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The Hindu : SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Spreading Awareness: Thoughtful deed

The traffic police of Bangalore, who have the unenviable task of managing chaotic traffic day after day, had something to cheer about last weekend. Children from 75 civic clubs from the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) handed them “Thank You” cards as part of the “Traffic Police Day” celebration.

Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, flagged off the celebrations. Across the city, civic club members from all CMCA member schools walked to the nearby junctions and traffic police stations to thank traffic constables, acknowledging and appreciating their efforts to manage traffic to the best of their ability despite several constraints.

Mr Sood pointed out that traffic policemen work under the most hazardous conditions.On an average, a policeman stands on duty for over 12 hours, sometimes more, in stressful conditions like heat, dust, rain and pollution.

Vrunda Bhaskar, Coordinator, CMCA, said: “While conducting a survey on traffic and road safety, our children found that managing traffic in a city, where citizens care little about following traffic rules, is a tiring and frustrating job.

The response of the constables was heart warming. They were visibly moved by the simple gesture of the children.

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The Hindu : SUDHINDR. A.B.

It’s all in the timing: Abacus “pros”

Fourteen students have done Bangalore proud by winning several prizes at the 8th International SIP Abacus, Brain Gym and Mental Arithmetic Competition held recently at Dubai Gem Private School, Dubai.

About 400 children from the UAE, Malaysia and Sri Lanka besides India participated in the competition. The competition was held at different levels. The objective was to motivate and develop a competitive spirit among prodigies and to test the diligence, intelligence, speed and accuracy of the participants. Thirty-three Indian children participated in Level – 2 to Grandmaster level categories. Suraj Hegde, Sourabh. R. M., Chirag. S., Mikhila Mehta, Ashrith, Lahari, Nanditha, Siddharth, Mohammed Shaik, Sathvik Bhat, Karunya Prakash, Abhishek. R. L., Kailash Kumar and Bindu, won prizes in various categories.

“The challenge to compete at the international level was gratefully accepted . They had definite plans and they successfully executed them. As a result, they have bagged many prizes,” says Dinesh Kumar Boswan, who accompanied the students.

He says that parents and grandparents of Malaysian and Chinese children are aware of the abacus techniques, where as Indians are first generation users. “It is tough for children to participate in international level competitions. I am extremely happy that the gap is narrowing and each passing year, our students are turning out very competent,” he says.

Mr. Boswan says that the planning was meticulous. “We had prepared a chart, which gives a relative log of the timing and accuracy, each time the student practised. Students practised addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentage calculation sheets . ” he says.

Kelvin Tham, founder of SIP Academy gave the away prizes.

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