Art Exhibition - Mirambika 14-15/Celebrations 1.pdf · 2015. 4. 6. · New brain research shows...

177 CELEBRATING IN UNITY

AAROHAN

Art Exhibition An art exhibition was put up by an ex-parent in the month of August 2014. Here is a report by a senior group of mirambika...

The studio is called ‘Windows’because it means to keep thewindows of your heart open. If the windows are open, youare spontaneous and creativeand can express yourself morefully. There are many similari-ties between Windows and mirambika. Windows isn’t justan art class where childrencome, do what they are toldand then go home. Instead,Windows helps them to becomemore sensitive and equips themto understand design and art.

‘When moulding clay on awheel, you just give a little bitof support and the beautifulpottery makes itself. Similarly,

just giving a little supportbrings out the best in a child.’

The exhibition had manypieces and each was as uniqueand beautiful as a snowflake.The children who made theseranged from the age of 4 to 18years and each of them did anequally remarkable job. Therewere models, paintings, draw-ings and a few collages. Eachchild wrote a little poem relatedto his or her concept and piece,conveying some meaningfulmessage. This helped people toknow what the little artistswere thinking while making the painting or model.

This studio is very innovativeand draws its inspiration from the years of Saadhvi, an ex-mirambikan. We neverthink twice about wasting orthrowing away anything thatcan be reused. Trash is over-flowing in every possible cornerof our cities and we don’t knowwhat to do about it. But atWindows, they have found avery innovative way to utilizewaste material. Unlike most,instead of using new items andensuring inevitable waste, theyrecycle old papers and card-boards that can be found lyingaround in abundance.

178CELEBRATING IN UNITY

AAROHAN

Did you know? New brain research shows

that art promotes creativity,social development,

and self-worth.

Some attractive exhibits:

This is a little house (below)made by 5-year-old Radha forher brother. It is quite a large project for a young child. Thehouse is large and creativelypainted and the furniture inside is small and delicatelymade. It probably required a lotof patience and Radha has defi-nitely put in all her effort to bring out this lovely little creation. She wrote a delightfullittle description of her creation:

“I would like to sleep inside thehouse. I have made this housefor Jaivir, my brother. There willbe a door, bed, sofa, cot, chair,cushion, pram, ball, bat, slime,TV tower, plants, lights, fan,gaana hoga, baksaa hoga. I willcall all friends to this house. Wewill sing and dance.”

The importance of recycling wasmentioned earlier and thismodel (above left) is a perfectexample. Made by no more thanan 8 year old, you can see theeffort and time put into it. Instead of using new materials,which will later on be thrownonly adding to the vast accumu-lation of waste on our planet,old hangers and newspapers are used, creating an innovativeand attractive piece of art, thusacting to save and recycle.

Most of the models made hadlabels on them, telling us of thetype of recycled materials used,and that is a great way to showpeople how even reused mate-rial can be made into somethingbeautiful. This particular cre-ation not only does that; it’salso unique, unlike any othermodel you would have everseen, and creative; using hang-ers and metal rods to make aspectacular masterpiece, allthought of by an 8-year-old.

Did you know? The arts celebrate multipleperspectives and teach kidsthat there are many ways

to interpret the world.

Recycling is essential for theearth to survive. Global warm-ing is increasing to the detri-ment of the polar ice caps whichare one of the major regulatorsof our global climate. If waste isnot contained, life on earth mayhave to cease to continue in afew centuries. The amount oftrash on our planet is at an all-time high and the environmentis in dire need for all of us tokeep it clean. If everyone doestheir part, however small, alarger change can occur. Thisart exhibition showed us newand innovative ways to recycleand save waste materials.

