Mr.Rajesh Kurien helped us set up a music system with World Space Radio, in November last year, for our kids at the ward. This was such a big hit and everyone there was thrilled about having Music in the ward.

This is what he had to say after the installation.

“Music system installed!” I got the radio+amp system  built. The system sounds good and powerful.It is made with a car audio system  and a separate subwoofer amplifier. As you have indicated there is some user friendly issue with it. (No remote and doesn’t lock FM stations on power failure! ). I am working to integrate radio and amplifier together, that operation is simpler. I hope we can install by 14th ( on Children’s day).

World space radio looks a climb (Rs 6k+ for a decent system with remote).I am planning to do some ground work . Finally we need this, as the regular free-FM content is with lot of commercial angle. I feel the content should have soothing & soft effect . I am confronting ‘no-time’ syndrome; but not want to yield easily, this time.

I got system fixed. I will send you the pics, you can publish in the web site. Social Work Officer ( of the hospital) asked of the box to house the amplifier & players. May be you can see how the box you told will fit.  This was a great fulfilling experience and need to see the system is well utilized and maintained.

Sandhya, Thank you for all the support, without which I wouldn’t have got this opportunity. We will work together to see the mission is fulfilled and can grow bigger.

Unfortunately, world space seems to have ditched us…how inconsiderate. Bah! Any more ideas on this one, anyone? Our children are missing the music!

Thank you, Rajesh. Your project was definitely a very meaningful one for the children. Hopefully we will be able to find some other solution to keep the music flowing.

I am an Australian visiting Bangalore to meet with old students and devotees of Swami Muktananda, who taught yoga in Bangalore from 1978 to 1985.  Together with Swami Buddhananda she established the Atma Darshan Yogashram which still provides yoga programs to this day.

My friend Sw. Yogaratna explained to me that she had offered to take yoga classes with the children at a cancer hospital after learning about them from her friend Sandhya, who runs an NGO providing educational services to the children (Samiksha Foundation).

Swami Yogaratna offered to take me to the ward and I was very happy to accompany her.  She is very proficient at using the Bangalore public transport system, jumping on and off buses and in and out of autorickshaws with the ease of an old Bangalore wallah, a sometimes hair raising experience for an Australian.

The Children’s Ward is in a separate building in the extensive hospital grounds.  The ward impressed as it was spacious, airy and clean with high quality tiling on the floors: in Australia we don’t have such excellent quality tiling as you have in Bangalore.  Sandhya told us that eighty percent of the children in this ward have blood cancers.

Sw. Yogaratna gathered the children by going through the wards singing a simple song.  She has found that this is the most successful technique of attracting the children away from the TV and other diversions, a bit like a Yogi Pied Piper.

After 20 minutes or so she had collected a group of up to 17 children, together with some mothers.  Some of the smaller children were coming and going: as well as being very sick they are easily distracted like all small children are.  However the door watchman helped by shepherding errant children back into the group.

Sw. Yogaratna started the class by getting them to chant Om and sing a couple of simple songs .  Next she took them through the Pawanmuktasana series of simple yoga exercises, to warm them up and improve their flexibility. This was followed by a short talk introducing the next part of the class, the Yoga Nidra (yogic relaxation).

Sw. Yogaratna commenced this by asking the children to lie down on the floor in a radial pattern, with their feet in the centre.  After much wriggling and giggling the children managed this.  She then instructed them to feel into the sensation of their body lying on the floor, and to feel inside the body, looking for any sensations such as the breath.  Some children reported being aware of their blood circulation.

The visualisation part came next.  The children were asked to visualise their white blood cells fighting and killing the cancer cells, and the red blood cells recovering in huge numbers, both together driving away the ‘bad guys’, the cancer cells.  Each child was asked to visualise this in their own particular way.

After the yoga nidra was finished, the children were asked to draw a picture of their visualisation experience.  These were very varied.  One little girl drew a big shark, the white blood cells, chasing two small fish, the cancer cells.  Another girl drew circles of equal size, happy ones (the whites) and sad ones (cancers).  One boy drew a crocodile chasing a turtle, two other boys had tigers attacking deer and rabbits, A third girl drew some ducks eating small insects.  Sw. Yogaratna complimented the children for their efforts and offered some suggestions as to how to improve and clarify the images that the children had so beautifully created.  The yoga session was completed with Om chanting, some of the children demonstrating great flexibility by sitting in Padmasana, one of the most difficult yoga poses.

