While I am on the topic of Hindu Society, let me fast forward to the mid-1980s, when the Hindu Society organized summer camps at Riding Mountain ProvincialPark. The energy behind the camps was Mohan Mathur, who had the support of a large number of parents who volunteered to be in charge of the cooking, the prayer-meetings, lectures and games.
It was a wonderful time. The campsite was taken over by Hindus for almost a whole week every summer for two or three years. The day started at 6 a.m. with teenagers being hauled out of bed for the morning prayers – a Surya namaskar first, led by Shubha Sridhar, an exquisite dancer trained in Mrinalini Sarabhai’s school Darpana, followed by chanting of familiar temple prayers. There were lectures and activity sessions, followed by games in the late afternoon. In addition to frisbee and volleyball, campers played the popular Indian sport of kabaddi. Then there was the campfire every night. After the campers went to bed, the songs at the campfire continued – popular Hindi film songs, often from the 1960s and 1970s, usually led by Pratibha Bhalla.
Mohan Mathur left his headship of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Manitoba in the late 1980s, to become Dean at the University of Western Ontario. The leadership behind the summer camps was not as spirited as before.
I was Camp Director for the 1990 camp and this was part of my report.
From Uma Parameswaran’s “Summer Camp Report 1990”
Camp 1990 was held during the long weekend in August (August 4-5-6) at Birds’ Hill park. In the past, I have helped in the first two camps of the Society and was Camp Director for a camp held within the city with the Mandir as base. However, this time as Director of the Camp, it was very different and I would like to share my thoughts on the experience.
The weekend confirmed for me once again the worthwhileness of the effort. A camp banner was made by the younger children with adult help; teenagers had a lot of outdoor games and fun; Gopalji Pandey’s art class was a great success; an evening discussion led by Babu Hegdekar highlighted the need for making such discussions among youngsters an ongoing activity of the Society; the havan, led by Chandra Sharma, gave the campers an experience of the solemnity and celebration of Hindu ritual. Significantly, the open house concept of the meals and campfires brought visitors from the city to the park to get involved in the fellowship of a Hindu camp. The camp concluded with the observance of Rakshabandhan and it was very heartwarming to see girls repledging sibling bonds and also adopting new brothers.
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….Our children must be given a simple primer of Hinduism. Our … openmindedness often confuses children. To every one of their simple questions such as Is there a God? What should we say when our friends laugh at the idea of a monkey god? Is Krishna God? Did Krishna die? we often give answers that are totally incomprehensible to child-minds … and about the Mahabharata and Ramayan being “stories” whose historicity we cannot prove, about Krishna’s death reflecting a higher truth, about evolution of monkey to man etc.
My own answers would be, Yes, there is a God who appears in different forms to different people at different times of civilization; since Hinduism recognizes the interconnectedness of all creatures, different manifestations of God are associated with different animal forms; yes Krishna is God as surely as the earth moves around the sun, and he lived on earth, born to Devaki in Mathura and brought up by Yasoda in Gokul and Brindavan, and when he grew up he was king of Dwaraka and showed himself to Arjuna as the Supreme One, and gave Arjuna and us the Bhagavad Gita.
Children need simple and reassuring answers; given that, in due time they will mature and understand the complexities of Hinduism. ..
It is a pragmatic necessity that it in order to keep our children informed and Hindu, we launch on such a project and be informative without being dogmatic.
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Camps should develop a sense of initiative, leadership and responsibility in campers. I would like to see activities that make young campers work under the direction of older campers. Pitching tents, collecting firewood, preparing food and cleaning up should be done mainly by the campers and not by adults…. My own view is that we tend to pamper our younger generation no end without giving them any of the responsibilities which the society in which we live normally gives to children.
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I am more convinced than ever that camps will do for our younger generation what the Sunday satsangs do for us, namely promote a sense of fellowship and the attitude of good-neighbourliness that is so essential especially during family crises such as illness and bereavement.
To the old adage that the family that prays together stays together, I would add that the family that plays together stays together. The Hindu Society family should ensure that our youngsters play and pray together, and camps are one of the ways of doing so.
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