How I Fall in Love with Children and Nature - Part Two

Thank you for still sticking on to my blog and being curious to know more about my journey. Don't worry, I won't let you down, and will make sure that it's worth your time, because you see, when you give me your time, you give a part of your life to me, and I respect that!

Before I get into the details of my journey, want to see how we used to work in the 'Selco Labs' office back then?

Yup! On the floor, not that we didn't have money to buy tables and chairs, we just loved being ourselves; not being driven by the norms and structure of a 'typical' office. To me, it symbolized free thinking, and not being bound by certain set of standards, freedom to be myself.

Resuming my journey, in October, I had new bunch of colleagues and interns at Selco labs. We were more like a hiking group than a team 'supposedly' working on projects at Selco Labs. (I hope you didn't fall for that, I was exaggerating a little.)

Mid October, we went the famous 'Doodhsagar Falls' on the lap of Western Ghats, flowing elegantly on the border between Goa and Karnataka.

View of the Doodhsagar Falls from a distance

The sight of this huge majestic falls took my breath away. I was so happy when we reached the falls and just stood there admiring the beauty of the mother nature in its purest form. But soon, I was disheartened to see people throwing garbage everywhere, and there was a humungous amount of plastic waste all over the place - chip packets, biscuit packets, plastic plates and cups, and what not; name it and I am sure you will find it there. I felt disgusting for being a human being that time, to be among the species that have not bothered to take care of the nature and in fact have no gratitude to keep the nature serene when she offers so much to us!

A monkey trying to drink the curry from the plastic cover

After coming back from the trip I realized I have to do something about this and to me, education was the way I could contribute to the human race. 

Meanwhile, I was also working on another project where I had to visit schools in remote areas and had to analyze whether the school satisfied few criteria before the installation of the solar lights or solar powered digital equipments at the school. So, I along with my colleague visited a school in Yalaneer Ghat, that is 30Km from Ujire. We had to trek up 10 Km, and it was so beautiful but scary at the same time, because it was an elephant corridor!

Massive, shiny spider that we spotted on the way up.

The thick forest through which we made our way to the school

Serene, beautiful stream we had to cross

Paddy and areca fields on top of the mountain

School on the top of the mountain where we finally managed to reach

I found out from local people why it is called Yalaneer Ghat. 'Yalaneer' in kannada is 'tender coconut'. So, I had assumed that it was probably because this place has a lot of coconut trees. But to my surprise I found a very few coconut trees there. So, why then 'Yalaneer Ghat'? Their explanation is really interesting and something I never imagined. They told me that the water that you get from the stream here is as pure and refreshing as the water you get when you open a tender coconut!

The school had hardly 15 students (from 1st grade till 7th grade), since it was very remote! But one thing I took away from this trek was the deep respect that had sprouted in me for the people who live in harmony with nature.

During the second weekend of November 2013, we trekked from Mullayanagiri to Babu Budanagiri. We trekked Mullayanagiri in the night and my first ever night trek. It was really cold, but nature with thousands of stars and an open grassland is a beauty that just has to be experienced firsthand.

A mind blowing view from the open grasslands of the Western Ghats

Again, it goes without saying that I was mesmerized by the heavenliness of the Western Ghats, and by now I wanted more of it!   

And God has been kind to me. Soon after two weeks of this trek I find myself doing the Kumara Parvatha. Western Ghats never fail to amaze me. Just look at the pictures below, and you would just stop reading, and keep staring at them!

The incredible views, and a stunning weather made me go absolutely crazy 

As far as the 'Invention Education' was concerned, Ashwathi, Trisha and I was making sure we develop the content in the right way. We had to make sure, the activities were hands-on, made sense to the children (within their capacities to understand), it had the right flow (continuity), had relevance to their life and most of all achieve the learning objectives by executing the experiments in a team work. And along side, we also made sure children had activities that helped them explore their surrounds through observation, and interview/chat with the elders in the family/village. For example, we had activities on water where the children had to collect samples from different sources of water in the village, survey the use of water at home, and analyse the data to find the usage of water in the village.

Mid December, we went to hike the 'Ettina Bhuja' peak. The spectacular beauty of the nature would always awe me and I just thanked God for making this nature so beautiful, and giving me this wonderful opportunity to cherish it, feel it, appreciate its vastness and diversity!

