Origami workshop conducted at the lake

As part of our effort to introduce children in our neighbourhood to different kinds of arts and skills, we had organized an Origami workshop at the lake on 23rd October 2016.

Origami, as Sapana Rawat, resident of South City and a PNLIT volunteer explains below, is the delicate art of paper folding. Mr. Ravi Acharya who's been practising this art for over 25 years or more conducted the first workshop for 15 children at the lake. A report by Sapana is below. Some photos taken by Nidhi Chawla can be seen here.

Origami items made by children at the workshop

If you'd like your child to learn from Mr. Acharya, please email . Depending on the number of responses received, we will request him to take another session. 

Best

Usha

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Report by Sapana Rawat

On a bright sunny Sunday morning at 11 a.m., we had 15 children from age 8 yrs to 11 yrs join Shri Ravi Acharya for an Origami session at the gazebo of our beautiful Puttenahalli Lake.

Ravi Acharya,   a smiling 70-year old Origami artist, gave out origami paper to the children while showing various Origami items- birds, flowers, baskets, table, boxes of various shapes and sizes- that children could make with him.

All the children (and the adult PNLIT volunteers and trustees!) got excited seeing the flapping bird, so off we started with it only to realise in 3 folds that this is going to be a hard one to make.

Acharyaji very patiently worked with each child showing how to fold and crease the paper neatly. A couple of older children got the hang of folding very easily and were happy to finish their art work ahead of the younger ones. The younger ones with sad faces saying -"I don't know how to do this" were lovingly helped by the teacher. The older children also joined in helping the younger ones -showing off what they have learned but also guiding the little ones. It was heartening to see the children helping each other out.

After the challenging flapping bird, everyone wanted a simple, easy-to-make item! So a heart-shaped message box was selected, which did turn out to be simple. The children managed to finish making it by themselves with some help here and there.

By now it was more than hour since we started but the children wanted to do one last item. Again everyone wanted something simple but different, so we voted for a table, and like the bird, this too turned out to be a tough one to make. Surprisingly, no one gave up and Acharyaji helped each child to finish the table. This tiny table created a with a small square of paper can hold 2-3 cell phones easily. Yes, this was tested by the children once they finished their tables!

At the end of the session, origami papers were given to the children to take home and practice the same or other items. After almost two hours of Origami, the happy and hungry children (and adults) went home to eat and try their folds and creases all over again.

About the art and the artist
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Origami is an art of paper folding. Ori means "folding", and kami means "paper". Origami traces its origins to the Japanese who are supposed to have invented this art soon after was paper brought to Japan by the Chinese around the 6th century AD. Though the origin of Origami is Japanese, of late, it is used to include all kinds of paper folding.

Ravi Acharya was introduced to Origami in the early 1980s. Since then he has been fascinated by birds, flowers and boxes which he creates using different colours of paper. Origami has been a stress buster for him and now, after his retirement he loves teaching and spreading love for this art .

On the birds spotted at the lake

Visitors to the lake sometimes ask whether we have introduced the birds to the lake. When we deny this, they want to know how the winged visitors make their way to the lake. 

How do birds make their way anywhere? How do they know where they can get food? How is it that migratory birds don't lose their way flying as they do thousands of miles across the sky? These are questions beyond our scope. Our endeavour is to make the lake as attractive as possible to them, local or migrants. 

While we can spot most of the resident birds, the smaller ones hidden in the foliage give us the slip. This is why we rely heavily on sharp eyed bird watchers who are patient, prepared to spend time, listen to bird calls and so on. A few of them like Madhurima Das send us updates on the birds she sees at the lake every weekend (and also logs them on eBird). We occasionally share these in this forum. Many of the birders don't mail us, but post their sightings in the eBird check list. I visited this site today and am pleasantly surprised to find that they have collectively spotted 96 species at the lake!!

