Mumbai for Kids

Imagine a place where you walk in to exercise the ephemeral muscles of your imagination. Because that is exactly what Curiosity Gym (CG) is all about: a place for people of all ages to walk in and allow your curiosity to spark through applied learning, tinkering, prototyping or making.

I've enrolled myself and my 11-year-old son for a 3-D doodling workshop, being conducted at CG. We walk in early so that I can take in the space, assess it, mess around… because no one here knows I'm on a review mode.

CG is on one floor with narrow rooms; each room is called a lab. Each room is edged with a long desk, chairs and implements that you can work with. There's nothing fancy here, yet if you looked closely, there are prototypes, models, rudimentary batteries, broken-down clocks, rods, hooks, nets, wires, balls, bottles and things that I have no name for. So, if you have a science project you want to work on or if you wish to design solutions involving problem-solving; or if you simply want to fiddle around with a collection of assorted raw material, this is the place to head to.

A seven-year-old boy and his mother are there working to create a motion-censor lighting system. They are deep in conversation with a bespectacled man and no one looks up as I walk in. It is apparent that at the CG you can walk in and do whatever you want. There are - what they call, mentors - who will step in only if you wish to brainstorm or ask for help. I eavesdrop into the mother-son-mentor conversation and learn that the little fellow has been here before and simply loved his time at the space, and hence this visit.

We've signed up for a workshop and, in a bit, more people walk in. We sit around a long-ish centre-table on which assorted things have been assembled in a heap. There is a sheaf of tracing papers, a largish pen-type thing and long, colourful plastic-looking noodly things. We are introduced to a team of mentors who will handhold us through 3-D doodling and one of them starts by showing us how to insert these colourful plasticy noodle thingies into the largish pen thing that seems to be connected to an electric circuit.

After an hour of deep concentration, I'm holding a cup that I have drawn out of thin air, along with a tribal-face mask. The car and reindeer and the butterfly that I chose to start with will never be my pride and joy, so I allow them to be taken away. My son and two other boys have decided to create phone covers for their phones and yet someone else has made a beautiful dream-catcher - all out of thin air. No matter what we've done, the air is full of jubilation.

Of course 3-D doodling is not path-breaking, but I can see how fascinating this space can be for children and anyone who wants to create, implement a solution, optimise a remedy, or even lug something they have worked on and have perhaps hit a roadblock. Because Curiosity Gym is just that: it is a shared learning environment where anyone can walk in, play around, break, remake, design or just be. So cool!

Where: Curiosity Gym, opposite Vijaya Bank, Fort.
Best for: Girls and boys aged 5 upwards
How to reach: Board a train to either CSMT or Churchgate stations. Hail a cab towards RBI.
Timings: All days, from 10 am to 7 pm
Budget: You can walk, free of cost, charges depend on if you have signed up for a workshop or if you have used any resource material
Food: No
Water: Yes, but carry your own
Rest Room facilities: Yes
Where else to go: RBI Monetary Museum and Horniman Circle Gardens.

Parent Poll: Anyone can walk in and is encouraged to innovate, use intellect and imagination. Loved it.
Rating: 
Kids' Poll: Lots of cool material to work with and it's okay to break stuff.
Rating:

What's Good: Makes science, ideation and problem-solving hands-on and accessible. Encourages innovation and the creation process. Mentors are young, accessible, understand your needs and don't talk down to the child. There is plenty of material to work with, too. If you have kids who are bored with the regular birthday party themes, then this is a place where they are happy to be mobile and set up labs in conducive spaces. CG has set up labs in many schools.

What's Not So Good: Go only if you want to tinker, create and work with science and technology, and related hands-on stuff. Wish it was bigger in terms of space.

SAFETY TIP: There are mentors always around to help keep the space safe, but because there are power points around, either be there with your kid, or ensure that a mentor is watching.

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