It was a usual morning when Anwesha Singbal along with her business partner
Amol Kamat was moving from school to school with a bag full of books. It was
the duo’s usual practice to visit schools showing them children’s books,
enticing them to buy the books. On one such visit, a chance conversation with
the principal of a school led to an amazing foundation of a fun yet educative
initiative. Anwesha recollects, “We were in Panjim and entered the Lok Chetana
School, where we happened to meet the headmistress, Seeta Sardesai. She showed
us a pamphlet of a summer camp and asked, “Why do we not have something like
this in Konkani?” The duo didn’t have any answers but the incident was a seed
sown in their minds that was to blossom in the months that followed into ‘Majja’.
Majja is a festival that engages children in the age groups of
five to ten in various activities like drawing, theatre, music and craft.
Instead of making the festival a burden for children, Anwesha and Amol make
this a joyful ride for them. To make this possible, children are engaged
through the mediums of stories and music in their mother tongue taking them
closer to the environment they are born in. The team also introduces the
otherwise seemingly boring subjects like science and astronomy in an enjoyable
manner so that children can develop a liking for them.
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Anwesha Singbal, co-founder of Abhinav Creationz – the parent
entity of Majja, says, “All through the planning stages of Majja, we had one
thing in mind – That our camp cannot be just another one. It should not become
just another money making business. It should not become another burden for
children in the holidays; that children should enjoy what they are doing. That
they should have fun, they should have ‘Majja’ (fun). Bingo, we had the
name in hand. What better than something that the little ones can relate to
immediately?
And then there was no looking back. The duo had struck a chord –
one that touched the children’s hearts. They knew this was not another learning
camp, they knew there was no silence here. Anwesha says, “Every tutor who came
in told them to speak, to shout and to do Majja. Whether it was Rajashree didi
(Rajashree Bandodkar Thakur) who made them get messy playing with water while
silently sowing the seeds of science within them, or Sai Mama (Saiesh
Panandikar) and Ratna tai (Ratnamala Divkar) who made them sing aloud while
they learnt poetry, or be it Sayli didi (Sayali Sawant Talaulikar) and
Satyam Dada (Satyam Acharya) who taught them art and craft, they had built a
family that I and Amol had only dreamt of.”
The team admits that their efforts have always been to introduce
new mediums and aspects to Majja, especially subjects like Science that
children sometimes find boring because of the manner in which it is taught in
schools. This year, the duo is introducing ‘History’ taught through the medium
of fun activities. Sessions on ‘Astronomy’ are also going to be welcome
additions, this year.
Today,
Majja is about two years old. The duo began in May 2016 from Margao and moved
to other places in Goa, such as, Porvorim and Ponda. This year, Majja is taking
place in Margao, Ponda, Panjim and Mapusa. While the seats are already full in
Margao and Ponda, owing to demand, the team is trying to increase a few seats
to accommodate pending requests. The duration of the Margao edition of Majja
has also been increased to 10 days, on request from the children’s parents.
