Aahlad (A Celebration of Children’s Inner Joy)

Aahlad

A Celebration of Children’s Inner Joy

In the everyday learning experience of a child, there is great emphasis placed on structured and regimented learning. There is usually a fixed time for a specific activity or lesson and all children are expected to learn at the same pace as the rest of their class. While this system has many benefits, we at Bal Bhavan Jaipur feel that there is also a need to allow for a conducive atmosphere, where every once in a while, a child is free to pursue an activity of their own choosing and where a child can learn at her or his own pace and thereby get the most out of the learning process.

It is with this in mind that we decided to make Aahlad a permanent event in our annual calendar. It is a festival that brings together the creative trinity of Literature, Science and Art. The entire 3 day event is designed as a ‘Mela’ or fete with complete emphasis on the enjoyment of children. The idea is to involve them completely through a myriad of activities including story-telling, painting, pottery making, photography, star gazing, toy making, book exhibition and even a scientific explanation and self experimentation of so called ‘miracles’. Moreover, the interaction between the participating children and various resource persons and experts is based on a participative model rather than an instructive one. For example, during banner making and painting, instead of lecturing children on what to make and how to make it, our resource persons introduced the theme and then allowed each child to interpret it in their own way. The experts sat amongst the children working on their own pieces as the children explored their own methodology and then the resource persons guided and advised the children in a manner suitable to their individual level of ability and their choice of medium. Aahlad not only introduces children to various eminent experts, it allows them to explore and find the spark that fires their creative minds.

In its first year Aahlad covered children from all over Jaipur and Sikar, hailing from across the socio-economic strata. In the future, we hope to expand this ‘Mela’ to cover children from the surrounding districts and cities, one day perhaps encompassing the entire state of Rajasthan. 

 21 August & 11 Sept., 2012

Programme Detail 

Book Exhibition

Public Dedication of two Children’s Books

The Growing Gulf Between Books and Children: Reasons and Solutions

Story Telling and Illustration

Photography

Pottery

Sketching

Portable Planetarium

Scientific Explanation of So Called Miracles

Scientific Toys from Waste

Open Forum

  "Parasmani" (Experts) :
Mrs. Naseera Sharma - Writer, New Delhi
Mr. Harishchandra Bhartiya - Scientist & writer
Mr. Kanhiya Lal Verma - Traditional Painting Artist
Dr.  Hetu Bhardwarj - Writer 
Dr. Sudesh Batra -   Writer
Dr. Durga Prasad Agarwal - Writer 
Dr. Nand Bhardwaj - Writer & Ex. Deirector Jaipur Doordarshan
Dr. Shivsharan Kaushik 
Dr. Sanjeev Bhanawat 
Mr. Sandeep Bhattacharya - Dy. Director, Birla Plantarium Jaipur
Mr. Mahesh Swami - Photographer 
Mr. Satish Gupta - Science 

Mr. Bhoora Ram Prajapati - Potter