என் நினைவில் நெல்லிவாசலும் குக்கூவும் - Nellivasal and Cuckoo in my Memory

Reaching Nellivasal

Nellivasal is a remote village on the Javadu hills, lying on the Eastern Ghats, 50 km from Tirupattur. From the taluk headquarters Tirupattur, Mattrampalli is 20 odd kilometer on the state highway to the temple town Tiruvannamalai. A small village road bifurcates from Mattrampalli and becomes a Ghat road climbing on a portion of Javadu hills, entering through the forest check post. After a few hair-pin bends, stretches of good and not so good pieces of tarred roads dotted by some potholes, not so dense hill and valley alternating on both sides, there was a mobile transceiver tower on a hill top and a small hut in the valley. That was an indication that a human habitation is approaching. In a short while, there was a village – Pudur Nadu, which seems to be the hub to the nearby small villages, where the road deviates to the right towards Nellivasal. The village, less than about 20 km from here would take more than an hour’s drive if you are not on a truck, bus or an SUV. The road is narrow, at times bad, at times worse and worst. After a lot of bifurcations to other villages, which should not be mistaken, the actual diversion comes after a 1 km stretch of metaled road. But each village and their diversion is easily identifiable, not by any particular direction boards, but by the board kept for some “grameen yojna”. Irrespective of these projects’ actual success, they at least serve to show direction for new travellers like us. The drive is manageable until another vehicle comes across, as it happened with us when a bus and our car had to navigate this narrow road.

Forest High School

Anyone entering Nellivasal village would be welcomed by the high school run by the forest department. The road forms a ‘V’ with the school in between the two arms. The road towards the left goes further down to the Nellivasal village, while the one on the right bends further right and ends at an old forest rest house. There is one entrance to the school on either road. The one on the rest house side can be regarded as the back entrance, as it has the kitchen for mid-day meal preparation and the hostel. The backyard has a fenced garden with different plants. At the entrance of this student’s garden hangs an artistic board, matching the ambience which names it ‘Thenkoodu siruvar Thottakalai’. There is a big ‘Pungai Maram’ (Not sure of the English name. Botanical name is pongamia Glabra) and some eucalyptus trees between the road and the school, under whose shadow children gather for various activities. Adjacent to these trees are some quarters for school staffs like the cook and hostel warden. The road from the school to the rest house to some distance is bordered by eucalyptus trees, and some agricultural fields. This season seems to be good for ‘Thuvarai’ (Toor, Pigeon peas), which occupied most fields around. Further ahead in the road were two small houses which were used as quarters by school staff and forest guards. In front of these quarters was an open space shadowed by tall trees like teak whose branches were pruned properly and some wide trees like tamarind. The trees did not allow the sunlight to enter this area forming a closed Amphitheatre. Adjacent to the quarters, was a big open area, with enough grass to play, with some scattered placement of eucalyptus and tamarind trees at the border. The road continues further to turn right and enter the front-yard of the old, British built, forest guest house. The marking on the wall reads “1934”, which I correlate to the year when it was constructed. This shows the presence of British at that time, in the currently remote village. Later I came to know, that these hills were hugely populated with sandalwood trees, which highlighted the range for its fragrance and commercial value. I think lot has been learnt from those periods, that this range is currently occupied only by the tribes. No outsider can supposedly buy property here. Thanks to the written or unwritten rule – the ecology and environment is not spoiled, no estates and plantations, only small scale agriculture.

On entering the school through the back entrance, it opens into a ground, one side of which is single storeyed building that houses the class rooms, staff rooms and the library, other side had some plants and trees, a small toilet with an overhead tank, other side had the kitchen. Fourth side was narrow, having only a few trees, as the ground was triangulated. There was a small rock at the center of the ground, which always invited me to sit, but I kept avoiding it as if I was busy. But the invitation was accepted on the last day when everybody sat on it for a photo-shoot. The pillars on the corridor of the school, had beautiful colored drawings of birds made by children, which were almost in the verge of dying out. Complementing these drawings, on the corridor wall, there was a large painting depicting ancient nomads and start of civilization inside a large elephant. It is more than what I can describe here – A picture is worth a thousand words. It was painted by a famous artist who visited last year.