Black Drongo, 22-Oct-2016 (PIc: Madhurima Das)

Some of them like the Common Hawk-Cuckoo (spotted on 3rd Sept 2016 by Tarun Menon); Common Iora (1st July 2016, Manidip Mandal) or Asian Palm-Swift (3rd May 2016, Vidhya Sundar) are first sightings at the lake! If we manage to contact these experts, we'll get the photographs of these birds and share them with you. In the meantime, do please visit the "Puttakere" hotspot on eBird: http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L2583597.

Do go to the lake yourselves to see the birds, take photos and send them to us. Recording your sightings on eBird will help in tracking. 

Best
Usha

Bird Watch Update

Half way through October and we are eagerly waiting for the first of the migratory birds to arrive at the lake. According to Madhurima, who's been keeping a track on the birds, by this time last year, the Grey Wagtail and Brown Shrike had already made an appearance. Nevertheless Madhurima spotted today a bird that was last seen at the lake on 3rd Dec. 2011. This is the Cotton Pygmy Goose. A female chose to visit the lake. Said to be the smallest waterfowl in the world, Madhurima managed to get a shot from a distance. 

Two other photos by Madhurima are of a snake in water which is as green as the grass unlike the one of the island in the middle of the greyish water. Indeed, the play of light on the water makes it shimmer with such lovely colours from dawn through the day! 

Usha

PNLIT Teach Program: Meeting Sadiqa

Of our three students who completed 12th last year, Deepu joined an engineering college and Ramya, B.Com, both taking a step closer to achieving their dream of becoming an Engineer and Chartered Accountant. Sadiqa had wanted to do Medicine but not only did she get 71% in the board exam, her CET ranking too was disappointing. Ever since the results were announced, there was no news of her. Of the three, she had been the quietest and the brightest but perhaps she wasn't as lucky, we thought. Yesterday while waiting for a bus, she joined me with a big, happy smile. We boarded the bus together and caught up with lost time. 

Sadiqa said she had grown to hate Biology and hence done poorly in the exams. She took time to decide which subjects she liked the best and changed her direction from Medicine. She joined Vijaya College for B.Sc in Statistics, Maths and Computers. She likes Maths but finds Statistics even more interesting and wants to do Masters in this. The once quiet girl rattled off all this in excellent English oblivious of other passengers in the crowded bus looking curiously at us. When questioned she said that at +2, the teachers had taught in English. Her language skill developed and so did her interest in reading books in English and Hindi. 

She is grateful for the coaching PNLIT had arranged for her and is now taking classes for other underprivileged children! The classes are being held in the veranda of a house in Arekere Mico Layout. She gets a small amount for this. More importantly, Sadiqa has realized that she likes to teach and wants to do so professionally after her post graduation. 

At PNLIT we only facilitated the classes. The entire credit of moulding these young achievers go to their teachers -  Ramakrishna Rao, Lalitha Kamath,  Beena Ramesh, Hema Nair from South City, Sudha Veeramani, Vijetha Sanjay, Dr. C.S.N Iyer, Seema Doraiswamy from Brigade Millennium, Vivek Krishna from RBI Layout and Ancy Tom all the way from BTM Layout. Kudos!

For various reasons including lack of manpower to coordinate, our classes at the lake programme has been irregular, but after meeting Sadiqa, I wonder if we should resume it actively again. We can perhaps help more Sadiqas, Deepus and Ramyas? 

Best

Usha

About the International Literacy Day celebration

In a village called Adhania lives little Munia who cannot play like other children because she has a limp. She plays instead with the Elephant Bird who cannot fly. One day Vayu, the horse, disappears and the villagers blame the Elephant Bird for its disappearance. Well, the Elephant Bird is big enough to swallow a horse but did he swallow Vayu? Munia doesn't think so. She sets out to prove her friend's innocence. 

This story written by Arefa Tehsin, illustrated by Sonal Goyal and Sumit Sakhuja was the book chosen by Pratham Books for their  'One Day One Story'  campaign as part of the International Literacy Day.  

