The Longest Street in the World

The Original Cast of Galli Galli Sim Sim-See if you can tell whom is whom  from my description below

Today at breakfast, Melanie and I found ourselves watching a TV show called Galli Galli Sim Sim. The server at breakfast thought it would be funny to show us this TV program (I think he realized that even though we have been watching cricket every morning, we have no idea what is happening or how that game works...yet.) As we watched the show, we realized it was India's version of Sesame Street! Some of the characters look very similar and take on similar rolls to those in the original Sesame Street. For example, Googly looks like he could be Grover's baby. While Boombah and Aanchoo look as though they could be variations of what Big Bird and Snuffleupagus could produce as children (even though he is a lion...lol). Chamki reminds me of a Praire Dawn meets Zoey mixture. Since the show's start in 2006, characters from Sesame Street have been appearing on the show including Bert, Ernie, Count von Count, Cookie Monster, Grover, and Elmo (with the latter two currently becoming permanent members of the show). Famous Bollywood actors and actresses have also guest starred on various episodes throughout the seasons.

Galli Galli Sim Sim meets Sesame Street Characters

So why am I so obsessed with this show after seeing half an episode and about two hours worth online?

1. It's educating the youth!
         As a former Sesame Street enthusiast myself and as the former Sesame Street enthusiast that I'm sure you the reader are as well, this point seems fairly obvious. However, Galli Galli Sim Sim (GGSS) goes the extra mile. India's population is skyrocketing and families do not have the means to educate their children. In fact,  1 in every 5 children of age 6 and under lives in India. About 40% of the 165 million children attend preschool. GGSS has partnered with industrial companies to acquire funding for GGSS to come to the children. GGSS visits areas where low income families reside in order to provide educational programs and the equipment necessary to show GGSS to the youth. Often the characters visit the kids as well providing first hand lessons regarding  reading, writing, spelling, grammer, vocabulary, health,  and numbers/simple math. Giving kids the opportunity to learn these valuable skills during this critical time in their lives where they are at the peak of their ability to quickly learn, gives them a higher chance for success later in life.

Galli Galli Sim Sim Meets Sesame Street

2. It is all inclusive!
         Indians all have their own unique cultures and backgrounds. Hundreds of languages are spoken in India with ~23 of them recognized by the government as scheduled languages (this means the government recognizes the language and is in charge of preserving and growing it). Hundreds of religions are also practiced throughout India. Overall, India is very accepting of individual belief systems and backgrounds (Check out the Bahai Religion-it is quite popular! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_temple). All the characters on GGSS represent different cultures and regions of India, and multiple languages are spoken and taught throughout each episode ("An Indian can't get by without knowing at least 3 languages." --Anjan, UOP India Private Limited). The number of characters on the show continues to grow as does the number of cultures represented by the show.

Latest picture of  the Cast (Not including Elmo and Grover)

For the record Sesame Street is just awesome and outreaches to other regions of the world as well. I just wanted to highlight a couple things about GGSS, since I'm in India and it is a pretty cool spin off of the American version.

Love,

Sequoia

P.S. For the folks reading from the US, India has a version of basically every single TV show we have in the States (American Idol, every single cartoon, Dancing With the Stars, etc).

*I did not take the photos shown in this post. They were all retrieved from: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Galli_Galli_Sim_Sim
**References for the article
Census of India, 2011
Galli Galli Sim Sim Outreach Team. (2010). Project Records.
GyanVriksh Technologies (2009). The reach and impact of the Galli Galli Sim Sim television show in India.
        Midline report of a naturalistic longitudinal study. Hyderabad, India.
2009 Intermedia Study on Galli Galli Sim Sim.
2011 International Census Data K2-8 Audience Estimation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galli_Galli_Sim_Sim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAZhLbS37o
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/what-we-do/our-initiatives/india.html?o=89&c=featured