A Centre for Learning at Sittilingi Village

( This Newsletter has been put together by Nikhil Iyer )

Tiruvannamalai Trip

The green grass of sittilingi has dried up into the colour of mud due to the soaring temperatures and lack of rains. The stream which the villagers had depended on for their daily water and agriculture has also dried down to a trickle. Forest fires are a common sight and the bamboos have also turned brown and dry. Despite such a climate, the farmers of this valley and neighboring villages have all sown their fields with sugarcane, a water intensive crop. Hence, many wells have been deepened with dynamite to reach the lowering water levels. The ones who have planted rice are few and traditional varieties of millets have disappeared from sight.

To be loaded !

This situation has led to another problem – no food for cows! Thulir cow Lakshmi is pregnant and expected to deliver anytime now and will need all the food she can get. A group of 4 – Sakthivel, Senthil, Annamalai the driver and Nikhil went as far as Tiruvannamalai to get hay, which we discovered is an increasingly valued commodity much fought for. Many itchy hours later, we discovered we were also involved in such a tussle but since we were already on our way home, there was nothing we could do about it.

Hair-do

In a few hours we were back in Thulir. The hay we unloaded onto the ground, built a platform with palm rafters and bamboo and loaded it onto the platform. It still stands there hardly reducing despite us taking generously from it to feed the cows morning and evening. Two tractor loads of hay till the rains come and save this drying up village. Lakshmi had better start praying. Or learning to moo in amritavarshini so it rains.

Well water

The Thulir well has almost dried up and the water levels are at about 5-6 feet deep. The floor can be seen quite clearly now and the secret lives of fish exposed for all to see. A few crabs that we had thrown into the well in better times can be seen scuttling about the floor or unmovingly waiting on a rock. The scarcity of water means that thulir will remain closed for the whole of may.

The temperatures have already touched 40 degrees Celsius and crossed it too. Farmers in the village are optimistically planting a fresh crop of sugarcane hoping the rains will deliver their crops from dying of thirst.

Solar Panels

These 1m by 1m sunshine harvesters have arrived at the right time. Four 250W panels have been added to the existing array with four 48V batteries, a charge regulator and a brand new UPS. To fit all this extra gear into a space which wasn’t built for a set up of this size was interesting work. The problem was solved without constructing support structures by shrewd calculations and a drive to figure out a solution without complicating things. This system now generates around 5 kWh a day, enough to comfortably run the computer lab and the electric motor to pump water too. What remains to be done is the setting up of a Raspberry Pi and a LAN system giving children access to all the contents of one Raspberry Pi computer on any laptop that is connected to the system. The laptops are all in the process of being cleaned up both hardware and software wise. By the start of the new “academic” year, the laptops should be up and running. We are all eagerly waiting to see how this new bit of technology will help us.

Science Camp

Syringe pump demo by Rajammal.

Lifting jack, a simple working model from Arvind Gupta

A two day event, the science camp was packed with fun and learning. The day started at ten in the morning with a short story about archimedes and soon moved into the experimenting part of it. There were six teachers, each ready with their own set of experiments. The kids divided into six groups and spent around 15-20 minutes with each presenter learning about the things they were presenting which included experiments showcasing properties of light, weight, air, water, magnetism and electricity.

Experiments with a “light” bulb

Diffraction

Watching a movie about bees, ecosystems and honey hunting after lunch was  a welcome quiet time. Since all the groups couldn’t visit each presenter in the forenoon, there was time given after that for this activity to finish. In the evening, the kids were given ample time to shout, play, scream and do whatever they wanted to basically and get their own energy flowing. Soon, it was dark and all the dinner work was going on. The children were divided into three groups , one for chopping vegetables and preparing food, one for serving it and organizing the meals and one for cleaning up after. Each enthusiastically took up their work and served us all with broad smiles and extra portions of rice refusing to listen when we said we’d had enough. In the evening before dinner, we also had time to speak about all that we had seen and learnt during the day. The group gathered in the thulir grounds and since it was dark and a starry sky, the conversation naturally moved to stars, constellations and satellites. It was quite magical to lie on our backs and stare up at the night sky just looking at passing satellites and airplanes and let our minds wander freely with the twinkling lights..

There was a movie screening after skygazing much welcomed by the kids but some of us preferred to move away with our own projects and preparations for the next day.

