Sivaraj
His Cuckoo Movement for Children started as a small library movement in villages across Tamil Nadu. It has grown manifold over the years; its ultimate aim being an alternative school — Cuckoo Forest School — that is being conceptualised in Puliyanur village near Thiruvannamalai. At the forefront of the movement is the 40-year-old dhoti-clad nomad who lives off a cloth bag and 15 cups of tea a day.
Sivaraj is the editor of Thumbi , a bilingual children’s magazine that has seen 30 editions so far. The not-for-profit magazine, printed in small numbers, features an illustrated story in every issue, and an essay whose topics range from environment to society, for older children. “Children can mull over that one story the whole month,” says Sivaraj.
He has nudged several youngsters into giving up mainstream jobs and working for children. The Cuckoo team holds a night school for children of Puliyanur, screens world movies on weekends, and organises various workshops and events for children across Tamil Nadu. Notable ones include their recent story-chain from Chennai to Madurai that collected stories from children along the way, a children’s theatre festival based on stories of master Tamil writers, and a 45-day photo and film festival held in village schools on the theme ‘water’.
If friends call Sivaraj on his phone, the first thing they ask him is “Where are you?” for he is constantly traveling, meeting children, studying alternative schools, or speaking at some meeting, the recent one being the Economics of Happiness Conference at Ladakh.
John Sundar
Music bounces off trophies on the shelves, framed photos of Gandhi and Ambedkar, off footballs and tennikoits, in the small principal’s office, which doubles up as a sports room at a Corporation Middle School, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore.
Seated on the floor are ten boys and girls who sing in chorus ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Gajananam’ and the ‘Tamizh Thaai Vaazhthu’ in front of their teacher, V John Sundar.
The 46-year-old offers suggestions, keeps beat, and applauds at the end of the class. This Corporation school is among five he visits every week to teach music, for free.
COIMBATORE, TAMIL NADU, 12/11/2019: V John Sundar, who owns a light music troupe in the city, teaches music free of charge to children in government schools in Coimbatore on November 12, 2019. Photo:S. Siva Saravanan/ The Hindu
A self-taught singer, John has a light music troupe, has sung ad jingles for FM channels, performed at concerts alongside playback singers...but he cannot stop wondering, “What if my parents identified my interest in music early on and trained me? I would have perhaps left for Chennai long ago and won singing opportunities.”
John feels that children who are academically bright have scholarships to help them, “But what if a child from a less privileged family is drawn to music? Where does he or she go?” he asks. This is where he comes in. “I visit schools to pick students who are musically inclined, engage with them, sing with them... in the hope that they get some direction.”
What happens after that? “They can learn whatever stream of music they wish to, for free, at Damarugam Learning Center in Coimbatore, which I recently set up with friends. I have arranged for teachers and students can also get certificates from Trinity College in London,” he adds.
John has encountered heartbreaking stories over the past couple of years. “A 13-year-old in a Government school I visit has such a soulful voice. I have been asking to meet her parents to tell them how talented she its,” says John. “But they are masons; a day off to meet me would be a day wasted for them since they will miss out on their salary.”
Arvind Gupta
Is the soft-spoken bearded man in a khadi kurta a scientist, a teacher, an innovator, or a child? A bit of all these, actually.
When I met the 65-year-old at his Chennai home, he showed me boxes filled with toys made of straws, used CDs, rubber tubes, cardboards, matchsticks, and various other everyday objects. They are his tools to teach Science to school children.
Imagine teaching a child ‘centrifugal force’ in the classroom. ‘It is a force arising from the body’s inertia, which appears to act on a...’ He/she will probably switch off long before the teacher finishes the sentence. Arvind, however, would use straws to demonstrate the concept to children and they would cheer at how suddenly, something they thought was boring, actually became fun.
Arvind holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, but quit his job with a company making trucks to teach Science for children in the remote corners our country. He has travelled to various schools with his Science toys and has shared all of them on his website, with detailed video tutorials in several Indian languages.
He has met talented, young innovators during his travels. At a workshop in a Chennai school, he showed children the ‘Durga turbine’, designed using a discarded plastic bottle by Durga Jetthy, a student in Pune. His eyes lit up when he demonstrated it, as teachers and children watched in awe.
Paper and puppets
Many in the city are taking up creative mediums in their bid to connect with children. Thiyaga Sekar teaches origami in Government schools for free; Subid, who holds a Masters in Design from IIT Delhi, teaches them to make ahimsa toys; R Karthik and team hold shadow puppet shows in Madipakkam; Kaushik Kumar from Akarmaa Foundation has set up an activity centre for children at Urur-Olcott Kuppam, where it screens world films every week.
