A daring journey to self-reliance

Shenoy.Karun@timesgroup.com

Kochi: On Saturday, at the con-ference hall of a hotel in Mun-nar a group of students gave a scintillating dance perfor-mance before the start of an international seminar, which saw delegates from Sweden, Israel, Australia and the US. When it ended there was an ap-plause which transformed into a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. Nothing unu-sual but for a simple fact: the children were all with special needs.

The seminar on recent trends in special education was held as part of the 25th year celebrations of the Develop-mental Activities in Rehabilita-tive Education (Dare) School, Munnar, an institution which enabled them do many things in life, apart from dancing. Dare is a successful project in teaching the differently-abled children to survive in the normal world.

Founded in 1991 by Dolly Lai, wife of a Tata Tea (now Tata Global Beverages Ltd) manager, as a centre for motor coordina-tion and basic education, Dare School started with five stu-dents. Over its 25 years of exist-ence it has taught and trained 205 students. Currently, there are 62 students of 4 to 18 years of age.

“Before we started in 1991, there was no avenue for these special children. They were left at home when their parents

went to work and in 1991, for the first time, the disability was talked about. All the time it was a stigma and parents didn’t want to talk about their chil-dren with special needs. Slowly, the task of the initial years was to bring these people out of their homes to the Dare School. So we started it with five or six children and gradually, as the word spread, the parents start-ed sending their children here. Now, Dare alone has 65 students and the whole of Srishti with the four units, we have 165 as-sociates,” said Ratna Krishna-kumar, managing trustee of Srishti Charitable Trust that runs the Srishti Welfare Centre, which houses Dare School.

Children are taught life skills, reading and writing, ba-sic mathematics and arts.

“They are also taught how to cook, they are given money and a list to go to the mar-ket. They are readied to go to the outside world and fend for themselves. They cook their own mid-day meals and share with all others at the

school,” said Ratna.Rehabilitating the children

was another question. “I start-ed the strawberry preserve in Dare in 1994, since I felt that we needed to build a corpus of funds to fall back on, in case tea didn't do well one year and funds fall short. We made strawberry jam with locally grown fruit and packed them in recycled Horlicks bottles. We marketed it in Kolkata initially

in a health food shop with type-written labels. On receiving good response, we ventured forth to get an FPO [Food Prod-ucts Order] licence and a pro-fessional packing. Today we manufacture thousands of ki-los of strawberry preserve, guava jam, plum jam, orange marmalade with specially grown Seville oranges, passion fruit sauce, orange squash all without preservatives in a state of the art facility,” Ratna said.

After the age of 18, depend-ing on their interests, students are sent to different units. Now, 12 are employed in Aranya, a natural dye and textile design unit while 20 are with Athulya, which manufactures recycled paper using cotton waste in combination with materials like elephant dung, marigold, straw, bamboo leaves, tea waste, carrot leaves or eucalyptus leaves. Another seven work in Nisarga, the fruit preserve unit, four in Deli, 12 in Srishtri Gar-den and nine outside.

The children are taught life skills, reading and writing, basic mathematics and arts

The Dare School In Munnar Has Enabled 205 Differently-Abled

Students To Face The World Bravely

Kochi: Some of the children with special needs, especially, those with dyslexia could be trained to attend normal schools, proves the experience at Dare School.

“Some of them have gone to the main-stream schools, because they had needed only little assistance. Dyslexia was not well-known until a few years ago. It was easy for DARE to deal with such children and give them the necessary coaching. And they only need just an initial push to go in the right direction,” said Ratna Kishnakumar, manag-ing trustee of Srishti Charitable Trust.

Over the decades, the understanding of the special needs of the children had changed considerably and has necessi-tated constant upgrading of the skills of the teachers too. “What was taught 20 years ago has become totally irrelevant now. We do send teachers out for training, but as they are all housewives, they can’t stay away from home for more than two days,” Krishnakumar said. The interna-tional seminar on recent trends in special education was an attempt to upgrade the skills of the teachers of Dare. TNN

‘Normal schooling is possible’

ART OF SHIBORI: A JAPANESE LOVE STORYTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi: Yoshiko Wada, an interna-tionally renowned textile artist, trains the rehabilitated students at Aranya, the natural dyeing project of Srishti Welfare Centre, how to dye clothes using shibori technique. It is the method of creating eye-catching colour patterns by folding, twisting, bunching and tying before dipping in dyes.

