Newsletter Sep 2013 – Feb 2014

( This Newsletter has been put together by Nikhil Iyer )

Rains …?

The monsoon was a poor one this year too, and has been inadequate to recharge our wells with enough water to comfortably last us till the next rains. There is talk in the village about installing bore wells soon but we still don’t know what is going to happen. The uneven distribution of rain has left us with as much as 7.65 cm of rain in a day followed by a dry, hot week. We received from the sky exactly half of the usual quota of water as a normal monsoon. In 2011, we had 909 mm of rain which is still manageable for an area accustomed to 1000-1200 mm of rain yearly. In 2012, the measure dropped to 756 mm. 2013 has seen a further drop to 545 mm causing the stream to dry up way ahead of it’s time and also many plants to die. “Even the grass is sparse”, moos lakshmi. The river which runs through the village usually flows with fresh rain water at least till march if the monsoon is good, but this year, it has nearly dried up by the end of January itself. The second consecutive bad year for Sittilingi.

The saame (saa – may) millets that we had planted also yielded lesser grain that we had hoped for. On the brighter side, it was an easy harvest! – filled with jokes of a tough year ahead and the chickens eating half of the existing grain. We are glad there is some kind of humour, glad as long as it lasts! The thattam payaru, a legume that we had planted earlier in the plot of land where we had previously planted a ragi crop (which failed due to lack of rain) grew into healthy plants tall and green but the harvest was felt to be lesser than usual.

Mango Orchard Restoration

Usually, the fencing of the orchard has to be done every year around this time of the year. Why this time of the year? It’s mango season! Some of the trees, though small, are in full flower making it clear to birds, bees and humans from a distance that soon, there will be mangoes, plump and sweet and juicy. The fence makes sure the mango enthusiasts of sittilingi stay outside the orchard and the grass freeloaders lead their cows and goats elsewhere to graze. Since the fence is just made of hacked lantana bushes, it dries up after a while, turning into firewood, all gathered up, ready for anyone to use!(and readily used by everyone too) So, regular orchard patrols are dispatched from thulir every other day to keep a check on such occurrences.
The weeds at the base of the mango trees (mainly just large healthy lantana plants) had grown thick after the rains and had started to climb onto the trees, suffocating it not just near the leaves but also the roots. These we decided to pull out/hack and collect for the plant fence. We had more than enough to spare making the fence surprisingly difficult and poky to cross.

Now that the land is fenced and de weeded and generally cleaned up, possibilities to sow the land with corn or horse gram for the evening children or some other pulses are being discussed. Changing responsibilities with changing seasons… Something that may not be so pronounced in an urban setting…

Runners’ trip to Marudam Farm School

On September 24th, a group of children aged 10-13, Senthil, Masi, Ambika, Anjali and Anu caught a bus to Tiruvannamalai with the idea of staying at Marudam for 2 days. The runners had been religiously training for an event in Coimbatore, which they finally could not run due to some logistical problems. Hence, the trip to the farm school was organized – it turned out to be a great learning experience for them and lots of fun. They ran from the school to the park, and then hiked up the hill to Skanda Ashram. Arun accompanied them, sharing lots of stories about tree planting, Ramana Maharishi, and the story of how he stayed in the cave known as Virupaksha for 17 years.
The kids also got a chance to bake in a mud oven which was a new experience for them.

Cycle Trip !

This year’s cycle trip was quite a ride! The older boys Senthil, Masi, Jayabal and Nikhil cycled to Auroville from Thulir, stopping at Marudam Farm School, Tiruvannamalai for the night. Cycling before sunrise, slowly passing through sparsely populated towns, highways with not much traffic, a combination of mud roads, heavy rains, no mudguards and white t shirts, abandoned temple ponds, quiet ruins of a small stone temple, narrow market streets noisy and packed with shops and people, singing (shouting) songs in deserted stretches of road (but sometimes, letting the wind do the singing/howling) and restaurants by the highway. While being great fun, it also taught us to manage our money and water. The reward for many hours of cycling continuously was the swim in the Auroville beach in the evening. The feel of the sand on our soles and waves lifting us off the ocean floor in a smooth motion was very relaxing for our aching legs.

