When the rains finally set in this year, I got a gang of workers from Valagapattu to clear some areas,dig pits and plant out another set of saplings. It was a gang of oldies who have worked for us for a few years now. Because of  my trips to Bangalore, it so happened that I called them to work, once...

It all began innocuously enough on our long rambles at Auroville  (That's yet another long overdue blog post). Sonati got scratched by a  thorn on her ankle. In Madras, she was limping a little, and Ani bought her some Band-Aids for the rest of her journey and I thought the matter closed. The boys a...

Varun's raison d'etre for the Bangalore trip, the Mukhtiyar Ali concert at Good Earth Palm Grove was superlative. For the boys, it was their first live concert; and being familiar with the songs was a great bonus. Varun was quite busy throughout; listening; trying to record songs that we did not h...

This is  the first post I am writing, not sitting in Thekambattu. This year, we have made up in travelling what we avoided in the previous twelve :-) This trip to Bangalore at the end of the month has become part of my calendar: Meet Badri Baba and a Sunday meting at CFL. Another post I have not got...

After what seems like about two drought years, September has been kind to us. There has been a reasonable amount of rain, and it actually seems to be a monsoon season.

After a Badri-drought of four months, all four of us were at home together during CFL's September break.

And yesterday afternoon...

One Tuesday, a few weeks ago, while I was away, Randall came to spend the night here. Soon after he arrived, an old man appeared in the front verandah, and Sonati told Randall that someone had come to see him.

Randall was taken aback: "How had the news of his arrival here got around so fast?". Any...

..were two dots, perhaps 3mm apart. But we need to start the story a little before that:

On the 10th of December,after lunch, the boys packed a picnic chocolate cake, and set off to "Cycle Rock". They left just before 11 o'clock, and were supposed to return before 3 o'clock. Sonati and I did a bit...

Sonati and Badri Baba headed home to my parents' place in Salem after a hard fought battle with the machine that is Gokulam Hospitals. When we were admitted at "Emergency" on 12-12-12, I had had to pay an advance of Rs. 10,000. On the morning of the 13th, when the doctor said that Badri could be dis...

I am surprised it took me so long to discover this and discard my white collar... Many of you may have been irritated by the collar on T-Shirts. Well I just cut it off and it works like a dream, and looks swank in the bargain. Try it. [caption id="attachment_419" align="aligncenter" width="450"] No...

The elephants brought home to us the fact that to actually do something on the ground is indeed very difficult.

A quick update: After the baby elephant died in childbirth, the herd stayed on for a while and then moved (minus one elephant) away to other Forest divisions. Now, after two months roam...

Govindraj is our milkman and neighbour. His daughter Deepa lives and studies at a school near Valapady. This summer, he was very upset because she had failed in English. He wanted us to give her "tuition" (That's a Tamil word now) in English.

Our usual "solution" to this request is to convert th...

[caption id="attachment_376" align="aligncenter" width="318"] Russell's "Shatranj ke Khiladi"[/caption]

Bagli was a small town, when first we heard the name

Then Bagli was our bounciest dog, always ready for a game.

Now Bagli is buried, and haunts our days and nights

With memories of playing ball, shredding coconut-husk and other memorable sights.

From when she was a little pup, we had train...

  [googlemaps http://maps.google.co.in/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=202607631785174096431.0004c03483e9d9265699c&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&source=embed&ll=11.867351,78.674469&spn=0.235189,0.291824&z=11&output=embed&w=450&h=350]

Last week, the boys were all set to walk down to Sittilingi through the Aruvankadu forest...

A couple of days ago, when Sonati and I were walking back through the fields, from Ramsub and Rama's place, we were struck by the fact that walking, too, is part of the culture of the place that is fast disappearing.

When we moved here, 12 years ago, there was one bike in Valagapattu (which has ab...

Chandrakesh is a student at the IDC at IIT-B. We met him in November 2010 when we attended the Damroo workshop. He visited Thekambattu in September 2011 as part of his project  work: He has made a film on Understanding Urbanisation.

Luckily for us , he fell in love with this place, and his film...

I remember that at a GBM in H7 long ago, I had said that the eloquent and the loud ones will always have their say, but someone should speak for the tentative and the unsure, as well. So, though this may turn out to be a contentious post, here goes: (If everyone who choses to do so, will please comm...

[caption id="attachment_327" align="aligncenter" width="218" caption="Duraisamy's lock and key trick"][/caption]

Many of you have heard about the Disappearance of Duraisamy from us: I never got around to writing about it because it was so depressing. At first his decline was harmless. Once, whe...

This one is for the boys for whom details must be detailed. I had to collect all my tickets and keep them safe for them.

After having made and partaken of Varuna's birthday masala dosas, I started off from home, walking. The first two bikes to whiz past had three men on them, the third had just...

You may or may not have seen it here, but you can now see it here.