“There are moments that will make your life worth living for… watching the joy on the faces of the 50 odd kids and their teachers move into a new campus is certainly one such moment. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.” writes Balaji, an Asha volunteer and a longtime friend and supporter of Thulir, in his Facebook Post. You can read his full post here >> Balaji’s FB Post
Sangeetha, a doctor who had worked in THI Hospital in Sittilingi, writes further about the event : “ A tree was drawn on the board. The eldest health worker drew the first leaf. She was followed by everyone who contributed to Thulir — the first students, teachers, parents, architecture interns, volunteers, THI team, village health auxiliaries, health workers, the founders, masons, electricians , funders, the akkas who cook food for the children, friends of the founders and the trustees. This was the inauguration of the new Thulir school! It was more than a ceremony. It was a celebration of team effort.” You can read her full post here >> Sangeetha’s FB Post.
Yes, six classrooms and office are finally ready and we shifted to the new school campus on January 23rd! There are not enough words to adequately express our thanks to each and everyone of you who helped us get here.
Initial days at the new school
“See what I have brought!” “What’s in your lunch box?” “ I am hungry!” Why is it still not lunchtime?” These were the frequently heard refrains during our initial days. The kitchen at the new school is not yet built. Parents offered to send lunches for their children the first month. This was a novelty at Thulir and therefore a cause for excitement for the children.
But soon parents began to tire, competition and comparison of food began to set in and everyone started to look forward to the school lunches again. Kannagi, Jothi and Kamala, the cooks, without a single murmur or complaint started cooking lunch for 60 people outdoors on two makeshift stoves of stones! The tribal quality of making do with the least of resources never ceases to amaze us.
Towards social change
The Thulir team along with the THI and SOFA team participated in the Gram Sabha of the Sittilingi Panchayat on January 26th. Gram Sabhas were envisioned as a means of ensuring the participation of the people in the workings of the local Panchayat government. They are supposed to be held four times every year so that the common people of the area can express their needs and problems as well as oversee the functioning of the elected Panchayat. Though the Gram Sabha system in theory puts a lot of power in the hands of people to bring about change in their localities, there is no awareness about these meetings and very few, if any, people attend them. This year, for the first time, awareness was raised in our valley about the Gram Sabhas and people turned up in large numbers for the first Gram Sabha of the year.
Pongal Celebrations in Thulir
This year too Pongal was celebrated with the usual cooking of new rice, traditional dance, and decoration of walls with murals by children and staff. This has become an annual event in Thulir, keenly looked forward to by the Thulir community.
Network Meeting
The 26th annual educational network meeting (of individuals deeply engaging with questions in education) was held in Thulir in February. Around 35 individuals from various schools and initiatives attended. The theme for this year’s discussions was ‘ The creative process’.
Krishna writes about this:
“The intellectual engagement with abstract ideas, the listening and sharing of personal experiences and anecdotal stories, the one to one or small group interactions that lead to friendships and their renewal, sitting in a group and listening to pauses and silences, the beautiful singing and music and to participate in group singing, the variety in venues and the unique setting each place offers, good food, walks together, not to forget the moments of personal frustrations when communication becomes difficult on rare occasions and being able then to reflect upon it, all are very important in a unique bundle that becomes the meeting experience.”
Yashodara writes:
“Thulir was a beautiful setting for this gathering…a diverse group of creative, sensitive, affectionate people. It was a treat for all my senses: Low, airy mud-thatch structures, bamboo lattices, moving sunlight & shadows in different shapes, Anu’s rangoli on the mud plaster floor, unexpected paintings in earthy colours, the brilliant tree with yellow flowers, jeweled beetles scuttling around, the busy huddle around Diba cutting paper, stitching books, the glorious sky at dusk visiting Shaktivel’s Mula-Sittilingi home, the playful touches in buildings in Thulir new campus, corner blackboards hiding shelves, counting frames in the grill doors, fractions in the window grills, the painted floor-river across rooms full of fish & turtles…
… The smell of the cow dung on the mud floor, turmeric aroma in the pit loos, morning wood fire faithfully making potfuls of bath water, snack delights of all kinds: millet cookies, giant groundnut laddus, crisp khakras, smells of Tamil-style rasam, papads, hot dosai with peanut chutney…”
Dance workshop
Drum beats and songs fill the air and children are dancing and singing in every corner! There is special pride in dancing dances that were taught to senior classes. The dance workshop conducted by Sri. Mohan was on again. The highlight this year was the paraiyattam. Eight and nine year olds slung the heavy parais – traditional hide drums – on their shoulders and danced to the rhythm they themselves created! Children seem to take to rhythm naturally and quickly – their whole bodies respond to it. This is brain-hand-body coordination at its peak.
