Talents shine bright at Chenkalchoola

THIRUVANNATHAPURAM: The dusty aluminium-roofed terrace of the health centre at Chenkalchoola looked like the backstage of some mega children’s event whose curtains were about to go up. Kids were crowded in groups; some singing a feisty folk rhyme, some trying to perfect body-breaking Allu Arjun moves, some mimicking Pulimurugan’s frog stance and Kabali’s ‘watch my hand rise to the chin’ mudra, some doing forward rolls and cartwheels. It was as if these kids were desperate to get on stage, to go full blast.

This was the third and last day of the ‘talent spotting’ camp held at the colony for children aged between 7 and 9. Camps for older boys, up to 15, will be held during February. The camps, organised by the District Child Protection Office (DCPO), are part of an ambitious plan to identify and nourish the special talents of Chenkalchoola kids. “In five years time, we hope that some big young stars, actors or musicians or sculptors, will emerge from this colony that has long been looked down upon,” said Shyam Regi, a noted theatre personality who is leading the camp.

At the camp, the kids have done something they are not used to: express themselves freely. Noble, a shy boy who according to friends did not know how to kick a football, did his first forward roll at the camp on Monday after constant teasing. Soon after, without anyone daring him, he demonstrated the forward air tumble with a finesse that left his little friends speechless. There were iconoclasts, too. The other day kids were given a paper and crayons and asked to paint a village. Most of the art works had a small dwelling surrounded by birds and greenery. But the painting of a fifth standard boy took conformity by the neck and threw it out of the top floor.

The painting had no village, just a rakish boy with his legs spread apart like in a dance pose and flaunting in his right hand a picture, a picture of a rakish boy with his legs spread apart like in a dance pose and flaunting in his right hand a picture. ‘Selfie’ it was captioned.    The camp is a space for discovery but it has also provided these children something they had all along been denied: the space to form lasting friendships. “There are not many occasions in this colony for our kids to get together. This camp has done exactly that,” said Kannan, whose deaf and dumb son Roshan has emerged as the most popular kid of the camp.