A summer with the Natana Raja Mata and Rangayana drama workshops

The Natana.org website describes Natana Raja Mata as a summer workshop that educates and entertains children, and caters to children in various dimensions, to benefit the child's wholesome personality development. Raja Mata covers a range of topics, from modern dance to rural games. 


Natana is run by Mandya Ramesh, a well-known comedian in India. He invites many of his movie and TV actor and actress friends to interact with the kids.

And, ten of our kids (Venkatesh, Pallavi, Latha, Sumitra, Prema, Pooja, Shanthi, Divya, Vijayalakshmi, and Manikanta) get to attend this great camp this summer, from April 11 to May 6!


Here's a peek at Natana:

So far, the kids have been engaged in acting, dancing, and arts and crafts. They are always eager to get there in the morning (around 9:30 am) and are very happy when picked up in the evening (4:30 pm).

Venkatesh

Another five of our kids (Vinod, Sharath, Shwetha, Devaraj, and Netravati) are attending the Rangayana workshop, held by Rangayana, a theatre repertory, in Mysore. It is a workshop similar to that of Natana. 

The kids at Rangayana go swimming, dance, act, and engage in arts and crafts. Sometimes, they start at 7:00 am, so they can take walks around the nearby lake and learn about nature. 

Netra and Vinod in front of the crafts they decorated the day before.

Both workshops host about 250 to 300 children from all socio-economic backgrounds, so our kids will get to interact with kids from middle- and upper-class families. 

We're very grateful to Ananth and his supporters at the Narayan Foundation for securing fifteen free spots for our kids this summer at these really great workshops! Thanks.