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First day
As a couple of other tacklers and I made our way through some roundabout route the auto-driver decided to take, and being outrageously overcharged, we thought that our mood and energy had hit rock bottom. The deserted lane to the school didn’t hold anything promising for us either. It seemed desolate and slightly shady. We were not sure how welcome we would feel when we actually turned up. To our pleasant surprise, we were proved completely wrong. We were welcomed with open arms, wide smiles, and the kind of noise level and excitement one would associate with recess!! There were kids everywhere, running around, jumping, laughing, squealing, on the ground, colouring, cutting paper, laughing, and just spreading a lot of cheer and warmth around.
…Time flies when you’re having fun, and I discovered exactly that, when we were told that we had another half an hour to wind up. Between all the cleaning up, and making sure that we were left with how much we began with, I somehow found myself in the dance room (after we were done counting, and disposing the trash, of course). Who needs parties in fancy clubs when we can do the same at a place where you’re so much more comfortable flaunting your moves? Two girls who had joined me in doing what I thought was dancing shyly told me that next week, they’ll teach me a few steps. They went on to talk to each other in Tamil. When I replied to them in their language, they seemed shocked, then excited, then happy. A bond was formed…
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Time for a story!
…we gave them sheets of paper and asked them to write short stories. They immediately got to work. After they had written it we had acted it out. They loved the acting out bit! The role play excited them to bits. We all swapped roles every time for each story! It was such a treat to see them enjoy themselves and obviously we enjoyed ourselves as well.
They loved yelling on top of their voices when we were singing songs. It was so flattering when they said that they didn’t want to go any other stall, but wanted to sing and dance with us.
Although I was disappointed that not many kids came to our stall, we were able to accomplish so much more with a smaller crowd. So that compensated immensely.
What ultimately made my day was when these 2 girls who were in our stall the previous week came up to me and told me, “This is for you, Akka” and gave me a hand made purse which was painted and had the word “happy” written across it. It was one of those heart-melting moments that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
— Shravanthi
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What do you think about me??
Reached caravan at 2:20 pm. Just few Tacklers were there that time and I joined the registration team. I was astounded by the number of kids there and they were just awesome. As we were finishing with the registration the remaining Tacklers joined in. The Tacklers divided themselves into their respective stalls. I was part of the drama & theater stall, we started with an ice-breaker with the children who came to our stall. A kid called ‘Bharathi’ looked at me and said, “Anna I am scared of you.” I wonder why she said that?? But I told her that there is nothing to be scared about me.
Last we were coming to the end of the Caravan for the day, Bharathi kid came to me and asked ‘ nivu sanivaradandu bara beku’-(‘you have to come on Saturdays’) what she said made me extremely happy.
The whole day was awesome enjoyed a lot.. 🙂
—Aghosh P.
When I sat to reach the caravan, the school, the place where I would be going to every Saturday now, I had mixed feelings. I was unsure how this whole thing would fall into place, I was nervous, I was think about how would I manage kids and that too all at once and it’s not like I haven’t done it before, but they are kids you cannot match to their energies, their enthusiasm.
So I reached and first thing I notice is number of kids and its huge. They were so excited and energized. We started registering them and everyone wanted to get registered first in line, it was overwhelming to see and suddenly I just wanted to have fun, be as excited as the kids, enjoy and nothing more. Then we started with our stall, I was the part of arts and crafts stall. We started with our ice breaker and the one thing that attracted these kids were the colors and sketches in my hand. It was a huge group and we started playing passing the ball. They were quite interested in passing, few wanted to frame their friends (cheered for them too), few wanted to catch the ball themselves (to just dance or sing, their favorite song was kolaveri D). I loved how these kids wanted their favorite color to draw and then thereafter kept exchanging with each other. I loved how each of them would pronounce the color in such a cute manner.
There was this particular kid who asked me if I would give away prizes to the best drawing and I said no, it’s just for fun. Later when I saw what he drew I realized why he asked me that. His was the best drawing out of the lot. It was complete, it had details and was beautiful. I realized how much he wanted to be appreciated, to be recognized in doing what is actually good, what he is talented at. Somewhere there I could relate to him, I think we can all relate to him.