The school overlooks the valley with agricultural lands and a stream. From the first floor of the school building most parts of the surrounding village, the cultivated lands, the forests and the nearby hills were clearly visible, as the school was located on one of the high points of the hill.

This village and this village school was where the stage was set for unusual, non-routine, eventful and fruitful 2 days in my memory, which are leaked through this blog post. The onus of organizing these events go to “Cuckoo Kuzhandaigal Veli (குக்கூ  குழந்தைகள்  வெளி)”. Cuckoo had organized a camp for children in this village and a nearby village called Thagarapallam, for 10 days. We were part of the camp for 2 days as spectators.

Visitor’s Entry

Manikandan and I had reached the school at 10:30 AM and parked the car at the backyard. Though the dust on the car would mistake the onlooker that we had completed one leg of a rally, we had just driven 6 hours from Bangalore. When we reached, some 70 children were sitting in the shades of the trees awaiting some activity. There were a lot of people around – school staffs and volunteers. Though many of them seemed to have recognized us, the only person I could recognize was Sivaraj, who came with a smile and his usual humble leaning posture. We had met Sivaraj exactly a year back on Feb 20^th, 2010 at Tirupattur, when both of us had visited Nanthakumar. Hinting this I gave him the feeling of being acquainted earlier. After inviting, when Sivaraj had involved in the activities, few school staffs and Azhageswari asked whether we have had our breakfast. Some school staffs insisted that they would give us chairs to sit, which we had to forcefully reject. This pampering of the school staffs continued till we leave. At times I had to take help of Sivaraj to ask them treat us in a normal way.

Sindanai Paadal

Just then, Sivaraj entered into the concentric circles formed by children and introduced Vaiyampatti Muthusamy Aiya. He is an aged man, eldest among all the volunteers. He started singing a song, which became the listener’s choice in the 2 days – “Kathirikaaikku Kudai pidikka…”. Children repeated the sentence after he completed each line. Sivaraj was motivating with claps, while Senthamizh Selvan was preparing his instruments. On the other side, below the eucalyptus tree was a man with a long mane, covered with his cap, sitting on a stone, becoming a seat for a child, enjoying the song, whom I later got introduced as Nandu. The music or the rhythm or the energy was not the significance of the song, but the words and their meaning and the last punch. I was so impressed by Aiya, as he continued singing some 50 lines, with nothing to refer. My surprise was surpassed later, when I came to know more about him. Though I wanted to capture the song in my scribbling pad, it was impossible with my ability to write Tamizh.

Later the day, after lunch, we created an opportunity to talk to him for some time, surrounded by kids who were interested in his songs. He currently lives in Hosur, where he worked for Indicarb. In his leisure time, he used to write songs, compose a tune himself and sings. He has written more than 500 songs on various topics which interests him from time to time. He sung some 10 samples on varying subjects – village life, nature, a tea stall bench, a helpless female labour working on a field who cannot suckle her baby crying in the nearby cradle etc.,. He remembers all the songs written by him. With the fluency and energy of thoughts and writing, he should be called a “Sindanaialar”.  I felt that he is not as famous as he had to be. Then he told us that one publisher had agreed to publish few of his creations and is in print now. Before 15 years, some of his songs had come out as books which he is not sure whether they are still in prints. To me at that time, he personified Karma yoga as described in Bhagavad Gita – “Without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty” (கடமையை செய் பலனை எதிர் பார்க்காதே). The book names are “Kaattu mara Kilaiyile” and “Kalai yedukkum Thaalattu”. On my request he willingly agreed to publish the listener’s choice song in the internet and helped me with the lyrics. I will post it as a separate post. His fluency is like free flowing water. He furnished us with lots of songs as and when we asked during a leisure walk into the village or during campfire on Kalaignar’s free television, Introduction of tractors and the list grows…

Vaiyampatti Aiya at the open amphitheater

Then I asked whether he is natively from the place called Vaiyampatti, for which he jovially replied – “We had stayed in Vaiyampatti for few years due to my father’s job. Later we moved to Hosur. We have no connection with Vaiyampatti. But sometime in past, someone attached this tag as it gave better village feel. Now Vaiyampatti has become famous and not Muthusamy. But if you ask anyone in Vaiyampatti, none would recognize me”. As he said all children were denoting him as “Vaiyampatti Aiya”.

