Hello  friends  –  Here’s wishing you a very HAPPY 2024 from all of us at Happy Children’s Library, Seem.

Except for a flurry of activities in October, the last quarter of the year has been rather quiet due to the changed school timings and the reduced daylight hours.  However, here’s a brief of what’s been happening at Seem: 

Assorted Activities

Tuitions & Library sessions – the senior class tuitions now start at 7 AM and the juniors attend the library for tuitions and activities in the evenings from 3:30 to 5 PM. One or two Games sessions a week are conducted for the junior children by those in the senior classes in the adjacent playground. Thus the toddlers are now getting adept at throwball, cricket and taekwondo in an organized manner.

Evening games at the playground

Workshop on English communication –  Radhika, an educationist, who had visited us earlier was very keen on working on improving spoken English and life skills with a group of children. In an attempt to start online training subsequently, she has started interaction with the children at the library so that the transition to online learning will be easier.

As part of this effort, she conducted a workshop on 1^st Oct and followed it up with a roleplay the next day. 

A friend of hers, Malvika, a professional patissiere, who runs a café in Nainital,  showed the group how to prepare and present food items and run a  café. The participants then had to operate a café – right from taking orders, serving and collecting the receipts while conversing in English at all times.  It was a very enriching experience for the children. They however, did not hesitate to put up a “closed“ sign very soon, so that the “staff” could have a feast of all the goodies left over at their café!!  Samarth, a regular volunteer at the library, helped out on both the days.

Radhika is also in the process of finalizing a CSR proposal for funding more tabs for HCL so that communication and skills improvement efforts can also be taken on-line in the future.

English workshop and café roleplay

Khushi ka ek din –  The highlight of this quarter was the much awaited programme for women. Ours was the 2^nd edition of an earlier such event that was organized in Feb 2020.  Udhyam, a group that works with rural entrepreneurs in the hills teamed up with Clearwater Analytics, another one of our sponsors, to arrange a fun-filled day for 300 women from about 10 surrounding villages.

A fun-fete with stalls for games and food, an entertainment programme put up by women from different villages and a show by ‘ Mohanda’, a pahadi standup comedian  was a great draw. A movie show, shops selling trinkets and a beauty stall were also part of the arrangements.  A happy day was successfully concluded at 4PM.

Khushi ka ek din

Agnipath training & interaction with the sponsors – The training for the written test for the Agniveer recruitment started on 15^th Sept with 5 trainees in the first cohort. Vijay conducted classes from 9 AM daily with Sundays reserved for an online test on the completed portions. Finally, 10 online mock tests were conducted to give the trainees a real feel of the testing process.

An interaction with the visiting team of Clearwater Analytics, the sponsors of this programme, was orgainsed on 27^th Oct at the library. The trainees showcased their skills and physical capabilities, which gave us all a lot of hope for their success.

Agnipath trainees with the sponsors

Agnipath training ended on 15th Nov with final testing.  Unfortunately, no notification for recruitment has yet been issued. However, we are hopeful that this training will be a good practice for appearing for other similar competitive exams  like  CAPF, State Police etc.

Science fair and model display – A Science fair was organized on 29^th Oct. Different groups of children were given science topics and they had to make working models and projects on these.  Children from classes 3 to 12 participated in a total of 9 groups. 

The models and projects developed from locally available materials were then displayed and very competently explained to the visiting team from Clearwater Analytics. The toddlers put up action songs based on topics regarding nature & environment.

As part of the contributions from the sponsors, the children now have a lot of science activity related material, including a very good telescope to use and enhance their scientific skills.

Science fair

Dance performance at Aarohi Haat –  On 30th Oct, a group of 26 children went to ‘Aarohi Haat’, a fair put up by a local NGO at Peora.  Here they performed the Kalbelia and Bharatnatyam dance pieces they had prepared for the annual day in June.  The performance was really appreciated by the visitors to the ‘haat’ and they expressed surprise at the confidence and skills of the children. 

Thereafter, the children participated in the fair and enjoyed themselves at all the food stalls.

Performance at Aarohi haat

Gillo team visits again! – Our friends from the theatre repertory at Mumbai made their annual visit to the hills in November, this time allocating 4 days to HCL and the surrounding schools. While they performed at the schools in the mornings, they spent the afternoons and a Sunday with the library kids – teaching them the various nuances of acting and performing different plays. 

It has been a extremely fruitful experience for the children, many of whom have been taking part in the annual library productions.

The visits and performances at the three different schools were much appreciated and are an important part of the library outreach programme.

Gillo at the library

Gillo at Primary School, Nauna

Gillo at Govt Inter College, Garjoli

Gillo at Primary School, Dhauna

Deepavali celebrations – The festival was celebrated in the library on 11 Nov.  The children attended in their festive clothes and decorated the premises with flowers and diyas and enjoyed the fun-games and sweets. This was also an occasion to distribute prizes to the winners of some of the activities and competitions held in the past few months.

Deepavali celebrations

Taekwondo sessions – These have continued now for more than a year and the children have gained a lot.  They have also picked up yoga and games like throwball, kabbaddi, kho-kho among others.

They showcased various yoga postures and taekwondo skills in the form of a very competent display on 29 Dec.  Many parents and visitors attended the show and complemented the children on their great performance. 

Taekwondo & Yoga displays

That’s all for now then – Goodbye and have a happy 2024 !