Week 02/2026
5th Jan to 11th Jan 2026 (Mon to Sunday)
Monday: Office work
Tuesday: Office work
Wednesday: Had a short meeting with Samagata Foundation Team about the children’s library project.
Thursday: Vaibhav bhai and Soma didi visited Ahmedabad. Soma didi is working on a project based on ‘semantic grammar’. We had a session at the Community Education Center with the help of Mahendra sir. Blog post on semantic grammar.
Friday: Office work. In the evening, I had a call with an artist called Ishani for my documentation project.
Saturday:
- Had a short catch-up call with Srishti.
- Had a call with Sajhe Sapne alumni—it was an orientation call to see if they want to contribute to the documentation project I’m doing for my past project.
- In the evening, I had a call with Nandini from Nazaria Art Collective. We discussed each other’s work and the possibility of me contributing to their summer film school curriculum, bringing ideas from self-directed learning, project-based learning, and related stuff.
- In the evening, I met my dear friend Harshal who publishes Kulfi children’s magazine in Marathi, and one more friend, Raj, who works with Parag - Tata Trust.
Sunday: Vaibhav bhai was here at home last night. It was his birthday on Sunday, so we went to Arvind Sadhna Kendra near our home. After that, me, Vaibhav bhai, and Mummy went to have lunch at Kamla Cafe. In the evening, we went to Navjivan Trust Campus to attend Navjivan Talks. This time it was about the memory of an interesting publisher called ‘Shivji Ashar’.
It is really happy to see that we are celebrating very interesting Publisher of Gujarati language.
Me and Raam also had a chat about starting a children’s reading club during their Sunday reading club happening regularly at the Navjivan campus. He was excited about the idea. Me and Nidhi will start it on a Sunday after Makar Sankranti.
Vaibhav bhai left for Mumbai from there.
- For the next few months, I am going to focus on the documentation project. My dear friend Rahul Hasija helped me with some funds. Now I am finalizing a team to execute the whole thing.
- We will start a children’s reading club at Navjivan Trust Campus (I have applied to Samagata Foundation and Sudha Mahesh Grants for this project—let’s see how it works out).
- What else? Will see how Nidhi will start her work after she comes back from Kanpur.
- Apart from that, things at home are silent right now. Don’t know what will happen next.
- Nidhi will come on Tuesday. I will take a break from work during 14th and 15th Jan and spend good time with her.
I am overall very excited about how my and Nidhi’s work is getting clarity and space in this big chaotic world.
We (Mihir & Nidhi) are facilitating experiential learning journeys for children and young adults:
Age 3 to 11 years [Nature Exploration, Theater, Senses Development, Stories, Music, Children lit, library]
- I regularly take sessions with this age group in my full-time job at Balgokulam. (ongoing) Some interesting field note - Re - Storying
- Nidhi will engage this age group if she joins CEE full-time. (Feb 2026)
- We are starting a reading club + children’s library soon. (late January 2026)
- Working with the Children’s University team to develop integrated learning modules. (ongoing)
- Apart from this, I want to write stories, poems, and drama for children and work actively on Gujarati children’s literature. (ongoing)
Age 12+ years [Projects, Self designed learning, Citizen Science, Theater, life skills, Future of work & life, local Khoji, Climate Action, Third Space]
I am actively seeking organizations where I can engage directly with this age group or contribute to program development/curriculum development.
Learning Calls:
- Nazaria Art Collective: Providing inputs for their summer filmmaking program around project-based learning and self-designed learning. (Feb 2026)
- Sajhe Sapne: Contributing inputs to their overall curriculum. (Feb 2026)
I need to meet few more local orgs to see the possibility of collaboration.
- City as a lab (Every year I review projects done by children participated in city as a lab programs) (this year’s review is done)
- Next three - four month I Will be focusing on making a playbooks/documentation/publishing. (ongoing)
I am worried about the future—what types of jobs will be there, how we will survive, how to earn enough money so we can support our old parents. Lots of questions and insecurities are there, but somewhat there’s trust in the universe. Let’s see.
We were also thinking of moving to Bhopal so Nidhi can visit her home more often to see her family. But it is difficult to get work in Bhopal. Also, Ahmedabad is a great place to work if I want to collaborate with Gujarati artists and other educators from here. Let’s see. Will figure out something. For the next one year, I think I want to be here so I can document my work and be ready for the transition.
My mental health is overall low, but I will work on it in the coming months.