Marvaellous musical in Museum Theatre

For over a month I was blogging elsewhere.
It was not just blogging. But an experience, a lot of learning, many nice moments and above all a whole lot of trivia about the city we live in!
My posts here will relate to events and experiences more than a month old, for sometime. I could have very much skipped the old stories. But many of the incidents I came across are really worth sharing.

One such is a Children's musical show at the Museum Theatre, Egmore.
For those who have not been to a show in this marvellous auditorium, any amount of words explaining the experience will not be as real as watching a show live there.
The circular hall echoes from all sides and the audio effect of a music or the dialogues of a drama are different from any other modern halls or auditoriums.

Now, let me tell you about the show.

This is a musical show by C.S.I. St. Thomas English Church Children's Choir of Santhome. The story of Samson. A biblical story which portrays Samson as one of the miraculous children with enormous strength. Unfortunately, his enemies discover the secrets of his strength that it lied in his long hair! He undergoes a lot of humiliation and at last regains his strength and brings down the castle of his enemies with his strength.

Like any other mythological story this one also has many versions and interpretations. I am not going to talk about them. But the Children's choir presented it in a different way. It was really amazing!

The singing lot of about 15 children were arranged on a five step choir platform on one side of the stage. The main portion of the stage was used for a theatre performance. As the kids sang the choir, the story moves on with actions by another set of kids. The set was beautiful. The children sang to the pre recorded music, but with perfection. There was a special child in the front row, fully involved in the show. She sang and keenly watched the acting on the other side.

Choir is one among my favourites. When I called up the contact number, I found it was the Church office number. The manager wanted to know to which prayer group I belonged to. When I said I pray at 'temples', he was surprised. So was I at the auditorium. No one other than my son and I was not a Christian!

It is a story. Musical. And by kids! Any one who likes music, story and kids would love to be present there, especially when the show was in a hall like Museum Theatre. Sadly, we did not find many others.
On our way back, we were discussing how any mythological or historical story, irrespective of religion can be told in different ways that will be liked by kids.
The conductor Anila Manoharan worked closely with the kids, I guess. When she was asked to come on stage, the kids expressed their joy - "Anila Auntiee..."
Congrats kids and Anila!

Walk your way to health

'Quitting a bad habit is hard. Starting a good habit is harder'

I am introduced to morning walk just a few days ago. My neighbour drives to the beach to walk.

A view from my tiny balcony in the morning shows me people of various ages who are regular walkers.

I decided to go for a walk, but from tomorrow - on everyday morning I renewed my oath.

My painted shoes were lying idle for over a month now. A great doctor friend sent me a link to a website on walking!

The link took me to the page where it said -
'An early morning walk is blessing for the whole day' - Henry David Thoreau.

I do not know who this Thoreau is. But I was inspired by the website dedicated to morning walks!

On a 'next' day morning I woke up to walk. Walking along the Besant Avenue Road was a pleasant experience.

The road which becomes a racing track for the bikers on the weekend evenings, is very quiet in the morings. Of course, a few driving school cars are usually seen at this time on this road.

The green curved road leads to Rajaji Bhavan. On the first day of my morning walk, I could not walk too long a distance but was tempted to have a look at the rising sun.

I took a turn before Rajaji Bhavan and walked towards the beach through the kuppam. The row of small houses immediately after the posh Bungalows bear a different characteristic.

The frontyards are watered. Small but beautiful kolam are drwan in front of all the houses. The morning routine of fetching water goes on.

I reached the dirty part of the Besant Nagar beach. But the sun rise is beautiful even from that part.

I walked back through the Damodarapuram Road ending at The School (KFI) at the Besant Avenue end!

I was tired after walking for more than half an hour. The summer is still on and it is steaming even in the morning.

Yet, the morning walk is wonderful, gives my day a good start. This statement of mine is after walking for about a month now!