We used this opportunity to revive our story telling at the lake on Saturday 17th September. Are we happy we did! The children came in ones and twos and groups and soon the Gazebo was full of kids! A rough count showed about 65 young heads, the highest number ever for a story telling at our lake. Many of them had parents and/or grandparents with them. Some of the adults occupied the benches in the Gazebo, most of them stood outside. Their keen attention to the story telling was evident when they along with the children imitated the gestures of the story tellers! 

Inside and outside the gazebo

Breathing life into the story

The colours on our feet!

Snehadhara has a strong team of such talented story tellers who were enthused by the engrossed listeners, young and old. They brought the curious and brave Munia, the magical Elephant Bird and the suspicious villagers to life. The story ended but not the fun. 

Geetu and her team brought the kids to the open ground, got them to form a huge circle and everybody together played a couple of games. Then it was time to say good bye and disperse but very many of the children didn't want to leave! We didn't want them to leave either so we'll very soon organize another exciting event at the lake. Watch this space for the announcement! 

Bend your knees!

Hoola hoop game

Coming back to The Elephant Bird - the story may be fantasy but Elephant Birds did exist long ago in Madagascar. Read about them on wiki here.

If you would like to read the story to your child, please click on this link where you can access the book -  https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/1101-the-elephant-bird.

Usha

for PNLIT with Snehadhara Foundation and Pratham Books

More photographs can be seen here.

Celebrating International Literacy Day @ Puttenahalli Lake

Have you heard of an Elephant Bird? Yes, it sure did exist once. Don't believe us? Come find out about it for yourselves.

International Literacy Day is today, 8th September. However, PNLIT will be celebrating it on 17th September, with "The Elephant Bird" chosen for this year's 'One Day One Story' campaign by Pratham Books. This story, about a magical bird and a brave child, is written by Arefa Tehsin, illustrated by Sonal Goyal and Sumit Sakhuja, and published by Pratham Books.

We will have the wonderful team from Snehadhara Foundation with us to sing, dance and narrate the touching story of "The Elephant Bird". 

When: Saturday 17th September 2016 @ 4:00 p.m.
Where: Puttenahalli Lake, JP Nagar 7th Phase (near South City/ MLR Convention Centre, Brigade Millennium)
Entry: Free - All are welcome

Certificate received from National CSR Leadership Congress & Awards

The National CSR Leadership Congress & Awards was held in Bangalore on 1st September, 2016 at Taj Vivanta Hotel.

The day-long conference focussed on trending and current issues within CSR, delivered by a high-profile panel of experts. The event culminated in an awards function in the evening. The Award highlighted those organisations and individuals that embraced the CSR and sustainability agenda and made it a key component of their procurement activities - as buyer or supplier - delivering not just a neutral impact on the environment as a consequence, but also a clear benefit. 

PNLIT was one of the NGOs invited to the event. Trustee Nupur Jain and volunteer Kalai Gautham attended the evening function. We are happy to inform you that PNLIT was one of the NGOs that was awarded a Certificate of Merit for the "Contribution to Social Cause & Empowerment". Thanks to World CSR Day & World Sustainability for the recognition.

Nupur and Kalai receiving the Certificate for PNLIT

Flocks at the lake

Puttenahalli Lake is looking truly gorgeous... 

Aerial view of Puttenahalli Lake, 22-Aug-2016 (Pic: Geetha Srikrishnan)

... not only to humans but to birds as well. Last Saturday, Madhurima, a resident of South City, who's been keeping a weekly bird census, spotted twenty Cormorants in all the three sizes. This is great news but the even better news is the presence of so many young ones. 

Indian Cormorants

Indian Cormorants (adult and juvenile)

Grey Heron (juvenile)

Night Heron (juvenile and adult)

Grey-headed Swamphen (earlier known as Purple Swamphen) (juvenile)
(Pics: Madhurima Das)

One month after launching our donation drive, we have raised Rs.3 Lakhs against our target of Rs.6 lakhs. We need to raise the remaining amount at the earliest so that we can wrap up the donation drive for the year and move on to making further improvements in the lake. 

Just as little drops of water make the ocean, our small steps over the past several years have given a new lease of life to the lake. Likewise, please donate whatever you can. Your contribution will help PNLIT nurture this precious bird haven. 

