My daughter Myra turned 4 two days back. Nothing better than to see her get all the love and attention. For me, just a hug form her means more than the world.
I was not too fond of kids before I became a dad in 2010. But since the very moment I set my eyes on her, my world changed. It was an icing on the cake since I was really hoping for a daughter. It was unconditional love at the first sight. Infact love took it roots much before her birth, I think it started when I saw her as a little pod with just a heart beating during the scan. My God, a part of me was living.
She was born, has turned 4 and the euphoria is yet to settle.
It was somewhere in this early parenting stage that I was often visiting the US and Canada that I was exposed to the world of amazement and activities that kids can engage and engulf themselves in. Albit a bit commercialized, but then what's wrong with something great that my wallet can afford. In India, sadly there is little for PreShoolers.
I did play a lot of Mozart to her all through when she was in the womb, but like most kids, she was exposed to Rhymes and apps on the Ipad fairly early. But that was not it... she had her share of books, toys, exploratory, learning and development tools and more.
By the time she turned 2 she did have a mind of her own. She knew what she wanted. She was not narrow cast on TV or the tab only. Her interests and engagement activities were diverse. But then I started to realize how little India actually had to offer for preschoolers.
Most content was non indian, the indian content was not good enough that I'd like to her to be exposed to. Products, toys, development & learning tools too seemed limited, if truly Indian. I felt deprived. I knew Myra was deprived.
Working in the Media Industry, before Myra was born, I was to launch and head up a Kids TV Channel and several additional kids business vertical's in India. I had spent almost an year educating myself with what exists across the globe. India I knew was far behind.
Seeing that Myra and many of her age only had the mall to go to on the weekend or view some imported half demented shows on the TV (not all are bad), very little 'high value' culturally relevant Indian content. Mostly very limited options were on offer. So when I became a dad, by the time Myra hit 2 I had found a greater purpose for my life. I knew one thing, like any other preschooler she loved music, she loved to dance and sing and music meant a lot more to kids. Music is education, abc, numbers, values, entertainment, dance, fun, development and much much more. I had to do something with music.
I reached out to a former colleague and friend Chin2 Bhosle. A musician and a father of 2. Also the grandson of the legendary Asha Bhosle. It was a meeting destined to happen. He was already doing a lot of work for little kids, educating Music and was equally frustrated with the quality of content and limited options kids had across all verticals. He already had similar ideas but perhaps inertia was holding him back.We shook hands to try our bit to make a difference.
A seed of a concept was born. Little kids love to jump and dance and sing along. Every song can throw them in the epicenter of a Rock Concert at a large arena. Even seen teenagers at a rock concert... a headbangers ball. PreSchoolers do it much better, much longer, much harder and look much much cuter doing so. And they can do it to Jack and Jill & 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We decided to be their rock stars.
The personal target was that if ever a PreSchooler is not having a head bangers ball, we are not doing it right. But then we wanted to use this connect for a far larger purpose; a purpose where it all began. To give them education, values, connect culturally and socially and regionally. But all that by entertaining them.
We wanted to do it for the love of it, for the possibility of financially sustaining itself and for the great opportunity to make millions of Indian kids smile who perhaps cannot even afford a trip to the mall.
Chin2 and I knew that just the 2 of us were incomplete. We thought hard and we thought long but the obvious was just an arms length away. 2 of Chin2's dear friends; the adorable Fiona D'Souza, a grandmother twice over and Pratichee Mohapatra, a beautiful & talented singer, a wife and both passionate about kids joined us soon enough.
We toiled hard for over an year on how, what, why, where and W, X, Y & Z and soon we knew our ABC. Finally, with the collaborative efforts of the band members, some lucky meetings and dear friends and family and loved ones [a big muah to the special ones] who stood by us through doubt, frustrations, challenges and impossible walls to leap over we launched our YouTube Channel.
We intend to simply start by creating popular nursery rhymes for little kids... to build affinity and connect with the core target audience. We'll be active in animation both 2D and 3D, in various kinds of muppetry and of course live action. While music will be our common strand, we promise to deliver everything we originally wanted to stand for. We will be there for those who can afford us and those who can't. We'll try and make every child smile. Just like Myra, they all look equally beautiful with their infectious 'ear to ears' irrespective of their gender, caste, religion, colour, size or family background. If its little kids, we want them to rock with us.
And so, for no reason, just because it sounded right, having no meaning at all, we just coined a word and called ourselves CHIKARAKS. We are your child's first rock band.
See us here https://www.youtube.com/user/Chikaraks
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chikaraks/325615184249683
http://www.chikaraks.com/
Connect with you soon...
