IIK Freedom from Gadgets: A Nostalgic evening of joy, thrill and excitement
Sunday, December 5, 2021
In a unique initiative, popular community portal Indiansinkuwait.com and Indian Women in Kuwait - IWIK, in association with Al Muzaini Exchange, organized a day for the children to spend time without electronic gadgets and social media. IIK Freedom From Gadgets- Season 3 was held on Friday, 3rd December at ICSK - JUnior from 2pm till 8pm with a simple message that ‘the entire family can have fun indoors, with little or no cost and with lots of benefit for the growing minds of the kids’
The kids were introduced to a large number of games which were traditionally played in India; games which involve minimum fuss and expense and yet the returns are immense in terms of the sheer joy and involvement of the mind.
Nowadays the Kids are full time playing on electronic gadgets be it Mobile phone, play stations, tablets and i-pads... IWIK took an initiative to encourage kids to learn and enjoy playing traditional and other board games, while keeping them away from gadgets/e-games. This was the third time IIK & IWIK conducting this event.
Large number of kids and their parents gathered at the event, and none of them glued to their mobile phones. None of the heads were bent low while peering over a machine; the kids were not slouching over some game on the mobile and the eyes not mindlessly gaping at a screen.
Indian Ambassador to Kuwait H.E Shri Sibi George and Madam Mrs Joice Sibi visited the Freedom from Gadgets event and shared their nostalgic childhood memories. Appreciating the inititive taken by IndiansinKuwiat.com in organising such a unique event, Ambassador said that it is very important for our children to know the value of our root.
"My fondest childhood memory is when we siblings and cousins spent the summer vacations at my grandparents home at our village, playing with carefree abandon, climbing mango trees, dangling precariously on branches trying to pluck that elusive mango and throwing stones aiming at the high rise mangoes, all this when the elders were taking an afternoon nap," Ambassador shared his nostalgic memories. Ambassador and his wife also played a few games joyfully at the venue.
The program was sponsored by Al Muzaini Exchange Company, and it is with the joint endeavours of the staff of Indiansinkuwait.com , IWIK Team and the volunteers from the community and Samarpan Association, that this massive program turned out to be a roaring success.
The event was totally free for the public. Dedicated volunteers sat and patiently taught the kids the various rules and techniques of the games, which we all played in our childhood. The games which were introduced to the kids includes Daadi, Brainvita, Ashta Chamma, Pallamkuzhi, Aadu Puli (tiger and goat game), Gutte, Hopscotch, Carom, Scrabble, Skipping, Spinning Top, Chess, Marbles, and various other Board Games.
To encourage the reading habits in kids, the organizers had also arranged free Books initiatives for kids at the venue. Each and every child at the venue got at least One Free Book to take home to read. The only motive was to encourage the book reading habits in children.
Free Chess Workshop by Kuwait Indian Chess Association (KICA) and Creative Craft & Fun Activities of Workshop by Divya also attracted many children.
The event not only attracted the children, but also took the parents to a trip down the memory lane, as hundreds of parents were visibly excited at spotting the games which they had played with their parents, friends and grandparents but had not had the chance to play them for several years or even to introduce their kids to them.
During the event, Ambassador Shri Sibi George presented a memento to the IndiansinKuwait.com team, appreciating the great initiative to promote Indian traditional childhood games to the new generation.
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