The story of how Yoshiko Wada connected with the Munnar-based school is also interesting. Ratna Krishnakumar, the managing trustee of Srishti Trust, which runs the school, tells the story: “At one point, I said, we should go beyond dyeing and looked for books and found one on shibori and brought it to Aranya. We tried various things from it – some were successful and others weren’t, because you can’t just learn it from a book like that”.

“Once, while attending a confer-ence at Kolkata, I was told that Yo-

shiko Wada, an expert of shibori, was attending it. So I went to her and asked her will you teach my children at Aranya. But, she said she can’t as she was booked for the next one-and-a-half years. I said we will wait and gave her my card. In return, she gave me a postcard and while flipping it, I saw the picture of the book on the other side of it – the one we had been following all this while. So I told her, you have to come, because you were our teacher in absentia. Then she got more information from me on Ara-nya and she was here in six months,” said Ratna Krishnakumar.

That was during the beginning of 2005. “Since then, she is coming here every year with a group of textile enthusiasts. She taught us shibori, the techniques of how to fold, how to tie and stitch. She taught us things she wouldn’t otherwise teach her stu-dents,” Krishnakumar said. Accord-ing to her, Wada is responsible for the success of Aranya, which clocked a turnover of Rs 1 crore last year.

Kochi: Srishti Welfare Centre’s selected students are taken abroad for training and for attending workshops. They had been to Japan, US, UK Malaysia, Italy, France, China and Indonesia.

“Poongani was the first girl we took to Minneapolis in US and she helped Yoshiko Wada to conduct a workshop. Wada had asked for her specially, saying she was very good at work and could help her. So we took her to Minneapolis. She was so cool as if she had seen it all before. On the way back, we took her to New York to watch Empire State Building, fully lit-up. That was the only time she got excited and said ‘superb, madam’,” said Ratna Krishnakumar, the driving force behind Srishti Chariable Trust.

“Then we took Arumugam to Italy, where he again helped Wada to conduct the workshop. He is the one who created his own design, so Wada had named it after him as Aru Shibori. Then we took Muthupechi to La Rochelle, France. Then there are two deaf and mute sisters whom we took to Japan, for a workshop on shibori,” said Ratna.

Victoria Vijayakumar, another student, had visited China, Taiwan and Indonesia, said Krupa Masoji, manager of Srishti Welfare Centre. TNN

GLOBETROTTERS OF SRISHTI

A DASH OF COLOUR: Clothes being dyed at a manufacturing unit of Srishti Welfare Centre in Munnar

Pics: R K Sreejith

THUMBS UP: The attitude says it all. Students with special needs at Srishti Welfare Centre. (Below) The Srishti Welfare Centre, Munnar

BURNING ISSUEJipson Sikhera

GREEN CONCERN: Environmentalists have been campaigning against burning of dry leaves, which causesair pollution. The leaves prevent groundwater depletion and the move has led to public outcry due to fallinggroundwater levels. The cleaning staff of Cochin university burning dried leaves in the campus on Tuesday.There are allegations that the waste is being burnt near the road causing hardships to the public

Kochi: Employability centrefunctioning at district em-ployment exchange at Kakka-nad would be conductingrecruitment drive for the pri-vate firms on February 17. Theobjective of the employabilitycentre is to help youths for se-curing jobs in private sector.

Jobs aspirants who havepassed computer courses andvarious ITI trade certificatescan attend the interview to beconducted at the Centre onFebruary 17.

Those holding bachelor’sdegree, PG, GNM, BSc nurs-ing, MSW, BHM, MHA can at-tend the interview.

For details, contact 0484-2422452/2427494. TNN

Recruitmentdrive on

February 17Kochi: For internationally noted artist SudhirPatwardhan, the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Bien-nale-2016 symbolises a blend of dynamism anddiversity.

“Diversity of ideas strikesyou the most with sound and vi-deo installations, performingarts apart from painting andsculptures. The Biennale playsa vital role in promoting diver-sity which is under threat glo-bally,” said Patwardhan who vi-sited Aspinwall House, one of

the main venues of KMB.The contemporary artist who is a practicing

radiologist and had participated in the secondedition of the KMB in the year 2014 also hailedthe ‘Students Biennale’, which is running paral-lel to the KMB and showcases works by youngartists. “Students have come up with very uni-que works and ideas. The idea of collaborationand multimedia are taking roots in Indian artschools. These youngsters are getting exposureof international art in first hand and not fromthe magazines or other modes,” the Mumbai-ba-sed artist said.

