Dear Parents,

This is the last newsletter of this year. As I wrap this up, I have a range of mixed emotions. The first emotion that comes to me is of exasperation. Pinki and I missed Poorva greatly last week, she had gone to a wedding in Nashik. That’s when we most needed her sanity!

Last week’s stint of setting up stalls for business was largely successful. All of those who participated worked hard (in their own ways :) few worked really hard and a few goofed around). They earned about 3500 Rs in 3 days, which is very good. Though the temperament of the facilitators went through the roof. Kids would just run off with their stuff to sell without sometimes consenting with the facilitators. To keep a tab on who is where outside was a challenge. They wouldn’t come for lunch when called. Cleaning up sounded latin to them. The corridors and bathrooms were spewed with their dirty footsteps. Glasses and vessels showed up everywhere, on the keyboards, on the window sills, in the compound. Kids were shouting at each other for their turns. You got the picture right? We also screamed but nothing changed. I got few more grey hair, that’s all…:)

Second emotion is that of melancholy, I think. This feeling has been there with me throughout this academic year. It is similar to a feeling that a child goes through when her friends who have come home to play, eventually leave at the end of the day. Three families left us at the beginning of last semester. Then Kavin, Bhavani and Mukhil left. Last month Atul and Abir left us. At the end of this sem Nandini, Tim and their kids are leaving. Few others are also thinking of leaving. Some can’t avoid but move on, some are looking for greener pastures (literally) and some have left because LC didn’t fit them. By the end of this semester we might be less than 20 children. And it’s difficult to see people go. Many parents come to meet us for admissions and we have elaborate discussions with them. They look happy to have finally found us. These people hear us talking and it seems to me that they agree largely to what we are saying. But hardly anyone comes back. Can we really do anything about it? Maybe not. Some of us are caught up in our circumstances and we got to do what we got to do.

One of the other feeling that I have been struggling with, is this constant agitation within me to find balance in disorder or noise (not the sound). Sometimes there is a total disarray of things in LC (not with everyone but a few). How do you find peace when things are turbulent outside? It’s beyond the realm of children’s behaviours, it’s inter personal and relationships with them. What do you say when a child says that I am not interested in anything. I don’t have any goals. It’s a nice challenge when a child steps out of the box and imagines something crazy. But when their sheets of paper are blank, it’s a facilitation dead end. Ah! this is something they don’t talk in conferences, I think to myself. Another instance is when children shy away from showing accountability for their work which they have shown interest in. They hide behind the agency of free will and self direction. They say stuff like I was not so so much interested or my interest in this thing is over. Are they misappropriating the agency of self direction and choice? I know its a struggle and taking deep breaths might help. And maybe things have to get bad before it gets better. So fingers crossed forever!

Moving onto some happier emotions…the fourth emotion is that of a sense of accomplishment, like a job-well-done sort of feeling. For this newsletter I thought I will summarise this whole year’s visits and trips we have done. Here’s a remembering of some of them:

Our trip to Sondai Fort in January. A fun trekking trip which we went with all the families, except only a few who didn’t come. In Feb we went to the SIES college for a day long Science Fair. Kids saw some cool experiments at their Physics lab and some weird stuffs, like snake skins and monkey brains. Our trip to LSuC in Sardarshehar in March. We were a good group of 35+ and travelling in train was equally memorable. The conference was heart warming where we could see so many families and individuals coming together with diverse backgrounds and stories. Philosophies and few practices albeit not complying to few of our “likings” nonetheless a memorable event. :) In April some of us went to Aarohi and BeMe, to explore their spaces. We got to see how their spaces function and what their day-to-day workings are. That’s when I realised that sometimes theory looks different when practiced. I could relate to many things that is happening at our space. In August we visited the Ganapati workshop in Parel, the place where Gods were being made. Our trip to Murbad to Nitin and Arpita’s farm in August. We did rice plantation and kids had a ball at the check dam.  In September we took kids to the Borivali National park from the Thane side. We went on a quest to find insects, birds and wild plants.

The most rocking trip was when we all went to Neral for an overnight stay in October. And finally our trip to IDEC conference in Kathmandu. I have learnt a lot and met so many different people from all over the world. It was truly inspiring. That leaves me with a feeling of hope and assurance.

The last feeling is that of excitement and anticipation. We are co organising the 2024 InDec and Chalshiksha in Panchgani. Our kids are fund raising for their trip to this conference, so there is a lot of anticipation for them. They want to continue with their stalls once we reopen. They have big dreams of funding their trip. They are working for it and sweating it out.

That’s all from this year 2023! Have a great new year!