LET'S LEARN (6): OUR VISIT TO A POLICE STATION IN KOZHIKODE CITY

Students of Vidya Kendra, class IIA and IIB, visited the Kasaba Police Station, Kozhikode on 29^th July, 2009.About 50 of us along with our dear teachers, Ms. Tanuja, Ms.Anitha, Ms.Laxmi, etc started from V.K. by 1 noon and returned in an hour. We went by bus. We were in our uniforms, the special V.K.T-shirts.

We had already studied about the Police Station during our Social Studies classes. We already knew about the Traffic Police whom we see daily while coming to school and in different junctions of the city. We were also taught that police officers catch thieves and criminals and keep public life and belongings safe. Thus, they serve us in many ways.

However, our teachers and parents had also warned us that police officers would beat naughty children and punish us if we were mischievous. So, we were a little bit frightened. As we arrived at the station and fell in queue, our hearts raced at huge speed with loud thud thud sound!!! Still, I tried to put up a brave face…

The courtyard was full of jeeps and vans, all looking alike, with pilot lamps on their heads. At the entrance was a counter and a woman police attended the reception.

Upon our arrival, a police officer came and took us inside. A police officer with a pistol or revolver stood in attention at the entrance. He was on guard duty. He is called the Station Security Officer.  

The Sub Inspector of Police (SI), Mr.Manoj explained about the duties of police and took us around the station. He said that police attend to road accidents, crime against women, explore unidentified dead bodies, search for missing persons and lost vehicles, theft items, notify public about criminals, search for them, and gather intelligence on crime and terror groups and so on. The police station caters to all security needs of that locality and protects civil rights. They also aid enquiry for passports and support foreigners.

The Kerala Police force, in its present form dates back from 1956. Today our police investigate about two lakh cases a year. All senior officers belong to the IPS (Indian Police Service). There are different divisions in the police force. Crime, Special investigation, dog squad, police band, coastal police, highway police, railway police, cyber crime, mounted police etc. We can see most of these divisions during March past in Independence and Republic Day parades.

 In this police station, there were many rooms. The SI had a room for himself. Nearby was a computer room for administrative works. Public filed petitions in another room. Head Constables attended duty in yet another room. There was a strong room with a locker (jail like). There were two thieves in there!

The most attractive room was one filled with arms and ammunitions. There were many weapons like rifles, pistols, guns, lathis, shields, barricades, bulletproof coats and so on. The use of tear gas was demonstrated. They also showed us bullets used to shoot. We had seen it on television, wherein police used it to scatter mob during protests and when they went out of control.

The SI took us to the office of the senior police officer- the Circle Inspector of Police. He also told us about other Police Stations in Kerala, the difference in caps worn at different levels of service, the badges and medals, etc. They all wore khaki uniforms and had a socket for safe custody of their pistols. He said the CI issues permission to use loud speakers for various functions.

We had so many doubts to be cleared, as well.

1.        How police catch thieves?

2.      Why do they have to wear khaki uniforms?

3.       How to make a complaint?

4.      Should we pay the police for their service?

5.       How police differs from security in hospitals and banks?

And so on.

Finally, we thanked the SI of police for their hospitality. He asked us to dial 100 over phone in case of a complaint and said that the control room would do the needful to save us from trouble. He gave us toffees and we were excited. We thanked our teachers from our hearts for having cleared our apprehension and fear about the police force. In short, we enjoyed our visit to the police station very much.

BIOGRAPHY (4) : KAMALA SURRAIYYA

Kamala Das or Madhavikutty is a writer of international repute from our God's own country. She wrote fluently in both her mother tongue Malayalam and in the foreign language English with equal ease and flair.

Please follow these links for a glimpse about her:
http://shyama17nair.blogspot.com/2009/06/tribute.html
http://calicutnet.com/articles/rajesh/tribute_to_madhavikkutty.htm

LET'S LEARN (5): FOOD

1. Food gives us energy to do various activities.
2. The energy that we get from food is measured in units called calories.
3. We get nutrients from food.
4. We need carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, fibre etc.
5.  We get carbohydrates from cereals, millets and tubers.
6. Some of the most common cereals are rice, wheat, maize [com] and oats.
7. Common millets are ragi and barley.
8. Tubers are parts of plants that grow under the soil.
9. They are tapioca, potato, yams, and amorphophallus.
10. Human-being get proteins mainly from pulses, legumes, milk, fungi like mushroom and non-vegetarian food like egg, fish and meat.
11. Common pulses are dhal, green gram, red gram, black gram, cowpea, Bengal gram, groundnut, cashew nut etc.
12. The main sources of fat are creams and oils.
13. We get vitamins, minerals, fibre etc.
14. Foods are mainly divided into three types.
15. They are vegetarian, non-vegetarian and junk foods.
16. Vegetarian foods are the best, natural; most popular form of food.
17. They are of plant origin.
18. Non-vegetarian foods are supplementary foods.
19. They are of animal origin.
20. Junk foods are those foods do not give us nutrients. 
21. These are processed foods.
22. They contain additives and preservatives for longer shelf life.    
23. Junk foods give us excess energy and leads to diseases.
24. However, children are fond of junk and fast foods. They are attracted by the colour; taste of unwanted chemicals in these items.
25. The common junk food are ice-cream, chocolates, noodles, soft drinks, coco colas, sweets, cakes, pastries, snacks, biscuits, wafers, fried foods, baked items and cookies.
26. Fried foods are banana roast, onion bajji, vadas, papads, fryums, chips, puffs, French fries, samoosa etc.
27. Food items like biriyani made with vanaspati are also not good foods.
28. Spices and condiments are those plant-based products that are added to foods to improve taste and flavour.
29.  Indian foods are generally spicy.
30. Common spices are chilly, turmeric,ginger, pepper, tamarind, clove nutmeg, cardamom etc.
31. Water is very essential for proper digestion of food. It also helps to eliminate toxins from human body. Therefore, we should drink lots of pure water everyday. 8 glasses for children and 20 glasses for grownups.
32. For good health, we should eat nutritious food in balanced diet for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.