One of the parents’ thoughts onthe exhibition: “It was a walkinto the wonderful world of chil-dren’s creations. The exhibitionin the art room showcased vari-ous models, which were prod-ucts of creative thinkingfollowed by assembling wastematerials. Newspapers weremodified into thin uniform rollslooking like cane pieces of vary-ing lengths. These were stucktogether to get a surface tomake various objects. Therewere other recycled materials


AAROHAN

such as hangers and toiletpaper rolls fashioned into beau-tiful art! Bright colourful paintsbeautified each piece of art togive a glossy finish. Speaking toRenuka, the woman behind thisadventure, threw light on thefact that some of these took sev-eral months to complete. As welooked into models and paint-ings of each child, all of us mar-velled at the passion, patienceand perseverance of the chil-dren. Recycling of waste materi-als into exquisite pieces of artwas an idea uniquely thought ofand wonderfully executed.”

Did you know? Drawing develops hand–eye

coordination and spatialawareness abilities that

engineers as well as architects use.

This painting (below left) hasmany things hidden in it. It is apainted mosaic of two faces. Itcan be seen as two perspectivesof a person. It is filled with

many colours or emotions thata person can go through. It isvery eye-catching because of thecolours and puzzle it creates.This seemed to be very interest-ing because it was somethingdifferent. It conveyed a verydeep thought and one could in-terpret it in many ways.

The best thing about this exhibition was that it tried toinvolve all the viewers as well.As children came to the exit ofthe exhibition, they were toldto make one stroke on a dis-play board covered in chartpaper. Of course, each childended up covering the doodlewall in their creativity, result-ing in a masterpiece of jumbledup strokes, doodles and paint-ings. There were names, signs,doodles, little drawings, symbols, each thing unique. As we can see, this was a greatway to contribute to the exhibi-tion and involve everyone.

This wall (above left) signifies

the theme of this studio. Basi-cally, Windows is a place wherebirds of different feathers flocktogether. This wall signifieshow we are all different andunique; yet, we can be unitedas one, spectacular work of art.

Overall, the exhibition was creative, picturesque and ahuge success. Everyone en-joyed it and was inspired too. Itgave us an important lessonand made us realize how in thesmallest of ways we canachieve big things and con-tribute to save our planet byreusing and recycling materialsinstead of buying new ones.

This exhibition taught us notjust about art but also aboutthe bigger things in life that weneed to work towards.

Reported by Tranquility Group


AAROHAN

Butter Fiesta

With all the decorations hung,the microphones checked andpeople starting to trickle in, we were ready to celebrate Janmashtami in mirambika on22 August. Krishna is a veryrespected god as he played abig part in vanquishing evil. If Krishna were not there, thePandavas would not have wonthe battle in the Mahabharata.If he were not there, the cruelreign of Kamsa would not haveended. Because he played a bigrole in demolishing evil, he isone of our most revered gods.Many bhajans and ragas aresung in his praise and many

stories have been written onhis childhood; how naughty hewas and how melodiously heplayed the flute! He is wor-shipped by a large number ofpeople and that is why we cele-brate his birthday. A numberof children in mirambika lovethe mischievous lord Krishnaand enjoy depicting his child-hood, as if it were theirs. Thatis why it is celebrated withsuch love here in mirambika.

Every year, Janmashtami isheld under the neem tree, withjoy and laughter in every nookand cranny. On that day,everyone becomes Krishna andtries to vanquish all the evilthat they can from their heartsand from their minds. On thisauspicious occasion, delicious

makhan (butter) is made by theloving children and parents ofRed group. It is made the wayKrishna’s mother Yashodamaiyya used to make it: bychurning the milk in anearthen pot. They also singsongs that Yashoda maiyyawould sing or enact plays onhis life. We make butter a fewdays before Janmashtami.

This year, it was made a weekbefore the celebration, with lotsof love and affection. Everyonegets his or her turn to churnthe makhan and the little chil-dren and their parents enjoy ittremendously. While the butteris being churned, everybodygets their share of makhan,usually given by the parentsalongwith Sulochana Didi, whoplays a big role in making thebutter. Along with the butter,lots of kindness and love is distributed, and that is whyeveryone eagerly awaits thispart of the celebration. Once

Janmashtmi


AAROHAN

again this year, Janmashtamiwas held in the Blue andGreen group courtyard underthe majestic neem tree. A gor-geous swing with a statue ofShri Krishna sitting on it washung from the neem tree, andthat little performance areawas decorated beautifully bythe Diyas. Almost all groupsperformed on this year’s Jan-mashtami and the parents,Diyas and children were thereto see them sing and dance.

