Category: Blogs

His first presentation.His attempt to throw himself in front of the audience.He worked hard to know more about engines.He worked on himself to come out of his own inhibitions ( I can’t, I don’t, mistakes means others laugh).He worked on making a presentation.He worked on composing his flow of the session. An hour session where…

Life of me at Aarohi Hi my name is Dhrupad and I am going to talk about my life at Aarohi and what i feel about it my different experiences and so on. My feelings about Aarohi is good like whenever I am in aarohi i have the feeling that I am welcomed there and…

The session on understanding theatre began with a question “Why one does theatre?” Apart from being profession, joy and living our interest, theatre tells stories, live that character, and maybe carry a message. Understanding ingredients of theatre gave an understanding about what all is theatre.. body, stage/set/space, costume, make up, voice, music, lights, dialogue, props,…

This began with a question what is “NEW”? Everone around was wishing “happy NEW year”. Well, the question was what is new? A look into dictionary gave us a new perspective on NEW- different, fresh, discovery, invention, regenerate, unfamiliar, first, fresh….this made a lot of sense to look into the new year! The year began…

He likes aeroplanes. He wonders how aeroplanes fly? He also likes watching videos on “how the stuff works?”So both together became a session on “aeroplanes”. He took an hour session with the community and explained all about aeroplanes. How airlines works?How aeroplanes works?How does the engine works?What is thrust?How does turbine works?How does the aeroplane…

Story of breaking own boundaries Story of power of visulaizationStory of tryingStory of failingStory of peresverance Standing on the board, riding the wave a rush of glory hit me. I landed smoothly on the shore and shouted out a victory yell. I looked out into the ocean and gave a huge smile to my instructor.I…

Mr. Sarvanan, a certified snake rescuer shared his understanding of snakes. The topic itself has the huge number of questions. Can dry bite kill you? How do you identify the dry bite? Do they coil you when you rescue them? What all colors of a snake? Does the venom get over? Do they have unlimited…

Anyone coming to the campus and joining us for any duration is nothing but an opportunity interacting with more children/adults and creating a space of mutual learning. No plans, no activities, no classes. It’s just the same mantra – No CURRICULUM – because we believe that children can decide what they want to learn, how…

It began with a little spark “let’s make a movie”. Few came together and a made script. The script was highly influenced by their love of NERF guns and the books they read and video games they play. Well, then came the decision to choose actors – audition happened, voting for the best actor happened.…

Musical Concert at Aarohi Each one presented a small piece of music of one minute. Some practiced for 10 minutes, some knew it already. When the show began none wanted to start – “I am remembering the rhythm, I will do it next, Not now, After some time….”. 2-3 of us played the music and…

Jatre with Mr. Narasim, a session of stories, not made up stories, but real life stories. It was blessing to spend time with Mr. Narasim Katary, a young at heart 77yr old. He is a retired state judge of Canada elected by people for three consecutive terms (each term is 5years) with amazing narrative skills…

Who are our teachers? How do we learn without someone teaching us? How can we learn all by ourselves?These are some of the frequently asked questions to us. Well, we have no teachers, but the entire world is our teachers. Whenever we need to learn from someone, we seek people in that field and we…

Snakes Venomous Russell’s viper: is a nocturnal snake which means it comes out mostly in the night. It has a triangle head. It is hemotoxic to humans that means that it affects the blood flow and causes blockage. A new born Russell’s viper is 25cm long!. It’s sound is like a pressure cooker it has…

The campus of Aarohi was designed with constraints – material, design, people, resources, budget and many other. The aim is to create an experience rather recreating what a child would anyway experience. Here are some pictures from a child’s point of view who found fascinating usages of different material in different forms.

Law What are laws? Laws are something which help us in keeping order and justice. How long back were laws made? Laws dated back back to 2600 BC at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro dynasty, they had laws about how to build houses and drainage system. If we follow those laws now we can make India…

Surfing – it brought both excitement as well as fear (will I be able to do it) You see we aren’t used to dancing on the waves. I too was not sure for me surfing at the age of 49. But once we reached Mulki, cleaned the beach, did out drill on the beach –…

Logo Designing Hi PMO here and I am going to talk about logo designing. What is designing? Designing is something which gives us a scope on what to do. Designing is a thing that makes pattern and art as well. Designing is for good comfort as well. Some people do designing for money for example…

Safety training Hi guys PMO here as you know today’s topic is safety training. What are safety holes? Safety holes are CD’s with writings to make us alert about what we are doing. To make us attentive but they are not to make us scared or to threaten us. What comes in our minds when…

Getting to know CAT Hi PMO here today’s topic is Getting to know CAT.Competencies Abilities Talents What is CAT? Competencies, they are necessary skills I need in life, the basic skills.Abilities are the things which will help you in your life and you enjoy it. Talents and interests are what drive one in their life,…

Who are we? – Are we parents or caretakers or teachers or just adults? Who are we as facilitators? What are facilitators? What is facilitation? We need feedback for our growth, we need to reflect on the roles we play. To give feedback on facilitation, we all needed to understand what is facilitation and our…

When we thinks of a resource person, often we look at people who are known for their work and skills. But looking around and digging our own resources can be magical and satisfying. Seenappa Anna joined Aarohi four years back to help us with in making our kitchen with earthbag construction. He was working as…

New dry toilet did not have wash basin :(. After using it we needed a place to wash our hands. We put the constraint to use “junk” material. “The wash basin can only be made by new material (buy from the market), how can we make wash basin from junk, it will be dirty,” first…

“Who AM I?” Am I not many things – Am I a child only? Who is a child? Does the word ‘child’ sounds like someone who is helpless, does not know much or not capable? But when I see a painter inside me or a carpenter or a scientist – does that makes me someone…

Opportunities come to our lives at Aarohi in many different forms and this week was no different! A heap of cucumbers brought an opportunity to set up cucumber stall. And experiment with cucumber juice (which most hated). An Artist from France brought an opportunity for some of us to experience living with an artist and…

A group of 25 young adults from Wardha, who are learning to be teachers ( part of B. Ed/ M. Ed course) visited Aarohi to learn about learning. The preparation to welcome them began just a day in advance with a brief. The group of kids were excited to receive them and share with them…

Cyril, a French artist from France joined us to paint our library bus. He has been travelling for last three years, working with different communities and kids around the world. “Graffiti” on the day 1 was the key word where we began! For many of us this word was new and we naturally began with…

We have left the city but the city still live inside us.Few kids from neighbourhood village came ( all dressed up) to the campus. During the learning Mela on Friday in their school, we casually invited them. And they came today! We didn’t expect them to come or we didn’t mean a Sunday visit. This…

Most of us like car.Some of us are mesmerised with the super cars.Some of us can talk in length about the various features in modern cars. Meeting Murthy was meeting a real life hero. Murthy from Michigan shared about autonomous driving,. He is working on airbag in cars in one of the company. He shared…

Learning Mela at Neighbourhood schools.The journey began with two kids getting interested in connecting with neighbourhood schools. They went around to find more about the schools and their eagerness to invite us. It was not easy to walk around, talk around and plan for the learning Mela.Other kids at the campus joined them on Friday…

Cake burning for last three weeks, the dough needs understanding of fractions/ proportion.Tyre seat tied up just like that, needs precision and marking.Clay needs practice.North Indian kids needs change in menu ( no rice means making of many Chapatis), so Akkas need help in making of Puri.Sports need clear rules and understanding.A visit to nearby…