Dehradun: The Bal Utsav started by lighting of the lamp by Kapil Gujar the world champion body builder for 2022-23 and Mahant Hitesh Pratap ji from Haridwar. Honourable Smt.& Dr S.K Baranwal guest of honour were welcomed. The guests were garlanded by children and Dhiraj a 12-year old read out a letter, honouring the guests. This event took place at Nanhi Dunya, Mother House, Dehradun as part of Holi Utsav.
Mehak, Rudra and Anjali provided a bird’s eye view of Nanhi Dunya’s activities and guiding spirit. All festivals here are celebrated with great enthusiasm, providing children opportunities to learn and explore. Children have hidden talents that need to be unearthed and nurtured.
The main attraction of the event was a musical dance drama on Hanuman Chalisa was enacted by seventy child artists dressed in colourful traditional costumes performed with great zest enrapturing the audience.
The show was directed by Satvika Goyal and anchored by Mannu Ahuja.
The play “Doctor Doctor”, a comedy performed by children with special needs had the audience rolling in laughter. It was about a doctor who treated patients but when it came to payment, patients expressed their inability.
Kajri is a form of folk song and dance, an improvisation based on the seasons. Tiny tots enacted this and it included the favourite incident in which Lord Krishna as a child steals butter. The composition, singing and voice over was by Kiran Goyal. A Bhangra in traditional Punjabi style with music enlivened the audience as the dancers leapt and whirled onstage with shouts of joy.
Vaibhavi a teenage writer fluent in both Hindi and English read out three compositions in Hindi of her poems giving a glimpse of her talents.
The guest of honour said he had been connected to Nanhi Dunya from the age of nine when he first read a magazine edited by Late Prof Lekh Raj Ulfat the founder. He lauded Nanhi Dunya for this flowering in the life of children with special needs, a powerful movement as it transforms pain to happiness. He presented UNESCO Stamped certificates to Harshit Dhiman, Navya Gupta and Abhaya Singh for essays selected by Goi Foundation, Japan themed ‘A letter from myself in 2030’.
The program ended with Smt Kiran U Goyal Chief Promoter of the organization informing the audience that Nanhi Dunya encouraged children to learn through activities rather than force learning on them. This experiential learning meant children were not overly burdened
Special guests were Col Ravi Mehrotra (Retd), Kalpana Tripathi, Yogendra Singh, Sumit Garg, Abha Menon, Dr T Kamra, Vijay Goyal, MC Upadhyay, Rohit Shukla, Dr Anurag Singh, Dr S Shrivastava.
