A week in Aarohi

It has been close to two years that I have been associated with Aarohi, but never had a chance to live there. Come on a morning of Manthan, jump around the whole day, play with the kids and go back home and nothing more.

Lakshmi kept pushing me to live Aarohi in the O-campus; not simply for a day or two, but a whole work week.

I had procrastinated it sufficiently and ran out of valid reasons. I quickly browsed through my calendar and blocked the whole of Feb 12th to 16th to spend in Aarohi. Applied leave in the office and everyone in office started checking on my vacation plans and surprised to learn that I am going on a vacation to my child’s school! Like… “what kind of a vacation is that??!!”

Now vacation for an outdoor guy starts with dusting the ruck sack. Lakshmi gave me “what-are-carrying-in-such-a-big-sack” looks. Plan changes, I pick the kit bag that Lakshmi takes every week to Aarohi. However, everything else needed for a trek was still a part of the kit- besides a couple of pairs of clothes, head torch, sleeping mat, climbing shoes and running gear. Another thing that Lakshmi carefully advised me is to carry a book and a pen; very important! Without this, it is like walking to cricket crease without a bat.

My car team arrived at Aarohi at 10am along with Avani, Sammedh and Vaibhavi. Realized that I was already tired playing chit-chat games with the kids by the time I reached Aarohi. But soon to realize that once you enter into the green gates of O-campus, there is a new gush of energy awaiting you.

I had already planned three things for the week- Climbing-wall planning, Pasta cooking, one Jatre.

I took a whole day to absorb the Aarohi schedule-

6AM -       Wake-up (love the songs kids play as morning alarm, reminds me of Big-Boss wake-up)
6:30AM -  Sunshine (basically it is my time to give my gyan on how to run better)
7:30AM - Active ME (from not even able to mount to almost walking three full steps on the crazy slack-line)
8:30AM -   Get ready (mostly a finer face wash and combing)
9:15AM -   Planning in Apollo/ Dome (you better do this. Else, I will tell you what happens)
10AM -      Breakfast (the only time in the day you feel a pinch of hunger. Rest of the day you are mostly over-fed)
11AM -      Self time (here comes the bomber. If you have not planned well, you are vulnerable to be challenged for doing something unnecessary. This is when the real stuff happens in Aarohi)
1PM -     Lunch (another delicious meal just after 2 hours of breakfast. But if you delay this, be ready to get harassed from the washing area clean-up team)
3PM -        Jatre (very good sessions, I was a child myself in this time)
4PM -      Campus care (this is when you contribute to the campus. I was given the Biogas work. I totally loved it. A big shout to Chetan and Asavari for getting me onboard on this. This work could get dirty but it is very technical- weigh the waste, dump it in the biogas hopper, ram the waste in, pour an equivalent amount of water, ensure the gas tank gulps the whole of it without spitting on you. Trust me, it’s technical and challenging)
5PM -       Sports (if you do not have a pair of shoes, run to Kelamangalam and pick one)
6PM -       Get ready (this is when you really get ready after a tough day)
6:30PM -  Dinner (so early? NO! it is just you who have practiced dining along with the bats)
7:15PM -  Journal writing (reflect on the whole day and pen it down)
7:30PM -  Thought club (Hurray-Norray-Sorray- I loved it; and next day's announcements)
10PM -      Lights off

Coming to my plans...

Climbing wall

Ratnesh and I had a conversation and I had learnt his plans of building a heavy structure that could have a climbing wall, a squash room and a table-tennis room. So, I had made a mental plan to at least achieve finalizing the location in the campus and complete the marking of the structure layout. To my surprise in the first sitting itself, the children completely squashed the original plan. Basically we reinvented the context of climbing inside the campus. The 20ft climbing wall transformed into a 8ft bouldering wall. So, this could be done on any of the existing walls in the campus. After debating the structural stability of the eco-friendly walls inside the campus, we dramatically moved our eyes on the library bus. Coming to climbing holds, we decided to collect all the junk wood from the resources and transform them into climbing holds. There was a fountain of ideas and concerns erupting inside me considering the excitement of having a real climbing wall by the end of my week’s stay and the real challenges of not completing it. As a blessing we had a guest Shahzad that week who got excited just by the idea of punching climbing holds on the bus. We took close to 8 hours to put up our first climbing hold. Had to setup the wiring for the drill, discover that our government has invested enormous money to slap three sheets of shear metal rake to build a bus with book racks, super long bolts to be newly procured to pierce through three layers, and scout for holds out of virgin scrap.

First prototype hold right above the wheel

By end of Monday, we had a plan on paper. End of Tuesday, we had one prototype climbing hold punched on the bus. End of Wednesday, we had put up about 12 holds but had exactly knew the structure of the bus. End of Thursday, we had a charming 34 holds and our climbing wall ready to get torn by the kids.

Achilesh trying to fix a climbing hold sitting on Shahzad

Completed BBW (Bus Bouldering Wall)

Shahzad, who did all the heavy lifting on Thursday

On Friday, we had a dramatic inauguration arranged by Aparna and Lakshmi with the inaugural speech by Shahzad and a soulful Bharatanatyam performance by Aparna.

Now switching gears to Pasta cooking- cooking in Aarohi is not like cooking in your kitchen; you can’t simply appear in the kitchen and start cooking. Everything must be declared on that day’s planning time. Anything inside the kitchen should have the blessing of the kitchen manager. Pasta cooking is not a big deal if you have diligently watched the 2-minute video on YouTube. However, the video would not show how to cook for 25 people! That’s my challenge. Took help from Lakshmi to gauge the proportions for salt and spice and ended-up with a glamorous Tomato sauce Indian style pasta. I think it was not bad and boosted my confidence in cooking. So, Aarohi is a great training ground not just for kids.

Red sauce (Indian style) paste

In Jatre- I tried introducing myself elaborately of what I do in my office as an engineer. To start with we watched a couple of videos of gas turbine powered automobiles, and ended up almost designing power plant to setup inside Aarohi. In fact, a couple of kids asked for discount on a Rs.16 crore machine. What audacity! And that’s the beauty of Aarohi kids.

A week in Aarohi in a nutshell- You have daily rhythm, you are free to do what you want, you are responsible for the outcomes of what you are doing, your body is well nourished with good food, your brain is tickled at every step reasoning out why you are doing whatever you are doing, your soul is nourished being in a rustic ecosystem and a mindful crowd- be it the akkas, annas, kids or the facilitators. Everyone simply is in raw action.

As Prapulla reiterated once “the spelling of Aarohi is D-O-I-N-G”.