Karadi Tales AfterSchool Convocation

On 26 January 2011, the first batch of the Karadi Tales AfterSchool SuperStory programme at The Yellow Bus, a dynamic children’s centre in Besant Nagar, Chennai, graduated – and with flying colours! They kids presented a vibrant performance based on their creative learnings through the course of the programme.

Here’s a note from Mrs. Hema Chari of The Yellow Bus.

The jungle came alive in the presentation in different mediums of expression - art, music, theatre and dramatic reading. Every parent who registered their child for the SuperStory program came to me asking for only one thing – ‘My child is very shy, kindly make my child open up a little more.’ Today, after seeing the presentation of their child in front of an audience, the parents were amazed to see the sea of change in them. They were unanimous when they said that all the children showed great confidence all through the presentation on the convocation day.

When we wanted to put up the show, we truly wanted everything to be ‘of the children’ and ‘by the children’ but ‘for the parents’. We didn’t want to leave out any activities that the SuperStory program offered.

So our first thought went to the backdrop for the event. We decided to have a common backdrop which would depict both the eeriness of the forest and the currents of the ocean. In that direction, our art facilitator and the children worked side by side in the making of the backdrop. And the world of paints and brushes set the stage for the event.

We began the evening with the musical presentation of the Karadi song ‘Welcome to my Jungle’ performed by all the children. Since the SuperStory program is designed to develop language and reading skills, we followed this with a dramatic reading of the story Bablu and the Mouse by Ashwat and Sumukhi in which Riya acted as the elephant.

This was followed by the evening’s main feature – the theatrical presentation of the story Fish Friends Three. Anwesha acted as Timsi Machili. Bucki Mach was played by Rene. Pradyumna took to playing Moti Meen. 

The two fishermen were Pranesh and Tarun while Ashwat and Sumukhi were the narrators. 

We found that the children quite easily slipped into different characters. They related to the story very well even as it was dealt with during the sessions.

In order to show our parents how fun-filled and energized each of the sessions were, our theatrical facilitator demonstrated a fun game called 'Zip-Zap', used during the theatre activities.

We concluded the evening with the musical presentation that highlights the importance of reading books and a rendition of the ‘Will You Read With Me?’ song. 

After the concluding song, certificates were distributed to all the children by our Chief Guest Mrs. Shashikala Sriram, Principal of Bala Vidya Mandir.