The next day early in the morning, we left the sands for the valley once again and reached Tiruvannamalai by evening. There, we decided to halt at Marudam, where we all got to watch “Latcho Drom”, a great documentary about gypsies of the world and their music and went to bed still thinking about the film. Early the next morning, we left Marudam for Thulir. Masi wasn’r doing very well physically so we had to stop at Thandrampattu, halfway to Thulir and put him on a bus home. And his cycle? The bus drivers refused to load the cycle at the top on the roof and we had to lug it back all the way! We tied the extra cycle to the carrier of one of ours and took it in turns to ride it. After a final strain uphill near Naripalli, we reached by around 4 in the evening in high spirits and surprisingly, still full of energy!

Workshop for adolescent girls at the government school.

Thulir conducted this workshop with the help of Tayamma, Balamma and Luciamma, titled “Enakkul oru Sittrula” (a tour inside me]. Conducted for girls of classes 6,7,8,9 on the 29th and 30th of November, it was divided into three broad divisions – Body, Mind/Thought and Emotion. It dealt, over two days, with the changes, issues and doubts that adolescents faced in these three realms. What the three teachers felt was that the girls responded well to the sessions.

Kutty Thulir
Lakshmi and Sasikala are back now after their maternity leave, smiling with two wide eyed babies at their hips. There is also another kutty who has joined the nursery who who doesn’t speak much yet but laughs a lot – Akash. He is the smallest of the lot but can be seen quite happy in the company of Nanisha. The kids are now learning to read English in addition to their very packed schedule of nursery life.

Bee Keeping
The bee boxes have been busy homes and within 4 months, the bees have managed to fill up the boxes with honey bursting with flavour. Senthil’s training in bee keeping is paying off in the form of good handling of the boxes and the strength to withstand the pain of a bee sting while collecting the honey. The honey from one box has been harvested in a bee-friendly way, which means, the box is still buzzing with activity and there is still a lot of honey left as food for the larvae. What was collected was the extra honey that the bees store for an emergency. Food securtiy on dispaly!

The other two boxes though are at different stages. One box is still not ready to harvest while the other has been cleared of the bee family! It seems the family has flown off to a different location leaving behind only dry wax, pearly white in colour.

Coriander harvest
After the harvest of thattam payaru, we imediately sowed two fields with coriander so as to capitalise on the rainfall. The plants did admirably in spite of dry conditions and have already grown and dried up, leaving behind a good number of seeds for us to use in the kitchen as well as for the next planting. Coriander is an appealing crop both visually and taste wise – The plants reach a certain stage when they are a light green soothing the eyes and especially beautiful when they flower, for the entire field turns to white/light blue. The plants grow to about a foot in height and keep the earth shaded with their flowers so lots of ants and other insect activity can be seen if one bends down to look. Oh, and the smell wafting on the breeze can freshen up anyone passing by the instant it travels up the nose!

Rocket Stove in the new kitchen
The new kitchen was completed in early November 2013 and the rocket stove installation was soon to follow. The entire process of building the kitchen and the stove was a great learning experience for all involved. While the kitchen (the masonry columns, sheet roofing and mud flooring) was built by masons-in-training Jayapal and Dhanapal with help from Senthil, Masi and Nikhil, the rocket stove was built without the help of the masons, under the supervision of Krishna. Both experiences were worth having as everyone recounted happily once the structures were completed.

The stove was inaugrated within the week of completion and the first thing to be cooked on it was, of course, paayasam! Both samai and semiya paayasams were made and enjoyed hot, made all the more tasty as it happened to be a cold and rainy evening.
The stove is working well and despite Kamala having her own doubts as to the efficiency of the stove, she gave it a try and now is slowly getting the hang of it. Kannagi with her usual cheerfulness took to the stove immediately and is quite happy cooking dosas, chapattis, rice, vegetable, sambar, rasam, paayasams and the occasional cake too! Baking is made possible in this stove as it has a columnar enclosure for the fire, like a chimney, which can be closed off from top and bottom, making it work like an oven.

Marudam Craft Week
An entire week of interesting events at Marudam Farm School, and some of the Thulir staff went for a few days to take part in this yearly get together of craftsmen, artisans and even musicians from all over Tamil Nadu. Parallel sessions were held in different rooms and one could choose whichever event one was interested in. Since there were 5 of us, we decided to go to different rooms to learn different things and exchange ideas at the end of the day.

Some of the sessions were palm leaf weaving, banana fibre work, kalamkaari, jewellery making and other ideas with beads, mask making, sculpting with soapstone and kolattam.

All of these require a certain level of involvement on the part of the maker and have the power to absorb the mind into that activity so completely that we lost track of time doing it! Even lunch breaks were un-welcome gaps in the process of weaving or sculpting.

