CHENNAI: `Lucky was she, for some roti she saw, Being made by a granny, on a sunny verandah ... ' The children were thoroughly enjoying the story of the foolish crow in class five of the Panchayat Union School in Madambakkam in Chennai.

They had completed one year of the `Karadi Path' programme, an approach conceptualised by The Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust. The programme, aimed at improving rural schoolchildren's functional proficiency in English, has been adopted by 27 schools in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Villivakkam. To mark the completion of a year, the Karadi Tales team took actor Nasser to a couple of schools that were part of the project. Mr. Nasser lent his voice for the bear that narrates the story in the audio track of the Tamil version. While the audio track is played, children look into their Karadi Tale book and read the text, printed both in English and Tamil. This way, they gradually build a vocabulary, quite unconsciously. "A one-year-old picks up his or her mother tongue without any reference language. The child simply absorbs from the environment in course of time," said C.P. Viswanath, Director, Karadi Tales.

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