It's been a couple of weeks since we packed our bags from Bangalore and moved to Thulir in Sittlingi village, Dharmapuri. We have been to Thulir on a couple-of-week visits over the last three yrs, this time around we plan to stay for six months and see if we enjoy it enough to stay on.
We have settled into our new home: a cosy single room, a kitchen we have access to next door and a fenced area for Shifu to be outdoors at times.
I have started taking electronics classes for the youth. There is now a workshop that has come up next to Thulir and the youth are doing welding, electrification of the workshop. Others are working on the land, managing the kitchen, craft and a couple on electronics. They are doing these in much longer sessions than before.
Interested kids have taken slots times beyond their regular classes or in their free time. My slots span from 9:00 a.m. to 9:40 p.m. with sessions from 1 kid to 5 kids in a slot. I'm also taking math/electronics classes for the new batch. It's been fun to be able to give focussed attention and track how each child is doing. It's also great fun teaching children who are enthusiastic to learn. The amazing thing is that I have actually managed to find time to read the learning perl book and even complete the exercises :).
Ani has made a couple of vegetable beds and has planted radish, chili, bitter gourd, snake gourd, ridged gourd and some greens. She has also been putting the solar cooker that had been quite unused in Bangalore to active use given the sun here. Now we actually look forward to the sunny days for our breads and cakes. It has been raining in the last four days, around 2 cm cumulative so far (the kids measure this). This is nice too, especially for Shifu, who likes to play in the puddles the next day.
I have really enjoyed a few experiences like eating a ripe fruit off a Guava tree (I shared it with Ani), watching really low clouds on the hills surrounding this valley, finding time to do the things I have wanted to and spending more time with Ani and Shifu.