Rice cooked in the solar cooker

A levitating pencil demonstrating magnetism

The next morning the children woke up early in the morning and played from 5.30 till 8 or so , at which time they went for a bath to their homes and returned fresh and eager for more. After a morning assembly and some singing, we dispersed into our respective groups and conducted one last experiment each. The kids went to the different teachers and learnt/tried out six new experiments and many new avenues have hopefully been opened inside their little heads. The day was supposed to end by afternoon.But the students wanted to put up a cultural programme for us. So after lunch they had some time to come up with a dance or drama or whatever it is they liked. Some of them watched while the others prepared and put up many dances and a few skits while the rest of us sat and watched their presentations.

Web of life! A game that shows how inter connected all life really is, and what will happen if one species were to die out.

Conductors, Resistors and other simple circuits

Teaching at the Government High School

It is common knowledge that the government high school (and the elementary school too, for that matter) is understaffed. The student-teacher ratio is something like 40 students to one teacher. One disinterested, overly strict and fear inspiring teacher, at that. Considering this, and out of curiosity, Anu and I had a conversation about spending time at the government school and that same evening, i decided i’d teach there for however long the management would have me. Since this report isn’t a critical analysis of the school, let it suffice to say that the school needs help.

It was, on the other hand, great to see so many excited faces every morning asking so many excited questions every morning. We had poetry readings, story telling, enactment of the different roles in the story, reading of the newspaper and discussion on some news items, and becasue the children themselves asked for it, and their exams were just around the corner, question and answer marking in their text books. The questions at the end of each lesson were simple to answer in tamil. With just a few more months work, I am sure more number of children would have been able to construct their answers well in English. The reality remains though, that effective teaching cannot happen for all 40 children at the same time.
All in all, it was most interesting to get to see the workings of the school from within it. For that,  i thank the management for being open to an outsider like myself even if it meant i am doing their work for them.

Elections

Iyarkai munnetra kazhagam (I.M.K), Dravida Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam(D.M.M.K), Thulir Munnetra Kazhagam(T.M.K), going head to head in a heady dash to win the look sabha elections and become the ruling party ! Each promising its own reforms; who will you vote for?!

A. Karthik, a candidate from T.M.K

We decided to get the students practically familiar with  the entire  Lok sabha election process by holding a mock election in Thulir. The children formed themselves into 3 parties and we decided to have 5  sample constituencies.  Each party was to field one candidate in each of the 5 constituencies (Dharmapuri, Kochi, Gandhinagar, Agartala and Leh respectively),draw up an election manifesto and file nomination papers complete with property details(number of pencils and pens in their posession etc.).

Minimum voting age : Two and a half

They also made public their views about local issues like communal riots in gujarat, POK in Leh, AFSPA in Agartala, TASMAC in Dharmapuri and the issue of high dowry in marriages in Kochi. Many said they would close down TASMAC (government alcohol) shops, enforce prohibition in the state and instead set up bangle shops and clothes shops(or even confiscate temple collections!) to make up for the lost revenue that TASMAC unfailingly generated. All parties were determined to disallow the mixing up of religion and politics and to pass laws against this if they came to power. One party even said they would allow Kashmir to decide on which country they want to join but not let them go if they chose Pakistan! Laughter all around.. And some others said they would reduce the dowry to a small sum which was not to exceed 1 lakh.. just 1 lakh! Laughter again.

Senthil and Sakthivel made an electronic voting machine that i have included a picture of. Fool proof and simple.

The vote registering machine monitored by Senthil and the speaker with battery connected to let the others in the booth know that the vote cast was a valid one.

Rajammal was the one to cast the voting ink on the nails of the children. Since there were five constituencies, voting had to happen in phases. The voter turnout peaked at 92–the highest number thulir has received this whole year. Once the voting was over, the counting of the votes was performed by Senthil, the one man election commission. Balaji,who had functioned as election observer,then declared the results. I.M.K. , a party with majority of the MPs still in class 2,3,4 and 5, beat the competition cleanly in 4 constituencies! The competition being class 7,8,9 and 10, it was quite an unexpected result. Now, the victorious party has also elected a prime minister amongst themselves – M.Karthik(12). IMK is just getting used to being in power and have not yet begun discharging their duties as they promised they would… Hmmm..

Inked!

Being tamil, malayali, gujarati, kashmiri and manipuri.

Maari Varum Sitling (Changing Sittilingi)

So the first phase of this project smoothly transitioned to the next phase of taking interviews, recording observations and filming the whole process with the idea of making a short video. So far, around 5 elders have been interviewed, and it has been a great journey throughout. The ability of the kids to question and extract information out of others has improved with every interview. Also the process of setting up the camera on it’s tripod and recording sound with a discreetly placed mic was completely new to them. (both the interviewer and the interviewee!). It is amazing to watch how fast a child can pick up something he/she is truly interested in and digest it to make it their own – an ability that i feel we as adults may not have paid much attention to and hence lost somewhere in the depths of ourselves….