Now, do I really have to say something! I know you are already captivated by the greenery around

While trekking was so much fun, my cycling trips also got funny with my cycling and hiking buddy, back then in Ujire.

This is one of the beautiful sights we saw during cycling trips in and around Ujire, early in the morning

Give me my bike and the beautiful nature, and I am just so happy!

Before I knew, the new year 2014 was already there and I was having super fun at SELCO working on the 'Invention Education', and also biking and hiking. Living with Trisha, who did her project work on the effect of plantations on frogs, and listening to her talk about frog calls, crickets and cicadas made me think about these tiny creatures that are so much important to the eco-system. Again I go 'tannnnn'. You see she rang the bell and I was like ' Oh God, why didn't I think about it before!'

In January, we went to 'Kodaikalu' and ' Bale Gudda' in Charmadi Ghat.This time we decided to take the solar cooker that we had built at Selco Labs. This was a 'Fun-panel' solar cooker, very easy to make. I strongly recommend trying it yourself if you want to improve your geometry and design skills, and also have some fun experimenting new types of dishes on the solar cooker at home. Click here for the instructions.

Western Ghats, I am so much in love with you!

The solar cooker in which we cooked on the peak Bale Gudda

By the end of January, on the Republic Day, we decided to celebrate the nature by hiking 'Ombattu Gudda'.

Greenery all around me!

Well, I have been talking a lot about Western Ghats, and nature in and around Dhakshina Kannada district. I have certainly no doubt about that fact that you have enjoyed it. So, what do you think about the northern parts of Karnataka- the landscape, the people, and the nature there?

Through 'Invention Education', we also worked with 5 schools in Yadgir district. This gave me the opportunity to experience Yadgir - the community there, the children, the farmers, and the healthy, and tasty food. And yes, I have more amazing stories in store for you from here.

Well the first thing that caught my attention in Yadgir was the flat terrain, and I was really tempted to believe the old theory that earth is flat. Haha :D. Everything was different from Dhakshinna Kannada (DK). The trees - there were so many 'neem' trees in Yadgir, while in DK we hardly find neem trees. The crops they grew were so different. They grew cotton, groundnut, different pulses and corn depending on the season. The soil was black and the texture of the ground was so different, the water tasted different, and people were dressed in bright colors and decorated their vehicles with bright colors that felt like it was a festivity all around me. The houses were structured different and built with locally available stones.

The houses in and around the village Balichakra in Yadgir

Me and Ashwthi stayed with the community for a day to gain deeper insights on the local life here. We were doing this because we had to integrate the knowledge about the local community to the hands-on science experiments syllabus that we were formulating for the 'Invention Education' project.

Mid - January was the first time we tested one of the activities in our module for the first time with the 5th standard students in GHPS, Kukkavu. It was during the testing time, we saw how much in detail we have to think about the way we represent knowledge or instructions to the children. The instructions need to be precise, coherent (exactly in the order the facilitator wants the experiment to go), and easy to read. We realized we had to pay attention to details, the way we represented the knowledge and also how important the role of the facilitator is to these children and ultimately to their learning. But once again, as we noticed before, the children loved the hands-on activity and we knew we were sailing in the right direction, but just that we needed to equip ourselves to sail smoother. 

Mid February it was time to test our content again with GHPS Thottathadi and Killoor schools, schools in and around Ujire.

Children in GHPS Killoor working on hands-on activity during the 'test period' of the content.

Mid March we tried our content with 7th grade students at GHPS, Ashnal in Yadgir. Here we had a different experience, we found that children took longer time and found it harder to comprehend the same content that we had tested with the students of GHPS Thottathadi and Killoor.

GHPS, Ashnal in Yadgir

Children doing the hands-on activity during the 'test period' of the content.

Yadgir, as I came to know, translates to 'Yadava's giri - the fort of the King Yadavas'. So, me and Ashwathi decided to climb this hill from where we were promised of a good view.

