(Sunday, 6th November 2011)

Sunday morning at the Zoo

It could have been just another sleepy Sunday Morning for me but it wasn’t! The long wait was finally over. A month of metuiculous and frenetic planning with our partners Bank of America (BoA) and SPROUTS (Environmental outfit) and all the internal communication, the pay day finally arrived. In fact it all began after Jayshree went to Bandhavgarh with SPROUTS and came back with a great connect, Anand Pedharkar – Wildlife Biologist and educator and founder of SPROUTS Environmental trust!

Over 45 students of classes 5 to 7 of the VIDYA Beyond School Learning Program - Umang, visited the Zoo at Byculla last Sunday. They were accompanied by teachers from Umang; volunteers from BoA and their families; Tanya from United Way of Mumbai; and Mary Dias from VIDYA along with her daughter Angel. Of course I was also there as a cameraman, co-ordinator and most importantly as a student – intently listening to what all the knowledge shared by eco-volunteers from SPROUTS.

My last Zoo trip was almost 7-8 years back and my experience was not that great and the way the authorities cared for the wild ones there, left a negative impression of a Zoo on me. But I guess there are some ‘good’ ones and some ‘bad’ ones. Byculla Zoo in that context is in a much better shape, though there are many areas where immediate attention and investments are required (and after the 480 crore revamp proposal was turned down in May this year, I dont think things are going to get better anytime soon). Ignoring the 'animal rights' debate, Zoos in general are very effective in protecting some of the endangered species.

They are in a way like Noah’s ark, preserving (and breeding) the species from becoming extinct. Add to that the opportunity that a well maintained Zoo provides to educate and sensitize both children and adults about the wild in an urban setting and you couldn’t ask for more!

The plan was to start early on the Sunday morning given the heat and the chotu kids who were in the majority. And then there was this problem of the zoo getting overcrowded on Sundays. Smartly clad in the green tees, the VIDYA contingent set out at 7:30 AM and after having delicious ‘puran-poli’ (my suggestion :) as breakfast, boarded the bus and reached Byculla around 9 AM.

For most of the kids it was the first time they were going to see the wild animals in flesh and blood. While they had seen some of them earlier on television, in the newspapers and in the schools books, but never from such a close range. And they were visibly excited about this outing! Anand and his team of eco-volunteers were waiting for us at the entrance along with Team Aspire volunteers from BoA.

We split into four groups for the first leg of the outing and each group was lead by two SPROUTS volunteer who took everyone around the place showing various animals, telling kids about their origin countries, characteristics, natural habitat, their uniqueness and many more related things. The kids were quite curious to know about them and they filled pages with all the ‘gyan’ the volunteers gave them on every animal they saw. Words like canon ball tree, pelicans,‘pan ghoda’ etc. were the vocabulary of the day. I could see most of the kids relate to what they saw, thanks to Anand’s pre-visit orientation / presentation at VIDYA Chaitanya nagar couple of day back. Even for the teachers and the volunteers from BoA it was a good learning experience. To know why some animals behave the way they do is something that needs observation, research and a lot of effort.

For me the beautiful birds were the main attraction. It’s been ages since I saw a bird that didn't belong to a pigeon or a crow family. Yes that’s the only two you get to see in a metro like Mumbai every day. The pelicans, Japanese cranes (endangered) and other huge but beautifully coloured birds are a rare pleasant sight that only a Zoo can provide here! And not to forget the pitch ‘white’ crow and the real black wild crow in the cages (not the duplicate ones found in the cities). I had better treat the pigeons with respect as Jayshree tells me that the green pigeon or the hariyal is the state bird of Maharshtra :)

It was a hot day indeed but the sun didn’t deter the kids from walking around for over 3 hrs, curiously watching all the animals and learning more about them. Around 12 noon, all four groups re-assembled and took half an hour lunch break before moving on to the fun activities that SPROUTS had planned. These activities that included drawing, map activity and quizzes were designed to set them thinking about what they just saw and learned at the Zoo and reinforce the curious element that every child is blessed with.

As the kids got busy with the fun activities we had the opportunity to introduce our teachers to the donors. Sarita, our Science Teacher said " iske pehle mein do baar gayi hoon aur enjoy kiya par is baar maine bahut seekha aur enjoy kiya". Everybody was thrilled when Geeta Joshi shared her story of how she dropped out from school but later turned her failure into success with the help of VIDYA's National open School Program. Geeta now teaches English to the Umang Chaitanya Nagar students and considers this as a give back to the community. From a VIDYA alumni to a VIDYA teacher it has been a journey of growth and confidence and an endearing friendliness and a humility!

We wrapped up the day around 3:30 PM but only after a photo shoot out session with all the teams – Team BoA, Team VIDYA, Team Sprouts and Team united Way - and thank yous to everyone.

I have been on outings and field trip with these kids before. But this one was unique and one of its kind. As a former employee and member of BoA fraternity and now as a part of VIDYA family, I had the best of both the ‘worlds’. What really makes me happy is that I was able to act as a bridge between Team Aspire, Team SPROUTS and Team VIDYA to make this field trip great success.

This trip was unique in ways more than one. It brought VIDYA kids, teachers, donor and their families together. A true opportunity to bridge the gaps, to break the barriers and I believe we succeeded in our endeavours. Special thanks to Jatin, Aalok, Dhara and Mehul for bringing the little ones along.

Loging off with a hope of more such wonderful outings in the future and some lines from a beautiful poem I just read – ‘I build walls..” - just that there were no walls to be broken that Sunday morning!

I Build Walls

I build walls:

Walls that protect,

Walls that shield,

Walls that say I shall not yield

Or reveal

Who I am or how I feel.

I build walls:

Walls that hide,

Walls that cover what’s inside,

Walls that stare or smile or look away,

Silent lies,

Walls that even block my eyes

From the tears I might have cried.

I build walls:

Walls that never let me

Truly touch

Those I love so very much.

Walls that need to fall!

Walls meant to be fortresses

Are prisons after all.

Alok Jha
VIDYA Mumbai