Part II

Venturing to New Frontiers

Under a huge tree in a regenerating forest

On the second day we went out up the Western Ghats to Agumbe and trekked to a wonderfully picturesque view point. The trek was short but gave a feel of the forest. Geetha madam had a field day in interpreting the local flora and their adaptations.

To begin the boys formed a separate team

Apart from the view point we had been to Jogi gundi falls en-route there was a brief encounter with leaches. As it had not sufficiently rained in the region the falls was not as picturesque as it would have been during the rainy season. The splash zone didn’t exist and all the rocks were bone dry to explain certain form flora and fauna. However there was a good representation of the ferns and other teridophytes.

 

The girls kept for themselves

The following day we set off to a village called Mala, situated just outside the Kudremukh National Park. Tucked in the thickly wooded slopes of the southern face of Kurinjaal Peak of the Kudremukh range are a cluster of houses very sparsely distributed that forms a village.

This obscure village is now almost devoid of proper dwellers in it. For the past two decades it had turned out to be a sort of old age home as the younger generations got educated and found lucrative jobs across the seas. 

Lessons in the valley of Ferns

When the aging parents felt it hard to continue on the farm they wanted to leave the place. Some sold of their properties and some of them have simply abandoned theirs. A group of artists from Udapi have purchased a couple of properties and restored the old and traditional houses on them. Having done so, over the past five years, they are working to convert the place into an Art Village. While restoring the old wooden houses is itself a herculean task, they have collected hundreds of priceless artifacts of the region. They range from utensils and household things to brass idols of gods and demons. Also they have conducted numerous art workshops involving tribal artists of the Bastar region from Madhya Pradesh and Chathisghad.

In the Dream village of Artist, Activist Purushotham Adave

When our convoy of thirty plus went into this dream village, there were thirty more children hailing from cities like Bangalore, Pune and Bombay attending a summer camp there. The beautiful house with its lush green surrounding typically resembled the house of any successful artist of Europe or France. The summer camp was theater based and   obviously noisy. Our timing was perfect for their tea break. For a minute nothing was in order. We found it hard to put our children together for any instruction. It had rained for half an hour yet the temperature and humidity was unbearable. We all sat in the large courtyard of the traditional tottimane.

The brainstorming about the concept of  Roots and nativity

Artist Purushotham Avade introduced his dream project and invited one of the elderly native to narrate the history of the place. We were offered with a glass of musk melon juice after which we had a quick guided tour round the art collection and the pavilion where artisans and artists were on their works.

Many children were upon a discussion about the next camp site for Manu Sir’s camp. Some naughty fellow must have dropped a grape wine. The wisdom of the native, the adventurous spirit of the youthful artist was nothing but a source of inspiration for every young mind. The children may not have perceived that fact in its totality but the greenery around is so soothing and simply inviting.

A tribal artisan demonstrating his skills

The small single teacher school would be shut in the forth coming academic year due to lack of students in it. While the teacher of this school hailing from the Northern district is happy to pack off this place but Purushotham and friends are seriously considering retaining the school for the services of the natives. The community here was originally Male Kudias and then the Marata Brahamins who came in a centaury and half ago settled here.In the sixties when India’s Development era began people from Tamil Nadu were drawn as laborers for various developmental works in the region.

An artist from Delhi upon his terracotta work.

The formation of Kudremukh National park and the restriction imposed upon the local community thereafter is also one of the major factors for the abandonment of the village. Those who would not resist will leave the place. But those who have no place to go would struggle to survive. Lack of amenities, harassment by the Naxal movement and more so by the Anti Naxal Police has put their peace in jeopardy.

Another edition of the Summer Nature Camp for Children at Seetanadi Herpeto Camp.

Part I

Acclimatization 

The river bank was the most accepted place for any discussion.......

Every May, for the past seven years we have been going out to the Western Ghats along with children to give them a prolonged exposure to Nature. Like most of the camp sites we choose, Seetanadi Herpeto Camp near Hebri is also cut off from the outside world, in spite of being on the main road. In the earlier years we simply stayed within the campsite and carried out hands on activities. Now, with the students coming back time and again we started to move about into different forest types and terrains during every camp. In less than a hundred kilometers you could be on a peak surrounded by lofty green mountains and also be on sandy beaches to experience the splash of the Arabian Sea. You could sit under a huge tree on the banks of a gushing stream or even roll down the grassy hills of the Shola forests.

