For those who are not directly involved with Shibumi, some of the names appearing in our recent blog posts were probably confusing. Pallav, Kiri, Tarang and Isaura are the names of our four age-wise student groups. The youngest group is named Pallav , which in Sanskrit refers to 'young shoots and leaves'. Kiri , the next group, is a Cambodian word for 'mountain'. Then comes Tarang , Sanskrit for 'wave', and finally the senior most group -- Isaura , a Greek word meaning 'soft air'. The staff group is named Dharitri, which is Sanskrit for 'earth', but we rarely have to use this group name!

The theatre workshop planned for Kiri on Tuesday could not happen because Saraswati, who was going to conduct it was ill. So we planned a half-day mask-making workshop using collected junk and natural material, to be followed by a film screening for the children. Angie and I were going to conduct the activities for the day. The mask making activity was something I had done in college and enjoyed tremendously, so I was very excited to do it with the kids, but of course there was no knowing how it would actually go! I started the day by showing the group photos of several different kinds of masks from different parts of the world and some junk art, just to get some juices flowing in the kids’ minds. They were quite enthralled and fascinated, and in hindsight it did feel like a useful presentation to have made. We then went out for a walk around school armed with plastic bags to collect interesting things from the roadside. Some of the children had chosen to pair up for the activity, ot...

It is enriching to be with children in lots of different contexts.

This week is the home term! The children are off with different people, doing different things. Here is the rough plan. We hope there will be a blog post on each activity, as it happens. PALLAV KIRI TARANG & ISAURA MONDAY Holiday. They made a trip to Kaigal over the weekend. Visit to Anubhava Science Centra with Nagaraj, Aditya’s father. Book-buying for the library at Blossoms, a used book store. TUESDAY Activities organised by Viji (mother of Srishti and Tejasvi) at her house. Theatre was planned with Saraswati, a theatre artiste. Because she suddenly fell ill, an art activity and possibly a film has been planned by Aditya. Programme planned by Leo, Lakshmi and Latha, parents of the school. A visit to Agara lake in Sarjapur, with bird-watching and discussion. Also, observation and discussion of the traffic and transport issues of Bangalore. ...

As part of the home term, Tarang and Isaura, along with Angie and Shalini, went book-buying for the library! We sold a whole lot of books and bought books with the money we received. We bought books worth Rs. 4300 altogether (without actually spending a rupee). Here are images of all the books we bought. Sorry, we are having trouble making the first group of book covers appear larger on the blog!

As soon as we got to Kaigal we went for a walk with Karthik along the stream that meanders through hard rock! The sound of the waters flowing was so so loud!As soon as the children spotted a pool that was neither too small or too deep for them, they jumped in! After playing in the water we got very hungry! Muniamma treated us with a simple and yummy meal! After which we were back on a walk and soon into another pool and splashing around! And back again for some more food! After dinner the children drew,played with their torches, sang, and played in their sleeping bags before sleeping! They were all up early again and we went for another walk in another direction for another swim and then back again to the house for another yummy meal! We also managed to become friends with the dogs there! Tasted and smelt a lot of the medicinal plants that grow in the nursery with Krishnamurthi Anna. Looked at their 'seed collection'. Watched Lakshmi Akka make paper bags. :)