Concern for children groomed in the forest

A symposium of difference, not in terms of subject discussed but the venue, held inside forest near Tiruvannamalai recently.
‘Cuckoo’ a movement for children which organized the event named after the meet as ‘Kaanula’ (jungle stride). A team consisting people from diverse walks of life from cinematographer, lyricist, tribal leader, artist, writers, environmentalists to many social enthusiasts started its stride from Theethandapattu, a village between Tiruvannamalai and Chengam. They mounted Jawadu hills from that point for quite some time to reach a serene location called ‘Puli Madu’ (meaning ‘Tiger Mound’). There they discussed how to recover today’s children who were denied to nurture an inner world liberally; who could not live in youthful hilarity natural of tender ones due to crushing load of education driven not by natural instinct to learn the life but by greedy and careerist goals. They have discussed how far they can contribute to the recovery of cultural, artistic base land of life removed from beneath the foot of children. They came to a conclusion that they should take lively arts in the form of drama, story telling, good short films to the children of some particular region in a continuous basis. By doing this, they concluded, they can expose children to a cozy, liberal, morale boosting and artistic side of the life which would sensitize children on how to live with conscious of what a world they are in, what are all the future challenges they might have to face etc. In nutshell they decided to contribute to the strengthening of emotional inner world of children of today to prevail up on the ‘future shock’ which is in store for them.
VP Gunasekaran, president of TamilNadu Tribes Association, urged the gathering that children should be sensitized that forest are their primitive homeland and their lore on forest to be enhanced.
Govinda, an environmentalist and English national, said that he consider Tiruvannamalai as his nation. When his wife was about to give birth to a child some years ago he planted 20 trees in Tiruvannamalai which then evolved into a greening movement, he added. “I nurture the memories of rain drops that fell down the sky which gave me solace during that tense moment. Rain drops are tears of sky for the plights of mother earth. Unfolding of each foliage is a delivery” he said.
Cinematographer ‘Wide Angle’ Ravishankar, lyricist Na Muthukumar and Spanish theatre artist Alberto were among those who took part. Cuckoo organizer Sivaraj, Thamba Peter and Kumar Ambayiram have organized the event.