ENVIS Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India

Printed Date: Thursday, March 28, 2024

A day spent in the lap of nature

A day spent in the lap of nature

Bangalore Mirror by Vandana Kamath, Bengaluru, 8th December 2014

A carnival-like atmosphere prevailed at Cubbon Park as children and parents took part in several activities during ‘Cubs ofCubbon’ on Sunday.
 
'Cubs of Cubbon' gave children a chance to meet, pick up skills and appreciate life:
Instead of taking their children to malls, young working professionals decided to do something different this Sunday: Thousands of them gathered with their families to take part in a journey into art, nature and beauty at Cubbon Park. 

At 'Cubs of Cubbon', conducted by Mahindra Lifespaces in tandem with Bangalore Mirror, children had a rare chance to bond with nature and get hands-on experience with real science through nature-based workshops. The activities included heritage and nature walks, a bag recycling workshop, screen and block printing, vegetable gardening and water harvesting, making a balcony garden, soap making, vegetable gardening...the list goes on. 

Seven-year-old Caseleen, a student at Bishop Cotton's School, was fascinated to see how sunlight passing through a magnifying glass could set off a fire in dry leaves, akin to a lightning. 
 
Unbridled enthusiasm: Pooja Jain, a young homemaker, could not control her enthusiasm as she quickly rushed to the Balcony Garden workshop with her five-year-old son Archith who studies for National Public School. She said, "This was more of an education fest coupled with fun and most of the mothers got together from school and decided to come for this event." 
 
The same was the case with Shilpa and Vijay Bhandarkar who were almost confused on what to choose and what to miss. Vijay who works in the IT and service industry and had got his daughter Trisha, 4, said, ""We are trying to get our hands on whatever we can. We have come here with our whole family and we make sure that we do something different every Sunday rather than letting her be glued to the television sets. And whatever we do, we ensure that we do it together as a family." 

Ganesh Unavene and wife Urmila were looking out for bamboo crafting workshops and creating balcony gardens. They were keen on teaching daughter Swar how to grow her own vegetables. The stories and lessons on nature were conveyed through puppets and interactive story sessions, magic shows, film screenings, interactive jam sessions and dance workshops. Smeeta Neogi, VP, marketing, Mahindra Lifespaces said, "The response has been much more than expected and we have reached out to students of more than 120 schools."

At Fest, There Was A Budding Poet Too: Vedansh Pandey is a poet, a blogger and nature lover all at the age of ten. Being the son of a bureaucrat, Bescom MD Pankaj Kumar Pandey, he had the advantage of travelling to different places across Karnataka and developing a love for nature. His mother Anuja Pandey said, "He started reading encyclopedia at five and since then, has been interested in wildlife." Vedansh says his inspiration for writing poems comes from his mother. "When I grow up I want to be a wildlife conservationist."