All the performances that tookplace kept the audience gluedto their seats and everyonethoroughly enjoyed the pro-gramme. From the little Krish-nas of Red and Blue groupscame song and dance whichfilled us with endless joy andecstasy. Green group per-formed to a song along with actions that depicted Vasudevtaking little Krishna throughthe Yamuna river, while Yellow,Peace and Equality groups recited Sanskrit shlokas for us,which swept a peaceful waveover everyone. Orange groupdanced for us to the commonyet very pleasurable song,Achyutam Keshavam. They toosent a wave of enthusiasmthrough the crowd. As soon asHarmony group walked on tothe stage and a keyboard wasset up, the audience greweager. The little children stoodnext to Madhav (who was play-ing the keyboard) and were

enthralled. They sang a beauti-ful song called O Palanharefrom the movie Lagaan andsome of the eager audiencemembers also joined in.Tranquility group felt a hushdescend upon the audience asthey took their places on stage.Dressed in our multicolouredT-shirts and with little nervoussmiles, we started singing.Claps with and beats for thefirst song, we slowly changedto a soothing, graceful melodyon our second one. It was anamazing experience and fromall the compliments given bythe audience later on, it seemslike they enjoyed it too! TheSamarpan group, commonlyknown in the school as the‘First Years’, come to miram-bika for a teacher trainingcourse of three years. Theystay with the children, perform

plays and learn, step by step,how the Diyas interact withchildren here. They come fromall over India and are keen tolearn about mirambika andhow everything is done here.They presented a play thisJanmashtami as well, actingout the eternal story of Sudama and Krishna.

DID YOU KNOW?In his earlier avatar as LordRama, Krishna killed Vali. Heassured Tara (Vali’s wife) thatVali would be able to take re-venge in his next birth. Valiwas reborn as hunter Jara

and he was the cause of ShriKrishna’s death in this life.

The group performances wereover but another event thateveryone was eagerly lookingforward to was yet to come: the distribution of the prasad.Bowls filled to the brim withdelicious sweets and namkeenswere handed out to everyoneby Faith group. The love andaffection that they transferredfrom them to everyone withtheir heartwarming smiles andgreetings filled the hearts of allwith joy. The sweets broughtsmiles to everyone’s faces andthe slightly greedy ones wereable to trick the prasad distrib-utors into giving them a secondhelping of those sweets, justlike Krishna used to trickYashoda maiyya into givinghim more and more makhan!


AAROHAN

Many other people had lent ahand in making this occasiongorgeous and charming. Withsome supervision from Saswa-tee Didi, and from Samarpangroup, the little courtyard wasattractively arranged withcolourful dupattas hangingfrom the top and the icing onthe cake was a swing with a little Krishna statue on it, glimmering in the morningsunlight. Saswatee Didi whosupervised the decoration procedure was very happy withthe outcome and appreciatedthe lovely decorations.

“Decorating the place was anamazing experience, and theDiyas in the Samarpan grouphelped a lot. They did all thedecorations and kept trying tomake the area look even better.I really appreciate that.”

– Saswatee Didi, Blue group

“It took us an hour to decoratethe place and the whole groupcontributed in their own way.We had a few problems inclimbing up to put the swing butin the end we managed, andwe were very happy with it.”

– Ratnakar Bhaiyya,Samarpan group

DID YOU KNOW?Krishna brought back

the six sons of Devaki for abrief reunion. Those sonswere earlier grandsons of Hiranyakashyap!

