A little film showcasing children's art work and preparation for our cultural event at Shibumi last year!

This is a little story we put together from our time outdoors each week, while discovering the wonders of nature and enjoying the changing weather.  The putting together of this story was an activity inspired by watching the children invent, create, express themselves,   play imaginative games, interact with each other and the surroundings on our walks.             The young authors and illustrators :)

Pelva has brought music with her to Shibumi. We are very happy to have the regular singing sessions with Pelva where she takes us through the nuances of Dhrupad.   In the beginning I tried to understand the music. I couldn’t do this because I wasn’t able to pick out the different sounds and see that they were unique. To me they sounded pretty much like each other. I then tried to feel the music but I am afraid I didn’t feel anything. I tried keeping the beat while singing but this made me loose the tune and words. I also tried to move my hands with the music but they moved in a very odd manner which did not resemble the music in any way. So as you can see I found it very difficult to connect with the music both at the level of the mind and at deeper level. I will not give up and I shall continue to try and cross these hurdles because singing is one skill I sincerely wish to have. ~ Sagar. (Mamm o th) This type of music (Indian Classical) is ge...

Here is a delightful story 10-year old Rajat wrote for a question in his English book, which asked him to write a science fiction story. A couple of tiny corrections in spelling and punctuation are the only changes I have made while typing it out. A Brief History of my Life When I first met the interplanetary explorer Edward Hardgriff, I thought he was pretty stupid: first, he was a big showoff, second he always won the prizes in our school (nothing wrong with that) and for that part in our college. The loudmouth and I shared rooms in an astronomy college. He was interested in the practical bit, I was interested in astronomy. A few years later, because of staying with him for so long, we became friends. Maybe it is because of something I don’t remember, but I don’t think so. After a while he followed his profession and I followed mine: he became an astronaut, and I became an astrophysicist and wrote a Ph.D. on quasars 1 . After I’d completely forgotten him I got a call from him...

We haven't posted much onto the blog for a long time now -- I will try and get down to sharing bits of news from the past few months now. Srikiran, a carnatic classical violinist, spent the day with us in August. He played a very moving little 'kriti' for us at assembly. Amidst the usual excited hubbub of the post-lunch break, the feeble strains of a melody emerged from a window. We followed it into the cool dimness of the library and found this (please excuse the dark video): Parvathy, the singer, is a fifteen-year old student at Shibumi. She has been singing and learning music seriously for years now. The musicians found each other after lunch and had an informal little 'jam' with a couple of us looking on, savouring every moment.

Are You My Mother? Adapted from P.D.Eastman's classic picture book The Silly Rabbit Adapted from the folk-tale Nikita anchored a one-week long workshop in shadow-puppetry at school this month, at the end of which we put up two little plays, both based on well-known stories. Two student groups of eight each (between 7 and 14 years old) worked towards one play each. Nikita briefly took us through the history of this art-form and showed us amazing examples of shadow-puppetry, before we began together to visualise the stories and make and choreograph the puppets. Behind the Scenes - From Nikita's blog