Sports Day

Kho Kho

The second sports day of the year. Much to the squealing delight of all, the two days it lasted was too short. Kabaddi, football, hopping game (nondi in tamil), relays, running races, frog races, dodge ball, shotput, kho-kho and even an improvised javelin throw for the older group(or whoever was able to lift the “javelin”) and rugby too. It was also interesting to see the children create their own acrobatics after quickly finishing their lunch break inspired by the traveling circus  which had recently been through Sittilingi.

Small and furious

Visitors

Swetha from Poorna School Bangalore volunteered at Thulir for  a week in April. She is a talented artist and she helped us  a great deal with all our flashcards inspiring many budding young artists while she was at it. She was involved in the science camp and also later conducted  interesting teaching/ learning sessions for the teachers.

Sukanya Sivakumar from WriteIT solutions, Mumbai visited us in February along with her uncle  who is a professor from Sweden.  After observing all what was happening at Thulir both of them were very keen to be part of our team and support us.

Balaji from Asha, visited us in April. Since he visits us every now and then, he is able to observe and evaluate  impartially from outside. We are grateful for his very valuable feedback.

Professor Ravindran and Vanajakka visited in April too and it was wonderful as always to have them.

As always the medical electives and guests who come to THI also visit Thulir and interact with students.. We had Devika from New york talking to the students about New york ; and Alberto and Camilla from Italy. Who would guess that being in a small village in the middle of nowhere we would meet so many different but wonderful people ?!

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( 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.

Saame harvesting

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.

(L-R) Masi, Senthil, Jayapal

Hilltop – Rani Fort, Senji

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!

Racing with double the load!

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!

Ahhhhh !

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.

Bananananana Fibre

A Kalamkaari session in progress. Pens are bamboo sticks sharpened as required.(round, flat, point, etc.)

Palm leaf weaving

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.

The long instrument seen in this picture is the Kora.
Dog enjoying some culture.

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.

“Toying” with clay

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.

A class for all the thulir staff.

•  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.

Tayamma with kids

Balamma 

• 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.

(L-R) Senthil’s cow, Lakshmi, Senthil’s father, couple of rocks used as a stove to cook the rice offering

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.

Keeping it real (simple)

Its 6:00 o psychedelic clock!

“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.

M.Karthik, 12 years old

Udayamurugan, 13 years old

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!

Anuradha, 13

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Pongal Celebrations- Kolam festival.

2012 had been a year of practically no rain. Most people of the valley including us still grow rainfed crops and most crops had failed last year. But yet, the year started off festively and colourfully with the Pongal and kolam festivals. This time this entire event was initiated, organised and managed by our young team. We are very proud of this fact since many of them are our former students. This young team has managed Thulir very well during our absences this year. Earlier we would always ask any of our friends to stay here and oversee things when we were not here. Now our team has grown in confidence and are able to manage things well. They had always been good in managing practical work but were diffident about handling the evening sessions. This year they have been handling even those quite professionally.

Evening Classes for Government School Children

The evening classes have been going on more enthusiastically and are well attended. The children coming in the evening are of various groups. Rajammal, Devaki, Senthil, Ambika, Anjali, Nikhil and Anu take up teaching duties in the evenings. Attendance is not compulsory,so our numbers vary from 15 to 60 each day.

During the day we have regular preparatory sessions for the teachers to learn the content and plan the evening sessions. Most of the sessions are activity based learning sessions though there are classroom teaching sessions as well for some concepts. This year we started filing all the children’s work more methodically. Each child has a file and all his/her work is filed there by the child. So that at the end of the year one can see what the child has accomplished. Besides the regular group coming, other children come from time to time to refer books for some specific reason or to use the learning materials or to prepare for some specific exam or project, etc.

Children’s Camp – April 20th -21st

Children from the age group 6-15 camped in Thulir for 2 days and participated in intensive sessions on life skills. There were many interactive sessions, discussions, plays, songs and movies around the theme. The sessions were on understanding oneself, one’s strengths, needs, wants, relationships, communication, listening skills, conflict resolution etc. All of them felt these sessions were very important and necessary.

Participation in the Auroville Marathon event

The highlight this time was younger students participating. 10 boys aged between 10 and 14, took part along with 5 of our older boys. Senthil and Sakthivel took initiative and organized and supervised the training schedule every morning for the youngsters.