A self taught artist, Patwardhan has put up

several solo shows and has participated in inter-national exhibitions like 'Aspects of Modem In-dian Art' at Oxford in the UK (1982) and the Con-temporary Indian Art, Festival of India in Lon-don (1982) among others.

Besides Patwardhan, noted art historianand Budapest-based curator Rona Kopeczky al-so paid a visit to the 108-day art festival and high-lighted the multiculturalism that it gathers. “Bi-ennale is inserted in the urban structure of thecity. Even local schools, shops and shacks are in-volved and that make the whole fiesta unique,”said Rona, who is the artistic director of Off Bi-ennale in Budapest.

Australia-based curator Sebastian Golds-pink also visited KMB 2016. TNN

KMB a blend of dynamism &diversity: Sudhir Patwardhan

Australia-based curator Sebastian Goldspink atBiennale venue in Aspinwall House on Tuesday

Kochi:With the mercury shoo-ting up, the district animal hus-bandry officer has issued awarning of sun-stroke/heatstroke for domestic animalsand pets. According to the alertissued by the department, do-mesticated animals should notbe exposed to the sun's heatfrom 10am to 3 pm. They shouldnot be left out in the open. Dai-ry farmers should ensure thatthe animals should be given lotof water to drink.

“The temperatures have be-gun shooting up and animalswill feel the heat very fast.Especially furry animals.Slight change in mercury le-vels affect them. The symptomis they will start panting andsaliva starts dripping from themouths. In case of dairy ani-mals, the milk production co-mes down. Animals can collap-se as there is a shortage of gre-en grass too,” said Dr Kishore,veterinary officer, Kochi cor-poration.

He said that people withpets should not leave them tiedoutside where they are expo-sed to sun. “It is time that we in-troduce concepts like waterbowl challenge in which smallvessels with water are left outin public for birds and smallanimals.”

Even while transportingpets in vehicles, switching offA/C in cars can affect them asthey are sensitive to tempera-ture changes.

Heat strokewarning for

petsTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi: The sudden politicaluncertainty in the home statehas left Tamil migrants in Ko-chi confused and frustrated.On Tuesday morning, the Su-preme Court dismissed V KSasikala’s appeal against con-viction for disproportionateassets killing her CM aspira-tions.

“At this point, I am just go-ing to go with whoever theMLAs pick up as the CM but Iam definitely glad that Sasika-la will be convicted for her cri-mes,” said V Ponappar, a J Jay-

alalitha loyalist, who ignoredthe fact that late Jayalalithaawas also named an accused inthe disproportionate assetscase.

Ponappar who movedfrom Usilampatti in Maduraito Kochi said that he does nothave a television in his roomand that he watches the newsfrom his friend’s room. He sa-id that almost every televisionset in Vathuruthy, Kochi’s lar-

gest Tamil settlement has be-en playing the news "non-stop" ever since Jayalitha wasadmitted to the hospital.

“I’ am fine with either OPanneerselvam or K Palani-samy, as my next chief mini-ster. I'll settle for anything butSasikala,” said Ponappar.This seemed to be general con-sensus among the Tamilianswho were seated on the rail-way track in Vathuruthy, sip-ping tea, puffing beedi and tal-king politics.

A Venu, a staunch DMKsupporter from Ramanatha-puram said: “If all goes well,

then DMK would be in powerbut for now we have to go withthe decisions taken byAIDMK MLAs.”

“Though I am a DMK sup-porter, I think K Palanisamywould be decent CM, he hasbeen in politics since MGR’stime. He has seen good gover-nance,” he said.

But his fellow hometownDMK supporter, S Sheran dis-missed Venu’s assessment onthe situation. “The world isnow fascinated with rich peo-ple. That is why people arerunning behind Trump andSasikala,” he said.

Tamil migrants confused & frustratedVikram.Vinod@timesgroup.com

POLITICALUNCERTAINTY

Kochi: With theft of publicproperty becoming commonin government schools andsome campuses turning ahaven for anti-socials, the cor-poration is planning to installsurveillance cameras inschools under it as part of a pi-lot project.

The cameras will be in-stalled at SRV High School,Government Girls HigherSecondary School in ChittoorRoad, Mattancherry GirlsHigher Secondary Schooland Government Higher Sec-ondary School in Edappally.

A minimum eight cam-eras will be installed on thepremises including frontgates and corridors of eachschool. Anti-socials breakingwindow panes, laboratoryequipment and benches,scribbling on walls and steal-ing computers and laptopsare posing a headache for offi-cials. “Since there are no se-curity guards in governmentschools, anti-socials break-ing into class rooms is a prob-lem. We have lost some lap-tops. We hope installing cam-eras on the premises and cor-ridors will help us identifypersons who trespasses intothe school compound,” saidJijo John, principal of SRVGovernment VHSS.

