About the illustrator: Sidharth loves to draw. He usually likes to be on his own when he is drawing and enjoys the alone time with the paper. He captures the feelings of the creatures with his strong and confident lines. He has put together this colouring book for his younger peers at Shibumi. When enquiring into his love for this expression through drawing the illustrator shared ... 'Sometime ago I started to draw faces and animals. One day, I was drawing a dragon. Suddenly!! When I had finished drawing, it popped off the paper and started to attack. Quickly I drew a sword and started to attack it. Luckily I managed to defeat the dragon and went back to drawing. Fortunately nothing else popped out of paper. I REALLY LIKE DRAWING!'

Agni (8 years) has a keen interest in aeroplanes. He knows many high-flying facts about aeroplanes. There really wasn’t too much more to know about the aeroplanes and so together we pondered about the time before these metal birds filled the sky. The illustrations are a collection of Agni’s delightful ponderings.

I had an idea to make a plough. Das made it for me. Ritwik and I would use it in the sand pit. We made our plough better by adding a place so that two people could act like the cows and one person from behind could act like the farmer. When we were playing ‘farm-farm’ in the sandpit with the plough I felt like growing ragi! Tanu didi said that the sand pit was not the right place for that, so we took another spot of land near kaze. The area was full of grass so we had to work hard to remove it. We cut the top of the grass with a sickle and then dug it out with a hoe. Then we cleaned the spot, we took out all the stones and made a pile near one spot. Then Shivaji anna came with his tractor and ploughed it for us, another thatta came with Shivaji anna. We built a fence so that the cow wouldn’t eat up the growing ragi. One day Shivaji anna said it might rain, so we sprinkled lots and lots of seeds around. After a week it was growing like a forest. I needed to water it every da...

The kitchen is the heart of Shibumi and everyday the mothers churn out delicious dishes, carefully prepared keeping in mind nutrition, taste, health and the resources available. The kitchen uses mostly organic items where possible and each parent who has dedicated time to it has got with them a new change, a little step to making the kitchen a compassionate and conscious space. Vineela (One of the mothers who has cooked for us once every week for some years now!) who  has managed to find a lovely source for local vegetables shares the story of a relationship that has brought freshness into our kitchen at Shibumi. Two years back my mother-in-law and I attended a week long yoga session. This was where I first met Kala aunty. Kala aunty is a 70 year old lady with fully white hair and a beautiful smile. She is a go getter who never shies away from hard word, becomes very passionately involved in any work that she does and always eyes for perfection. Her daughter says she was born ...

Didi didi, this train is so packed! Be happy you have at least half a seat, so many others are all stacked! Actually I’m glad no one has taken our half seat, In fact, the other passengers protect it even when I’m away to eat. Speaking of food, just look at all the food Sidh’s uncle and aunt have got, Yummm! That vada pav is so good and tasty and hot. Hey why don’t we too sell some stuff on the train , Origami! Awesome! Everyone gets excited by the sight of a paper plane. Come one, come all! There is flowers, purses, cranes and even a ball! It’s all over; everyone has taken it with so much joy, So many smiles and laughs all because of a small toy. Ah! Finally it’s Shivganj! What a lovely little town, Guys, food is served can you all please come down. Mancha, Punchi, thank you so much, the food and sweets are so great. And we ate ... and we ate ... and we ate ... and we ate! Karuna bhua, we have squeezed the lemon juice but have one doubt, What to ...

It was shop time at Shibumi on Thursday, Oct 4 th and it was the turn of the Malhars and Bihags to set up shop.  Well laid out plans were showing in the way each stall was put out; painstakingly prepared, tastefully arranged, ready to be sold. But then, who hasn’t heard that the best-laid plans can go awry. Rain arrived half-way through. Mid afternoon rain has a mind of its own. It pours, then stops, you step out, it changes its mind and comes down again. Thankfully, the children were unaffected by it. All in all it was great fun. We posed a few questions to the shopkeepers and this is what they had to say about playing ‘shop shop’. 1. How did you get the idea? I got it from my mother. We were inspired by food stalls on the roadside. 2. Were you able to implement your ideas? We couldn’t implement Marvel theme because we felt the youngest children might not understand. We planned to have more items but it didn’t happen. Three shopkeepers didn’t turn up ...