Week 44 /2025
27th Oct to 3rd Nov (Monday to Monday)
Monday to Thursday was office work. Slowly people are coming into the zone of working after the long Diwali vacation.
We are preparing for a new project with children which is on insects. Our previous project was on trees. It is a fun process. I am looking at teacher’s work as artist’s work - writing stories, songs, designing learning experiences, performing stories, activities…
Bansi visited us on Wednesday after a long time. Nidhi and Bansi made a nice dinner (pumpkin soup, masala rice, green onion sabji, salad, roti)… lots of talking… eating… laughing… sharing dreams and life updates…
Friday - It was Sardar Patel Jayanti, it was a holiday at my office so it became a long weekend.
On Thursday we saw a film till late night called ‘Rani & Rocky Ki Prem Kahani’ just for fun.
Friday morning we woke up late.
Nidhi needed to finish some documentation work for one project. We worked a little bit together to finish that.
In the evening we went to IIT Gandhinagar campus to meet dear friend Malay. Campus is far from Ahmedabad… 33km. We got tired of driving the Activa during this ride. We decided to stay back at his house. We watched Humans in the Loop at night. Very thought-provoking film.
In the morning we went for a tree-insect-bird walk in the campus.
In the evening, Nidhi, me and Shivani made a spontaneous plan to go for Shabd Parikrama by Iktara. But it got cancelled because of rain. Now it is happening on 8th Nov. I am very very excited for this.The event got cancelled but we invited Shivani home and went for coffee and snacking at a nearby cafe
Sunday we went to Padra to meet Mummy-Papa. It was difficult for both of us to visit because of all the past stuff. But somehow we managed. I was avoiding it for long. Nidhi supported me and gave courage to make it happen. We went by morning bus and came back late night. It was super tiring.
Today Nidhi went to give an interview at CEE - Planet Discovery School. It is a nature-based learning school in Ahmedabad. For the last one or two months Nidhi has been planning to take a full-time job. Finally she started giving interviews. Before giving interviews we sat and finalized our needs and priorities - what type of growth we want, what we can do right now, financial needs and our skills, etc. For the coming few years Nidhi wants to work directly with children in a nature-based learning setup. CEE is a perfect fit for her. Let’s hope it works out. I am very excited to see her in this role. She has a lot of potential, just needs the right place and people to unleash it.
Overall my mood is good. Happy.
We are also planning one more camp with children (from Tatvic family) in December. This time it will be a different design. I will share it soon. We are thinking to do it in Ahmedabad itself and collaborating with different facilitators. There will be cooking, night sky watching, puppet making, science experiments, movement and music. Let’s see how it turns out.
Wednesday is a holiday so I am planning to go for an Ahmedabad heritage walk, it is long due. One more exciting thing: Ahmedabad Book Fair is coming up from 14 to 22 Nov. Me and Nidhi are going for volunteering at Eklavya Publication stall. Organizers were planning for some panel discussion about children’s literature. Piyush bhai from Anant University called me for moderating the panel but somehow it got cancelled. We need to talk and do some concrete work on Gujarati children’s literature. In December I want to visit Kutch also… hazaaron khwaishein aisi…
Today Rajesh bhai from Eklavya sent us fresh editions of Chakmak and Sandarbh magazine. You can’t imagine how happy both of us were while receiving this. I feel belongingness, loved and inspired… very grateful for this gesture. Thank you.
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