Nattupura Kalai

After Vaiyampatti Aiya had acknowledged the children with ‘once more’ requests, Sivaraj brought Senthamizhselvan to the center. Selvan sat down with a piece of paper and his Thappu. Thappu is a circular percussion instrument used dominantly in south India. He started singing a folk song with folk music, followed by another with a different tune, with lot of applause from the little’s crowd. He was the only tagged musician in the camp, though Ezhil could mesmerize the children with his gaana style of singing.

Senthamizh Selvan singing folk song with Thappu music

Senthamizhselvan, native of Dharmapuri is a graduate from Music College, Chennai. It is out of his self-interest that he has learned this folk music. Over the 2 days, we had a lot of chance to listen to various styles of folk music –Oyilaattam, Kavadiyaattam, Karagaattam. He exposed us to different instruments. I came to know that there are different types of Thappu for producing different octaves. His mouth itself was an instrument when he teaches children to dance. He had made the front-yard of the forest rest house as his classroom to teach a group of children Oyilaattam, another boy - Karagaattam and another boy – Kavadiyaattam. With his help we tried our hands on Thappu and Karagam too.

Cuckoo Children’s Library

In front of Cuckoo library

After folk music, children split into groups and went to different locations to join the activity they were interested and practicing. Some went to watch movie in the first floors, some joined the skit group, some went with selvan to practice dancing, some joined the organic farming group and some joined the arts and crafts group. In the meanwhile, one school staff took us to the library, which had an aesthetic name board similar to the garden which reads – “Cuckoo Children’s Library” (குக்கூ சிறுவர் நூலகம்). Though it looked dull and dark, it had a good collection of books better than those available in not-so-remote villages. It had few books racks – one was a tall rack whose top 2 shelves would not be reachable for children. Other racks seemed to be made after the learning from the tall rack. They were artistically made of wood, of smaller height. The entrance had a reading desk, which was also curved artistically. There were about 1200 books on various interesting topics – biographies, short stories, comics, science, fictions and some references. One interesting thing was that there were no subject books. I felt good about it, as it would not create any fear in children from entering library. I tried to find any register or the slip that’s normally pasted in the library books, from which the library usage can be inferred. But no such book keeping had been done. Apart from books, library seemed to serve as an art collection with lots of masks, craft work which were done last year, some paintings displayed on the wall out of which a Buddha’s painting impressed me the most and some motivational posters on the wall. The library also had subscriptions to good magazine like – Wisdom and Pudiya Thalaimurai. This is one of the good collections I had seen in village schools.

Though there were so many books which were small to be completed in a day, which tempted me to spend more time in the library, I forced myself out of the library to justify the purpose of the visit.

Arts and crafts

From the library, when we entered the next room, bundle of creativity struck us. The paintings done by the children during the camp occupied the center of the room, three sides of the room displayed the clay models and the fourth side had bunch of papers with some artwork and some surukku pais (village style compact money bags) lying around, leaving a small pathway to walk around the display.