Before we knew it, the three days passed by and we all had a great deal to show for it too.

At Marudam, besides the crafts, there was also a music troupe from Spain who combined their own music with their own style of dance. It was good for us to experience the performances at such close quarters and also interact with the performers. There was also two young men from Pondicherry performing silambam, a martial art traditional to Tamil Nadu performed with a long bamboo stick as the main weapon. It involves the body and mind of the artist, and the discipline of the art was palpable among the audience. They held classes for those interested in it through the week and interacted with all freely.

For Rajammal, Suganthi and Madeshwari, there was also the added interest of observing kindergarten at Marudam and how the teachers there deal with the tiny ones. It was new for them to see the chidren there making chappatis, colouring on the floors and walls, learning many things while playing games, and also see how the teachers there interacted with the children. They too enjoyed the experience immensely.
All in all, it was a great way to spend three days for the Thulir team packed with new experiences, new ideas, approaches, and methodologies, and most of all, home baked, oven fresh pizza!

Camp at Sita School, Bangalore
Recently, a camp at Sita School was arranged for the children of Thulir to stay for two days )and three nights) and have some activities together. Timed in such away that the children could go for a marathon organized by Asha at the end of the camp, on the last day.

The children got together for such things as paper box making, putting up a play, singing songs, learning crochet, moulding clay into familiar and un familiar forms, playing volleyball, or also just reading in the library or playing in the mud on the first day.

On the second, we all went to Hesarghatta grassland, which is a good hour’s walk from the school. We went with Roshan and Vanya who had interesting things to say about the birdlife, insect life, butterfly population and the Hesarghatta lake itself. It was an informative, informal class for all the children. We learnt about the history, geography and bio diversity of the grasslands and saw many kites swooping down on an unsuspecting rat or a dead snake. The birds, large and silhouetted against the morning sky could be seen turning their tail feathers this way and that to change direction.

In the afternoon we got back to the school and divided ourselves into groups of not more than 5 (resulting in 6 groups i think) and each group went to one of the students’ houses in the village for lunch on the second day. It was an experience for the kids to communicate using other means than the spoken word as the parents in the village of Silvepura did not know Tamil!

After a heavy lunch, there was some free time which the kids used to play volleyball in the school. A little before dinner, Jane had arranged for a movie to be screened. It turned out to be a hit amongst the kids and everyone was all abuzz like a swarm of bees slowly coming out of the movie room talking and still laughing about the film.

Marathon
The very next day was the marathon for which we had been preparing. Although so far no serious marathon has happened this quarter, training every morning with the children continues as per the training schedule. There was a 10 KM fund raiser run in Bangalore organized by Asha for the specially abled in which both our children and children from Sita School took part. The run went on without any hitches and was over before we knew it.

Visitors to Thulir

• This year, we have had a few visitors from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. Krunal, Siva and Swetha, three graduates of the M.A. Education programme from APU came by for a few days to learn more about alternative education and lifestyles, and also to meet Anu and Krishna. While staying here, Krunal taught them origami and Swetha showed them the art of making quick sketches of a scene, painting with water colours, colour mixing and story writing.
• Vijita Rajan, another student of the same programme from APU stayed here for six weeks to do a research project on the status of government school teachers, thier work and methodology, and it’s impact on education in Sittilingi. She stayed in Thulir campus for the whole duration and hence got to take classes for the thulir teachers on various topics ranging from debates on philosophy of education, teaching methods, sociology of education to maths to puzzling over brain teasers to singing songs together.
• Ute Breckner, a german doctor friend and her son Bjorn made a short visit. They were here for only a weekend but were able to share stories, songs and dance from Germany which all the children greatly enjoyed.
• Bjorn, a boy of 16, is an avid Diablo enthusiast, and has been with his passion for 3 years now. Diablo is a sport played with a rope with a wooden(or metal) handle at either end and a structure that is balanced on this rope while holding the handles, one in each hand. The structure to be balanced looks like two hemispheres stuck back to back so that it looks like an open hour-glass. While for the Thulir kids balancing it itself was a big feat, Bjorn was able to not only balance it but toss it in the air, catch it back on the rope, and do all sorts of other tricks that would be difficult to describe in words. This required fine hand-eye co ordination and a deep involvement and so, was an instant hit with all the boys and girls who witnessed it. Everyone wanted to try it out after Bjorn had finished a fifteen minute display of his skills in front of a captive audience, and he could be seen later giving tips and instructions to the ones trying it out.
• Trei, Teni and Wen, three social health workers from Meghalaya who had been staying in the hospital for their internship had come over one evening to spend time here. They shared stories of Meghalaya, how the tribes live off the land there, and how people there have to adapt to a cold climate and heavy rains for most part of the year. (in terms of roti, kapda and makaan) Songs were exchanged between Sittilingi children and the three men from Meghalaya.
• Since speaking about academics and jobs are not good enough, Tayamma and Balammacame to Thulir to discuss things that are not discussed much. Tayamma spoke to both the children and the staff about different things like self confidence, self defeating attitudes, strength in women, puberty, managing oneself through times of crises, managing one’s own mind, and other difficult topics with much ease and cheer. It was a good learning experience for all the children and staff who got to listen and to perhaps think in a different way.