Santhosh and Balaji organized a sight seeing trip for the group on February 9th. They enjoyed the experience so much and talked about it so much in the village that more children, especially girls,wanted to participate in the next running event. Senthil, Sakthivel and Parameswaran took the initiative for training with Santhosh and Balaji’s guidance and the group of girls too turned up at Thulir religiously and enthusiastically every morning at 5.30 am for their running practice through

April and May! This was new! Earlier students would never come to Thulir during their annual vacation in May. Anandayana run . They participated in the Anandayana run – a run organized by Runner’s high to raise awareness about projects working for underprivileged children- in Bangalore. This was the first time younger girls were participating and the highlight was that the group of 25 travelled to the venue and back by public transport. Senthil and the group have managed to sustain their interest and presently their training continues.

Arrivals and Departures

Last year’s batch have left for various options. Chidhambaram and Parthiban our full time students last year have joined the lab technician course started by Tribal Health Initiative.

Parameswaran has joined the ITI , Sankarapuram to formally study electrical wiring.

Perumal, Ezhumalai and Chinnadurai have finished their class 12 successfully and have gone on to do their graduation! Perumal has been inspired by his exposure to physics and electronics. He has decided to and has joined a B.Sc. Physics program in Salem and comes back to thulir now and then to share with us his experience of college.

The situation in the village has changed drastically in the last few years.  Changes which have happened over generations in our families have taken place within the last decade here. Subsistence farming has disappeared. The need for cash has grown. Money is now needed for education, health, for food and to buy the things one sees on TV. Costs of essentials have risen even here and the  prices of agricultural produce have not risen correspondingly.  Most families have started building concrete houses under the Government housing scheme but the money is invariably not enough and are in high interest debt. Other families have borrowed money to level the land to plant cash crops and are in debt due to that. In fact one of our very committed staff , Sakthivel, had to go on a long leave in order to earn money to repay his family’s loan of Rs. 70,000 or he would lose his land. He has gone to Kerala to work as daily wage labour hoping to earn Rs.500 per day! He has promised to come back in three months but one never knows!

Danabal and Jayabal too had left for the same reasons, to do daily wages labour but on their return, we employed them in the constructions here so that they can be trained in masonry. A project to build a new cooking space has been initiated and is well under way with both the boys working hard on it. With guidance from Krishna and supervised by Senthil, the building is rapidly taking shape!

Rajakumari our cook in the Thulir kitchen has opened a small canteen in front of the hospital. We encouraged her to do that and we are happy that not only our students but also the employees learn something in Thulir and move on in life using what they learnt here. Kamala, our new cook is now in charge of the kitchen. Kannagi with her usual cheerfulness pitches in effortlessly and takes care of our guests and students when needed.

New teenagers, Anjala, Masi, Madheswari, Suganthi and Thirupathi have joined us this year.

Nikhil Iyer, a graduate of film making from SAE institute, Mumbai has been volunteering in Thulir from July. He is taking regular classes for the children in the evening and also English classes for the teachers in the afternoon as part of their preparation for teaching and communication with the outside world in general! The entire team has been cheered and enthused with his presence. He has brought in new energy and has become a very welcome part of all our work and life here.

The Next Generation

Senthil and Rajammal have a baby boy, Rishi. The three of them stay in the Thulir campus now. Lakshmi has a baby girl and Sasikala has a baby boy! With the birth of two lively babies, both Lakshmi’s and Sasikala’s families move about with bright faces and a spring in their step. Since the babies need full time attention, they are on maternity leave for the next three months. Two young girls from the village – Suganthi and Madheshwari are taking to their new responsibilities as the stand-in caretakers of kutty thulir, in the absence of Lakshmi and Sasikala, with much cheerfulness and enthusiasm. It is good to see that the young ones are engaged in a variety of activities like solving puzzles, figuring out shapes, listening to stories, learning to sing new songs while singing the older ones better, making a collage or drawing the local birds here like the drongos and babblers. The whole group seems energetic and prosperous! Last year, some of the hospital staff wanted us to help them homeschool their children who were in the 3-5 age group. So the ‘Kutty Thulir’ started in the courtyard of professor Ravindran’s house.

This year there has been more emphatic demand from the parents and staff of the hospital, for us to start a school.  We have expressed the opinion that a school should be a group initiative with complete parent and village participation in management and administration.  We would help in education aspects and in training of teachers and in fund raising. An education committee has been formed. We are having meetings now. This committee is first going to visit other similar schools, talk to people, discuss and decide whether the idea of starting a school is feasible or not in the next two months.  This process of talking, discussing, motivating and exploring takes time and effort. The process is slow but we hope more sustainable in the long run.

Sittilingi Youth Club

Another inspiring happening is the formation of a youth group in the village. 35 young men of the village, – aged 18 to 35- a few of whom  are ex students of Thulir, got together in summer to organize a cricket tournament inviting teams from the other villages around. We supported them with some of the prize money. At that time we also motivated them to get together to do community work too. They immediately agreed and asked that we guide their initiative. And thus, the Sittilingi Youth Club was registered.