Children enjoying Ezhil's song

While walking around, Ezhilarasan came and got introduced. Ezhil, native of Villupuram, had graduated from the College of Arts, Chennai in 1997. He is understandably involved with Cuckoo for a long time and a very enthusiastic character. He involves in the activities are various places like Udumalpet, Erode and Pollachi. He takes up internal decoration work for various groups in Chennai. He was there with a group of friends – Wilson David, Sakkarapani, Hariganesh and Kumar, and lots & lots of raw materials for arts & crafts. Even though Ezhil was mainly involved with arts and crafts, sometime he amused the children with his songs and mainly the style of singing. The frequent number was 'Polama' song, which goes like
"Polamaaaaa....hehe...Polaamaaaa....
polama, polama, enge polama?
ange polam, inge polam, enge polama?
ange polam, inge polam, enge polama?
anda Nellivasal payanam polama..."
This song was so enthusiastic that I kept humming and singing for the next few days after returning home and my 2 year old son got interested and kept asking me to sing this for him. Now, after 10 days he sings this and asks me to sing this while we go out from home.

One of the well appreciated painting

Ezhil and his group had introduced the children to the basic colors and taught them how to mix and paint. Similarly, they had taught them how to make clay models, from the clay they collected at Kasth – local name for the nearby by waterfall and stream. They were not given any ideas of what to make, deliberately to avoid imposing our ideas. This has brought out their original creativity, as intact as possible. Every painting exhibited their surrounding on one way or the other. They at least had one animal, bird or a tree. Some even had some insects. The color selection and multi-color usage were not at all like those who were introduced only to the basic colors 3 days earlier. Few paintings that stay in my memory are – A fierce looking lion behind a tree, a big butterfly with its home, a multi-colored painting looking like a modern art, a tree inside water!!! But there was not a single city style painting – two hills with sunrise, two hills with a house and coconut tree etc.  These children had brought out what they had seen or what they imagine, while the children in the city schools are taught what to draw. So, they lose creativity. The kid, who had drawn the tree inside water, explained that there are no places in earth where it can be safe from cutting. These are children of 6^th and 7^th standard.

Tree in water

Some more...

The clay models had surpassed the paintings. Of the first few models, there was a model of a human face. It was so beautiful, correct to the measurement, smile on the lips, sharp nose – it still remains in my memory. Other models like elephants, tortoise, a small pig with twisted tail, aravaan, aattukal, ammikal etc were also related to their life. The shell of the tortoise was embossed with design to make it closer to the reality.

The value of the bunch of papers on the fourth side was revealed only after Ezhil explained about them. They were artwork made of Javvarisi (Tapioca Pearls). Javvarisi has to be heated with water to make a paste. Then it is spread to form sheets and dried. They are then broken to form tiny pieces. Then these pieces are arranged to form pictures and painted with metal colors. When done, they look like artwork made from colored glass. They were looking awesome. The surukku pais adjacent to these work contained different seeds, the children had collected when they visited Kasth the day before. Some seeds were so peculiar to be identified as seeds.

That day’s agenda for children was to make artwork out of tree twigs, metal wires and jute ropes. I sat with Ezhil and children for some time. Most of them were trying to make human being as the tree twigs easily formed the limbs, but few wanted to be different making dogs and birds. One boy whom Ezhil praised had made a beautiful peacock with metal wires. Later the day, the same boy was trying to make what he called ‘Rajavaal kuruvi’, as the peacock was smaller.

Crafts with tree twigs, metal wires and ropes

While boys were busy doing this, girls in the adjacent room were making crafts out of tube like structure kept at the center of cloth bales. The tube just acts as a substrate, over which a bonding paste is applied. Carvings are made on the paste when it is wet and allowed to dry. Once dried it is painted with colors. What impressed me was the girl’s usage of color and patterns. The empty spaces in the carvings were not left blank with paints. They inserted some patterns and designs on them.

It was ‘creativity unfolded’ all around us.

Acting

Sivaraj & Azhageswari with skit team1

Out of the crafts room, I was greeted by Azhageswari. Azhageswari was from Tirupur. She is involved in ‘Project Greenhands’ at Tirupur. She was so interested with activities and with children that she had to keep extending her stay which was originally planned for 2 days taking her son’s schooling into consideration. Later I got to know that her school going son Rahul, had also joined her to visit the camp and had become one with the children and other volunteers. She had to search him for lunch and dinner too. She not only assisted a group of children to perform a skit on preserving trees, but on everything else where she could. Apart from Project Greenhands, she is involved in assisting a group of children at Erode, who are offspring of not so well to do, pull cart labors at Vandikaarn Theru, Karungalpalayam.