The broken remains of Yadava's Giri

The view of the nearby small hills and massive farmlands in and around Yadgir

Slowly, I realized how diverse is the terrain in Karnataka and how close I felt with nature. Apart from that, each place having its own staple food made so much sense because that was grown locally there. While DK always had food that was based on rice, coconut, jackfruit, and breadfruit; Yadgir had food that was based on corn, pulses and groundnut. If you are in Yadgir, eat at Sugureshwara in the town, just by the railway station. The food is so authentic and super tasty. And if you are in Ujire, well try out 'Neer dosa' at Vrindavan opposite to SDM college. But I was lucky enough to be with the loving local people at both the places in Ujire and Yadgir, that I had the chance to eat their food in their houses. Also, the locally available materials and food was one of the modules in the 'Invention Education' and setting up the curriculum for children implied that we experience it, understand it and question ourselves and also take efforts to seek the answers. I was totally enjoying setting up the curriculum because there were so many questions which never occurred to me during my school days. Ashwathi and me would discuss so many questions on the way walking to the school, in the jeep, in the train, and in the bus. We just loved asking questions and finding answers you see! But somewhere I now realize that it was the thrill of exploring the different possibilities for answers from many perspectives that kept it interesting because in schools, the right answer was always one option, but here we discussed so many possibilities!

Mid-March, we planned a cycling trip to Charmadi Ghat, which was a dream that we both shared. It was one of the toughest, for me at least, but it was such an amazing idea because, while cycling you notice the huge tress, and every little detail of the place than while going in a car or a bus. Also, back then Charmadi Ghat did not have a huge incoming traffic and it was peaceful to cycle up there! 

Spot this huge tree on the left when you climb Charmadi Ghat. If you travel here, make sure you say 'hi' to this stunningly tall, huge, old and wise tree!

Mountain, mountain everywhere!

By the end of the trip, I had discovered a new part of me, a stronger me - physically and mentally, and I loved myself even more!

One more interesting thing in the nature that I saw in Ujire was Bamboo rice! Hmm. At first when Sanjith, branch manager at Selco branch, Belthangady, showed me the bamboo rice on our way back from a school, I was perplexed. I had never seen bamboo rice before in my life. And there was this grandma who was collecting the rice under the tree and I just stood there being stunned by nature again! I borrowed some from her and she gave it to me with a big smile! I still have that with me at home.

Grandma collecting the bamboo rice

Are you curious to know how the immediate surrounding in the house where I lived, looked like? Here is a glimpse of my daily wonder!

My daily morning sight from my little adobe

A little further, my tiny forest that always welcomed me with loving arms

Oh Yeah!This is right beside where I lived

I appreciated every bit of the nature around me, I was lucky, very lucky to be on the nature's lap, right beside her, so close, and so happily, peacefully and madly in love with her!

I thought I could narrate all my experiences in this post, but as you know, nature is huge and diverse, I can't justify bringing her wonders in just two posts.

So, walk with me to the next post to uncover more.

How I Fall in Love with Children and Nature - Part One

When I expressed my interest to take up the job of teaching experiential science to students, little did I know Anand would let me take it up. He has seen me as an intern for three months at Selco Labs. He certainly knew I was not passionate about software and as I told you, the code we developed crashed his laptop at times as well ;) So I never thought he would trust me on this.

I took a one month break to spend time with family. Mean while, I did some online research on 'experiential science learning'. Learnt about Kolbe's cycle of experiential learning and also made a small write up on why it is necessary to do hands-on activities, especially for young children. I realized that students at college are not so hands-on because they were accustomed to the didactic way of learning. Moreover, it will be harder to influence them when they are an adult. Hence introducing hands-on science activities for young children between 11 to 13 year old made sense.

On June 25, 2012 I joined Selco Labs as Community Solutions Engineer. Well, Anand let me choose the title myself and this is what I came up with :) And this title indeed intrigued everyone and also many engineers who joined later at Selco Foundation took up this title ;) (I am not kidding, just google 'Community Solutions Engineer' and you will see it yourself).

I worked with 7th grade students of Government Higher Primary School (GHPS), Kukkavu, the same school where we had taught the basics of computer during our internship. I started going to the school on the first week of July and I had designed a few activities based on my interaction with Anand, and some online research. The curriculum was developed very organically and the first activity I conducted was origami. (Please click here to read through my blog on the first ever session with my students).

