When news that the olive ridley turtles had started to nest in the beaches of Chennai reached us, at the beginning of last week, we quickly put together a plan for our visit. Tickets were booked and calls were made to our friends at The School for a place to rest, Tholkappia Poonga for a visit and to our friends at SSTCN (Chennai Students’ Sea Turtle Conservation Network) for the overnight walk to watch the nesting. We set off on a Friday morning reaching Chennai by noon. After a quick lunch, we visited the Tholkappia Poonga. Tholkappia Poonga is an ecological park in the Adyar estuary area. It is an amazing example of restoration of freshwater eco-systems in the heart of a city! We were introduced to the history, the restoration process and the flora and fauna found in the park by Mrs.Gomati. Her energy, passion for ecological restoration, and determination to carry forward the good work shone through in her interactions with us. We recommend it as a must see place for people vi...

We were away in the forest of Angadibail for ten days with our youngest group of children. Fourteen young minds between the ages of 5 and 9 were off on this little adventure together . We reached Angadibail. It was a forest. There were farms surrounding this area. There was a stream nearby. It was soooooooooo amazing. In the forest we saw Malabar giant squirrel, Panther poo, languor and many birds. Do you know that langoors kill the Malabar giant squirrel and just leave them there?  At  night it was dark, little fire flys would come out and there would be a little sparkling glow in the trees. We could see many stars at night without the city  light and noise. In the morning the forest was full of chirping sounds. It was beautiful to live there. - Vibha (9) We were greeted in the forest by Savita's amazing team. Ishwar Anna, who is full of the most amazing forest stories. Kafeel , who was our guardian angel. Baby akka, who ...

The beginning of this academic year has been wonderful for us all. Interactions with our new campus have begun.  The Ketaki and Tulsi groups (our littlest ones) have been spending three mornings a week at the 'new land'. It was wonderful to watch and learn with the children. Being outdoors, participating in the construction process, mingling with the civil workers, cleaning the land, tractor rides, quiet observation activities, cooking and nature walks have all added a wonderful flavour to the learning for the last two months.  This frequent contact with nature has brought about sensitivity which is not measurable. It also naturally created lots space in our rhythm to be alone and quiet.   Helping with the brick making. Activity Time for all. The games field is almost ready :) Discovering some natural colours Half an hour of Shibumi care at the New Land. Walks on a hillock close to the New land During Quiet Observation,...

The pond at Shibumi has held everyone's attention ever since it was built. It was a project taken up by some 12-13 year old children who worked at it with much enthusiasm.  It took some time and a mason's help to finish the structure, and then it was time to fill it.It wasn't very easy to get it filled up and keep it that way as it was the peak of the dry season, and there were doubts that the pond was leaking.  Questions about, weather to keep it filled, what plants to put in, whether to put in fish or not and weather a re-plastering was needed, were heating up. Well, all this kept happening and one evening the pond was filled. Some fish were put in and from one of the walks the children brought a lily plant. The fish thrived but the lily was struggling. Soon there was no sign of the lily plant. It wasn't there anymore. Mostly, after this, the pond has been alone, except for getting filled up occasionally during the dry season. We were all, of course, con...

This was a beautiful sight , that the entire Shibumi family witnessed after our evening quiet time. T wo snakes coiled around each other in a seemingly affectionate dance. This tussle we thought was a mating dance, when Sanjay (our snake enthusiast –age 17), shared with us that all is not as it seems!  He shared with us that the rat snakes are actually two male snakes   who are fighting for dominance, to defend their territory and then go on to mate with the female. Not knowing what was happening, it was still beautiful to watch the two snakes perform the 'dance’ by wrapping around each other. When I watched this later while sharing it with some friends, I was struck by how 40 of us were watching this in such silence!