Nandu with his skit team

Kumar and Nanthakumar were others who had assisted another 2 groups of children to perform 2 other skits. Nandu is from Kumarapalayam. I could not know more about Kumar and Nandu, as we did not come in touch till the last moment.

Kumar with his skit team being felicitated by Rajaram

 All the skit were practiced near the rest house in the closed and open amphitheater.
Another important person who was involved in various activities including skit was  Kumaran. Kumaran is from Kumbakkonam . Kumaran had spent about 8 years in cine field, has directed one of the best running serials in Kalaignar TV. He is about to direct a film. He kept filming the activities over the 2 days. On the last day, during function he was really running with camera, single-handedly to make sure all activities were captured in the best way. When he was done, he was really looking tired and sweating. This apart, both Nandu and Kumaran were really enthusiastic and playful, with whom children wanted to stick around.

Organic farming

Another very important activity organized during the camp was organic farming. Karikalan and Balasubramanian from Nammazhwar’s vaanagam foundation had visited to teach a few aspects of natural, organic farming to children. Both of them were busy the whole day in converting open grassland in front of the school building into a small organic farm. They were the only 2 who got scorched under the sun all day long with their group of children. When I joined them, half way through their work, they explained me ‘Vatta paathi’. In this style of farming, a circle is formed like water waves, when a stone is thrown. The groove will hold water for irrigation. The elevated region, normally 4 feet wide is where crops are planted. It is 4 feet wide, as 2 feet is easily reachable from either side without stepping over it. Normally mixed crops are planted, so that different crops will come to yield at different times of the year and pests from one crop may not spread as the next crop may not be conducive to them. After planting the seeds, they mixed dry leaves with cow dung and scattered over the region. This is called ‘Moodakku’. This covering prevents sunlight from directly hitting the soil and evaporating the moisture content. As there is no sunlight, it is difficult for weeds to grow. So no weedicide or special weeding is required. As the moisture content is not lost, it enhances growth of earthworms. Then they explained how to avoid using pesticide, with the use of ‘Poochiviratti’, which will protect the crops, but at the same time not kill the pests. Then they explained about ‘Panchakavya’, organic nutrient for crops. Though they explained me each of these with the composition, I am not presenting it here for the lack of knowledge to write about them.

Karikalan & Balasubramanian getting felicitated by children

One thing of this activity in the camp is that children are actually aware of why each is done; learn new things which they can immediately implement in their fields as most of them had at least a small field. Moreover, I heard that some portion of the people in that region which is mostly under organic farming is getting converted to use fertilizers. It is easy to get them back to their original practice in the early stages.

Movie screening

Movie screening is also part of the camp. It was screened in a big hall on the first floor and later Sivaraj talks to the children about the movie. I do not have more information about this, as I did not have a chance to be part of this, except that I heard lot of sound from that floor in the morning sessions.

Games

In between the activities, in the afternoons, children were involved in some games. Kumaran and Nanda are sure to be part of. Sometimes sivaraj also joined. Usually it was played near the forest staff quarters in the open amphiteatre. Though I do not know the names of the games except one – ‘Kolakolaiyan Mandirikkai’, I will try to explain one of them which impressed me because it had no restriction to the number of players. The children were divided into 2 groups, rather 2 huge groups as there were many children. A big rectangle was formed, one team standing on the borders of the rectangle. The other team was inside the rectangle. The team outside the rectangle always possesses the ball and throws it on the other team player, without stepping inside. If any player of the other team gets hit by the ball, he goes out. If the ball runs out without hitting anyone, the other player of the same team on the other side of rectangle collects the ball and throws in again. As the team inside the rectangle reduces in size, it becomes harder to hit and ball is passed between team members and some strategy is formed. The intention is to get the entire team out. I assume the winning criteria would be the amount of time to get the other team out.

