chennai so what did the kids do this summer manan goenka decided to bring the stars down to earth for the children in his neighbourhood sai vishruth held mini gardening workshops at siva park kaamaakshee athreyaa took a jab at teaching selfdefence just three kids who took the summer out to spread the word on something they are passionate about why why not apparentlymanan a class xii student in sishya says he got hooked to astronomy a year ago i was upset about something went to my terrace and found myself staring into space literally says manan the stars began to draw him into their world and before he knew it manan was googling researching and reading up on everything in space and beyond a couple of months ago he began conducting astronomy workshops free of cost on the terrace of his home to share his passion i have the telescope and the information and i just wanted to share that with other children who are interested says manan who is all set to begin a onemonth internship with teamindus the only indian team competing for the google lunar xprize a global competition to develop lowcost methods of robotic space exploration while the stars are fascinating on their own i break down the science into descriptions kids can relate to says manan which is why he tells them stories of how gold is formed when stars die and about the red supergiant star betelgeuse pronounced beetlejuice their eyes open wide and so do the skieswhile manan sets his clock by sunset sai vishruth sets his by sunrise at k k nagars sivan park where he begins his workshops on home gardening devastated by what cyclone vardah in december 2016 had done to his city vishruth decided it was time to regreen chennai over the summer the sixyearold from national public school went to beaches and parks and neighbourhood homes handing out saplings along with tips on gardening i go to sivan park every weekend where i teach people to grow small vegetable gardens says vishruth i show them how you dont even need a pot you can grow plants in a bucket adds vishruth dheepa athreyaa who runs the school of success in chennai which imparts leadership skills to children says she believes that letting children be the change they want to see is a great way for them to learn life lessons it builds confidence and teaches them the how to follow through an idea or a passion age does not matter its about getting children to take the lead says dheepa whose 11yearold daughter kaamaakshee decided to conduct a series of selfdefence workshops in chennai and coimbatore at the workshop i talk about the importance of selfdefence and also show children a few moves i have learned i also encourage boys to join in because part of the workshop is also on how boys need to respect girls says kaamaakshee who is now working on taking her workshops