Last week, your favourite fab mag, The Hindu Young World , turned 25. And we’ve had two months of fun-filled celebrations leading up to the D-day. Our mascots have now been named — Juno, Ira and Flappy. You’ve met members of the YW family, some of who have been around much longer than you have — from R.S. the alien, to Hobby Horse, lovable Sheroo and more recent ones like the Hopper detectives, our little genius Gina Neutron and Aristotle, a donkey, whose witticism you’ve grown to love. A look at all the activities, in the days leading up to the grand finale.
Waka Waka
September 6 saw kids, in Chennai swaying their way to fitness and fun as they jived to funky tunes. This was at the Zumba and Bokwa workshops conducted at The Savera and O2 fitness studios, across the city. Senthil Kumaran, Zumba instructor and Bokwa master trainer made the kids dance to their tunes.
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On September 6, a photography workshop was conducted and an enthusiastic bunch of shutterbugs turned up at The Hindu office. Under the guidance of The Hindu’s chief photo editor, V.V. Krishnan in Chennai and G. Ramakrishna, Nagara Gopal and Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury in Hyderabad, participants took pictures, learnt to capture focussed and sharp images and honed their skills.
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What’s more fun – learning to cook yummy dishes, learning about their origin or eating them up? At the cooking workshop at The Savera on September 12 you would have said all of the above. From learning about how sandwiches came into existence in 1718, helping the chefs whip up delectable pasta and sandwich varieties to finally devouring them, the young connoisseurs did it all.
Day for desserts
September 19 was dedicated to satisfying the cravings of the sweet tooth. Die-hard choco lovers in Chennai turned up at The Savera as part of the chocolate-making workshop conducted by Young World . They had the time of their lives decorating cupcakes, baking choco donuts, and smearing liberal amounts of cream on their sponge cakes before gleefully polishing it off.
Stroll with the trees
Gandhiji Jayanti, for kids across Chennai, took on a different turn, this year. Over 100 youngsters woke up early to participate in the tree walk conducted by The Hindu Young World . The walks were held in four locations in the city — Ramakrishna Children’s Park, Tambaram, Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore, Natesan Park, T. Nagar and Kotturpuram Tree Park. The walks were not only a learning process, but were a mix of activities as well. Resource persons from Nizhal, an NGO, gave participants dried leaves and asked to match them with the trees. Kids also learnt how to find out the age of the trees, what they need in order to grow and flourish and other interesting trivia.
The birds and bees
October 10 witnessed thunder, lightening and torrential rain. However, what was unusual was the number of eager kids who braved the downpour and turned up at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, early in the morning. They were geared up to get a taste of ornithology. Organised by The Hindu Young World participants had the time of their lives spotting pelicans, mynahs, egrets, black-stilts, among others. What’s more, they learnt how to use binoculars to spot birds, how to recognise birds based on the size and colour of their beaks, their wings, how to move closer to the birds without disturbing them, and more.
On a snaky trail
While one group of youngsters was studying birds in the vicinity, another group turned up at The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust to participate in the snake walk. On a two-kilometer walk, they spotted a saw-scaled adult viper and a Common Krait. With bated breath, they watched the snake catcher hold the snakes and tell them all about it.
Clean sweep
As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, The Hindu Young World , in collaboration with the Environment Foundation of India (EFI), organised a beach clean-up. It was a social initiative which invited youngsters to contribute their bit to saving their beloved beach from degradation. From picking up plastic spoons and bags, nylon ropes, thermocol, and broken pieces of glass, the young environmentalists left went all out to clean the area.
Guest Editors with gusto!
Finally, six Guest Editors arrived at The Hindu office on November 4 to know more about Young World and help us design the November 13 special issue. Hanah Saafiya, Pragun Pudukoli, David Theophine, Deepti Balakrishnan, M.L.A. Asrit and Pooja Rakesh had a glimpse of how editing, page-making and production are carried out, in a news organisation