After a nearly 3 year break due to the Covid Pandemic, we were delighted to welcome the Class VII students and teachers from Vidyaranya School, Hyderabad to Yakshi’s Resource Centre in Sangareddy district on November 2-4th 2022. The visit was conceptualized as an immersive experience of the many dimensions of life (social-cultural-ecological) in a landscape that is geographically so close to their city. As part of their visit, the students explored the physical landscape in and around the resource centre, participated in seasonal tasks in the agriculture fields through which they learnt how the food they eat at the Resource centre is cultivated agro-ecologically and explored the built structures of the resource centre which is constructed of mud. They got a glimpse of the social realities of a village in Telangana, visiting Panyal village; meeting and conversing with the community, observing, documenting, mapping . They got to visit the Manjira river which flows past the village and listened to peoples experiences of how the construction of the Singur dam upstream impacted their relationship with the river. There was also an exhilarating interaction between Class VII students of the ZPHS High School Panyal, and the Vidyaranya students. They introduced themselves, sang songs, and found out about one another. Returning to the resource centre, there was time to process and share their experiences, and collectively reflect and dialogue on some of the questions that their visit through up specifically concerning (i) education, (ii) environment, farming and food, (iii) girls and women and (iv) caste .
The evening ended with a bonfire, much singing and dancing. It was an early start the following day, and sad farewells as they left soon after breakfast.
