Monday, May 25, 2009

Senthil's marraige

Senthil, one of our key resources at Payir, has been looking for a bride for the past few months. His condition for the prospect is interesting – he wants at least a high school educated girl and be in a position to join our work at Payir!

He had been searching hard for the last few months. For one reason or other, a match did not happen till last week, when he found Megahala - +2 educated, computer literate girl! Last Wednesday, the girl’s family came to Thenur to enquire on Senthil’s credentials. When I say family, they are an entourage of about 35 people! The girl’s parents, her maternal and paternal Uncle and their families and other close relatives. Their intention was to enquire on Senthil’s livelihood means, his attitude to life, his standing with the community and his vision for the family – not from him or his immediate family, but his relatives and neighbours at their own home! Now, at the end of it, they also expect to be given a good feast..which also decides the matter!! The feast is not just for them, they look for the people who attend from Senthil’s side. And on the sidelines, again there are enquiries. I was also part of their whole scheme of things and the feast too!

I could say they went back happy as they agreed to Senthil’s family’s plan of meeting the girl at her village the following Friday. When I enquired Senthil how the process goes from his side..he said it will be on similar lines..only that the entourage WILL HAVE to be at leaset 5 people more than the number from girl’s side..to assert his supremacy!!! The boy’s family also liked the girl’s side and the betrothal took place the same day. The marriage is on June 25th.
Now I understand how arranged marriage goes about in village!


Saturday, May 2, 2009

Summer Camp

Payir Team at Thenur decided to conduct a month long free summer camp for the kids studying in 6th, 7th and 8th. There was quite a few takers for the camp and around 40-45 students registered for the camp. The camp would have started on 1st May, but, we had a pre-camp day on 25th and 26th.

Suresh and I did a quick visit last weekend to Thenur and found that the team was busy preparing for the summer camp. Oh! - In case you had forgotten, they had also been working on the certificates and prize distribution for Everest Competitions during the weekend. So, it was a pretty hectic weekend for them. We invited the kids on Saturday (25th April) around 4 pm and we had a great time with introduction and divided the students into 4 teams. Each team would come during a particular time during the day. The kids decided names for their respective teams and came up with interesting names(Lotus, Payum Puli, Seerum Siruthai etc). On 26th, all the four teams came in during their respective time slots and each time slot was devoted for one particular activity. The first time slot was devoted to drama and puppetry. The second slot was devoted to dancing and singing and few other literary activities. The 3rd session was related basic introduction to computers with fun as the main item in the agenda. The last session was devoted to games.

Here are some snaps taken on 25th and 26th April. The summer camp should have started in full earnest from yesterday. Let me find out more from Senthil and team and let you how things are going on out there.


The kids after solving their first sudoku. They refused to smile because the girls team had beaten them by a few seconds.


The first batch in all smiles after finishing their time slot.

The second team shaking their legs to some Kollywood songs.

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Tribal Art Animated

Pratham Books Blog recently blogged about Indian Tribal Warli Art animated by a Westland Animation. They ended creating a beautiful animation based on Indian Tribal Art.  It is the first animation in Gondi, Santali, Soara, Halbi and Marathi. Have a look. There is a great potential in our tribal art and would it not be a great project to create a full length animation based on Indian Tribal Art. Absolutely great potential


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