Agamya was a favorite among everyone

There were twenty eight participants and four resource persons making the class ideal for out door activities. The fresher to regulars’ ratio was also ideal making the children even more safer. For us it was a challenge to keep them both engaged in a lively mode. There were about half a dozen kids bellow class five and the youngest was the notoriously calm and cool girl called Agamya aged six. She had boldly come across the table and stood aside where we had a discussion with her parents in a restaurant in Mysore. I was answering a gamut of basic questions about the camp to many parents. Her sister’s along with her friend’s participation was confirmed. As per our modality she was under aged by two years yet she was persistent to join in. Looking straight into my eyes she asked ‘can I also come to the camp?’ I pulled her closer to my mouth and whispered in her ears “Can you take care of your toilet issues?”  She yelled with a glee “Oh yes” with immense confidence. The parents must have been astonished about the million dollar question her daughter had answered to win through her entry to the camp. 

A frog the toilet seat

The teams from Mysore and Bangalore arrived in good shape and instantly fell in love with the camp site. Their only issue with the camp site was the presence of frogs in the toilets. Of course what else could you expect in a tropical rain forest? Nasty ants, colourful geckos, or even millipedes and scorpions; anything could be a game based on the season. In the first round of discussion among the resource persons after the Ice breaker and introductory session, we decided to orient the camp towards the creepy crawly things in these forests. After all our sole intention of the camp was to immerse the children in Nature and allow them to explore and enquire for themselves. We tried to focus more upon the lesser forms of these forests.

A regular customer in the folds of the tent

Among many routine activities based on leaf collection such as observing shapes and color, collage making out of leaves and twigs was a favorite among the children. There was drawing and many observation sessions which some took it seriously. While Adithi a tenth grader was a meticulous dairy writer many simply hated to put their pen upon notebook. Children get acquainted to the camp site very soon and never missed out any activity. They ate more and without fuss. They never minded skipping their personal time in order to be with the group and the leader. But for the most awaited audiovisual sessions in the evenings there was a serious set back. That afternoon on the very first day of the camp while the children sat drawing in the pergola there was a sudden thunder storm. The participants were put to sleep to avoid the wrath of scorching heat and humidity. In no time it transformed the entire ‘forest scape’.

One of the best activities to beat the tropical heat

The tall trees that stood dead still all day started swaying violently and the leaf litter went up in whirls creating a backdrop for a scene from a horror film. It rained and rained till darkness and there was no power for two days. We had to restore to story telling mode in the evenings. We intimately narrated about the canopy dwelling mammals of these forests.

Everybody likes a good Rain

The dark nights in the wet forests are an ideal situation for the frogs and insects. It gave us ample scope to pick up a frog and explain about them. The initial screenings at the touch of a slimy object gradually dampened with their familiarity to the subject. Some even collected nasty looking dung beetles. 

This year we tried out a new method to keep the parents informed on a timely basis about the where about of their children. An exclusive What’s ap group had been created for the parents and some well wishers. Geetha madam was entrusted with the extra duty of posting updates of events to the group.

The What's Ap broadcasting station

She did a marvelous job of handling the parents as well as the many odds on the ground. It rained right on the first two days and there was no power for both the days. Leave aside the Audio Visual sessions; there wasn’t any power to charge the mobile phones and the cameras. As ever, the mobile signal was too weak and she roamed around the campus and found a special niche on the riverbank from where she could get connected to the outside world. She had to take upon the oddest of queries from the parents. 

 " The beautiful world I have stepped into" -by Pawan

‘Why is there no sign of my son in any of the sixteen pictures?

Even before six in the morning a message shot her ‘Please wake up my daughter; she is missing out a wonderful session.’ 

“Why are you posting only the pictures of girls” and so on?

Occasionally she had to trundle back and forth to us aloud some of the messages. A few of the messages which she announced louder would embarrass certain participants.  The typical one was “Mrs. So and so asks Manu Sir not to let her son so and so to the water at any cost !”  

"My daughter has been bitten by a leach itseems please take her to a doctor in Manipal"

In such cases we were deliberately making the communication loud so that the children realize the ground realities in a camp site and the imaginary world their parents live. Also it is good for the children to know that  parents  often  express their love through fear.

-Pics and Text by Manu K

Student Industrial Visit to a Khadi Village

Students looking at the process of preparing the warp.....