We talked to a few Diyas andasked them some questions regarding the programme. Baren Bhaiyya (Equalitygroup), whose group performedthe Sanskrit shlokas for us,was very happy with the per-formance of his group. Heloved the progression from Redto Orange group, however hefelt that prasad distributionhappened a bit earlier than itwas supposed to and clashedwith the ongoing programme.

We also asked Bismay Bhaiyya(Progress group), the personbehind the sound system, afew questions. The sound sys-tem was necessary because theprogramme was held in acourtyard where the amplifica-tion of the sound was poorwithout microphones. It wasthe first time they were usingclip-on mikes so organizingand working with it was a challenge. He did an excellentjob, however, and the dialoguesand songs were easily heard by the audience.

‘Little children can’t be told whatto do. Whatever they do, they doit from their heart, they don’t doit for the applause, not for theirparents, they do it just for thejoy of it all and learn from theirexperience. ‘Let’s become Krishna!’ or ‘Let’s go fill water atthe Yamuna!’ is how their Diyasinteract with the children. Youshouldn’t pressurize them withthe fact that they will be per-forming. And we all saw thatthey absolutely lived every moment of what they did.”

– Minati Didi, Red group

So, we can see how everyonehas different ways of looking atwhat they could have improvedin the programme, and how itcould have been much better.

Overall, the programme washighly appreciated by the children and the parents too;from the youngest of the Redgroup to the eldest of the Faithgroup, everyone did their bestand this will be one memorableJanmashtami.

Reported by Tranquility Group


AAROHAN

The first weekend of Decemberwas probably the most waitedfor in the entire year. It wasthe day of celebration, ofspeed, endurance andstrength, the day we demon-strated our skills and pushedpast our physical restrictionsto create better versions ofourselves. This day was alsoknown as the mirambikanSports Day! We arrived inschool with bright smiles onour faces, barely able to con-tain our excitement for theevent! From Progress group to Faith group, all wearing thesame uniform, it was quite arare sight on mirambika’ssports field!

We started the day with amarch past, and as our armsand legs moved in coordina-tion, so did the shutters of ourparents’ cameras! The flagswaved gracefully and the torchwith its luminous glare de-clared the start of the much-awaited event! After a fewrhythmic movements and asession of collective meditation,we found ourselves on the athletics track, stretching andwarming up for the tiring yetexciting marathon race!

“10 rounds minimum!” the elders declared, as we startedour run. People of all shapesand sizes, ages and connec-tions were found running (orpretending to)! Some chattedand laughed as they ran, whileothers ran with full focus. Pic-tures were clicked and cheerswere chanted. It was the dayour track was truly put to use!As baton relays were run andobstacle courses struggledthrough, parents, Diyas, ex-students, were all found partic-ipating and having a good time!

Then it was time for the much-awaited tug-of-war! Andwhether it was children againstthe parents or Diyas againstthe alumni, everyone put intheir best and celebrated eachvictory! That is the mirambikanspirit after all; there is no winner or loser! We don’t playto come first but to improve.And our Sports Day is the daywhen we can truly live thatspirit, and probably that is thereason that this day is soloved! (Aside than the fact that it is a lot of fun!)

A few basketball and footballmatches later, we headed towards the novelty games corners. By the children, forthe children (and parents!),and of the children, thesegames are created by us children and help us develop acertain set of skills! The dayended on a happy note andeveryone returned home with asmile, preparing for the nextday, when we would have thephysical demonstration of theskills we had learnt in the cor-ners that we had been a part of

over the last few months. Thenext day too went off very wellwith unbelievable gymnasticsstunts performed by both jun-ior as well as senior classes.

Sports Day


AAROHAN

Human pyramids were formed.An artistic circus was demon-strated. Senior ‘Super Skaters’performed tricks on wheels,while the juniors did an adapta-tion of the ‘Samudra Manthan’which they revealed on wheels!Folk dances were danced andsurya namaskar performed withperfection. The younger miram-bikans shocked us all with theiramazing gymnastic abilities,focus, determination and flexi-bility skills. The audience aswell as the performers had agala time. At the end of theevent, all children, no matterwhat their performance, age orresults, were given a medal as amemento of the event. And withhappy hearts and proud spiritswe went back home thinkingthat the whole function turnedout to be true to its theme: Dynamic Energy Towards Light!

