Summer fun at Bal Bhavan Even before summer camps became the fad that it is now, Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park has had summer camps. The camps have been going on for over 25 years now. Divya Narayanappa, secretary of Bal Bhavan says, “We have modified the summer camps this year and introduced Sanskrit as a compulsory class to revive the traditional culture.” Around 142 children have already registered for the camps. With the registrations still on, they are expecting almost about 200 children to be enrolled in the Bal Bhavan summer camps this year. April 12 to May 20, 10 am – 4.30 pm
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Batch: 5 to 10 years Activities: Yoga, meditation, Sanskrit (compulsory), painting, clay modelling, dance, theatre, singing. Price: Rs. 750 Batch: 8 to 14 years Activities: Yoga, meditation, Sanskrit (compulsory), painting, clay modelling, dance, theatre, singing, mehendi, embroidery, metal embossing. Price: Rs. 1200 Batch: 12 to 16 years Activities: Yoga, meditation, Sanskrit (compulsory), painting, clay modelling, dance, theatre, singing, mehendi, embroidery, metal embossing, vegetable and
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fruits carving, aeromodelling, ship modelling. Price: Rs. 1500 Bal Bhavan has tied up with Reliance Big Aims Aquarius Animation Pvt. Ltd. for animation training. This training is free for all the batches. The classes are held by trained staff and school teachers who take these classes during vacations.
Strangler Fig and Asian Koel. Pic: Deepa Mohan
Sings beautifully, a parasite all the same The Koel lays its egg in other birds’ When we hear the word “parasites”, nests, and the birds we generally think of ignorant of this, bring leeches. But there are up the baby Koel along other creatures and with their own nestlings. plants around us, that Often, the Koel pushes are parasites - living out the other nestlings to beings which live on get more food for itself. other creatures. One of them, not often known, In the plant world, is the Braconid wasp. too, there are several This wasp ensures a parasites, best known of fresh supply of protein which, are the various orchids we for its young, by laying its eggs on grow in our gardens. But there is also a caterpillar. When the eggs hatch the Strangler Fig. on the caterpillar, they feed on the This fig tree starts caterpillar, sucking life on another tree, its blood and then, Nature Feature when it germinates as all insects do, Deepa Mohan from the seed that the larvae turn into the birds drop. It then pupae, still stuck on puts down roots that slowly form a the caterpillar’s hair. Once the eggs network around the host tree, and hatch, the larvae endsup eating the reach the ground. Over a period caterpillar. of time, the Strangler Fig literally Another creature that we often see strangles the host tree to death. In in our city, hearing its melliflous call, the photograph, you can see the Fig is the Asian Koel. The male is a blackforming its deadly network of roots coloured bird with bright red eyes, around the trunk of the host tree. and the female is dappled black-andNo one likes parasites, who live on white. others, but it’s a fact of life in Nature. Vol-4 Issue-06 21 Apr - 4 May 2012 CITIZEN MATTERS 17