“We have had these tested for grown ups; they can support up to 100 kilograms,” says Anjali Sacheti, aka ‘the wizard of lightbulb moments’. She’s talking about the veritable forest of colourful ceiling-to-floor poles that have footrests at varying heights: perfect for excitable children, but a little precarious for adults.
Even as she speaks, the mother-of-two skips nimbly from pole to pole — up, down, sideways — while I cautiously and happily push my way around the balloon-filled floor instead. Adults are as different from each other as children.
It’s these basic differences, and the need for a safe space for all of them, that spurred Sacheti and her friend Nidhi Thadani to create Not A Box. They began planning it as a place where children could just monkey around as they wished, come rain or shine or mosquito hours or erratic tuition timings. Yet, long before their launch last weekend, the duo had decided to let adults take a swing as well. From the monkey bars, that is.
Chennai: 05-08-2018, For Merto Plus: Play zone 'Not A Box' at Rutland Gate 5th Street, Nungambakam. Photo: M. Karunakaran
Or you can just clamber up said bars, careen down a zip-line, climb a shoulder-high wall and slide down the other end. Or just pick up a felt pen and vent your frustration on to one of the multiple white boards set up around the space. As Sacheti says, “It can be quite therapeutic.”
Thadani, aka ‘The queen of silver linings’, explains the logic behind this arrangement. “We want to have not just a physical space, but a creative one as well. We want the kids to build with blocks, identify shapes and colours, and be creative with them.” Which is why, in the centre space surrounded by various obstacle courses, stand sliding panels that can change the layout of the room everyday. Some of them are magnetic, and have coloured blocks clinging to them. Others have pieces of puzzles. Yet more are simply black or white boards: giant canvasses waiting to be filled. It’s all up to your imagination.
That’s the idea underlying all of it. “We live in such an over-stimulated environment, that we have come to depend on stimuli,” says Thadani, “So we want to keep instructions to a minimum: just provide the bare structures and let imagination take care of the rest.”
Chennai: 05-08-2018, For Merto Plus: Play zone 'Not A Box' at Rutland Gate 5th Street, Nungambakam. Photo: M. Karunakaran
Sacheti builds on this, “Take the monkey bars, for instance. If the child wants to be a monkey, they use them accordingly. But if you’re a superhero, it’s a different story.”
So the activities on offer will change every few months, and the menu at their cafe will change everyday. “We’ll be tying up with home bakers and home cooks, so it depends on what they have to offer,” says Sacheti. What hopefully won’t change, though, is the wide collection of books you can snuggle down with: on a chair, in a swing, or wherever your imagination takes you.
Not A Box is located at 2, Rutland Gate 5th Street, Nungambakkam.
Published - August 06, 2018 05:12 pm IST