The beautiful school, Government Higher Primary School, Kukkavu 

Children having fun, doing their favorite thing: playing in the ground. These mountains, the WESTERN GHATS, they look so majestic. Standing in the school veranda, I always starred at them with awe, longing to climb them one day and have a look at this beautiful village from the mountain top.

The cute little staff room where I used to meet the teachers. They were really sweet and though I looked like a kid myself they always treated me with lot of respect.

Second session: How to make simple DC motor

After a month at GHPS, Kukkavu, I started noticing how children waited for me every Wednesday.

Bus stop opposite to the school

GHPS, Kukkavu

As you can see in the pictures above, the classroom allotted for the 7th grade students was the pink colored RCC building, right next to the road, opposite to the bus stand. All the children knew that I would take the particular bus which arrived at around 11.45am to Kukkavu. As soon as I got down, I used to hear children screaming out 'Yeahhh!! Deepti madam has come!' And they would run outside their classroom, stand in the veranda and scream out 'Namaste Madam!'. They did that every class, every Wednesday. I felt so lucky that children are happy that I have come and for me it was a sign that 'We love you, and we love it when you are around us!'

During August I conducted brainstorming activities for children to think and discuss about the issues in the village/school/home that bother them and solutions to these issues. These sessions, where children sat down on the dusty floor in teams so enthusiastically, made me realize that sometimes we get too caught up by the structure of the classrooms and status, that children hardly sit down on the floor in groups. Actually, sitting down in circles helps them interact with the whole team and it is a change that children love to have, something that breaks the monotony of the type of 'class' they are so used to.

                   One of the brainstorming sessions - Students discussing the issues in their village.

By the mid September, I had become really good friends with the children, and I went along with them one fine Saturday afternoon, to their homes in the village. I never thought that the moments I spent with them would become one of the best times I ever spent with my children.

The beautiful stream along the village where the children took me

Oh yeah! We love playing by the stream.

Spot me!

During November, I got the opportunity to do a two day workshop with the students of Kalkeri Sangeeta Vidyalaya (KSV) on sustainability and renewable energy, as the solar installations by SELCO proceeded in the school (please click here to read in detail, about my experience at the school during the workshop). Barbara, the school manager and English teacher sat through my entire workshop and in the end of the workshop she told me that I was really good with the kids, and that children didn't get bored at all. I had been taking classes for students at GHPS, Kukkavu, but never really got feedback from a teacher or somebody closely working with children on a daily basis. Her feedback really got me excited, doubled my confidence and it was like a signboard that gave me direction to move ahead in this path. The second day, during my dinner the children told me,'Akka, please do not go' and they surrounded Barbara telling her, 'Ask akka not to go.' As I left KSV, I realized, if children seem to benefit with my teaching, then I should do it more, work harder towards giving them my best, and more than that, bring out the best in them.

After returning from the workshop, I came back to students at GHPS Kukkavu with a new found confidence and lots of love. Being with students was not just about facilitating these sessions, it was also about taking them in the right direction and give them morals that they can hold on to. I used to give a big chocolate every week to the team that performed well in terms of team work, and efforts taken during the execution of the work given, and I made sure they shared the chocolates with the whole team which conveyed to them, ' We sow seeds together and reap them together and share them.' There was this one particular class where I had given them a week's time to perform an activity. But the children did not complete it because they had forgotten about it, and that day happened to be the day I got a big chocolate bar to be shared to the entire class. I showed them the chocolate and they were really excited, but I held it in my hands and told them, 'Why do you think I will give the chocolate to you today? I had always given it as an appreciation for your efforts. I won't give the chocolate to you today.' I slowly put it in and said, 'Similarly in life you cannot expect to get rewards without putting in sincere efforts. The day you do the work, I will give the same chocolate to you.' The whole class was silent. This was the first time, the entire class had ever been silent. It was a sign that they were probably reflecting on what they listened to. The following week, they finished the work assigned to them, and the entire class shared the chocolate. But the most beautiful part was children giving me a piece of chocolate from their share. A chocolate never tasted so good :)

Our bond just grew thicker every week and one day during mid December I find a student who had written my name on her hand, with the 'Mehndi'. She was really excited to show her hand to me when I arrived, and when I saw, I was awe struck. I never thought children would ever love me so much. I was really happy, and felt contented. That day when I went back home, I realized being their 'Deepti madam' was the most precious thing in my life, and thanked God for giving me this opportunity to be with the children.