– Ananya Bhat


AAROHAN

We celebrated Christmas on 24 December 2014. Christmaswas already in the air days before 25 December, as childrenstarted to select traditionalChristmas carols and sing themevery now and then. Christmascarols in Hindi added beauty to the whole endeavour andgrounded us to the fact thatthough languages and climesdiffered, the spirit of Christmaswas very much alive andreigned, irrespective of these.

Christmas celebrations went‘mobile’ in some ways, on 24 December 2015. Followingconcentration time in the lobbyat 9.30 am, Progress groupwelcomed everyone gathered inthe foyer, including many parents, with Go Tell It To TheMountains that Jesus Christwas born. Equality group thentold the story of We ThreeKings. The whole congregationthen moved to the Green/Bluegroup courtyard following theThree Kings, where the littleBlue group children greeted uswith Nanhe Munne Bachhe.

This opened the pathways toGreen group children enactinga musical drama on the birthof Christ in the same court-yard. Then following the birthof Christ, we all proceeded tothe Library to celebrate thebirth of Christ with moresongs. Yellow, Harmony, Peace,Equality, Tranquility, Receptiv-ity and Faith group childrengave us renditions such asDeck The Halls, Let It Be, Carolof the Bells and Silent Night.

There was a beautiful spirit ofharmony and joy reigning in

the Library hall as all thesecelebrations came to an end.As a fitting conclusion to thewhole affair, Santa Claus, whowas eagerly awaited by the little children, arrived to thejingle of bells. He greeted allwith hand-shakes and huggedthe little children and offeredthem packets of revadi andground nuts.

It was indeed a Merry Christmas to ALL.

– Jayanthy, Diya

Christmas


AAROHAN

This year, 13, 14 and 15 Janu-ary were the coldest days andwe warmed ourselves by danc-ing to the tunes of Lohri,Makar Sakranti and Pongalcelebrations on the ground ofmirambika. The whole school,including parents, gatheredhappily around the fire pit created in the middle ofmirmabika’s playfield, asKaruna Didi started a bonfireto the sound of OM from allaround. The flames leapt up, it seemed in glee, as we fin-ished chanting the mantras. Traditionally, the festival ofLohri marks the end of the cold winter season and the advent of the season of springor vasant. The bonfire is tradi-tionally lit in Punjab during thecoldest period of the year.

Around this bonfire, peoplegathered for warmth and alsodanced and sang as they aterevadis, popcorn and ground-nuts (while also throwing someinto the flames). Unwantedthings are also cast into thefire to start a new year. In mirambika, symbolically,everyone wrote unwanted qual-ities in them that they wantedto discard on pieces of paperand offered these into the claypots kept near the fire. Fromthere everyone later moved tothe open stage where the wholecelebration was going to takeplace. Before the programmestarted, children from the Har-mony group (12+) started byintroducing Pongal and why it is celebrated. They wishedeveryone Pongal wishes and

shared how Pongal is cele-brated in the southern part ofIndia, the legendary stories behind it and the symbols related to it. They also addedother similar festivals which arecelebrated but with differentnames. Our celebration thenflowed into another rhythm.We began our programme withthe radiant Orange group (8+)children, who offered their musical movements to the Sungod. Then the little Greengroup (6+) children came to-gether to make the celebrationmore joyous. They showed howpeople did hard work to collectgrains. This was demonstratedthrough simple dance move-ment for a Bengali song. Thenwith equality and harmony, the Equality (11+) and the Harmony (12+) group childrendid Bhangra dance to dholbeats. Following this, the Peaceand Progress group childrenperformed kummi, a Tamil folkdance, which involved rhyth-mic clapping and circularmovements. Then Tranquility(13+), Receptivity (14+) andFaith (15+) group children didBhangra again with formationsand fast movements. Finally, the celebration came toan end with the Diyas dancingthe Garba. Everyone enjoyedthe celebration and receivedhelpings of pongal, popcorn, revadi and groundnuts.