The youth group have now rented a house in the village and started a library. Thulir is helping them with the rent, books , newspaper etc. We hope that this space would be  a learning cum meeting space where learning would not be limited to book learning but to learning hand skills, music, theater, social and environmental consciousness etc. The positive aspect is that the initiative has come from the community and they have asked us to support them minimally.

Clean Sittilingi/ Anti Plastic Campaign

Was the first major activity of the youth group. The staff and children of Thulir too were enthusiastic participants. We cleaned the main streets of plastic and the youth group talked to the shop owners and residents about refusing, reducing and managing plastic wastes. We had done these drives twice before but both those times we were initiating the events and they had a limited effect. But this time the youth were the driving force and they could drive the messages more forcefully as they were from the same village. They have also urged the panchayat to help with the dustbins and daily cleaning and maintenance. Many more such campaigns are planned for this year. Classes for nursing students Nursing students from THI attended classes on social, personal and environmental issues in Thulir once a week the whole of the last academic year. This year their classes are yet to start.

Cooking with biogas

In the beginning of the year, we had a biogas plant set up for cooking lunch for the entire thulir staff (around fifteen people). The plant was run with the dung of six cows that were part of the thulir family. As much as this was a great alternative, little did we expect the rains to fail for the second continuous year. But what is the connection between steady supply of biogas and good rainfall?

Good rain=lots of grass to graze=healthy cows=lots of dung=lots of gas for cooking!

The summer was suffocatingly hot with temperatures soaring around 42 degrees through april and May. There was absolutely no grass and we had to sell all our cows except Lakshmi! This has resulted in us scaling down the plant to Anu and Krishna’s house and that too not as the main source of cooking gas.

Traditional Millet Festival

Due to the growing change in the diet of the village people to more “easy” foods like ration rice, vegetables grown with heavy chemical usage and inorganically grown fruits, the health of the people is deteriorating fast and many new diseases are evolving. The cases of diabetes, hypertension and other lifestyle diseases have dramatically increased, diseases that have been unheard of in this remote valley for the past twenty years. As rains had also failed for the past two years, the water table has reduced to a dangerously low level. But at the same time, cultivation of rice, sugarcane and other water intensive crops continues drawing much water through bore wells and diesel pumps in every farm. These have become a necessity. The problem goes deeper than it appears – while the water guzzling rice and sugarcane are cash crops, the traditional varieties of millets require much lesser water and are also many fold more nutritious than rice. The farmers here need returns for what they invested in the way of pesticides and fertilizers and thus this becomes a vicious cycle (millets do not need these chemicals as the seed varieties and the very nature of the plant itself is to be sturdy and resistant).

Considering this situation, Tribal Health Initiative decided to organize a traditional millet food festival in Thulir grounds to revive the usage of millets and to make clear the reasons for the diseases that the villagers are experiencing. For this cause, we had doctors Regi and Lalitha from the tribal hospital, here in Sittilingi, talk about the various problems that can be caused to the body by consumption of inorganically grown food.

To support their point of view, there were organic farmers coming in from all over the valley (and outside it too) to talk of the benefits of farming closer to nature. Of course, it was all from personal experience, which made the talk so much more relevant and easier to relate to for the farmer audience.

To make sure that it was not all talk and no fun, there were dance performances and singing too, all traditional, and supported by a tawil (a traditional drum) player. The words of some of the songs advocated the planting of spinach, beans and other vegetables for nutrition and the tale of a farmer who took care of his soil like a rich man would take care of all his gold (and so the song spoke about methods of soil conservation and sustainable farming) Traditional songs being sung by the villagers in praise of the soil and the rain gods.

To end this well was the most enjoyable part of the program – a feast of millets!! The locals had all been organized into groups and each group cooked delicious dishes for all of us! Ragi, thenai, saame, kambu were the main components of all the food in the feast.

Four varieties of grains that made close to 30 varieties of mouth watering treats, including thenai paayasam, kambu roti, ragi murukku and saame upma, and many many more. Whether or not one paid attention during the talking, everyone surely ate with great gusto! We made sure to try out ALL the dishes and greatly enjoyed the rather extravagant spread. Hope has been renewed in the form of a small food grain…

Sports Day – Let the games begin!

Just after the millet festival was the sports day for the kids to make good use of all the protein and carbohydrates consumed the previous week! The day started off with one of Anu’s signature talks on winning, losing and having the right attitude which in itself was great fun to watch as the kids completed many of her sentences with enthusiasm and followed it up with vigorous nodding.