They day we planned didn’t quite turn out the way we were expecting and if I know any better, none of the coming days would either. But, the fun lies just there. Seeing how kids love it and were reluctant to even leave made it all worthwhile. I am looking forward to next caravan and doing actual craftsy things. I love doing them myself (making small things, painting them and decorating), and hopefully the kids will enjoy it as much as I do. 🙂
— Astha Dugar
Right after college got over,I left for my second tackle event with the kids of A.Narayanpura. Thanks to the rain and the Saturday afternoon heavy Bangalore traffic jam I reached the place an hour late. When I was entering A.Narayanpura Government school,I was greeted with “hi akka” by all the kids. They didn’t even know me but they all smiled and said”hi”.
There were a total of 200 kids who showed up. First they had a game of lion and the lamb after which the kids were divided into the stalls of their choice.We had a music stall,dance stall,games stall,art and craft stall and the drama and story telling stall.I was a part of the dance stall.
First we had the “Chicken dance”followed by “If your happy and you know it”. After the two action songs we taught the kids a new song”Baby shark” with actions.They enjoyed it immensely.The girls and the boys were divided in the dance stall.The girls were obedient and they listened to us.They enjoyed everything we taught them,while the boys they only wanted to dance and they loved the Tapori style dance. They were full of energy and thoroughly enjoyed the dancing. The girls were enthusiastic about everything as well.
The game stall had games like football, kho-kho, kabbadi, etc. Art and craft stall gave the kids an opportunity to draw and paint. While the drama stall had the kids acting out skits or mimicking characters. The maximum response was received at the dance and music stall which was clubbed. The kids danced and sang their hearts out and never got tired.
At the end, all the kids came and said bye to us. Some of them came and gave me a hug and that made my day. I was stranger to them yet they made me feel like I belonged there. Overall it was a very eventful day and the energy that the kids showed brought a smile to each of our faces.
— Reetama Das
It was a tiring, yet highly exciting journey to A. Narayanpura, on the first day of internship with tackle caravan. we expected a maximum of 40-50 children to turn up.As we got into the school premises we were astounded to find a huge number of children already playing in the ground with the volunteer who reached first. As i registered and entered, i first visited the drama stall, where the children were playing a game.. they welcomed me heartily with shouts of joy.There excitement levels immediately cheered me up and I was filled with new found energy..i played a hit tamil song for the children and they were very excited to dance in tune with it. Then i visited the music and dance stall which was conducted by myself and kim. we taught them an action song, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it..Later beat music was played and everybody started dancing around.It was a heart filling experience to find the children so happily jellng up with us.. They called me Meera akka, and i made sure that i got an oppurtunity to dance with every little kid. That was when i noticed that one girl was standing in the corner, carrying a little girl, who did not want to dance. The girl enviously looked at everybody who was dancing around.. i went to the girl and took the younger one from her and asked her to join the dance. Her face was shining with happiness.. later on i spoke to her and realised that it was one of her friend’s sibling, and she had left her with the other girl, and was enjoying dancing..i was amazed to find these little kids sharing the responsibilities without complaints. Later there was a small quarrel between the two boys, where one pulled another s shirt, and the other retaliated by slapping him. The boy was crying..I pulled him closer, and spoke to him gently, finally the problem was settled and the spirit was regained..Until the end the kids were extremely energetic and happy and i felt immense content to be a part of the reason for their happiness.. 🙂
— Meera Kumar
It was nice sunny day. We reached A Narayanapura at 2:40 pm. Around 50 boys were at the stall. So it was extremely chaotic. The children were already playing the “lion and cow” game. They all seemed completely involved in the game so we didn’t want to disturb them. But after 10 minutes we introduced ourselves. The children were absolutely thrilled to see us. We continued to play the same game but modified a little. We told whoever got out to come and introduce themselves. After another 20 minutes, we divided the children into 4 groups of 8-10 children to play kabaddi. It took us around 30 minutes to divide the groups because children were running here and there so we were trying hard to control them. After dividing the groups I started taking down the names of all the boys. At this time I got to interact with each child. I felt happy to interact with the children.