Village

In the evening, Mani and I wanted to walk out some distance, while other volunteers told that they are going out into the village and so we joined them. Two boys, Lakshmi and Vedi (Vedi seems to be a common name in that region, which is their God’s name) wanted to take us to their home. We crossed Nellivasal village and continued further to a hamlet called ‘Sembarai’. Nellivasal village is few hundred yards from the school. It has some tens of houses, with a panchayat office, 2 or 3 temples, some solar lamps which did not glow in that evening and a PDS shop (ration shop). That ration shop was very peculiar. It was at a good elevation with few steps to climb. But between the steps and the shop was a big gap, easy enough for people to fall off. At the last house of the village, a girl who recognized Alageshwari offered us some jack fruits. Sivaraj, Alageshwari, Mani and I stopped to eat some masala jack fruit with a special recipe and carried some more for other who went ahead of us. After a 10 minutes’ walk, we had to climb the hill. There were no roads, except a small rocky path formed by water stream during rains. After climbing a few distance, Mani and I got exhausted as we were not used to physical activity except for exercising. Our profession had taken its toll. When at Bangalore I feel good compared to other who don’t exercise. But now I pity them who don’t exercise or play. It was a distance of 3 to 4 Km uphill and it took us 45 minutes. There were places where I felt I would not return back and sleep there at the boy’s house. It had already become dark and wherever there was an open space or water body there were huge numbers of ‘Minmini poochi’ (fireflies). Though I had seen a few in my native when I was young, I had never seen them in such huge numbers. Kumaran who is a fan of these insects, were enthusiastically explaining us about them a few minutes back when we left the school. When we reached the boy’s house, it was completely dark and there was no electricity. But the cold breeze was felt colder as we were sweating. His house was in a small hamlet with 10 or 15 houses around at the top of a hill. Each house had its own garden with vegetables plants and some fields around the village. As we removed relaxing, removing the footwear, drinking water in the front yard I looked at the night sky. Night sky is also different for villages. So many stars, which shy out in the city due to the vapor lamps, were happily glittering in the village. Some 7 or 8 stars were seen moving for the naked eyes. Though I cannot validate the fact, some one among us told that this is one of the reasons for having one of the important astronomical observatories in this hill range – Kavalur Observatory. The night sky was so engrossing that I was ready to lie down there whole night watching the sky, as I used to do in my childhood with my friend, when I visit his house. We used to go to the overhead tank on the second floor, climb over it in the evening with snacks and water, lie down watching the sky till night.

The house was small with 2 rooms, one after the other. The first room was used as a kitchen and second as a living room, bed room and store room. The second room had a man’s photo on the wall facing the entrance, which we later came to know as his father who is no more. On the left were gunny bags full of grains – Samai (I don’t know the English word for this) and rice. These are the seeds for the next season. Samai is one of the main crops in the village and staple food in that region. Even the school headmaster hinted to me that, “Until the children ate Samai they were healthy. Now with PDS rice they are not as healthy and energetic as before”. On one corner ‘Uri’ was hanging. On the diagonal corner was a small kerosene lamp lighting the entire house. The walls were whitewashed with some designs (kolam) drawn near his father’s photo. One interesting thing Alageshwari pointed out was that there were no photos of any God or Godess. She had noticed it in other houses too. Some of us got the privilege of sitting on a mat while some had to sit on the ice cold floor. There was a TV kept above the seeds sack – yeah the free TV distributed by TN Government. The 2 boys climbed over the roof of the house and tried to tap electricity from the overhead line. On our request and Alageshwari’s persistence they agreed to get down and served us some jack fruit. When we were done with the fruit they collected the seeds and roasted it for us. They also served us some hot drink with jiggery, which was much required after the uphill task. Then they showed us Samai, as many of us had not seen it before.

