Thanima [The Human And Nostalgic Interaction Of Malyalees Abroad] organized it’s 7th Venal Thanima camp namely, VENAL THANIMA 2012 from 8-10 June at Indian Central School [ICS], Abbasiya. Adv. John Thomas [Manager of United Indian School] formally inaugurated the event by lighting the lamp. He was accompanied by other chief guests, Dr. Ramesh [Country Manager, Giant & Gulf-Mart], Mr. Pancily Varkey [Country Manager, UAE Exchange], Mr. B.P. Nassar [Frontline Logistics] and Mr. Raghunathan Nair. Then Mr. Babuji Bathery [Camp Designer & Director] gave a brief speech about the motive of that camp.
Usually only selected students could participate in that camp. But this time around 120 children got their names registered and the office couldn’t reject anyone. The main contents of that were Personality Development, Time Management, Group Dynamics, Leadership Qualities, Health Awareness, Media Theatre Orientation, Positive Thinking, Goal Setting, Aerobics, Yoga and Outbound Learning.
The children were divided into 3 groups:-
Group A [Sub Juniors] was led by Mrs. Rathi Dinesh, Mrs. Suni Benni, Mrs. Litty and Mrs. Beena Paul. They experienced the tastes of drawing, painting and fun filled games. Mr. Shashi Krishnan led them to explore the world of art in a piece of paper. He taught them various craft items and made them understand the use of each and every thing. Also Mr. Sunil guided them in the field of drawing. The kids drew many thrilling and attractive pictures and got them stuck on the walls.
Group B [Juniors] was led by Mr. Santhosh Varghese, a well known camp trainer and speaker mesmerized the students with his thoughts and ideas. An interactive session was conducted for the students where they introduced themselves. It was led by Mrs. Usha Dileep. Mrs. Shilu Shaji assisted them to maintain general decorum.
Group C [Seniors] was led by the energizing orator, Mr. Babuji Bathery. He had versatile views about different matters and he expressed those before us and had a good response. He talked to us on various topics like leadership qualities, how to address the audience, how to be a good human being and how to develop a good personality.
First of all we were divided into various groups and prepared charts consisting names of our group members, appropriate columns for mark distribution and with our group name. Then what all marks we got in various activities we marked those in the chart.
On the first day we had an exciting session, Aerobics. We all were excited to attend the session as many of us were going to do aerobics for the first time. It was headed by Mr. Varghese [Indian Community School]. He taught us many new exercises which were accompanied by music. This helped us to free our body and to get charged up. In between Mr.Somu Mathew came and taught us a 4-line Malayalam Traditional Song. That made us energetic and was of good use. At last we had another interesting session. Mr.Sunil and Mr.Nikesh taught us how to mix gypsum and then to carve shapes out of it. We all were unexpected to attend this session. We all tried our level best to carve many figures. At last many of us ended up with their hands and legs white-washed. That was truly an amazing session for us.
On the second day we had Adv. John Thomas (Manager United Indian School) who took a class on ‘Positive Thinking and Positive Attitude’. In that he gave an example of a small half filled water bottle. When someone asks us about its characteristics and when we give a reply as above mentioned, then it’s due to positive thinking and instead if we say that the bottle is half empty, then it’s due to negative thinking. Thus it was really an interesting one hour session. Then the main highlight of that day was the class of Dr.V.Binumon [Principal- Indian Community School, Salmiya]. He gave us very interesting class on ‘Leadership’. He told us who a real leader is, how a real leader has to be and so on. In that particular session he showed us many videos, pictures of many famous personalities and so on. In order to increase our confidence level he even made us dance too. Hence it was an all around very exciting session. That day we also had Mrs.Anitha Pillai who conducted the Yoga session. She said that Yoga is very important in our life and it’s among one of the things which we need to practice regularly. That too was a very interesting session. After the break we had a totally different session. That was ‘Kalaripaittu’. Mr. Shabir, specialist in Kalari was in charge of the session. ‘Kalaripaittu’ is the traditional art form of Malabar Kerala. He showed some of its steps and received great appreciation. He was also accompanied by his small daughter. In spite of wearing jeans, she too exhibited some amazing movements and was appreciated by everyone. All these things showed us how we could make our body flexible and use them.
The third and last day began with a very different session. Mr. John Arts Kalabhavan, a leading drawing and painting instructor in Kuwait headed the session. He taught us how to draw caricatures in a very quick manner. Within a short period of time he drew simple caricatures of Gandhiji, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Bhagat Singh, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Mohanlal, Manmohan Singh and so many others too. Next we had Magician Thomas who taught us some magic tricks so that we could show- off in front of our friends. That was very enjoyable. One of the main attraction of the camp was the next session. It was concerned with Hypnotism. This exciting session was headed by Mr. Sheikh Suhail Ahmad, a professional hypnotist. In his presence we were taken into a small sleep and he took us to a different world. He gave us tips so as how to concentrate in our studies and overcome tension. After that an aged Kuwaiti national, Mr. Ahmed said to us about what’s a dream. He said that we should have a goal in our life and we should try our level best to achieve that. For that he gave an example of his own life. At last one of THANIMA’s hardcore member, Shaiju Pallipuram taught us the THANIMA theme song.
The concluding session was blessed with the presence of Manu Chandrashekhar, CEO of UFM 98.4 and other special guests from various associations. Manu Chandrashekhar offered chances to the selected campers to exhibit their talents in some way or the other in UFM 98.4. Sidharth Raghunath, Binitha Maria Thomas, Arjun Anil Bhaskar, Akash Jose, Sheethal Rajiv Menon, Ruchithra Dinesh and Pooja Vinay Menon were selected as the best campers. The camp came to an end with various performances put up by us. Also certificates and brief documents about the camp were distributed among the campers.
The camp provided us a wide platform to maximize our talents. It gave us a new hope in this modernizing world. Inspite of this harsh heat, the dignitaries took their effort to put up this camp and it was very refreshing for us. But not to forget the men behind the food distribution for the past 3 days, Mr. Jacob Thomas and Mr Raghunathan under the support of Mr.Benni, Mr.Ebi and Mr.Raja for their safe and prompt arrangement of transportation. Throughout the camp we enjoyed ourselves and it was a unique experience for us.
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