Science and students

On last Sunday when there was no work, we as a family decided to go to Chennai Trade Centre.
What was up? Not a regular consumer exhibition. But a different one.
ACMEE - 2006 Industrial Exhibition.
The event overview said that the "focus is on the products, solutions and services in the areas of CNC machine tools, automobiles, mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, information technology (IT) and software."
The words included all the branches of engineering. What else can create curiosity among parents with a son just completed 12th class and waiting to join engineering courses!
We took a bus to the centre as we were scared of a weekend traffic on the road to and beyond Kathipara.
Well designed campus with ample parking area, not seen in many of the shopping complexes in Chennai nowadays. There was an entry fee and we were allowed inside with an identity card, with our names printed on it.
For us the machines looked as though they were from Mars! But we decided to walk through the exhibition.
Simple wired mesh patterens, poultry nettings on a metal craft stall were familiar. The huge forging machines were not. The people manning the stalls with neat 'corporate uniforms' were waiting for business enquiries.
We weren't the people they were looking for. But we would have liked if someone said what those machines are used for. Just an intro to a layman.
A house hold remote control was interesting. You can switch on / off your fans and lights with a remote control which does not interfere with your TV's and AC's remote.
The battery operated stackers were displayed on the floor. Do they help in industrial stacking or stacking of goods in shopping mall or heavy books in book stalls and libraries?
Regent Biochem India P. Ltd were seen circulating a green brochure. It said they provide environmental friendlty solutions to industries in disposing of their wastes, innovative concept in industrial cleaning. A must for the changing world and what every child should learn to preserve the nature.
Electroninc weighing machines, holograms, electrical switches and plugs, we walked ahead of these displays.
The king of the exhibits was a metal cutting machine by Neotech. It operates with plasma power source. Attached to a Auto CAD machine, you can draw your designs and cut it with high precision. Not you - it is used in vessel manufacturing industries, mining & automobile manufacturing units. Everytime a visitor wondered what the machine is doing, the exhibitor, demonstrated a cut! A patient and industrious exhibitor.
At the end all that one could see was representatives from various companies grabbing brochures for their bosses to sit and read leisurely. Not many students from schools or even colleges.
But a father of two kids was trying to expalin all that he could to those curious ones.
They are strange visitors for the business people.
But they are the future science and engineering students. They are the future manufacturers and consumers of these exhibits. May be these industrial components light up an idea in their minds and they become grassroot innovators.
When so much is talked about the innovations and L-Ramp awards are being announced every year and when there is a forum for India Innovators, why not the kids be taken to such exhibitions and explained about the present facilities and future scope?
Can our city schools take their eyes away from text books and 100% results for a while and initiate such steps?
This will surely go a long way in real education of this generation.

Teamwork works - Part 2

Day 2 at the training.

Yes, the water was ice-cold. The institute follows the system of solar heaters. The weather was chill and so the water.

Today we were on time for breakfast. Many known faces - teachers who were part of the programme we met the previous day.

Both Kathik and I were looking forward to the other 'unknown' group. We swaped our groups and went to the hall.

Fresh morning, fresh team and all were ready for the games.
Interesting moments - when a team had to agree on some issues, because of a team member being a Physics teacher; a team in which it did not strike for one that there is no oxygen in the moon, two teachers, who could not solve a mathematics puzzle, interestingly both from English department and all of the group laughing at a person lablelled to do so. . .


The open minded teachers were rocking.
The management was supportive.
The senior teachers were seen mingling with the new comers.
All good signs of a group of new generation teachers ready to give education a different dimension.
The student community is in safe hands as of now.

But with the rush for technical degrees all to end up in a typical BPO / IT job, I really wonder where one could find good, dedicated teachers for the future generation kids!


We had to quickly pack up after the lunch to catch the train back to the ever hot city Chennai at 2.40pm.

I spent two useful days, this summer. A nice break for me from the exam-result-exam game at home with my son!

Teamwork works - Part 1

I had been thinking about a professional assignment from EZvidya, till I landed at a heavenly pleasant place called Mangarai, near Coimbatore.

For people from Chennai, 23 degrees at Coimbatore and even chiller weather in Mangarai Village, situated within the reserve forest area is like being in Ladak during summer!


This was not a holiday trip. But a holiday camp for teachers of a school from Tiruppur. This is one of the prestigous schools in the T-shirt town, Tiruppur, we are told.

The place of the camp was a perfect one - The Karl Kubel Institute for Development Education. The well developed institute with library, Internet and canteen facilities apart from the greenery and colourful flowers in the well maintained campus.

We landed at the place early in the morning - I mean myself and Karthik, another trainer from Chennai.

After a night long journey, both of us checked in to our rooms and had a nap till 9.

After freshening up, we went to the canteen for a breakfast. They have strict time table - good for people on diet - and the staff provided three idlis to each of us from the left overs and a cupful of tea.

That made us rush for the lunch on time!

We just spent time shooting pics. The clouds over the hills, the green plants, the building where we stayed and so on...

The workshop was to start at 2, but the team arrived after 3pm.
Probably they enjoyed their trip from Tiruppur to this place, that made their journey a little longer than it usually is.

The team consisted of senior teachers, principal, correspondent, academic supervisor, montessori teachers and the new recruits of the present academic year.

Karthik and I divided the team into two groups and handled sessions individually.

Karthik, being a theatre person, made the session more physical with inputs on body language, voice modulation and the like.

My session was more of games, involving psychological aspects.

The grouping game, an icebreaker, did break the ice. The mathematics teacher could not instantly make out the difference between 3 pairs and 6 legs! The group broke into laughter.

At the end of the session one teacher came out plainly saying that she felt lost when she could not fit into one particular team. But, I should mention that the same teacher said at the end of the session, "I realise that I have to take the initiative to be a part of any group and not wait for invitation to join them." The first step towards success!

After a coffee break, the session went on till 8pm. I could not see a single tiresome face in the team. I should appreciate the team for enthusiastic participation, including the principal and the correspondent. Or should I take some credit for myself for keeping the session lively?

After dinner, we retired to our rooms. It was chill outside. The sound of the wing blowing filled the room though I carefully closed every opening.

I browsed over the feedback from the participants of the day and felt happy. I guess this gave me encouragement to wake up only to bathe in cold water of temperature - 3degree Celsius!