As it was getting late and Sivaraj was worried about the cooks at the school, who would be waiting for us, we had to leave at 8:30 PM. The entire village was dark with no electricity that evening, which seems to be the case on most evenings. Why doesn’t the Government provide solar lamps instead of TV??? It was pitch-dark and we had to struggle to find our way with mobile phone lights. That day being the 4^th day from new moon day, added to our trouble. Few of us waited for the boys to arrange for a torch light which did not succeed. As the boys found that we were struggling to walk down, one of them said that we agreed to come to their house and it was their responsibility to take us down. So saying one boy jumped to his right into the field and the other went to his left into the bushes. Sometime later they came with some coconut trees leaves, lighted them with match box. With this light we could easily walk for some distance to return to the mobile lights again. They did this collecting of leaves, few times inside the forest to show us light, while they both were walking with us without foot wear. These are the last packets of innocence left in the world!!! Later I came to know that for so many children, this is the route that they take to go to the school every day. There are 6 such hamlets around Nellivasal from where the children come to school.

On the next morning, Sivaraj, Aiya, Mani and I went again into the village to walk around and have tea. On the way Sivaraj introduced us to a girl named Sharmila who was washing a utensil, to whose house we visited on the way back. It was very dark inside the house even in the morning. It has all characteristics as the previous house that we visited, except few family photographs. Sharmila and another boy were at the stove (‘Viragu Aduppu’). After talking, Sivaraj asked her to come with us and he will buy them some biscuits. She reluctantly came and the reason for her reluctance was that she had to prepare food and her brother does not know cooking. Later Sivaraj told me that her parents are in Bangalore or Chennai doing some labor job. She and her brother live in their house. She is studying 5^th standard and her brother is elder than her. She cooks for both of them. Couple of days earlier, she invited the volunteers to her home and served the food that she cooked. The way life presents itself to this little girl moved me. There are many children who stay alone in this village and the nearby hamlets, whose parents are in the nearby metros in pursuit of a job.

Another thing we observed from when I entered Pudur Naadu area was that nobody was wearing foot wear. On the first day when we were driving to Nellivasal, we should have seen 100 children easily. None of them had footwear. Same was the case with elders also. We had only seen one lady with a foot wear on our way.

Stay

The first night, after the trek we stayed in the school with the volunteers. Arrangements for sleeping were made in the hall where movie was screened. All volunteers, along with few hostel children slept in the hall. Food had not been a problem for 2 days, as the school cooks served us with good timely food. The last day they served us with payasam. If not for these cooks, there were no places to eat except resorting to cooking ourselves. There were 2 toilet room which decent enough to use. There was a lake at some distance further to the rest house, which acted as bath rooms for us. The 2^nd day morning, cold woke me up at 5:30 AM, though I had a blanket. When I came out of the hall, I found few other children and Mani following me. When we finished our morning duties, we found children sitting around the fire and by now they were joined by Wilson, Hari and Aiya. Campfire makes more sense in the mornings in these ‘pin-pani kalam’ (the months in which the mornings are colder than nights). We enjoyed the heat along with different songs sung by Aiya and Janani Janani sung by Mani.

Function

A banner on the way to the stage

The second day was a happening day. All children from the morning were preparing for it. A function was organized to end the camp, where children can display what they have learnt. Around 3 PM, the preparation started. For those children who watched the volunteers, it turned out to be a learning of organizing skills, as the volunteers turned the entire region into a beautiful program venue. Few banners with ‘Kavidhai’ were placed on the ground on the sides of the road from the school to the rest house. Two poles were planted in the open amphitheater, beside which 2 banners made of children’s paintings were leaned. It formed the stage where the children can perform. Few crafts made by the children were also placed in front of this stage. Other craft items made with tree twigs, which resembled human beings were placed on the tree in such way that it looked like they were climbing the tree from ground one after other. Some incense sticks were placed on the tree spreading the fragrance. The soil which formed the stage was watered so that it reduces the dust while performing.

Open amphitheater getting prepared..