I always thought, 'What more do I want, being loved by your students is such a beautiful feeling'. Every Wednesday, before I entered the class they would make beautiful drawings on the board (usually a rose) and write 'WELCOME DEEPTI MADAM'. I would go crazy just looking at the board because I felt so loved and as a teacher or a facilitator I felt might be I am doing okay with the children since they shower me with so much love. If I wouldn't go on a Wednesday because of any travel related to work, the week after, the children would lovingly ask,'Why madam, you didn't come last week. You know we kept waiting for you!', I would blush and smile, deep within me thanking God for the love that these children shower on me.

On 9th February, the last day of my class for the academic year 2012-2013, they bid me farewell, that almost looked like a huge festivity. I was really impressed to see various programmes organized by the children to disseminate the knowledge they gained throughout the year. They also cuddled me, hugged me and gave me lots of presents with lots of love. 

After an year at school, I understood how beautiful the relationship between a child and teacher can be, how much happiness it can bring to both by cherishing, and valuing each other. Reflecting back on the year I spent with children at Kukkavu, KSV, and feedback from children, and wonderful people like Barbara, and Adam, I knew I had fallen in love with schools and children, and I wanted more of this than anything I was doing at work.

The story of how I fall in love with nature is as exciting as the story of falling in love with the children. In 2012, we went to a nearby waterfalls called 'Ermi Falls' which totally blew me away with its beauty, visited 'Bisle Ghat' during the rainy season and bathed in the waterfalls, travelled on top of the jeep for some distance, and trekked to 'Gadiakal/Jamlabad Fort' - a nearby Fort on a hill. Looking at the whole of Belthangady from Gadaikal made me fall in love with the greenery around, the majestic Kudremukh ranges and the entire area around Belthangady that was filled with lush green forests.

Ermi Falls in Ujire

The beautiful Bisle Ghat (Picture Courtesy: Anantha Murthy)

View of Belthangady from Gadaikal (Picture Courtesy: Graeme English)

Soon, I fall in love with wonderful creatures in and around me. The colourful butterflies, moths, bugs and healthy, beautiful cows; everything just caught my attention and made me fall in love with the nature around me.

By the end of 2012, I bought a second hand mountain bike: this is one of the best things I ever did for myself. I went into the woods, into the fields with my bike every morning. I enjoyed sitting near the fields and enjoying the sunrise, watching the birds, the paddy fields dance to the wind, the curious and humble grandmas who would walk to work and would gave a stare or sometimes a smile to a girl who had randomly decided to sit besides the fields.

During May, we had a team meeting at Anand's farmhouse, which is one of the most memorable meetings ever, because, we were so relaxed, yet made productive discussions. We also did a trek to Ermi Falls from his house, which was amazing :)

The team meeting at Anand's farm house

Trek to Ermi Falls

During May, we had also got an invitation from Lemelson Foundation to submit proposals for funding any ideas from the existing grantees who come up with inventive and innovative ways to demonstrate the power of invention. Based on my experience of working with the school children and also considering the feedback given by the school children, they did enjoy the hands-on activities. So, Anand and me came up with the idea of using hands-on activities at school to increase the level of innovation and ultimately help children solve the issues in the community through innovation. Lemelson Foundation approved our idea and by October we had already started working on the content along with Ashwathi and Trisha onboard on this cool programme that goes by the name 'Invention Education'.

Meanwhile, we also procured renewable energy toolkit from 'Horizon' and tried it with 8th grade students in Government High School(GHS), Diduppe and with 7th grade students in GHPS, Kukkavu.

Children from GHS, Diduppe making solar mixer using the small solar panels, a plastic jar and a blade

 Going to GHS Diduppe was exciting, we had to climb little bit to get there but once we reached there the view from the school of the Ghats around took my breath away.

GHS Diduppe

Greenery around the school

View of the Ghats from the school

 I really wished I was a teacher working in that school because I would just get lost looking at the view around me for the rest of my life!

This is just a bit of the beautiful journey, walk with me to the next post and you will uncover more!! :D