April 2024
My childhood was by the southern Indian coast, living in Chennai. We ran and walked the beach in the morning, played cricket in the beach in the evening. The sea that stretches forever was and continues to be part of life. So do the fishing community whom i have see from close as a kid. I learnt to row in the backwaters early on, though, I never did swim in the sea.
Holidays were spent watching the sea, any visitor invariably was taken to the sea. Have slept in the sands for nights after searching for Olive Ridley eggs through the night with the fantastic SSTCN group and cleaned and planted…
Baingan Swaraj, the book i wrote 14 yrs back has been taken up by a class of students (age 8 - 12) for reading and after completing they wanted to meet the author... It was an amazing interaction to sit and listen to them today and share some thoughts and answer many questions. What started off as a half hour interaction ended up with two hours and another 3 hours with the faculty later on.
Unlike adults who often are waiting to talk about themselves in an interaction, children are still curious, they listen, ask equations, think, ideate, and are playful and creative in their expressions…