Real Active

Your kid is not keen on spending the summer looking at a sheet of paper? No sweat. She can pull some strings maybe. Anurupa Roy,managing trustee of Katkatha,has puppet workshops for the age group 4-14. “We usually have summer programmes for eight-year-olds and above,but this year we are doing it with younger ones,” she says in between workshops at Prithvi Theatre,Mumbai. For the workshops which begin in Delhi in May and continue in June,the focus is on shadow puppetry,rod-and-glove puppetry and mask puppetry,and will be held at three venues in the city: Katha Publishing House at Adhchini,India Habitat Centre and at Cambridge Primary School at New Friends’ Colony. The children will be taken through the entire scene of puppetry — from writing scripts to making puppets,and the workshops,which are on for five to 10 days,will culminate in exhibitions and performances. The puppetry workshops come for Rs 1,500-3,000.

If your kids have playacted their way out of school assignments,here’s a chance to hone their skills through the vacation,starting May 13 and for Rs 2,000 onwards. Alumni of the National School of Drama and other theatre experts will be hosting month-long workshops in various places in Delhi and Gurgaon. “We are not focussing on production-oriented workshops. Rather,the focus is on confidence-building skills like speech clarity,voice modulation,role play,scripting,et al. Each group has a maximum of 25 kids,so each of them is individually attended to,” says Imran Khan of iEntertainment,the organisation which will conduct the workshops.

But if you would rather have your child escape Delhi’s heat and experience the great outdoors,pack them off to a camp in Rishikesh or Chamba in Uttarakhand. The kids are taken on treks to Surkhunda Devi temple at Chamba and hikes on the mountainside. Beginning from May 10,Snow Leopard Adventures has a six-day-long camp called Leaders 2009,which takes a maximum of 30 children in a group and helps them learn the basics of rock-climbing,rappelling,rafting and camping. “The age group we cater to is 10 to 16 and we ensure that each child gets enough exposure,” says Kanika Singh,marketing manager,Snow Leopard Adventures. The package is pegged at Rs 10,800,which includes everything from train tickets to accommodation.

For those looking to make a lifestyle statement,there’s help at hand from Les Elfes. The 22-year-old organisation based out of Switzerland hosts summer and winter camps every year on the snow-capped slopes in Verbier. Open for 8-18-year-olds,the two-week-long camps are held from April to June and have a wide variety of activities to keep kids engaged. “We have a cross-section of events like paragliding lessons,hiking programmes,language classes,” says Rachna Chawla,manager,India operations. June is apparently the best month to go,with kids from other countries too joining the camps. The damages? Rs 1.6 lakh,inclusive of airfare.

CONTACT:
Cartoon workshops: 24682222
Katkatha: royanurupa@gmail.com
Imran Khan: 9811676371
Snow Leopard Adventures:
http://www.snowleopard.com; 26122775
Les Elfes: http://www.leselfes.com; 29213155