The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : On the road to freedom?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

On the road to freedom?

Bageshree S.

Children were busy rehearsing for Independence Day

— PHOTO: K.MURALI KUMAR

Enthusiastic: The children from the mobile school rehearsing on Monday for the 60th Independence Day.

Bangalore: The spirit of the 60th anniversary of Independence sure is catching up with everyone, everywhere. Stop at a traffic signal and you have young boys selling flags; switch on the television and you either have a heated panel discussion on Indian democracy or a special programme on the freedom movement.

And yet you are a little surprised when you encounter a bunch of boys and girls bang in the middle of the road singing Kayyara Kinhanna Rai’s “Erutihudu harutihudu nodu namma baavuta…” with gusto. Driving down one of the deserted roads in University Layout in Rajarajeshwarinagar on Monday, we encountered children from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s (SSA) mobile school rehearsing for the Independence Day celebrations at Makkala Koota. Mobile classrooms are an SSA initiative for providing education to children from poor families.

With the big yellow bus that functions as the classroom parked next to them, the teacher was busy tutoring her pupils, mostly children of migrant labourers around the area, to dance to the song in praise of the national flag. Some of the children from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were quite a match for the Kannada-speaking children in singing the song with clarity. Girls were outdoing boys in numbers and in enthusiasm.

There seemed to be a competition to the play the role of Bharat Mata, who holds the flag and stands in the centre. The teacher was intent on giving the part to the tallest in the class, while the others were trying their best to convince the teacher why they deserved that pride of place. Everyone, teacher and students alike, were enjoying their little break from the chalk-and-blackboard routine, that too in the open air.

Nine-year-old Shankar, part of the motley crowd, is not sure what the future holds for him and his family, which is forever on the move in search of a livelihood. The son of a construction worker, he has been in and out of school, thanks to his parents who shuttle between Bangalore and Hubli.

But as he sang “Erutihudu harutihudu…”, his spirits seemed to soar above the tumult of his life.

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