Hugs
Chikarak Manav
I was not too fond of kids before I became a dad in 2010. But since the very moment I set my eyes on her, my world changed. It was an icing on the cake since I was really hoping for a daughter. It was unconditional love at the first sight. Infact love took it roots much before her birth, I think it started when I saw her as a little pod with just a heart beating during the scan. My God, a part of me was living.
She was born, has turned 4 and the euphoria is yet to settle.
It was somewhere in this early parenting stage that I was often visiting the US and Canada that I was exposed to the world of amazement and activities that kids can engage and engulf themselves in. Albit a bit commercialized, but then what's wrong with something great that my wallet can afford. In India, sadly there is little for PreShoolers.
I did play a lot of Mozart to her all through when she was in the womb, but like most kids, she was exposed to Rhymes and apps on the Ipad fairly early. But that was not it... she had her share of books, toys, exploratory, learning and development tools and more.
By the time she turned 2 she did have a mind of her own. She knew what she wanted. She was not narrow cast on TV or the tab only. Her interests and engagement activities were diverse. But then I started to realize how little India actually had to offer for preschoolers.
Most content was non indian, the indian content was not good enough that I'd like to her to be exposed to. Products, toys, development & learning tools too seemed limited, if truly Indian. I felt deprived. I knew Myra was deprived.
Working in the Media Industry, before Myra was born, I was to launch and head up a Kids TV Channel and several additional kids business vertical's in India. I had spent almost an year educating myself with what exists across the globe. India I knew was far behind.
Seeing that Myra and many of her age only had the mall to go to on the weekend or view some imported half demented shows on the TV (not all are bad), very little 'high value' culturally relevant Indian content. Mostly very limited options were on offer. So when I became a dad, by the time Myra hit 2 I had found a greater purpose for my life. I knew one thing, like any other preschooler she loved music, she loved to dance and sing and music meant a lot more to kids. Music is education, abc, numbers, values, entertainment, dance, fun, development and much much more. I had to do something with music.
I reached out to a former colleague and friend Chin2 Bhosle. A musician and a father of 2. Also the grandson of the legendary Asha Bhosle. It was a meeting destined to happen. He was already doing a lot of work for little kids, educating Music and was equally frustrated with the quality of content and limited options kids had across all verticals. He already had similar ideas but perhaps inertia was holding him back.We shook hands to try our bit to make a difference.
A seed of a concept was born. Little kids love to jump and dance and sing along. Every song can throw them in the epicenter of a Rock Concert at a large arena. Even seen teenagers at a rock concert... a headbangers ball. PreSchoolers do it much better, much longer, much harder and look much much cuter doing so. And they can do it to Jack and Jill & 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We decided to be their rock stars.
The personal target was that if ever a PreSchooler is not having a head bangers ball, we are not doing it right. But then we wanted to use this connect for a far larger purpose; a purpose where it all began. To give them education, values, connect culturally and socially and regionally. But all that by entertaining them.
We wanted to do it for the love of it, for the possibility of financially sustaining itself and for the great opportunity to make millions of Indian kids smile who perhaps cannot even afford a trip to the mall.
Chin2 and I knew that just the 2 of us were incomplete. We thought hard and we thought long but the obvious was just an arms length away. 2 of Chin2's dear friends; the adorable Fiona D'Souza, a grandmother twice over and Pratichee Mohapatra, a beautiful & talented singer, a wife and both passionate about kids joined us soon enough.
We toiled hard for over an year on how, what, why, where and W, X, Y & Z and soon we knew our ABC. Finally, with the collaborative efforts of the band members, some lucky meetings and dear friends and family and loved ones [a big muah to the special ones] who stood by us through doubt, frustrations, challenges and impossible walls to leap over we launched our YouTube Channel.
We intend to simply start by creating popular nursery rhymes for little kids... to build affinity and connect with the core target audience. We'll be active in animation both 2D and 3D, in various kinds of muppetry and of course live action. While music will be our common strand, we promise to deliver everything we originally wanted to stand for. We will be there for those who can afford us and those who can't. We'll try and make every child smile. Just like Myra, they all look equally beautiful with their infectious 'ear to ears' irrespective of their gender, caste, religion, colour, size or family background. If its little kids, we want them to rock with us.
And so, for no reason, just because it sounded right, having no meaning at all, we just coined a word and called ourselves CHIKARAKS. We are your child's first rock band.
See us here https://www.youtube.com/user/Chikaraks
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chikaraks/325615184249683
http://www.chikaraks.com/
Connect with you soon...
Hugs
Chikarak Manav
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