The performance started with a skit, followed by Karagaattam, another skit, Oyilaattam, another skit and Kavadiyaattam. Each performance was encouraged with some presents which were books and some crafts made by children themselves. The function ended at 6 PM and that was end of the camp at Nellivasal.

Some performances by children...

Starting with prayer

Kumaran videoing Karagaattam

Oyilaattam performance with their guru's music from behind

Kavadiaattam in style

Children

Parameshwari - The singer

The blog would be incomplete if I do not mention about the children for whom the camp was organized. I found that they were shy on the 1^st day of my visit. But they started talking voluntarily from the other day. They were very happy and were out of the routine studies for 5 days. This is the second year for these children in such camp. From the function, from the way they talk; sing in front of outsiders I saw that their confidence has grown far ahead from the point Ezhil explained about them. Ezhil told me that, last year when they were new to the children, the children would not even tell their names; they will close their mouth and tell very slowly. It has been a tremendous progress from there to act skillfully like a seasoned actor. When Sivaraj asked some of them to sing songs for me, 2 girls came out without fear to sing 2 folk songs, which had beautiful lyrics and rhythm. Sivasakthi sung – “Aatha un seelai” and Parameshwari sung – “Pettha manam Pitthu”. Parameshwari has a very sweet voice and good ability to sing.

More than breaking their shyness and boosting confidence, I find that this camp has given different opportunities to express their creativity and talent. During the last camp they identified so many birds during bird watching sessions that a book is published which has collection of the birds in this region. I came to know that in the last camp an ornithologist explained about the bird ‘Erattai vaal kuruvi’ and mentioned that it got extinct from the year 1942, while one of the boys claimed that he had seen 7 such pairs in one of the nearby tree and identified it with that ornithologist. They can identify so many birds and butterflies, their routines, their sounds etc. During one session with Sivaraj on the 1^st day, with in matter of couple of minutes they mentioned about 20 birds, which I had hardly heard of – ‘Kollaiyaan kuruvi, Iruvaachi, Manjal chittu, Kondaalathi, Rajavaal kuruvi, Sitavaalai, Perundu, Milagai chittu, Maattu kuruvi, Karun kuruvi, Vellai chittu, Kaakanang kuruvi, Kavalan, Vettanang kuruvi, Sita kuruvi, Sittakozhi, Semmada kakkai’.

Also this camp is not trying to force the mainstream education, without understanding their needs and drifting away from their culture. Organic farming is one good example of tweaking the education according to the needs. I was told of 2 incidents in the school. The children were taught about train ticket booking through IRCTC. As some of them did not answer the question regarding this topic, they were scolded and punished hardly. I am wondering what is the need of such mainstream education system and where is it taking the children? These are children who live in a remote hilly village, most of whom had not seen a train in the life yet, who are connected to the nearby town with only 2 buses a day, who are not used to internet, studying in a school which has one PC for 278 students. What is this education going to achieve by teaching them booking tickets in IRCTC?

Another incident was that a girl child was severely beaten for not wearing a uniform. Sivaraj requested the teacher not to beat and when asked later, the girl said while working in the field the previous day she fell into the muddy water and the uniform got dirty. It is so sad to know that the teachers are so insensitive to teach what they name as discipline.

This is how is the mainstream education system in India – In cities it is wiping of creativity among children and in villages it is not nurturing the creativity. Cuckoo is doing what is required and children had shown signs of change in 2 years.

Sivaraj and Cuckoo

Cuckoo is not an NGO. Sivaraj, along with few of his friends got together to nurture the inner self of the children. After a lots of internet search, I found a blog post that explains the formative years – http://tiruvannamalai-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/concern-for-children-groomed-in-forest.html

Another,

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101050610200.htm

Such programs are organized at different places in a continuous basis. I wish them good luck to continue and sustain their interest.

The Group with children and staff

Note:

If any information is wrong, please correct me.

If more information is required, please contact me.

If you can provide list of good children’s movies, please help me with. I can forward it to Cuckoo, who is in need of this.

Coutesy: To the friends who shared me the photos.