LET'S LEARN (4): ANIMALS, THEIR HOMES, YOUNG ONES AND SOUNDS

Sl. No.	Animal	Home	Young one	Sound
1	Lion	Den	Cub	Roar
2	Dog	Kennel	PUPPY	Bark
3	Cat	Cage	Kitten	Mew
4	Sheep	Pen	Lamb	Bleat
5	Bull	Cattle shed	Calf	Moo
6	Elephant	Jungle	Baby elephant	Trumpet
7	Hen	Coop	Chick	Clucks
8	Goose	Water	Gosling	Squawk
9	Deer	Grasslands	Fawn	Grunt
10	Horse	Stable	Foal	Neigh
11	Cow	Cattle shed	Calf	Moo moo
12	Bear	Large forests	Cub	Growl
13	Cock	Pen	chick	cock a doodle doo
14	Rat	Hole	Kitten, nestling, pup, pinkie	Squeak
15	Bird	Nest	Nestling	Chirp
16	Monkey	Trees	Infant	Chatter
17	Pig	Sty	Piglet	Oink oink
18	Rabbit	Burrow	Bunny	Grunt
19	Fish	Water	Small fish
20	Donkey	Stable	Mule	Bray
21	Goat	Pen	Kid
22	Duck	Water	Duckling	Quack
23	Bee	Beehive	Worker bee	Ooom
24	Spider	Web	Small spider
25	Snake	Burrow		Hiss
26	Ant	Hill
27	Man	House	child	Speak
28	Zebra	Zoo	Small zebra

BIOGRAPHY(3): K.R.NARAYANAN

1. K.R. Narayanan was the tenth President of India.

2. His full name is Kocheril Raman Narayanan.

3. He was born on October 27 1920.

4. He was the fourth of seven children.

5. His father was Kocheril Raman Vaidyar.

6. His father was a physician in traditional Indian medicine.

7. His mother Paappiyamma was an uneducated lady.

8. The family lived in a hut at Uzhavoor.

9. They were Dalits.

10. They belong to the Paravan caste.

11. They lived in extreme poverty.

12. Sometimes there was not enough food to serve everyone in the house.

13. But his mother was keen to give him education.

14. He studied at Govt. LP School, Kurichithanam. (Std 1-4)

15. Then he went to Lady of Lourdes UP School. (std 5-7)

16. He walked to school for about 15 km everyday.

17. He was often unable to pay the fees.

18. He could not buy books either.

19. Then he studied at St. Johns High School. (std 8, 9)

20. For his tenth, he was at St. Mary’s High School.

21. He completed his twelfth from C.M.S. College, Kottayam.

22. He worked hard and won merit scholarship.

23. He obtained M.A. in English with a first rank.

24. His family was facing many difficulties.

25. So he started to earn a living as lecturer.

26. Then he went on to work as a journalist.

27. First, he was with The Hindu at Chennai.

28. Next, he worked with The Times of India at Mumbai.

29. He got a chance to interview Gandiji [10.4.1945]

30. He went to England and studied at the London School of Economics.

31. He took his B.Sc in Economics with specialization in Political Science.

32. Thereafter he joined the Indian Foreign Service.

33. He was Indian Ambassador to many countries like Japan, UK, USA, China, etc.

34. He was called “the best diplomat of the country” by Chacha Nehru.

35. As per Indira Gandhi’s suggestion, he entered politics and won 3 elections to Lok Sabha, as M.P. from Ottapalam.

36. He also served as Minister of State in the Union Cabinet with Rajiv Gandhi.

37. Later he was elected as Vice President and thereafter as President of India.

38. He was the first Dalit and Malayali to reach our nations highest office.

39. This life story is a good example that shows how one can rise from poor beginnings through hard work to high positions and inspires us to use our talents effectively.

40. He was married to Ma Tint Tint, called as Usha, a Burmese lady and has two children-Amrita and Chitra.

41. He died on 9^th November, 2005.

PARENTS AS WATCH DOGS

http://www.layman-fromindia.blogspot.com/

In this voiced opinion, blogger, tries to openly point to the probable negative influence of media on our kids. Media as everything, has both merits and demerits. As far as young children are concerned, its up to us as parents to guide them effectively.

Of course, there is a vast difference over generations. So shunning all that evolves overtime is impossible. Keeping this in mind, opening our minds carefully to adopt developments in technology, let us protect our children while exposing them to all latest developments...

Using child lock and keeping passwords with themselves, cooperation between parents, so on...there are lots to it....

Let our kids enjoy their life like butterflies, but let them also remember every moment that this freedom offered is always at our liberty! The limit is at the tip of our nose...!!!!!!!!!!! or wherever one's parents fixes it....

KIDS AND VACATION PLANS

During last summer vacation, an elaborate list of opportunities available during summer vacation for kids in and around Calicut city has been presented at :http://shyama17nair.blogspot.com/2010/04/engaging-kids-on-vacation-in-calicut.html

I hope most of the programmes would be revamped during this vacation also. Keep an eye or do a follow up over the telephone to identify those that suit your taste. Post other options if any, as suggested therein...

 Ragadeepam, A children's club functioning in Calicut under the eminent leadership of music director L.Sasikant offers classes on organ and organises annual event to exhibit talent of kids tutored in a public show. A report of the caliber of his son, Anand is presented as a budding talent at:  http://calicutnet.com/articles/rajesh/music@heart.htm Peep in there, if its your taste...