To prevent people fromdisconnecting the cameras,armoured cable will be usedto ensure uninterruptedfunctioning of CCTVs. Thesedevices will have back up forone month. The companywhich will install the cam-eras will have to do mainte-nance work for next twoyears. Since the GovernmentGirls Higher SecondarySchool in Chittoor road is sit-uated close to ErnakulamJunction railway station,strangers often break into thecompound during night.

“We are fed up with thenuisance posed by anti-so-cials in the school. Every daysome yougsters wait outsidethe school compound to enterthe campus when we leave inthe evening. Even today Iteased some yougsters whowere found waiting to enterthe compound. Some anti-so-cial elements leave behindempty alcohol bottles in frontof class rooms and breakdrinking water taps. Everymorning bottles and brokenglass have to be removed fromthe compound,” said Sakun-thala K, principal of Mattan-cherry GHSS.

Corporation will also setup sanitary napkin vendingmachines in governmentschools above upper primarylevel. The cost for installingcameras in four schools anderecting napkin vending ma-chines is estimated to be Rs 25lakh.

Corp to installCCTVs in schools

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

ANTI-SOCIALNUISANCE

Kochi:People who require co-ronary angiogram can nowwalk in and walk out of the ho-spital after the procedure, wit-hout any hospitalization.

Lisie Hospital started a ra-dial lounge exclusively for da-ycare coronary angiogramprocedures at the hospital. Itis a procedure that is done tofind out whether there areblocks in the vessels, whichcarry blood to the heart musc-les. Usually it is done as an in-

patient procedure in the ho-spital.

“Radial lounge is a newconcept which is already inpractice in western countrieswhere patients who need an-giogram will come to the radi-al lounge on the day of the pro-cedure and will be dischargedon the same day after the pro-cedure,” said Dr Rony Mat-hew, head of department, Car-diology, Lisie Hospital.

Till date, patients who ha-

ve to go for coronary angio-gram are admitted in the ho-spital a day before the proce-dure and discharged in theevening.

Hospital authorities saidthat this would prove to be agreat help to patients in termsof time and money. However,it won’t be beneficial to thosewho have medical insuranceas they would require one dayhospitalization to make an in-surance claim. TNN

A radial lounge for coronary angiogram

Kochi: The sight of an oldworn out KSRTC bus pain-ted in red and pale yellowcolour maybe an eyesorefor some. But for KSRTC,Ernakulam, it is truly tur-ning out to be a money spin-ner as filmmakers are nowhiring them to use it in the-ir movies with an aim to ta-ke cine lovers down memo-ry lane.

Two KSRTC buses werehired for shooting in thedistrict in 2016 while in2015, four buses were hiredfor shooting. Most demandfor low-floor AC buses.“KSRTC buses are hiredfor film shooting. The de-mand is for old style buses,but we don’t have that now-,”said T Shibu, general in-spector in Ernakulam de-pot.

Many films including‘Ordinary’ showcasedKSRTC buses. At the cli-max of the film ‘JacobinteSwargarajyam’, the herostates that to qualify as a

Malayali one has to travelon a KSRTC bus. Conside-ring private hiring, KSRTCbuses have more admirersin silver screen than publicin Ernakulam.

KSRTC bus is given onhire for private needs forRs 8,000 for 100km for fivehours. The private partyshould pay 15% tax of the 40per cent of the total rentamount for normal buses.The tariff for hiringKSRTC bus for private pur-pose is Rs 10,000 for 150 kmfor six hours and Rs 12,000for 200km for eight hours.For film shooting the rentis Rs 20,000 plus service taxper day. Diesel will be filledfrom the depot and the ser-vice of KSRTC driver willalso be provided.

Production controllerHarris Desom says,“KSRTC buses give a nos-talgic feeling in moviesand raises curiosity amongviewers. Our preference isfor small-sized KSRTC bu-ses. But nowadays it is dif-ficult to get such buses.”

Film shoots bringrevenue to KSRTCTC.Sreemol@timesgroup.com

TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, KOCHI | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017

GOVERNMENT MAY WITHDRAW PLEA FILED IN SCFOR CURB ON LIQUOR OUTLETS | P4

AVIAN FLU: STATE GOVT TO DISBURSE RS 12 CRORE AS COMPENSATION TO FARMERS | P5