After that was the warm up led by three volunteers from the students’ group. Some parts of it looked like they were all doing the bhangra but it was good to see the entire group including the older ones Paramesh, Masi, Senthil, Anu and Nikhil bending and stretching along with the energetic children.

The sports kicked off with the track events including the sprints and relay. The day was quite hot and bright but the weather took a backseat for the kids who wore their best clothes and flowers in their hair! Well hydrated and having eaten enough, everyone was ready for a running start.

Next to follow were the long jump and high jump. This was completely new to the kids and was greatly enjoyed by the first time jumpers. Coaching for jumping from the crease was given in the evenings preceding sports day and we could see that the effort paid off well!

After this was a short lunch break followed by a great rush of heads to the field to play musical chairs. There were a few technical issues with the sound but nothing could slow down the day – the kids jointly helped fix the issue and soon, a crowd was running around the chairs to melodious tamil songs from older movies. This game is popular in thulir. Its one where the players scoop a handful of water from a bucket, run a certain distance to where an empty soda bottle is placed and fill it as fast as they can. A nice way to cool the heated little bodies and learn to close those little gaps between the fingers through which water (and as some would say, money) flows away.

Kabaddi, the best part of sports day for some, the most dreaded for others, the sport that holds a lot of surprises for the players and audience alike. The capacity of the players to turn into monsters or mice is what the best part of this game is. Thulir children made the change into both and more creatures in between too.

To end the evening – TUG OF WAR! And the women won pulling the men over!

Many old and new friends have dropped in for shorter durations, catching up and encouraging us. Thanks to all of you for being with us through all our ups and downs and keeping us going.

Rain!

As we write this, we have had a few cooling showers of rain. Though it is not enough to recharge our wells, the grass has grown eagerly, fresh leaves have sprouted, buds have bloomed, some trees have broken out with profuse flowers and scores of butterflies flutter around enthusiastically. With promise of more rain, our land has been optimistically ploughed and planted with millets. There’s hope in the air after all!

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Mural on the wall

This year the staff and students decided to make a large mural on the wall at the Entrance Lobby of Thulir. This became and interesting project where we made a collage of different individual pieces, so everybody got to paint a portion! New Batch joins Theerthagiri, Jasgannathan, Dhanabalan, Ajit, Gomati and Prasanth joined us this year in August. Sathya, Jayabal and Parameswaran decided to continue. So has Sakthivel who continues his training in Bangalore.

Smokeless chulha [firewood stove]

The old mud chulha we have been using in the kitchen need to be replaced and we built a new one using a RCC stove top. This became a good opportunity for our students to learn concrete molding and also in construction of a smokeless firewood stove.

Biogas

The Tribal Health Initiative donated a fiberglass made Biogas reactor, to produce gas for cooking. We decided to use it on an experimental basis, charging it with Cow dung, to learn the technology. We hope to scale it up when our dairy project takes off to provide for most of the cooking energy in our kitchen.

Wash area Construction

A new water conserving/ recycling outdoor Wash Area needed to be built and we thought it is a good opportunity for the new Batch to learn basics of masonry. The wash area consists of a simple wall , a drip irrigation pipes based plumbing [to regulate and lessen water coming out] and a simple mulch bed with Banana and Canah plants where the waste water is absorbed.

Lavanya and Gautham’s visit

Lavanya and Gautham visited us in September. They have a Wood Wokshop in Bangalore where they design and make furniture. Sakhtivel is currently being trained by them. They did sessions where they taught making of lampshades using split bamboo frames and wrapping with paper.

Exposure tour to  Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam  Kanchipuram

The Thulir Seniors went on an Exposure tour to the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam near Kanchipuram. The School, a residential one, trains children in the traditional theater form of Kattaikkuttu and the students put up professional performances. It was a very inspiring experience. The school tries to balance formal academic learning with very serious, high quality training in Kattaikuttu. The apprentices group [made of former students of the Gurukula], conducted a session for our students and also demonstrated Kattaikuttu performance. Thulir students, taught paper folding, and soap making to the Gurukulam students. Though initially the students were shy, and it took a while to break the ice, once they started interacting, it became difficult for them to part when time came to say goodbyes. We hope to continue interactions for mutual benefits. From Kanchipuram, the students also visited Mahabalipuram to see the famous archaeological monuments and to go the Beach [a novelty for us living in an inland valley with mountains around]. The Kattaikuttu Gurukulam, kindly arranged for their vehicle for this trip and we are grateful.