Some parents objected to their daughters playing the parai as it is associated with a particular caste and gender. But most other parents didn’t and the dance was a resounding success!
Articles about Thulir
Priti David from PARI visited Thulir earlier to write about Thulir. Her article can be read here>> taking-their-skills-back-to-school-in-sittilingi
An artist and educator, Niharika visited us in January and helped with the shifting and the work for the inauguration. She has written about her time, in her blog, which you can read here >> thulir-in-sittilingi
Bengaluru Summer Camp
Sakthivel took Sribal, Kadiravan, Raina, Chandru and Kumaresan to participate in the week long Warm and Free summer camp for children of diverse backgrounds at Spastic Society of Karnataka. They had a memorable experience.
Election Fever
Homemade ballot paper. Note the party symbols.NOTA option also exists, and received one vote.
“If you vote for me, I will give you 10 acres of land and a cow!” Our party policy is “Improve farming and the farmers” “ If you vote for me, I will ensure more craft time and more free time!” “Vote for the butterfly party! We believe that all gods are one and one need not fight over that!” “ If you vote for me I will ensure there is less millet rice and more white rice for lunch” “Our party policy is to preserve the natural and reduce the artificial”
These slogans are not from our national parties or politicians. These were from our students during mock elections in Thulir. One hopes that our politicians could learn from our children!
Elections are a huge event in rural Tamil Nadu. Everyone everywhere is talking of it. But we realised most people had no clear understanding of the process involved especially in the elections for the Lok Sabha! They have many questions..“How does my voting here for the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu make Modi Prime Minister in Delhi?” etc. So we decided to hold elections in Thulir as a learning exercise.
The older children formed three parties, complete with party manifestos, symbols, flags etc. The whole school was divided into five constituencies spread over five districts in various states. Each party put forth one candidate in each constituency, and there was also a single independent candidate. Ballot papers, nomination forms and voter ID cards were all handmade.
Voting was held in five polling booths in five different classrooms simultaneously. The votes were then counted amidst great excitement and the MP for each constituency was announced. The party with the majority in our five member parliament was then asked to choose the Prime Minister and form the government.
Candidate posing with her campaign poster. Representation of women candidates was certainly far higher than either the national or state average!
Comings and goings
- Meenakshi Chandra, who initially came to volunteer for three months, stayed on for a year and helped us with illustrations, books and teaching materials. Meenakshi left this year to pursue her other interests. We wish her the best in her efforts.
- Mr. Dipon Deb from Calcutta, visited us in February.
- Ute and Karl, old and dear friends, visited us in April.
- Swetha volunteered in Thulir this past year and illustrated many of the books we have made. She captivated the students and teachers with her Art and English classes. Though her year with us is over, we hope we will see more of her as she has promised to be back often.
- Five students – Varshini, Dharshini, Sribalu, Kathiravan and Dharini – who completed class five this year left to pursue their sixth grade in other schools.
Parents’ Meeting
“Let’s reduce the burdens of the school, take over some of their work and give them more time to teach our children.” said one of the fathers. “Let one or two of us from each village collect the parental contributions from our village and pass it on to the school.” said another father. “Similarly let’s sit together and smoothen out all the glitches there are in the transport of our children to school” said a mother.
This was at the parents’ meeting in April. It was gratifying to see the parents gradually take more ownership and responsibility over the school. Parents who used to be shy and silent in the initial meetings were now participating earnestly.
While discussing the recent dance workshop we brought up the questions we had around dancing and singing for discussion. In all indigenous communities dancing was always a communal group activity in which everyone participated. But now it has become a performer/ spectator activity in which the so called experts perform and the others passively watch. usually on a TV screen! Dancing for the sake of dancing has disappeared. Our children too think they are learning dance only towards a function, to perform on the stage. And when it is a stage performance, comparisons and competition set in. So we wondered if we could change this; whether parents and children could dance together!
Some parents protested: “The children had someone teaching them but we didn’t!” Another said, “ We really like the idea of all of us doing something together but most of us are shy to dance. But we can all work together. Maybe we should all get together and do some work for the school” This was agreed upon with great enthusiasm! Since the days were sweltering hot we decided to work indoors. April 14th was fixed as the D day.
April 14th – Cultural Festival – 15 years of Thulir!
This was truly a special day! It was Tamil New Year’s Day as well as the 15th birthday of Thulir. Parents started trickling in from noon. We had organised different craft work in different classes and parents were free to join whatever activity they chose. Dancing happened in the big multipurpose classroom. There was a festive spirit in the whole school, people conversing, working, laughing, children running around, dancing. The parents too ended up joining in the dancing and once they started they wouldn’t stop! The children performed the dances they had learned. We served snacks and buttermilk and danced together late into the evening.
We thank each and every one of you for being with us through all our efforts these fifteen years.
The Thulir Team.
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