The first week of July started off on a musical note with Ranjani Sivakumar, a Carnatic vocalist, spending four days at Shibumi conducting a music workshop. The children huddled around Ranjini and enjoyed the sessions with her. She would bring our attention to listening by patiently tuning the tanpura at the start of the session. Asking the children to listen and participate by telling her if the notes of the string sounded lower or higher. This naturally lead to conversations and questions about the instrument, the tension in the string and sounds that are soothing. For most part of the session we were learning the Sarali varisai, the fundamental sequences. This allowed us to get a feel for the melody and the rhythm. The sequences follow a logical order - ascending and descending, up to the 7th varisai. We learnt with her the first three patterns and sang them at different speeds. She had a playful way with the younger children (Lalit and Todi groups), when un...

Ramavatar ji, an avid cyclist and self-made naturalist, visited Shibumi last week. He hails from a farming family in Rajasthan. He conducts cycling trips for people who are interested in immersing themselves into the daily life of rural India. On these trips, people cycle around from place to place carrying a limited amount of resources, interacting with local communities, doing small jobs for them, in exchange for meals and stay. Over the years, Ramavatar ji, has also used jewellery making using seeds as a way of interacting with the communities. It was only natural then, to invite him to do a session in seed jewellery making as a way of fostering an interaction between him and the Bihags (the oldest group at school). The art of seed jewellery making, in its essence, is very simplistic, as are the tools used. An instinctive minimalist, Ramavtarji, is economical in his words and expressions, even while instructing a group on a new activity. In his introduction he made a pointed ref...