To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in a way that all of us will really enjoy, learn and relax we chose to intern at Hide-Out- an organic fruit forest, Jhadpoli village, Thane District. Here is the summary of all the reflections, learnings, impressions recorded at Hide-Out.
Day 1:
A feeling of deja-vu on arrival. The rain gods blessed us on our arrival and the immediate feeling was " Wow this was indeed the perfect choice for our celebration" Cause the rains in such an area are to die-for. The wind, the lush greenery, the mud smell from the rain made the rain bath so yummy and refreshing. We were so glad to be back at the farm! The excitement on the girls' faces was too obvious. They were running @ everywhere familiarizing themselves with the surroundings. Chellu was gaayab in 1/2 hr or so in her own world with plants as her friends.
We went for a Warli paiting workshop later during the day at a Warli painter's home. It was a very interesting workshop where the artisit showed us how to draw warli style as well as talked about warli art's history. Each of us gotto do a sample later on.
Then came the cooking session back at the farm with H. He showed us how to make dips for salads. Chellu was mesmerized by the demo..she participated in everything - the cutting, peeling, tasting things around. Kunju enjoyed it too.
The first night was really a scary experience for me. Everyone had left by the aft and it was just the 4 of us and Dhaadhi ( Hemant's mom). The lights were out (due to heavy power-cuts in the summer) and it was a shock of sorts to deal with that kind of darkness. Pitch darkness ! U don't see that kind of black in the night in the cities due to some light, somewhere..but this was like a bolt to the eye & the mind. Really scary. And then we took out the lanterns and discovered that we weren't the only ones in the farm. There was like a zillion other insects around us. We kinda made out when we saw the cats playing @ with smthng. Huge bugs, ants, flying insects everywhere..wow-never seen anything like that. I had a hard time sleeping that night. Since the windows in the room have no grills or any barrier, there was this scare that an animal or maybe snakes? would just get into our room. A coconut would fall and that sound would scare the hell out of me! who is it? what is it? what's lurking in the dark? I still don't know what exactly was it that I was anticipating ( ghost, human, animal??) but there was this constant fear of the UNKNOWN in the dark. Kya hai woh? We have become so accustomed to being in the security of lights, concrete walls that to be in a place like HO teeming with life makes one very uncomfortable initially. You just feel like smthng is definitely gonna bite you. And then I read on the bathroom doors that there might be frogs in the bathroom since they seek moist places. And so began a detailed hunt with the torch to find one and only when I saw the frog was i ok. I was very scared that there might be one sitting on the toilet seat when I would go to use it !! haha!
So in the midst of all this confusion going on in the brain about the pitch darkness I had to train my eyes to be able to see with the minimum light from the torch. And slowly after sometime I could start seeing things much much better. But first i had to quieten my brains and fears. That was the first night...a very unique night. In the midst of nature but with a lot of chaos in my head. ;)) btw funnily the kids seemed much more at peace than me. ;)) The girls got a little freaked on seeing the giant sized beetle but fear soon turned into curiosity and then excitement on watching the cats play with the beetles. Chellu was chill otherwise- she would happily go around the area , finding her way with a torch. Excitement was written huge on her face.
Day 1:
A feeling of deja-vu on arrival. The rain gods blessed us on our arrival and the immediate feeling was " Wow this was indeed the perfect choice for our celebration" Cause the rains in such an area are to die-for. The wind, the lush greenery, the mud smell from the rain made the rain bath so yummy and refreshing. We were so glad to be back at the farm! The excitement on the girls' faces was too obvious. They were running @ everywhere familiarizing themselves with the surroundings. Chellu was gaayab in 1/2 hr or so in her own world with plants as her friends.
We went for a Warli paiting workshop later during the day at a Warli painter's home. It was a very interesting workshop where the artisit showed us how to draw warli style as well as talked about warli art's history. Each of us gotto do a sample later on.
Then came the cooking session back at the farm with H. He showed us how to make dips for salads. Chellu was mesmerized by the demo..she participated in everything - the cutting, peeling, tasting things around. Kunju enjoyed it too.
The first night was really a scary experience for me. Everyone had left by the aft and it was just the 4 of us and Dhaadhi ( Hemant's mom). The lights were out (due to heavy power-cuts in the summer) and it was a shock of sorts to deal with that kind of darkness. Pitch darkness ! U don't see that kind of black in the night in the cities due to some light, somewhere..but this was like a bolt to the eye & the mind. Really scary. And then we took out the lanterns and discovered that we weren't the only ones in the farm. There was like a zillion other insects around us. We kinda made out when we saw the cats playing @ with smthng. Huge bugs, ants, flying insects everywhere..wow-never seen anything like that. I had a hard time sleeping that night. Since the windows in the room have no grills or any barrier, there was this scare that an animal or maybe snakes? would just get into our room. A coconut would fall and that sound would scare the hell out of me! who is it? what is it? what's lurking in the dark? I still don't know what exactly was it that I was anticipating ( ghost, human, animal??) but there was this constant fear of the UNKNOWN in the dark. Kya hai woh? We have become so accustomed to being in the security of lights, concrete walls that to be in a place like HO teeming with life makes one very uncomfortable initially. You just feel like smthng is definitely gonna bite you. And then I read on the bathroom doors that there might be frogs in the bathroom since they seek moist places. And so began a detailed hunt with the torch to find one and only when I saw the frog was i ok. I was very scared that there might be one sitting on the toilet seat when I would go to use it !! haha!
So in the midst of all this confusion going on in the brain about the pitch darkness I had to train my eyes to be able to see with the minimum light from the torch. And slowly after sometime I could start seeing things much much better. But first i had to quieten my brains and fears. That was the first night...a very unique night. In the midst of nature but with a lot of chaos in my head. ;)) btw funnily the kids seemed much more at peace than me. ;)) The girls got a little freaked on seeing the giant sized beetle but fear soon turned into curiosity and then excitement on watching the cats play with the beetles. Chellu was chill otherwise- she would happily go around the area , finding her way with a torch. Excitement was written huge on her face.
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