Sw. Yogaratna explained to me afterwards that she was incorporating techniques of ‘art therapy’ into the yoga nidra visualisation.  The reference she uses is ‘Getting Well Again’ by Carl Simonton.  Her feedback to the children was based on the research described in his book.

At the end the children jostled each other to have their photos taken, checking my photography technique after each photo to make sure I got them looking their best!  Then we reluctantly said goodbye.  All in all it was a delightful experience, or as we say in Australia, ‘awesome’.  If you have a chance please think of joining the Samiksha Foundation with Sw. Yogaratna in this very worthwhile project.

John Ransley

Someone mentioned to me that this means we have to start all over again with a new lot of kids… new books, new supplies, new friendships … then Thishya reminded us that it  is  a GOOD thing and a relief to see  so few faces here.. Its a paediatric oncology ward for crying out loud! We should be happy for those who have gone home… And so we are. We wish them the best.

Sandhya

In a conversation with one of our tutors, Mrs. Hansa Rau, one of our children had expressed a desire to meet the actress Ramya. Mrs. Rau learned that Ramya was at a shoot in her neighbourhood, and grabbed the opportunity with commendable presence of mind. Much to our delight, Ramya immediately agreed to visit us.

I went to the ward early in the morning, accompanied by Thishya and butterflies in my stomach. I had quite a few apprehensions about celebrity presence and media coverage. We wanted it to be a pleasant and quiet surprise for the children, without fanfare of any kind.

To our considerable joy (and relief), Ramya came in on time, with a whole lot of enthusiasm and a lovely smile. She spent a happy half hour with the kids and their moms in the ward.

The children, and their parents, were overjoyed. To say their happiness knew no bounds is an understatement. The child who wanted to meet Ramya was speechless, but all smiles. Our morning was made, too, by a plethora of hugs and handshakes.

Thank you, Ramya. I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did, and hope you will continue your association with us.

I would also like to thank Thishya, Manjari and most of all, Hansa and her sister Chitra, for making this happen.

- Sandhya Sharad

Photos of the event are on our new gallery and can be found at this link.

I introduced the game to the kids eight weeks ago and thought that it would be appropriate for the kids above 8 years of age.

The game achieved phenomenal popularity. Kids in the second and third grades, as well, were able to enjoy it and actually solve many of the puzzles. Demand grew. I began issuing it like a library book, so they could work on it even when we were not there.

I was concerned that they would lose the pieces and gave them instructions to keep everything in a bag (this is a fairly expensive item). Unlike most puzzles we find at home, however, the Kaleidoscope game is still intact.

Overheard (and translated):

“Don’t worry about notebooks, pencils, pens and drawing material. Just bring your textbooks and these people will take care of the rest.”
“If you have any doubts,” – points to us – “ask this aunty, she’ll take care of it.”

Way to go!

They found letters from the bag and placed them on to the preset words on one side of the game board. This was done in turns by the players. At first i was surprised. Then i asked them if they always played like this, and they said, “Yes! Is there another way of playing this game?”

I then suggested to them the regular way of giving each of them seven chips of letters and then making words that get attached to each other every time the player makes a word and so on and so forth. No scores though! We spent a good hour playing scrabble and it was real fun.

I had to struggle to make the simplest of words like ’joy’,’shine’ to get them to understand the real word game. At the end of an hour i said, “hey you know, I’m tired! Can we do something else?” Then Chetan looked at me and smiled and said “Ok, but can I issue this game and can we play by ourselves when you are away?” After a long time, i really enjoyed a simple game of scrabble.

Sandhya

Manjari found Naga (name changed), who was on a drip and was generally quite down. The moment he saw her, he asked if we had brought the trunk of books we normally carry for them to read. He wanted her to bring a book for him at his bedside, which we did after taking special permission.

A little after our activities started (on a different floor), we found Naga hobbling up with his entire IV apparatus stuck on. He sat on a bench a little distance away with his grandmother, and insisted on doing some math. He pulled out his notebook and a pencil, and asked us to give him a bunch of problems to solve.

After recovering from our initial surprise, we gave him some sums to do and some word-building exercises, which he finished very quickly. Every time we looked up, we found him stretching out his free hand, holding his notebook out to us, saying “Aunty, aunty, I’ve finished this. Give me some more.”

His enthusiasm was effusive and made us all smile. Looking at his interaction with us, his grandmother was amused and began participating actively in our program.