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...

Over the past few months the words ‘Geodesic Dome’ have gone around Shibumi quite a lot. It’s unlikely there’s anyone who hasn’t heard the words. And in recent times we have had a strange structure sitting outside Bijitsu. Often you would find some of the youngest children climbing and playing on it. But what is a geodesic dome? And why has it become so popular at Shibumi? The Reporters club at Shibumi got together the group of students working on it to answer their questions... Who all are involved in this project?   Geodesic Group (GG):  Srishti, Asba, Gautam, Varun, Yashwant, Das and Kumaran uncle.   How did you get started on it?   GG: We had a choice between puzzles, triangulation and the geodesic dome. We chose this one because it was more hands-on.   What is a geodesic dome?   GG: A geodesic dome is any dome made only out of straight lines. (on the dome surface) The Geodesic Dome is the strongest structure for any curved surfa...

This summer term different clubs were formed by the teachers and children of the three younger groups (Tulsi, Ketaki and Palash). The clubs then came together three times a week for the whole of the term.   Here are some snippets from all the fun and learning.   Stitching club The stitching group was a delightful threesome, Mahiti ,Vibha and I; joined in the last few sessions by Nikhit. They came, all excited about using the sewing machine; but after the first two sessions of exploration decided on projects  and determinedly dived into cross stitch embroidery. While finishing the pattern seemed to take "forever" they soldiered on, enjoying creating patterns with colours. Finally on the last day the zip pouch and little sling bag were machine stitched. And Nikith had a decorated elastic hairband to create his ‘puff’. - Roopa Toys from Trash club The group (Dia, Dhatri and I) came together to make simple toys with junk materials suc...

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...

Some of us spent Holi at National Gallery of Modern Art yesterday. We had gone to see the exhibition by Balan Nambiar. The exhibition had drawings in Indian ink, charcoal, pastels and paintings in watercolour and oils. On display were also his indoor and outdoor sculptures in bronze, mild steel and stainless steel. Being welcomed by the magnificent trees at NGMA, one was immediately touched by to a sense of quiet and beauty. Everything seemed like 'art' in this atmosphere. Enthusiastically we wandered into the large mansion that housed the works of Balan Nambiar. The works created a pause and questions. A game started between the children to see how quickly they could find his name on the work. Then there was also reading the little label to his work and placing it in the timeline that makes most sense to them.  'He did this before I was born!' 'I was 1 year old when he made this' 'Hey! I was born when he made this!' 'My mothe...

At the beginning of the academic year, a group of the older children were  introduced to Little Women, a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott published in 1880. The novel follows the lives of four sisters and is loosely based on the author’s childhood experiences with her three sisters. This exposure began a discussion of different narrative arcs that the story could have taken and from there emerged the idea of a modern interpretation. The children decided to adapt the interpretation as a play. Over the next six months, this creative writing project went through cycles of drafting, revising and editing. During this process, the question of how to present it emerged and the children settled on filming the play. The script went through editing again to allow for it filming as episodes. The first episode is now ready for viewing.  From learning about the historical context of the novel setting through the study of the Civil War, to converting the book into a play wit...