Every educational institution will have its own ethics and wishful aspirations about how their students should come out like. Apart from trying to have the best of faculty for key subjects and inviting eminent guests for lectures some also scout for campus interviews. In order to get their ward a better placement, colleges plan for imparting various etiquette.  Management and commerce graduates are dressed in blazers and ties to get them acquainted with professional lifestyles. Witty games are administered to nurture their killing instincts as businessmen. In order to achieve sharper focus upon their respected fields, which if only measured in the marks scored, the very basics of life skills are sidelined.  In the wake of identifying sources of profits for the students the bases of very resources are not even introduced. Very few faculty of Economics and Management talk of Natural resources and their threshold limits while exploiting. Seldom students end up with a mind set that are built of very old and primitive data.

I have come across students from prestigious colleges who believe that our country has kept aside 33 to 60 percent of forest lands for the sake of wildlife in our country. It may not be mandatory to know the actual figures of such data for a commerce student but in a situation where we are not even left with four and a half percent of our land for wildlife, it would be a bad start of his carrier as a professional. Like wise many students don’t have the faintest idea about how many jobs in this country are provided by the government sector.

The Principal Mr. Manohara and his Minister

Some head of the institutions have given a serious thought at addressing such shortfalls in making responsible citizens of their students. They are thoroughly aware and worried about the diminishing value system among their students. They also agree that those values have no mention in their prescribed syllabus.  Yet very few clearly say that education is incomplete if it does not give you a sense of the world in which your learning has to be applied. Unfortunately such concerned managers and principals are bound by the economic intends of modern day education system. There is no denying that academic excellence depends on the quality of faculty and infrastructure of an institution, but it is often seen that those who graduate from high ranking colleges that focus only on academics, are some what unprepared to deal with the complexities of the social world.

Santosh Koulagi showing the yarn dyed in Natural Colours

The academic choices are shaped in many ways; for some it is circumstances and parental concern that limit what they do. Youngsters who have reading habits and have a chance to see the world and talk to teachers have a fair chance of opting what they aspire. By the time of finishing high school many will have formulated about their carrier options even though they have no clue about how to go about it. But it is useful to take a break and see the world beyond the school walls and decide not only about what course to perceive but where to perceive it. The space one spends in his formative years is as important as the content he learns in the same period. The context of learning is equally important as the content, and, as most people agree that the space of learning (and unlearning) often has more of an impact upon the student than the curriculum itself.

 

Some Group dynamics in the evening

Knowing these factors Prof. Manohar, Principal of Nagarjuna College of Arts, Commerce and Mangement in rural Bangalore strongly believe that between the college and the workplace should be the time for exploration and experimentation.

 Team building games for the development of rapo.....

The student in their formative years would have an opportunity to see the vast realities of the society and learn to think for themselves. He chose to pitch in a collaborative program with Janapada Seva Trust at Melkote and expose the young minds to the philosophy of Khadi. About a dozen batches of forty students came in on a monthly basis during the last academic year. Each batch stayed for three days and was exposed to the process of Kadhi industry. From fiber to fabric it was all hands on. Raw cotton yarn comes in and finished garment leave for sales. There were just about two about two dozen laborers, not considered as especially skilled worked in the unit. Apart from weaving there was a demo on dyeing with natural colors.

A bit of Rock Climbing to build endurance and self confidence

Initially there was a protest by a few students who refused to accept that this was an industrial visit of any sort for commerce and Management students. Nevertheless a few students who were impressed by the sessions about sustainable lifestyles and conservation issues turned the table for the management of the college. They influenced many students by sharing their good experiences from their camp. A few students even came along for the camp for the second time with other batches. After the first two batches the students were at t accompanied by any senior lecturers indicating that the program was well received by the student community.

Mr. U N Ravikumar explaining his Water saving device

Back home at Janapada Seva Trust it was time to experiment with the topics dealt in each batch and the resource persons. Santosh Koulagi, U N Ravi kumar, Sumanas Koulagi and Manu K handled various indoor and outdoor sessions. K P Suresh and Wildlife photographer Mahesha joined in to address a few batches. 

Apart from the lecture-demonstration and audio visual sessions the students were involved in physical work of one sort or the other. 

Every hard Work needs a good relaxation

A typical group

They had an option of watering the saplings in ‘Nene bana’ a dream garden of the Koulagis or to work in the Khadi unit. Some even took up cleaning the campus or assisting the kitchen. Such activities have no text books but encourage students to think and learn for themselves and are absolutely essential in the days of confusion with regards to societal dynamics involving nature, culture and its politics.

Jamanlal Bajaj Awardee Surendra Koulagi expresses happiness on seeing the youth in the campus.

-Manu K