A bit about Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is a space and an opportunity for children and parents to discover and re-discover the joy of learning – simply for the fun of it! Kaleidoscope offers a wide variety of activities that are specifically designed to support life-long learning – be it with knowledge, concepts, or mental, emotional and general life skills.

Learning unfortunately, has come to be equated with mindless acquisition of information and worse, an activity to be undertaken in order to pass an exam. Children of nearly every age group are under tremendous pressure from parents, teachers and peers to participate in the set of activities that passes for learning and education.

Lots of parents recognize the limitations of this system and wish to offer their children something different. But most find themselves without too many options. The spirit of Kaleidoscope is to continuously provide such an option to parents and children in an affordable and convenient format.

 

The people who’ve made us what we are

We started Kaleidoscope because we thought learning ought to be fun! And it turned out, there were plenty of people who agreed with us! 

Omana Hirantara, Lalitha Menon and Shobha Nargundkar started Kaleidoscope in 1999. All three were driven by the need to provide a resource-rich space for children, and a passion to create a positive, loving environment that brought out the best in people. The spirit of the founding team is now pretty much embedded in the DNA of Kaleidoscope.

Lalitha and Shobha are currently doing other things, and supporting Kaleidoscope in informal ways. Kaleidoscope expresses its gratitude for their contributions and continued support, without which Kaleidoscope would not have been what it is today.

We’re also thankful to all our members, paricipants of our workshops and other friends who have – in small ways and big – contributed to Kaleidoscope’s growth. We’d specifically like to thank J Sailaja, Kichu Krishnan, Krish Srikanth, Sunny Devidas, Anil Menon, Harimohan P, Chandrashekar Reddy, Alpna and Rajeev Sharma, Kalpalatha Nuti, Preeti Kundalia, Archana Bhagat, Shailaja Rao, Dr Suvarna and Dr Jaideep, Late Dr SV Reddy, Nagesh and Madhavi Reddy, Vaishali Rane, Renu Ganotra, Kanaka Ravi, Suparna Kapoor, Usha Mohan, Sonal Saxena, Dr V Padmavathi, Shaila Rao, Dr Ratnamani, Sharvari Dhobale, Reena Verghese, Shashi N, Vijaylakshmi M and Sheel Parekh. 

 

The Kaleidoscope team today

• Omana Hirantara: Omana is an entrepreneur, mother, teacher, and manager and passionate about learning and teaching. She has a science degree, nine years of experience as a teacher in NIIT and nine more years of invaluable experience in dealing with children in Kaleidoscope. Omana gets three excellent ideas every half an hour and implements many of them! She conceptualizes ideas and learning resources that are often several years ahead of their time. She also loves cooking and organizing. She co-founded Kaleidoscope and continues to be the prime force behind it.
   
• Manasvini: Manasvini is a learning designer and communications specialist. She’s worked over eleven years in designing, developing and implementing learning programs and e-learning courses for corporates, schools and NGOs. Manasvini beleives in leveraging technology for learning, communication and collaboration and brings that particular flavour to Kaleidoscope. Manasvini grew to love Kaleidoscope as member, and then converted that love into a professional engagement. She currently designs and delivers programs, and supports Omana in running Kaleidoscope.
   
• Raju: Raju manages the Kaleidoscope Library, and provides back end support to all the other activities at Kaleidoscope. He also finds time to coach beginners on chess, drawing and painting. His enthusiasm and dedication contributes to the positive atmosphere at Kaleidoscope. Raju has grown with Kaleidoscope and contributes significantly to its smooth working.

Our extended panel of resource persons

• Naveen Jayaraj, Music instructor
• Rajarambabu V, Art instructor
• Govind Sharma,  Chess Instructor
• Santhosh, Dance and Aerobics instructor
• Cheryl Rao, Creative Writing coach
• Meetu Chawla, Stories and Activities resource person
• Devendranath AS, Theatre facilitator
• Sheel, Script Writing facilitator
• Sharvari Dhobale, French teacher
• SP Ramu and Sampurnam, Karate and Taekwando instructors