It all began with an idea to spread the awareness about the tribal education project among the devotees from the Art of Living family in Pune. And soon the dream of a couple of volunteers in Pune became a reality... in the 2nd week of January 2013, the students from the tribal schools in Jharkhand began their journey to visit a distant city in the map of India to meet their family members... This was the first time the students were leaving their homes on a journey
so far. They had not even boarded a train before in their lives. On the day of arrival the kids performed in a concert at the famous Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium
in front of a massive crowd of Art of Living devotees waiting to see these kids
in action…
And this was first time in their lives that these kids performed
on any sort of a stage! The performances were great, and they were hugely
applauded by the audience. The messages given through the skit plays and dances
were clear & loud about environment, ecology, and humanity. Their fluency
of Hindi & English languages and their knowledge of Sanskrit (there was drama
performed entirely in Sanskrit!) was a thing to be appreciated. Mejor Tudu a
small 7th standard fellow was great at his performance with his
sharp memory & wit. Also, there beautiful folk dances performed by the
girls which gave a glimpse of the rich tribal culture. The specialty of these dances
was that the dancers themselves were singing, tapping, and performing
simultaneously. There was no recorded background music played for them! The
kids simply won everyone’s hearts, and at the end everyone wanted to speak with
these children and nobody wanted to leave the auditorium even after 10pm!!! The next day students visited the Volkswagen automobile factory near Pune! Theirs was the batch with 10000th visitor to VW plant. So they were felicitated on the occasion by the plant head with a souvenir of in the form of a miniature car model!
From here the students went on to visit the Katraj Snake Park & Zoo. The large sized pythons excited them
and they were watching many of the animals for the first time in their life.
The next stop was the Film and
Television Institute of India. This visit was very exciting for the
children. Here the kids got to know everything about movie making… what is a
theater, what are sets, how people work there, details of acting etc. They got
to see the studio of the first movie of India, i.e. “Raja Harishchandra”. Also,
they watched the movie “Kungfu Panda 2”, and got to know the theme of 'inside
peace'! All in all the day was very exciting for them which filled them up with
lots of new knowledge and fun.
Next the children visited a Railway
Museum and were excited to know in more details of how railways operate,
and what different types of railways are. After that the children had a test of
their strength with a night trek of a
local fort, Sinhagad. During the trek they learned about varieties of flora
and fauna. Their night stay was arranged on the fort itself under the vast star
filled skies…
While returning from the fort next morning, the students visited
two army centers, DIAT (Defense Institute of Advanced Technology), and MILIT
(Military Institute of Training) at Khadakwasla near Pune. This visit opened a
big box of learning and entertainment for the children. They learned about
various military weapons including missiles, guns, artillery, tanks, fighter
planes, and bombs. They also tried their hands on tanks and fighter planes by
boarding them. The library at DIAT just awed them with its vast collection of
books.
Another highlight of the day was their second stage performance in a different corner of Pune, at Sanghvi. Children exhibited their
skills to the locals through dance, skits and songs. They got a huge applaud
for their performances. Yateen Joshi, the main coordinator of the program gave
the audience an overview of the project and explained various avenues of how we
could contribute to such a noble cause.
The day five marked a visit to an Information Technology Park, and some of the renowned IT corporate houses viz.
Persistent and Cognizant made this trip quite memorable for these children.
They got to learn about the IT industry in general, and infrastructure, the
facility and the quality of life. That sowed the seeds in their minds to excel
in academics to build their own bright future when they grow up. This was
followed by a visit to a rural school
nearby Pune. They interacted with the students there, learned about their
facilities and education system. Next was visit to Pune University and a session on Solar Technology.
This was very important and interesting visit for
the children. A tour to Solar Energy department in University of Pune awakened
future scientists and social workers in these children. They got to learn how
solar energy can help solve day to day problems of cooking, heating and
electricity. A very nice education was given in simple to understand way for
these children. The evening ended with dance and drama stage performances by the children in another center in Pune, at Aundh. The audience there whole-heartedly
appreciated skills of these children by active participation.
The next two days the kids visited Amchi Mumbai with our volunteers! Mumbai visit was very exciting
for these children. Journey via India's first express way, Pune-Mumbai is
always an experience in itself, and the children were not an exception to that
experience. The ghats of Sahyadri entertained them with their beauty. After
reaching Mumbai, kids spent the entire day at the Nehru Science Center. This day became a lifetime memory for the
children. The film on Amazon valley at the planetarium took them through the variety
of nature at Amazon. This was followed by a film on dinosaurs in a 4D theatre!
Followed by these films, a tour of various sections of Nehru Science Center gave
them an outlook of many things from science providing a huge learning. The sections
on human body, physics, astrology, ancient science, history, missiles,
chemistry, mathematics etc. enhanced the knowledge of these children by leaps
& bounds! In the night, a trip to Juhu
Beach was like a climax. The children got to see the sea for the first
time, moreover, playing on the beach in the midnight and later enjoying
ice-cream and ice-cola on the beach was a memorable experience for them.
Next day was a visit to Mumbai’s Elephanta Caves. This was their first journey by sea. Riding on the
deck of a motor boat is an incomparable experience, and this was what the
children had. Not only that, they did not realize when they reached the
destination while looking at the massive commercial and naval ships around them
in the Arabian ocean. What else can be more interesting than to have breakfast basking
in morning sun on the deck of a boat? All these wonderful experiences were
possible because of the efforts taken by the team of Art of Living devotees in Mumbai.
At the end of the week on Sunday the kids started their journey
back home form the Pune railway station. They took a lot of sweet memories and
valuable knowledge back with them. While leaving the kids shared their feeling
with the Pune team saying they never thought someone from a far corner of the
country would give them so much of love and comfort. After reaching home, they
all expressed their gratitude to the Pune team with letters containing their
experiences together with beautiful paintings.
