Greetings of the season to all our friends from the children of Seem. We’re a bit delayed this time so please don’t mind, but here’s a roundup of the last quarter at Happy Children’s Library-

Tuitions – have continued throughout this period. The seniors come at 7:15 AM before going to school and the juniors & toddlers in the evenings after school at 4PM   It is very heartening to note that Jaya and Atul had gone on a 45day vacation and the library activities &tuitions continued with the same gusto. Rita and Anita have now become adept and can handle the toddlers independently, while Bishtji and Vijay take care of the middle and senior group respectively.

Taekwondo – The Sunday sessions of taekwondo and games are one of the most “looked-forward-to” activities at the library.  These have now continued regularly for two years with some minor stoppages for other workshops etc. We are really lucky to have a dedicated trainer in Kamal, who travels all the way from Almora each week. As per him, he is all the more interested in coming here seeing the enthusiasm and talent of the children from HCL.

Comics and Art Workshop – Samarth’s initiative is now more than a year old and the children have learnt a great deal in this period.  They have learnt various skills & art methodologies and can now critically examine each other’s artwork. We hope that a younger group would soon be included so that these skills can be spread further down and over a longer period of exposure.   It is worth mentioning that through the work that Samarth is doing with the children, he is able to showcase the library among his network. This has led to more awareness about HCL and increased possibilities for like minded people to connect with us.

Improved skills from the art based workshops

Science exhibition – As part of their annual engagement with us, our friends from Clearwater Analytics sponsored the annual Science Day programme.  On 4^th Oct the junior group (upto Class 6) presented their understanding on science and the environment in the form of action songs. Rita & Anita had helped them with charts for themes such as the solar system and plant and insect life.

On 6^th Oct the middle and senior groups, of Classes 7-9 and 10-12 respectively presented and explained the science behind the models they had worked on. The middle group presented   chemical reactions, air pressure, solar cooker and wind vanes while the senior group displayed gears, electric current principles and a homemade microscope.

The children were quizzed by some members of the CWA team and were able to give the correct answers.  It was a task to choose the winners, who were then given prizes.

Science Exhibition

Adventure camp (05 Oct)– The Clearwater team also participated with great enthusiasm in the adventure camp. Ankit and his team from Bhimtal set up rope ladders, zip line equipment and jumars in an open field near the library. 60+ children from Class 7 – 12  enjoyed all these and other team building activities with active participation from the Clearwater team. This was followed by a great picnic lunch at the site.

Adventure Camp

Rang karvaan visit – Vandana, who was one of the first to conduct a theatre activity for our library in 2019, visited with two of her team members. She now runs Rang karavaan, an initiative that works with children & young adults in theatre related activities at Champawat, a remote town of Uttarakhand.

She renewed her association with us and her team members conducted art & games activities at the library. They also learnt about the functioning of the library and its activities.

Vandana & team at the library

Gillo visits again (23 – 27 Oct) – Our friends from Gillo Gilheri, the Mumbai based theatre repository,, conducted their third visit to HCL and other locations in Uttarakhand. In what has now become a much looked forward to annual feature for the children and some schools in the vicinity, they presented their shows at GIC Garjoli, Govt. Primary School Nauna & Greenfield School, Siltona. Along with their own performances at the library they conducted extensive workshops with the children.  

Our association with team Gillo has now become more personal and the children interact with them very fondly. We hope and pray that they continue to grace us with their yearly visits.

Gillo at HCL

Gillo at Primary School Nauna

Gillo at Greenfield School, Siltona

Gillo at GIC, Garjoli

Parul’s visit & Diwali celebrations – Parul a very close friend from Ahmedabad has been a great help for the library since its inception. This year she, her daughter Prutha and friends from Ahmedabad organized the Deepavali celebrations at the library. So, on 1^st Nov about 120 children and past students of HCL gathered to celebrate the festival. Fun games and housie were arranged and all the children were presented school bags and goodies.

Parul had also arranged for hoodies (with HCL’s logo) for the children for the winter season. 

The highlight of the day was an interaction with 7 ex-students of the library, who shared their experiences and told the kids their life journey so far. This was also an opportunity for the extended HCL family- all the volunteers and resource people from around the hills to celebrate with the children.

Flying objects workshop ( 29  Dec) – Bill, a friend based in California visits India every other year. During his last visit he accompanied us during the Delhi exposure tour in 2022. This year he decided to visit the library and conduct a workshop on flying objects – airplanes,helicopters and drones. He prepared an elaborate video presentation, which was translated by another young friend, Vihaan, on the history of flying and also took a quiz on the presentation. 

He then made the children fly models of the different machines and presented them to the library so that the kids could use them in the future.  

Swara, Rahul & Pankaj had also accompanied Bill and arranged for a drone photographer to come over and interact with the children and take drone shots of the library and the kids. All in all a very good experience for the children to end the year.

Flying workshop

Visitors –  as always we had a few visitors who met with and enriched the exposure of the children.

Ajith , a retired professor of archeology came on 22 Oct and held a session with the kids.  He explained what archeology, a very new subject for the children, was and had to answer a lot of queries of the kids – all this inspite of the fact that he has taught only college and PhD students all his life!

Ajith talks about archaeology

Saurabh- another young visitor is a game developer.  He did a weeklong workshop with a few children on game development, wherein he taught them how to design their own games. Thereafter, each group made an exclusive game on their own – a very good exercise to develop a new skill.

Saurabh working with the children

We are extremely fortunate to have so many friends and visitors who come each year and spend time with the children. Till date more than 150 people have visited, some of them more than once and the current year has been the busiest by far – all thanks to you all. 

We also have many well-wishers who contribute financially to the library on a regular basis, on the strength of which, we are able to make Happy Children’s Library what it is.

So, a big shout out to all you lovely people for contributing your time & efforts  and funds to make the children of HCL happy! 

Cheers and may you all have a rollicking New Year 2025!!