Students leaving/ joining:

In October, Sathya and Gomathi stopped attending Thulir due to financial problems at home and so have gone for agricultural contract labour. Both have said they would like to rejoin after a few months when their contract gets over. Meanwhile, Parthibhan a regular in our evening sessions, underwent major surgery and so is out of school. He is joining Thulir for the rest fo this academic year as a full timer. Raman, a new student is also joining as we write this newsletter!

Outdoor Seating area

Encouraged by the wash area construction, there was enthusiasm to continue. So a project to build another wash area [this time for the evening class children to use] and also seats under the trees in the Thulir Courtyard, were taken up.

Work on land

The organic garden work continued and a nice circular vegetable patch with Permaculture beds took shape. In the months of October and November, this provided quite a bit of vegetables to our kitchen, not enough to replace all our purchases but hopefully enough to spur us on to produce more!!

Cycling/ Running

A cycle tour to Sattanur Dam [about 60 kms away] was organized for the new batch boys as an introduction to long distance bicycle tours. In September, 6 of our students participated in the Kaveri Trail Marathon [2 of them did half marathons and the rest 10 km]. This has been a regular event Thulir Students have been participating over the years.

In November, the new batch students went to Bangalore to participate in a running event organized for the Karnataka Spastics Society. As has become a regular feature, they stayed at Ananya School. Sanjeev organized a day long Electronics workshop at his office [Read his report for details and pics].

Visit to Chirag school

Anu and Krishna visited Chirag School in Nainital District of Uttarakhand. It was an opportunity to Interact with the staff and understand the curriculum and methods of teaching the School follows. A 3 day building construction workshop for class 4 and 5 students and teachers was conducted during this visit. A small outdoor seating area was built and basics of arch building were demonstrated.

This visit was made possible by Prof Ravindran, Vanajakka and Balaji. Prof Ravindran and Vanajaakka were in Sittilingi during this time and took classes for the students. Prof. took classes in basics of Plumbing, units and measurements, while Vanajakka took Tamil classes. Balaji, also kindly volunteered to be in Thulir and take classes for the students. He wrote a report on his visit. [Read his Report]

The New Organic Farming Project

In October, Senthil and three of our students, proposed a project of Dairy and organic farming to the rest of Thulir. They wanted Thulir to make an investment in purchase of cows and some minimal facilities [like cow shed]. They would look after the cows, and also all the pieces of land around Thulir and in the new campus. They would do it outside of the Thulir class hours [mostly in the mornings and evenings and on holidays. The idea is to see how much income can be generated through these efforts and to learn organic farming techniques. The produce and the milk would be purchased by the Thulir Kitchen [so we get to eat home grown organic food!]. Over many sessions, the whole team brainstormed and a financial proposal was worked out to see what sort of investments needed to be made and also what possible income could be generated. The exercise yielded a positive picture, and we felt this was worth giving a try to increase our own understanding of organic Farming practice. The project started by mid October and since end October the four of them have started living in the campus and looking after the Cow and the 2 calves we already have. Efforts are on to purchase a second cow [of native breed, so it is taking some time].

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Class 10 exams, and an interesting Workshop

April is the month for public exams and 3 girls and 5 boys wrote the class 10 exams.

In April, Jeyaprakash, an Architect friend took a two day workshop along with Yedendra Srinivasan , on using the 3D modelling software “Sketch up” and on Data visualising techniques. Jeyaprakash after doing an introductory presentation, took us through a demo of how to use the Software. This was followed by a day long session where students got an opportunity to try the software — initially following step by step instruction and then branching off to explore various possibilities with the models they were working on.

Yedendra showed how we can link the disparate data we have gathered for instance, weather data and attendance in Thulir, and visualise it in a manner that is easy to see patterns/ relationships.

Learning to Repair Motors and more Electronics

In May, there was a workshop on motor winding and repairing for the senior batch. Visiting Resource persons from Chennai, Mr Anand , Mr Karthikeyan and Prof. Ravindran taught the students. Ramasubramanian and Sanjeev took theory classes on the basics of Electricity and motors for both the batches.

Sanjeev did an intensive course for the girls and the junior batch on electronics, computers and building several exciting circuits. He also taught them  to do several projects using the programme called Scratch.

We took a summer break from May 15th to June 1st.

Start of a new academic year and our Seniors graduate and move on

In June, it was our annual ritual of repairing / repainting  Thulir buildings. The mud walls and floors were re-plastered and repainted  wherever required. The field had to be ploughed to get it ready for the next sowing season. The Permaculture beds needed some attention. It was also time for us to plan activities for the coming year.

In June the results of the class 10 exams came out. All the seniors who appeared had passed.It was time for them to move on to the next stage of learning . So we started exploring options for each individual student according to their preferences and aptitude.

