(Not Just)Another activity on saturday

Have you ever experienced that when you go to do something good to someone, in reality it does more good to you!! I went Last friday and saturday, the kids at Eklavya Nyasa, the NGO where i go every saturday as a part of my CSR,  attended a workshop conducted by marathi Teen magazine “Kishor”. I went there on saturday as the counsellors there told me that the children wanted someone to encourage them. And you know what, I returned from there with my spirits lifted too!! The kids had a great opportunity to interact with veteran film and television actor Mr. Kamlakar Sontakke, the editor of the magazine “Kishor” Ms. Dnyananda Naik, Dr. Kumar Saptarishi, Dr. Sucheta Paranjpe, and eminent theatre critic Madhav Vaze, who taught them different arts like writing scripts, essays, poetry, enacting of plays, anchoring a series of plays, public speaking, etc. The kids at Eklavya Nyasa were also joined by the students of Nutan Samartha Vidyalaya and Apte Prashala. In the poetry writing session, the children were asked to write poems, and a few of them were selected to be published in the magazine “Kishor”. The children also performed short plays written and directed by themselves. Some plays showed the typical amateurishness, however, there were some that showed tremendous insight to the art of drama. Like for instance the mime play called “Dushtacha asta”(which in English means – The fall of the wicked). The overall storyline of the play was like this… At the fall of night, there emerges a well from the ground, through which emerges a dangerous evil demon. He scares everyone around, like a fellow-witch, and an obnoxious drunkard who happens to venture that way, and then, when its morning he himself is afraid of the onslaught and jumps back into his well, which collapses back with him in it. This short play had excellent sound effects, with the distinction between day and night, the terror of the ghost ,etc. being shown only with the different sounds!  After the play, Dr. Kumar Saptarishi had a word with the kids regarding different aspects of life and wasn’t it a must-hear!! He said he didn’t know whether there existed something like Paradise, but children and adults, who spread happiness on earth, were creating paradise right here! He asked the children not to ever fall prey for concepts like caste differences, ’cause finally, all human bodies had similar organs, veins, and blood. Being a doctor himself, he said, if we were in any way different from others because of our caste, doctors would have to learn to dissect bodies of all specific caste. Then a doctor’s signboard would read, he said, “Dr. XYZ, MBBS, Dissected body of caste ABC, PQR”.  But then again, students at medical school get to dissect only unclaimed bodies, most likely belonging to beggars. So since doctors were qualified to operate only on the beggars, as they dissected only their bodies, who would operate on the rich?? So, refrain from prejudice based on religion, caste,creed,breed,state, colour, gender, financial status,etc, he pledged! Well i could go on describing what all the kids learnt during the workshop and who said what; but more than what they learnt, I am pondering on what I did….Seriously, right from the poems the kids narrated(fathom writing this line “Jagna marna ek koda ahe..Jata Jata Sodvun Bagh”—-“Life and death is a puzzle, try solving it before you go”…well I wouldn’t have thought this line at an age of 10 or 12!! Ammazing man!!), to the plays they enacted, to the advice they got from the invitees, everything was a biiig learning experience, and an enriching one at that!!