Thousands of kids step into world of letters

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On their first encounter with the world of letters, many toddlers broke into tears, some others welcomed it with a smile and others gladly screamed aloud the first letters.Capital City woke up on Thursday witnessing the entry of tiny tots into the galactic firmament of learning. From cultural organisations to religious centres, various institutions opened the venue for tiny tots to taste the first fruits of education.At the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the ‘Vidyarambham’ ceremonies at 6.15 am. He initiated five children into the world of letters in the Koothambalam by scrawling the holy words ‘Om’ with a golden ring on their tongue. Later, on a plate of rice grains, he directed their little fingers to write ‘Hari Sree Ganapathaye Namaha.’Kids below four years of age were present for the Vidyarambham ceremony. Other than the Chief Minister, M R Thamban, Vilakkudi Rajendran, Puthusseri Ramachandran and Dr Basheer Maulavi initiated the children into writing here.Apart from initiation into the world of letters, many children entered the world of arts and instruments also. Sanandaraj, Girija Surendran, Girija Chandran, Geethanjali Kollara, Kalapeedam Prakash, Kalapeedam Padmakumar, Ayilam Unnikrishnan, Sreekanth and Durga made the children step into the learning of drawing, veena, dance, karate, chenda/ idakka, maddalam/ timila, Kathaprasangam and Vaipattu respectively. The ‘Vidyarambham’ ceremony was organised by the ‘Deseeya Balatharangam’ in association with the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan and Sabarmathi. The ceremonies concluded by 11 am.  The Thunchan Smarakam at Iranimuttom kicked off the ‘Vidyarambham’ ceremonies by 6 am. As many as 3,060 children were present to write their first letters and initiate their lessons in arts. ‘Vidyarambham’ began with the masters chanting the ‘Hari Sree mantra’ into the ears of the little ones. On the soil fetched from the Thunchan Parambu at Tirur, tiny tots scribbled ‘Hari Sree Ganapathaye Namaha’. The ceremonies were led by K Jayakumar IAS, G N Panicker, Sukumar, Dr Mavelikkara Achuthan, Vattaparambil Gopinatha Pillai and Attukal T K Damodaran Namboothiri.While Kattoor Narayana Pillai and  Karaikkamadapam Vijayakumar taught kids the first lessons of drawing, Kallara Gopan and Pushpa Krishnan initiated them into music and Lakshmi Nair made them learn the first steps of dance. The ceremonies continued till 12 pm.Temples too witnessed a surge of little devotees thronging to get into the world of letters. Attukal Temple initiated 1,500 kids into writing. The ceremonies were led by chief priest Gosala Vishnu Vasudevan Namboodiri and assistant priests P V Kesavan Namboodiri and M N Narayanan Namboodiri. The ceremony lasted from 7 am to 1 pm. The Durga Devi Temple at Sreekandeswaram made 52 children learn their first letters of writing. Prof Sankara Narayana Iyer and S Krisha Iyer led the ‘vidyarambham’ ceremonies from 8.30 am to 10.30 am.