Anugriha Snapshots of 2015-16

Shikshayatan turned 21 on 15^th August 2016.

Parents were invited and the children and staff talked of the ‘history’ of Shikshayatan. It was a festive day with music and dance. It was followed by a photo exhibition which parents enjoyed hugely.  Photos from 1994 to 2015 were displayed. Parents were taken by the transformation: from bare, brown land to a thriving green campus. It was a rare moment; hearing the oohs and aaahs. Happy laughter followed seeing our students from our first few batches; what made us happy was that they are held in esteem and affection.

A news journal was started by Sushila Narayanaswamy. She and Ashok Yadav, both from Mumbai, were enamoured of the jambool that grows in the campus. The children were amused by the word and so the news journal was named ‘Jambool’. It began life as a bilingual but we are hoping to become multi-lingual by the end of the next academic year.

And so we moved into our adulthood. The school is doing well; of 12 children who left us a couple of years ago all have cleared their 10^th standard, 6 have scored more than 90%.

Govindaraj, who is doing his course at DJ Academy of Design has topped his class with a grade point average of 8.5. He still flashes his famous smile, looks more and more confident and assured.

Abhirami, one of the children who went with us to Scotland and whose painting was displayed at the National Art Galleries, Edinburgh, has come back to us. She finished her 12^th and wanted to do her BA in English literature. She has enrolled herself in the Madras University distance education and  we have the joy of reading literature with her. She is growing so well. What constantly amazes us is that she can relate to a life, thinking and culture of a country that does not resemble anything in her environment. Abhirami will be in charge of Oriole – the art room where she hopes to inspire children to love art even as she does.

Vignesh, when he was in class 7, became the head of greening committee. He still loves plants and so, after successfully completing his 12^th, he came back. He has taken over charge of organically growing vegetables for the school. He has one elderly handicapped man working with him. Even as a child Vignesh was able to inspire his friends to work with him. Now, he has a battalion of kids walking after him, requesting they sow / till / water the patch. More Vigneshes in the making?

He has enrolled in distance education of Madras University for History. He will also take a class on modern dance.

Aditi, our niece, enrolled herself in Cambridge International Examination A levels as a private candidate. She is from Chennai. She has been learning English literature and World history with Aruna. The understanding was that she would teach in the school. What started as a lark has taken a serious turn. She enjoys her classes; she is constantly surprised by the cheerfulness and ready-to-learn-anything attitude of the children. “It is refreshing after schools in Chennai. I thought I was liberal, but these kids know no borders. One kid in the UKG actually asked me why I was not in school [she had gone home to be with her family for the weekend]. They call me ‘akka’ but that does not refrain them from saying what they think.’ 

 

Our volunteers:

This year we had Laura [for 3 working months] and Mariebelle as our volunteers from Germany. Mariebelle has come for a year and she continues till August. Mariebelle has been teaching French and western flute. Two of her group have got the basics of western flute. French rhymes reverberate and the younger children think it fun to be in her class.

Her mother, sister and brother visited us for three days. The result can be seen in the art classes – children have begun to colour the hair yellow, eyes blue...

Rajani and Shridhar were here – their annual pilgrimage. Rajani endeared herself with her music. We are indeed blessed. Living as we do, cut off from civilization as it were, to have a performing artist come to us… Suddenly Shikshayatan could quote Keats: Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter.

Shridhar did a leadership programme with the children from 5^th up. When at the end of the workout he asked his favourite question: what did you learn from this exercise? he was taken aback by one of the answers. “Even if a younger friend tells us to do something we do it if we think it is the correct idea.” He laughed and asked Raghavan, “What am I doing here?” Raghavan of course, looked like a cat that had had a bowl of cream.

We look forward to their visit, always.

Neela and Venkat were here, this time with Venkat’s sister and brother-in-law for the Republic Day celebrations. Their introductions to their friends has led to Skype classes in botany for the children.

Tobias Durlesser, the son of our good friends from Germany, was here for a week. Long, long ago, when we were yet to start the project, his parents supported us. So when we built our first ‘pucca’ classroom we called it Tobias. Tobias has been a frequent visitor, but this is the first time he came on his own. He spent time with some kids teaching them the basics of plumbing designs. As usual, the children had fun and Tobias thought they were giving him ideas at the end of the week.

Kirsty, who had volunteered with us last year, came down for a visit. There was a roar when the children saw her that was heard right down the road. She accompanied the children on their trip.

Coming of age treats:

We had three great treats as coming of age.