When dividing the groups, the boys wanted to be with their friends and excluded whoever they didn’t like. I told them to bring the others in also and play together. I felt there was alot of groupism among the boys. The boys were completely caught up in the game of Kabaddi. And it is the game they frequently play. After each team finished playing kabaddi, it started raining so we had to move into a room. There I noted down the names of the rest of the boys. Boys then started playing the game of 7up. They were seated in a circle. After playing 7up the children wanted to dance. The boys showed extremely thrilled when they were dancing to the song “put your right hand in…”
Before dancing to this song, one boy came up to me and told me to keep his toy. I was surprised that he trusted me to have his toy until he finished dancing. Having finished dancing the children dispersed.
— Amy Joanne
As I entered the caravan today, I could only see about 20-30 children outside playing some game. I thought that was the total number of children, because I heard in the caravan that happened last Saturday was about 150. However when I entered the school building, there were a whole lot of girls and boys, all with such eager, smiling faces! Since it was my first day and I am new to Bangalore, Amy and me we went all around Bangalore and it took us two hours to reach, though we left at 12:20, we were able to reach the caravan only at 2:30(hoping it is the first and last time).
Since I was the only one who had come at that time from the music team, I joined the dance team. We first got to interact with the girls, who were such sweethearts!!! They sang and did the actions to hokey pokey first and completely enjoyed it. When asked if they wanted to do it one more time they all in unison shouted ‘YES’. So we did the hokey pokey one more time, and by then I was actually out of breath! Soon after this song one of the girls came up to me and said ‘ akka super song’. That was enough to get my heart warm, to us it might seem like such a silly song, but to that little girl, Indira it brought a big smile to her face. After that we did their all time favorite the ‘Chicken dance’. Some of the bigger girls at the back weren’t really dancing, so I went at the back and did it with them, it was then that I you could see them giggling. Then the part with the music where you have to dance with a partner, I danced with the girls and then they all wanted a chance to do that. So it was nice to see that though at first they did weren’t as free to dance, once they knew that it was actually fun, there was no stopping them!! After the chicken dance we then sang if you’re happy and you know it. That song was also done twice. After that the dance team had a game for them where they had to dance while the music was on and then once the music stops, they all had to freeze. The first one to move had to either come up in front and sing or dance. A few then willingly did that.
Once we had a few rounds of the ‘statue game’ , I showed them how the song ‘baby shark’ was sung along with the actions. They got the songs and actions so quickly and it was so nice hearing them sing it back with all their energy. Before the song I showed them the picture of a shark, and asked them what is it called and they said ‘Dolphin’! Finally one girl said ‘shark’, so then I could start with the song. By then the boys were peeping in and wanted to come join the singing and dancing. The girls were then sent to some other stall, while they boys came barging in! Managing them was a little difficult, but they were just being boys! Full of energy they were somehow made to sit in a circle and the 7 up game was played with them. These boys were smart and it was only the younger ones that were getting out. After that they wanted to do the hokey pokey song as well so we ended the session with that. Though I was completely drained out by the end of it, it was also so exciting that I was so eager to come and write al this down and relive those memories. Once I was there among the children I completely forgot about the traffic I was stuck in or the rain that delayed me. At that moment all I wanted to do was be a part of these children’s life, be a part of their story.
At the end when it was time for them to leave, most of them wanted to come and say bye to me and I noticed that not only me, but all the volunteers they interacted with. They would go out of their way just wave bye or shake a volunteer’s hand and not just say bye, but say steal your heart away, with those smiles filled with gratitude and gratefulness. It just makes me think, when was the last time I have ever had so much gratitude that I would go out of my way to express it. Teaches me how I need to be more grateful in life for all the privileges that I have around me and stop complaining. Looking forward to these next 6 months!
— Sonia Elizabeth P
As soon as we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the number of children that had shown up. All of them all lined up waiting to be registered. Along with two other Tacklers, we began registering all of them, giving them their name tags which they seemed to like. Having no knowledge of Kannada, I spoke to them in Malayalam and they all surprisingly understood me. They always helped out while smiling up at you and giggling when you had trouble spelling their names. Just when we thought we were done, more children showed up and this went on till it was time to leave. They day ended with all of them shaking our hands and saying “Byyeee Akka” which was so heartwarming. It was a great end to a great day leaving everyone feeling energised and content.
— Susanna Thomas