– Aruna, Diya

Pongal, Lohri and Makar Sakranti


AAROHAN

It was a very bright day, andthere was happiness in the at-mosphere. We were all excited.It was because it was TheMother’s 137th birth anniver-sary. Every group was gettingready for the dances, plays andsongs they wanted to offer.

A peaceful soft music startedplaying and our offerings forthe Mother began in the neemgrove. All the children weregetting excited and waited ea-gerly for the performances tobegin. There were many amaz-ing performances like the twoSanskrit plays, a song on Raag Bhairav, a song called Jagadambai, French recita-tions, recitation of a hymn toDurga and shlokas from theGita presented by Peace,Equality, Harmony, Tranquil-ity, Orange and Progressgroups, respectively.

At last, the programme endedwith the Mother’s music.

On the second day of Mother’sbirthday celebration, many

new groups performed wonderful offerings, and some performed a second time.

The first offering of the day wasby the Yellow group. Withmelodious voices, they sang ahymn known as AmazingGrace. Following them camethe little children of Red group,who entered Mother’s gardento make it even more beautiful.Vegetables like carrots and little caterpillars danced allaround the stage and whenthey left, they enhanced thestage even more. Next camethe Blue group. Dressed asclouds and water, they askedthe flowers three questions: “How do you bloom so nicely?”“How are you so beautiful?”“Why does Mother like you somuch?”

And the flowers answered them:“We bloom when the mellow sunrays hit the ground, and whenthe rain falls on our closedpetals, and when the windslowly whispers in our ears.”

Following the Blue group cameGreen, who told us all aboutthe significance of Mother’sflowers. Dressed as orange,green, purple and yellow flow-ers, they danced and recitedthe significance of the flowers.

After these performances onflowers, Yellow group cameonce more and danced a Sam-balpuri dance. Sambalpur is aregion in Orissa, and their folkdance is the Sambalpuri dance.The Yellow group childrendanced to tunes from an instru-mental music piece. Dressed inthe traditional clothes that aresupposed to be worn, the chil-dren of Yellow group movedback and forth on the stage.

Next came the first and onlyplay of the celebration. Actingin Sanskrit, Equality group depicted the building ofKonark, the Sun Temple. Thistemple is near Puri, in Orissa.The play is set in moderntimes, where a group of chil-dren visit this sun temple andwonder how it was made.

The Mother’s 137th Birthday


AAROHAN

At that time, a stone nearbyspeaks up and claims to havebeen there when the templewas made. So the children goback in time with the stone, to see the creation of Konark.

Following this beautiful playwas a song with movementsdone by Orange group. AllThings Bright and Beautiful is a song that is all about howwonderfully the Lord God created the whole world.

After this performance withgraceful movements, a few children from Kechla came and

sang two songs that they learntin Kechla. One was in Englishand the other was in Oriya, a translation of a poem by Sri Aurobindo. They created an atmosphere of devotion with calm and peace settling in almost instantly.

Following these two songs,Tranquility group sang twomore songs in English. Pom-peii, their first song, originallysung by the band Bastille, was about how we should beoptimistic even in the worst situations. Strumming the guitar and singing harmonies,

Tranquility group ended thesong beautifully. Then theysang Team, originally by Lorde,as their second item. This signified the importance offriendship; whatever the prob-lem may be, we should be oneach other’s teams.

Our offerings for The Motheron this special and beautifuloccasion were concluded byPeace group, which melodi-ously chanted 20 shlokas from a chapter of the Gita.

– Aadya & Aashika

Art Exhibition - Mirambika 14-15/Celebrations 1.pdf · 2015. 4. 6. · New brain research shows...

Documents

Transcript of Art Exhibition - Mirambika 14-15/Celebrations 1.pdf · 2015. 4. 6. · New brain research shows...