A team of 8 of our teachers and 2 from Oyster Learning Initiative [a school that we consult for] were led by Aruna on a ‘familiarization tour’ of Delhi and Agra. Only one has seen Delhi before and none of the others have travelled outside of the state. So it was planned that we treat them to a ‘coming of age’ trip. We travelled by train to see the changing landforms and soil and houses… and return by air. Needless to say it was a delightful trip. 2 days in Agra, 3 in Delhi. Taj was ethereal that winter morning. They fell in love with Fatehpur Sikri and Sikandra and finally, with Akbar himself when they saw the ramparts Akbar ran on with his two grandsons in his arms. It took hours for them to come out of Gandhi Smrti [Delhi]. Finally, the flight back was thrilling. And the teachers were proud that they had managed, in spite of all their difficulties, to save up for the fare and ‘buy’ their own first flight ticket. This money they had earned by successfully completing two summer camps for children of other schools in the district.

The second were the two trips organized for children from 4^th up: one group went to Kodai Kanal where they stayed at a home stay run by a friend of ours, Bernard. Two days of hiking, looking out for bisons, wearing warm clothes had them wish the school was in Kodai.

The other group went to Kumily – the nearest town to Periyar wild life sanctuary. It was an eye opener for the children – that a sanctuary could be so dense and green and lovely. Their first stop was at the Surli waterfalls where they learned that water might be inviting but biting cold. Hikes, boating, an evening spent in seeing a demonstration of ‘kalaripayattu’,  then on to  visiting the Vaig1ai dam near Madurai and then back home.  They had a long list of animals they saw - ‘but no tigers. That was so sad.’

Kumily

And the final cap: Shankar Lakshmam, a performing ghatam artist and advertising consultant visited us with a big box. We opened it to find a telescope; but since then the skies have not cleared at all. Ten days later, we are still looking for a clear patch. Since star gazing is Shankar’s hobby, he set up the telescope and taught Vicky to operate it.  He conducted a short workshop on ‘taal’.  He was accompanied by his parents and they made the kids happy with all the sweets that they fed them with. Since it was his mother’s birthday the children sang a happy birthday song in German, French, English and Hindi.

 

Kodai

Tanuja [Shankar’s sister] and Murli, another couple who visit and volunteer regularly, visited us.

Proud to be Indian

The title of an exhibition-cum-stage show that was put up on Founder’s day of January 6^th. An idea was conceived to show the children the synthesis that India has created over the millenniums making her what she is today. A synthesis that they could relate to, be proud of and live up to. We wanted our children to know that India allowed changes where change would enhance her beauty; that she allowed transformation only when it would intensify her knowledge of Oneness of life.  For that we took 5 aspects and traced the growth through all the millenniums.

Literature – from Upanishads, the Zen Avesta, the duas from the Koran and the psalms, we selected lines that seemed like translations of one another; lines that are relevant to students and to good, kind living. Devotional songs of Meerabai, Kabir, Valluvar; thoughts on good governance from Chankya, Akbar and the Mahatma. Love of our country from Iqbal, Rabindranath and Bharatiyar.

This part of the show was scheduled for an hour; we are proud to say that not one person from the audience took their eyes off the children as they chanted and sang and recited.

Art and architecture: Abhirami, Govinda, Sneha as also our headmaster came up with some interesting exhibits. Our little ones in the primary came up with miniatures.

Science as seen through our studies in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and engineering were up as exhibits and models. There was also a short skit on Rajkumari Amrit Kaur spear heading the movement for better health for children and women.

  

 Music and dance was arranged as an evening show. Aditi led the musical evening, giving short talks and singing to demonstrate the aspects of Carnatic classical music. They concluded the musical evening with a short and simple recital on the veena, harmonium, keyboard and the flute. The audience was much delighted.

 

As an overview to classical dance, we staged the piece from Bhaje Sargam, an old time doordarshan favourite. Shankar Mahadevan’s “Ek dantaya, vakratundaaya’ was chosen for the Bharata natyam. These were followed by folk dances – garbha and bhangda. The evening ended with a ‘modern’ Kandon se milte hain kande...’ There were encores that thrilled the children and they readily danced again!

What did we learn?

About our children:

That they love perfection and to that they are ready to rehearse indefatigably.

That they are ready-to-learn-anything; learning is fun for them and they learned everyone’s parts even though the rehearsals were in different parts of the campus. Apparently, the entire village was vibrant through the one month of practice.

Our children are also great fun. Adventurous, curious and giggly.

Doing a show:

is highly creative albeit a big headache: kids that have run off to watch their friends have to be dug out and brought to their own part of the show;

that some kids are accident prone: their costumes fall off just when everything seems to be going brilliantly;

that some kids ‘help’ in choreography but in reality can’t tell right leg from the left but look crestfallen if you so much as look daggers at them.

And that talking about India is – as always – moving.

Our special thanks to all those who extended ideas and help for the show:

Sushila and Narayanaswamy

Mrs R B Sarma [who got the kids to rehearse a dance to perfection sitting on her armchair]

Mrs Parimala Rangachari who sponsored the costumes