Susheela Raghavan
Stories form a powerful medium to teach any subject. Stories help children imagine situations in geography. Apart from capturing their attention, stories help children remember facts better. From stories, teachers can develop the cause and effect aspect of geography.
A note to the teacher: The following three stories meant for middle and high school classes are based on the geographical concepts of ecological balance, monsoons, and directions. Each story is followed by an activity to develop map skills. It is hoped that the children will find these activities interesting and fun filled.
Radhika Visits Her Aunt
Kuthanoor is a small village situated about 6 Kms south-west of Guduvancheri. A little girl called Radhika, lived in that village. She was an adventurous girl. During her holidays, Radhika wanted to visit her aunt, who had come from the United States of America. Her aunt was visiting her old mother in Guduvancheri. Radhika had never seen her aunt and she wanted to meet her. She was so determined to see her aunt that she threatened to walk all the way to Guduvancheri. Her mother gave in and gave her the permission. Mother gave Radhika a basket with murukku and athirsam and also sent some prasadam from the Vinayaka temple situated west of the village.
Radhika ventured out with a lot of enthusiasm. She imagined herself to be Red Riding Hood from the Grimms Fairy Tales. She did not want to take the main road to Guduvancheri. The road had a church on the eastern side, and a hospital north-west of the church. Instead, she chose to pass by the beautiful village pond with lotuses. There, she asked Kotteeswaran, the shepherd boy, to pluck a lotus to take with her. After passing the pond, she cut through a small scrub forest. In the scrub, she spied a fox and felt a little frightened. But to her surprise, the fox ran away. She saw an Indian lark (Bulbul) singing and also a couple of drongos on the telephone wires. Soon, she came to a clearing, where she saw the main road leading to Guduvancheri.
The author was a senior teacher and head of the department in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School for 13 years. She then taught in The School, Krishnamurthy Foundation of India for another 13 years till she retired in 1994. She can be reached at susheelaraghavan@gmail.com.