What
is Hippocampus?
 Hippocampus
came into being with two fundamental and profound insights
- firstly, that children are multitalented and can grow up
tapping into all that they have been blessed with to become
richer, more rounded people, empowered to take charge of the
world we will leave them with far more wisdom and compassion.
And secondly, that the community, at large, should and can
play a more involved and positive role in nurturing a brand
new generation.
Hippocampus is not a library, or a club, a work shop, or a
community center - it is all that and more. We call it an
experience center - a treasure trove of information, knowledge,
skills, activities and resources. It is a hub where people
of all walks of life can impart to children their special
skills. It's aim is to create a vibrant and dynamic environment
that reflects to some extent the diversity of our world, offering
an almost endless range of opportunities from every area of
life - the arts, sciences, sports, recreational activities,
social interaction.
Why Hippocampus?
Ethan Hawke is a movie star. He's also
an acclaimed author. In a recent interview he said he had
just about come to realize that he, as an individual, had
more than one talent. Now he would like to try his hand at
directing a film. We grow up learning about many, many multitalented
people, all of whom were able to give expression to each facet
of their personality. People like Leonardo da Vinci - painter,
scientist, inventor or Michelangelo - sculptor and painter.
Tagore - writer, lyricist, painter, philosopher, educationist.
Gandhi - lawyer, activist, philosopher, writer. The list of
remarkable people is endless. Despite these great examples,
we, most of us are conditioned by society to believe that
we can and should strive to excel at only one thing.
`What
do you want to be when you grow up?' is the classic conversational
gambit grown-ups use with kids, the implication being there
is only one right answer.
The world is changing. Society is now opening up to the wonderfully
challenging idea that there are, in fact, no wrong answers.
The world we live in is immense, a wonderland of adventures
and multiple realities just waiting to be explored. We now
tell our children that they can and should strive to be all
that they want to be. We want them to understand that their
reality is not defining - just next door the world is different.
Who
is Hippocampus?
In 1997 Umesh and Vimala Malhotra, along with their 5-year-old
son, found themselves in the United States.
"We spent a year in the US and were astounded by the
kind of life a child there is exposed to in terms of education
and hands-on experience. At that time our child was in kindergarten
where he had access to a lovely, child-friendly library. Our
son loved being read to and he was encouraged to take a book
home every week. Little rewards like stickers were reason
enough for the kids to keep coming back and helping themselves
to different books.
More significantly, there were public libraries in every neighbourhood.
Here you could find children of all ages engaged in reading,
working on school projects or checking out activities and
workshops that they could sign up for during the course of
the year. Our son loved the children's section, an area full
of natural light and bright colours. A warm and friendly librarian
was always at hand to help the kids choose their books or
use the PC and take print-outs. To add to this, there were
regular activities like book reading for various age groups,
magic shows, puppet shows or amateur theatrics. And all this
was free.
When we came back to India, in 1999, we realized that nothing
of this sort was available to our children. An enormous amount
of children's books are published each year but a child in
India has hardly any access to them. This was when we started
working on the concept of Hippocampus. We took our time nurturing
the idea and giving it a more defined form. While the inspiration
for Hippocampus came from American Public Libraries, the concept
itself took a life of its own and became a much, much bigger
project with a much more ambitious purpose. Hippocampus evolved
around the several precepts - that kids are multitalented,
that it's not just parents but the community at large that
moulds a child and that there's more you can do for your child
than just send him to school.
Through Hippocampus we want children, not just our own, to
be exposed to all kinds of different media, ideas and areas
of interest so that they can be all that they want to be."
Where is Hippocampus?
Our postal address:
Hippocampus Experience Centre
No 525, 16th Main,
3rd Block, Kormangala,
Bangalore 560 034
Phone : 5630206
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