Day 11: Same, Same and Different
On this final day in Chennai I find myself reflecting on the invisible threads that bind us as individuals and also as a collective. Students following the NIOS curriculum prepared a demonstration of folk art including making kolams (we got to try our hand at it, and the process of creating patterns with colored rice flour was meditative and a source of great pride for me), getting mehndi’s on our palms and teaching us about Warli art, which is a folk art drawing style that uses mostly triangles and circles to depict life and religion.
We were also graced with a final kolam, and this one was the most exquisite and intricately designed one we have seen so far. As mentioned before, a kolam is characterized by its impermanence. As soon as it is finished, critters and bugs can nibble at it, human feet can kick it away or smudge it (as a matter of fact, after we were finished admiring it and profusely thanking the teacher who had made it, a young student came by and kicked at it, smudging the design with his feet). This notion of the amount of effort put into creating this to honor us, knowing that it would not last long, made the gesture even more significant and poignant.
In addition to observing a classroom, we were invited to join grades 4 and 5 on a trip to the farm. Teachers at the farm explained why it is important to nourish the soil so that plants can grow in an organic format, using locally sourced resources like cow dung manure mix, neem powder (this prevents insect attacks on plants), coconut peat and compost soil and not chemical fertilizers. Some of the students were knowledgeable about why the local soil was red (presence of iron) and why the coconut peat was used in the soil mix (it absorbs water significantly). Conversations included plants and foods that students were culturally and socially aware of because of their membership in their community. The combined notions of growing the familiar, while recognizing the need to use natural resources responsibly allows students to engage with the perspective of ‘same and different’. All societies depend on natural resources for growing foods indigenous to their region; this need is similar, however, the resources available to each town, nation or region may be different, which is why coconut peat is used for farming in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, but not in Austin, Texas. Further, from a social competence dimension, students are enmeshed in this ‘same and different’ perspective during targeted lessons and informal conversations that addressed unity of school purpose AND acknowledgement of individual uniqueness. Finally, I hope the idea of ‘same AND different' is evident to the students who participated in my lesson as I tried to show that we are similar in our inclinations to give thanks and different in the recipient of those same thanks.
The school community sent us off with a dance performance, a final sharing of ideas with the co-founders, principal and our host teacher. Later that evening, we celebrated our ‘same and different’ bond with a home cooked meal at our host teacher’s home. It was delightful to learn how to properly eat panipuri, a local delicacy that involved hollow puffs into which you scooped mashed potatoes, chickpeas, various chutneys and sauces and the flavored ‘water’ that synthesized into an explosion of flavor in your mouth. Yum. The variety of flavors that melded together in the panipuri is an apt metaphor for the diversity that comes together in India.
