Teaching children mathematics and english with puppets

Hyderabad: It’s probably hard to believe that children can be taught complex mathematics and English grammar through puppets unless one has seen Padmini Rangarajan of the Spoorthi Theatre for Educational Puppetry, Art and Craft (STEPARC) doing it. Padmini herself stepped into the magical world of puppetry on the day she narrated a Puranic tale to […]

Hyderabad: It’s probably hard to believe that children can be taught complex mathematics and English grammar through puppets unless one has seen Padmini Rangarajan of the Spoorthi Theatre for Educational Puppetry, Art and Craft (STEPARC) doing it.

Padmini herself stepped into the magical world of puppetry on the day she narrated a Puranic tale to her son through a puppet. As the word spread about her story-telling skills through puppets, she gained a sizeable fan following among kids, which further inspired her to establish STEPARC.

It was her love for puppets that made Padmini Rangarajan strive hard to save the otherwise dying art of puppetry and storytelling, and one of her notable works was on the revival of string puppetry of Ammapuram in Warangal district.

“I came from the family of traditional story-tellers and was guided by my father to experiment with puppets. But I didn’t restrict my story-telling and puppetry skills to narrate the traditional tales. There has always been a mix and match of contemporary themes told through stories taken from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas,” Padmini said. The function of puppetry remained the same for centuries – entertainment and education, but in the last decades, puppeteers have experimented with contemporary themes and both the children and adults listen to puppets.

It was on a child’s insistence that she started naming her puppets. Thus, was born her first glove puppet ‘Mallu’ the monkey in the story ‘The Money and the Cap-Seller.’

Since the establishment of the Spoorthi Theatre in 2005, Padmini has trained many, including tribal students in the art of puppetry. A few years ago, Spoorthi Theatre came up with a production in Gondi language about health issues in ITDA Utnoor, which was well-appreciated. Since the beginning of pandemic, STEPARC is conducting online classes in puppetry besides bringing out an e-magazine Puthalika Patrika.

Simultaneously, Padmini also engaged in creating ‘best out of waste’ for which she received the Swachhta Saarathi Fellowship in 2021. Well, her puppets are made from discarded plastic, carton boxes, thermocol, foam from old cushions, coconut shells, old fabrics, MLP sheets, old tea strainers, newspapers, etc.

“In India, puppetry is largely a family tradition. Due to lack of encouragement, over the years some traditions have gone extinct and many are struggling to survive. However, a lot of research in educational puppetry is going on in other countries,” she points out.

Puppets are an effective medium to spread awareness on social issues such as child marriages, hygiene and family planning, says Padmini adding, “and no one gets offended when a puppet talks tough.”

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