Retirement is no stop for this ‘bomma thatha’

Coimbatore: M Sreenivasan, a 70-year-old retired government school headmaster, has not stopped visiting schools. He visits them not as a chalk and talk teacher, but as a puppeteer and singer, who deliver lessons and awareness programmes.
Sreenivasan, who was appointed as a teacher in 1973, became a headmaster in 1993. That year, the state introduced ‘Kattralin Inimai’ project, which aimed to take lessons to students along with song and dance. “I got trained under the project,” he says.
When he retired in 2007, the school he joined as an elementary school, had developed into a high school. After retirement, a friend of his advised Sreenivasan to take up puppetry and continue reaching out to students. The friend also taught him puppetry.
Following this, Sreenivasan started making his own puppets using old clothes, cotton and wires. He made musicians from the city compose and sing songs and rhymes in English and Tamil textbooks, recorded them and used them to perform. “Along with this, I also recorded songs based on government schemes, hygiene, small savings, eye donation, dengue awareness and presented them through puppetry.”
So far, he has visited 500 schools in Namakkal and 230 in Coimbatore. “I perform for around 1.5hours in every school. I put up a stage, set the sound system and perform all by myself. Children like it. They call me bomma thatha.”
Sreenivasan carries around 30 puppets and visits schools in all blocks in an autorickshaw. “I don’t charge any fee for what I do,” he says.
Apart from schools, Sreenivasan also performs for public. “I will always be available to perform at schools or any other venue. People just have to call me at 97502 04042,” he adds.