Donations may be made by cash, cheque, direct remittance or online through donation partners. For details on how to donate, please see here.

If you are making an online payment, please send a screen shot of the transaction and your contact details to enable us to send you the receipt. 

Cheques in the name of "PNLIT" or "Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust" may be sent to our registered office: 

PNLIT, Usha Rajagopalan,
B3, 502, South City, Arekere Mico Layout, Off Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 076 

Donations are eligible for income tax exemption, u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act (50% deduction from taxable income) 

A hundred for a hundred

A couple of weeks ago, we had a surprise visitor at Puttenahalli Lake.
Rajas Jain, RJ from Radio City was there to hand over a plaque to PNLIT. Trustees Usha and Nupur received the plaque.

Signed by actor-filmmaker Ramesh Aravind, the plaque's lead line is "Noorakay nooru" (A hundred for a hundred). Pushpaka Vimana (ಪುಷ್ಪಕ ವಿಮಾನ), a Kannada film to be released this year, is the hundreth Kannada film in which Ramesh Aravind has acted. To commemorate this, several interesting things are being/have been done, and one of these is to felicitate 100 people who have made a difference to the city.

Thank you Radio City and Ramesh Aravind!
 

What Independence means to me as a lake conservationist

Today as we celebrate our 70th Independence Day, I wonder what does it really mean to us. For me, it is about giving up my freedom to do whatever I want for my individual comfort but to think and act for the larger good. In other words, to be a responsible citizen. Not just one day but throughout the year. 

As citizen custodians of Puttenahalli lake we come across irresponsible behaviour from visitors every day. They litter the premises, despite the dustbins placed every few feet. They throw bottles, plastic bags and idols into the water which we keep clean with such difficulty. To pluck a single flower, they break branches. They mutilate signages; poach fish, set off a fire .... indeed, the list is endless. Over the past four days, we faced new problems from selfish individuals.

The owner of a vacant plot adjoining the lake, in the buffer zone, decided to construct a building. Towards this, he got a drilling machine last Friday and in no time the air was full of blow up particles that settled on trees, shrubs, walkway and everywhere. A good shower would wash these away but the whitish material mixed with water began to flow through the pipe and into the silt trap. The owner disregarded our appeals to block the mouth of the pipe and went ahead with the drilling. By the time the machine reached the ground water point, the silt trap filled to the brim with the white muck. If not removed at once, it will enter the lake with the next rain. Or else it would harden and make the silt trap dysfunctional. One man's indifference has led to such problems for us, for the lake!

Drilling in buffer zone

Result of drilling 14-Aug-16

Result of the drilling - silt trap filled

Yesterday at about 4.30 p.m., I happened to see three people rowing in the lake cleaner's coracle. It was obvious that they were not skilled at it. Rather than disturb my friends in PNLIT, I rushed to the lake. Even as they saw me, the slum residents shouted warnings to the people in the boat. Three boys ran ahead of me yelling "Madam barathaa idhaare!" The trespassers were unable to row fast enough and I caught up with them when they reached the place where the coracle is usually stationed. 

Two were in their late teens and one, Chandru, about 22 years old. They were old enough to know they were doing something wrong. The slum residents, young and old, who shouted out to them, knew this as well. My anger erupted because of what could have happened. The theppa was an old one and cracking. What if it had given way? What if the boys fell into the water which is as deep as 18 to 20 ft at places and got caught in the clay base, among the weeds? Why didn't anyone stop them? Didn't they value the boys' lives?

The worst cut of all was when I was rushing to catch the boys, two regular walkers at the lake asked "Who are the people in the theppa?" I asked them to come with me and question them. They said they would finish their round of the lake first!

The rowers

The boys who alerted the rowers

Today morning I see our national flag planted in one of the islands, standing tall and flapping in the breeze. It makes a gorgeous sight but my first thought is that just for a whim the person who planted it there could so easily have given up his life at Puttenahalli Lake!

The tricolour on one of the islands

With a deep sigh - Jai Hind!

Usha

PNLIT