A Family with Toy as Teacher
by Surabhi Khanna, Delhi
My first toy was actually made by my mother (as much as I remember). It was from kneaded dough when she was rolling rotis. She used to make small balls and long limbs, to create head, limbs and trunk of an elephant, create a bird and many more animals. I loved the feel of the atta and used to imitate the forms with more atta, rolling, kneading.
My father, a toy-product designer, often gave me all his valuable toy samples and the toys he made for his research, as I was his ever-ready user. As a user, I did total justice and gave good feedback. I broke most of his toys and hence he used to work on them again and add play value. He later said “you know Surabhi, the best way to learn is to break a toy; the next best is to make it.” Every vacation I used to sit with Bapu and make hundreds of a particular toy to prepare our new-year greeting to friends around the world. This became a tradition. Bapu used to carefully place every toy with play info and wishes and put them into an envelope. These were few of my first experiences to know the joy of gifting.
Making each toy over and over again for many days, taught me patience, attention to detail. If a toy didn’t work, make sound or moved the way it was supposed to, I would ask many questions and try to figure out. “No toy is a bad toy”, Bapu would explain, when I wanted to throw a non-working toy “it only has moods, just like you do.” A simple sentence which imparts empathy to living or non-living, without stating so. Buzzing Bee, Turning Tree, Tik-Tik were all part of my childhood.
How to make a Buzzing Bee — Take a string, about an arm-length long. Tie a wooden bead at one end. Cut a colorful plastic paper or wrapping paper into a circle. We would use a katori (small bowl), place it on the plastic paper and cut the circle around it with a cutter. This is how as a 10 year old I learned to use pointed tools carefully (make sure to always close the cutter before the next use). Using a metal scale, cut the circle into two halves. Take one semicircle and fold 0.5cm over the string. Using fevibond, paste the folded portion together (be careful, so that the fevibond does not stick on your fingers). The technique for using fevibond is that you have to open the pasted part and close it again, so that the pasted part is strong. Let it dry for five minutes, while you continue to work on other ones. Play with all the buzzing bees to test them. Each buzzing bee makes a beautiful different sound!
I would often take the handmade toys to school and would either make more friends or end up with being bullied into giving the toysup; some would choose a middle path of barter with exchange between the toy and cream crackers and other junk snacks. Of course, I would be in a loss as I would have to part with a precious playful idea carefully created by Bapu. And he would just let me be.
Later my sister Girija and me would make many magic flower, flipping flowers. We would give first few ones to Maa (our mother) to get her critical review. The play and toy making activity helped us bind as a family. Be it Bapu’s book releases, interviews, international workshops, awards, interviews or just simple struggles with making a toy work — the whole family would share the experience.
My interest soon evolved to architecture. But my childhood experiences and the urge to work with my father helped me decide to undergo a toy & game design program at NID. Bapu (Sudarshan Khanna) and me have since been conducting many workshops together with groups of educators, designers, school children, to promote the value of design and play in education. It was the process of playful learning from Bapu that helped me connect work and life. I hope to share such playful experiences with many more.
Encouraging children to ‘make a toy’ helps them understand how much effort goes into ideation, precision, material knowledge and curiosity to create and develop. In the urban areas, I am seeing a growing awareness in parents about the importance of encouraging children towards creativity and skill development. The easy availability and use of recycled materials and simple tools can help create a learning-lab/makerspace atmosphere at home. Digital media is also an interesting tool for sharing many ideas and video projects with children. But I think it is even nicer to joyfully create handmade playful things as a family, with parents, grandparents and children all coming together.
I would love to see the toys you design in your family.
Happiness & Playfulness, Surabhi <www.surabhikhanna.com>