Sakhtivel had already gone to Bangalore to learn wood working skills from Vanya and Goutham in January.He liked the experience and wanted to continue.

Srikanth finished his training in wood craft from Vanya and Goutham. He went back to Gudalur and has started making learning aids in wood at Vidyodaya school.

Kumar felt it was time for him to take on a job in Sittilingi. He was clear that he did not want to go for any further education/ training outside. He has joined the TTI [Tribal Technology Initiative] workshop in Sittilingi on a full time job. He has also learnt Tailoring and has been stitching clothes for the villagers. There is a need for a specialist Tailor for the crafts initiative in Sittilingi(Porgai) and they are now trying to arrange further training for him.

Theerthammal decided to join Thulir as a staff. In the past months she has been quietly taking on minor responsibilities. Devagi and Rajammal are training her in the management of the Thulir Kitchen.

Chandramathi wanted to go outside and pursue further studies, but her family was reluctant to send her away alone to an unknown place. We talked to them and helped her to apply for a course in Medical Lab Technician at Gudalur, a place and institution we are familiar with, and which we thought the parents might find agreeable. But after securing admission, on the last hour her parents changed their mind. She is now applying for a nursing course at the Sittilingi hospital.

Jayabal, has also joined Sakhtivel in Bangalore to undergo a similar training in wood work under Vanya and Goutham. Since he is inclined towards art and craft work, we hope he will benefit immensely from this exposure. He is very young and might find being away from home a bit of a challenge, though.

Perumal, Ezhumalai and Chinnadurai wanted to look at further education possibilities. We contacted several places to search for vocational certification, as all three of them are very good at vocational skills. We located Govt. ITIs nearby where they could apply. Perumal has a flair for electronics.So we  thought Perumal may benefit from a spell at a company where he could learn more electronics related skills; Sanjeev contacted a company in Bangalore where he could apply for an apprenticeship.

The education scenario at Sittilingi valley is changing rapidly these last few years. In 2004, students finishing class 10 was a rarity. In the last three years, more  and more students have finished class 12. The number of students going outside to join college has increased. The trend in the past few years is to do BSc Math with the idea of doing a B Ed then and applying for a Govt Teacher’s job in future. People look down upon vocational skills. This line of reasoning says any vocational based training like ITIs or even a Diploma in Engineering is not good.

So, after looking at the possibilities and after talking to many people, all three of them have joined the Kottapatti Govt. School to study Science. This being nearby they can stay at home and commute; and so help in the family Farm. This also has local approval, as the Village thinks BSc [preferably BSc Math] with BEd is the way to go!

A day long hike

Endowed with a beautiful location, we try to walk into the hills to enjoy the forests that surround us.It is an occasion to show the students that we respect their knowledge of plants and forests and to show them how much we appreciate the beauty of their homeland.They too love being outside but very often they take all this for granted. We hope to see a feeling of pride and ownership of the natural resources and the need to conserve them, growing among our students.

On Saturday the 2nd, the younger children took us to a viewpoint rock on a hill nearby.We were quite out of breadth trying to keep up with them!! In some places on the rock face they would whiz past the thorny bushes whereas we grown ups had to crawl on all fours under the bushes! On Sunday the 3rd, the older students and staff took off on a day long trek to a waterfall high up on a ridge on the Sitheri hills. From there the view of our valley was incredible!

Sports Day

After the first sports day held last year which turned out to be an event everybody enjoyed, we thought we should hold one this year. So on July 9th and 10th we held Sport  events. It was very similar to last year — having more or less the same events. This year we lacked enough volunteer power to clear up our neighbour’s land and make tracks etc., so decided to hold the events in the Thulir play ground itself. There was a festive atmosphere and a lot of fun. Many children, even those who don’t come regularly to Thulir, participated. This year too we gifted a book to all the 60 participants.

Interactions with the Government School

We have been always interacting with the students of the Government schools as almost all the children who come to Thulir in the evenings go to the Government school. But the children who come from far away villages and have to take a bus back have been unable to come here. We have conducted some science experiments for them earlier but were unable to do anything for them regularly due to various reasons. The present Head Master has been aware of our work and has requested us to take some science, computer and General awareness classes there. So we have started going there once or twice a week. There has been a good response so far. He has also been sending students to Thulir to learn Basketball from Siddharth, who is home on holidays.

A Cycle trip

On 18th July, the older boys and Siddharth went cycling to Theerthamalai- about 70 km totally. They enjoyed themselves thoroughly. The sky was overcast and the Weather pleasant, making it ideal for the trip.

As always, we look forward to your comments and feedback!!

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