As usual, the Gathering was a blast. We all had tremendous fun organizing it, and the kids had tremendous fun taking part in it! As we frequently mention, we do this for the kids – so that kids can enjoy a little and also be a part of an organized process. We make sure our kids know how things are organized and the rationale behind them. For instance, the house captains and the head boy and head girl played pivotal roles in the gathering this year. They came to know how dances are laid out, how anchoring is done, how children are dispatched to their parents after their stage show is done with etc. They came to know how decisions are taken at run time.
This year we had a Mallakhamb demo at the Yashwantrao Auditorium. This was the first time in all these years that we took the mallakhamb stands to there (it was a first for the Yashwantrao people too!). Parents were amazed to see our 4th boys do great things on the stage. Even climbing up a mallakhamb is really difficult! Here is a picture to show one of the pyramids:
Mallakhamb is a traditional Indian sport. We make sure all our kids know of this activity, as it requires maximum fitness and has not got publicity it deserves. Girls do a variation, on the rope – unfortunately, the auditorium could not provide us a strong beam on which we could hang the rope and show this demo too.
We were also going to miss our 10th Std kids who were going to be busy studying. Or so we thought. We missed them all day. But they couldn’t let go of our final dance! All of them appeared just before the end of the last sessions for the final dance! Our final dance is a medley of all the dances that are part of the annual gathering, all to a totally different beat.
Well, the fun is over now, and every one is back to academics.