•  Balamma had more to say about topics like managing one’s emotions, daily practise of yoga, use of herbs and many medicinal plants in and around Thulir itself from the smallest disease like a common cold to the most deadly like cancer. She gave us all some great preventive medicine to use and also opened our eyes to the immediate environment around us.
• Lucy, a team mate and friend of Tayamma’s interacted with the children in the government school and added to the childrens’ understanding of the body and the changes it goes through on attaining puberty.

• Runner’s High, a group of around10 runners led by Santosh came to Sittilingi in September with the intention of training for their ultra-marathon, a 24 hour run in the himalayas. The idea was to train themselves to run up and down hill slopes in addition to flat surfaces, building up more muscle and stamina. They stayed for two days, out of which they were ran for one day. (12 hours, with breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner) Senthil ran with them too, and shared some stories of his experience with the ultra runners.

• 7 Architecture students from SAP, Anna University, Chennai, came to write about thulir – it’s architecture and work in their college magazine. All of us(thulir boys and girls, a few teachers, the 7 students, Anu and Nikhil) went on a trek to a nearby waterfall, situated in the forest. The trek itself is very beautiful with various butterflies, colourful grasshoppers, birds and tall trees en route. We also found snake skin at the waterfall which had been shed some time back and dried up in the sun.

A Quiet Pongal
This year, the pongal celebrations were different in the village – a young girl in the village attained puberty and so the celebration and decoration that are usually so grand were subdued, yet happy. All the rangoli that is seen outside the houses of the villagers were smaller and the general air of the village was one of quiet celebration.
This year’s mattu pongal was also a quiet affair. Most cows in the village contracted komaari, chicken pox. When this happens, according to tradition, the people do not celebrate mattu pongal with great pomp. It is not made an occasion. But we anyway decided to give lakshmi a bath and a scrub before taking her to Senthil’s house where a small pooja was held.

Kolam festival

As is customary in Thulir every year, the children, even those who do not come here regularly, and many nurses from the tribal hospital got together to decorate the freshly cow dung slurry washed mud floor with their enthusiasm and colourful kolams. The place was alive with the laughter with the entire crowd sharing an understanding that this was a competion to see who could draw the biggest and the most colourful kolam! But of course, no one spoke about it and within a few hours, the entire area was transformed from plain brown to pink,blue,orange, red, white and yellow all twisting and turning into pretty patterns on the floor.

 

“Maari Varum Sitling” (Changing Sittilingi)
A project has been started recently with the children with the idea of documenting the changes happening in the village through photography, video and writing. Since we imagine it to be a long term project, we have started the first phase of this – photography. Nikhil has been taking classes for the kids on how to use a camera and the need to study things better to take better pictures. These are a few of the pictures taken by the kids so far mainly of flowers because they are easy to photograph.

New staff, old staff

Three of our staff have, Masi, Suganthi and Madeshwari have left thulir due to their own reasons, each helping out with farm work or looking after the cows at home when noone is around. Masi has left to coimbatore where he hopes to do manual labour work to support his financially struggling family. We can only hope that they learnt something useful out of working in thulir!

The good news is that Sakthivel, one of our old students, has returned from coimbatore where he was doing manual labour work in order to pay off the heavy debts his famiy was under, and has joined back in thulir. He, with help from his brother Dhanapal who is working as a mason here in Sittilingi, have successfully paid off all dues and are now free to pursue their own interests. Sakthivel seems to be eager to learn, and perhaps will go back home with something new to think about everyday.

Devaki

Our friend and staff Devaki has married and moved to Harur. She says she will be back to work in late Feb.

We wish her a happy married life!

 *****