“This year the school birthday won’t be there, we can’t come to The Valley?”, asked Sumithra. Hidden in the question were a myriad emotions – a profound sense of connection to the place that had nurtured our program, a reverence for the land and the bountiful nature, the bonds of affection shared with the many people who supported us and the pride of accomplishment, as we displayed and sold our products – among friends and strangers.
The School birthday, celebrated by The Valley every year on July 17th is a school event unlike any other. Coinciding with the Aashada month, the “Aadi” festival, symbolising the welcoming of the monsoon and good times in all southern states, the School birthday is a homage to the land, the soil, the earth that nourishes and supports all of us. Led by the hands of children. Caring for the land, growing the forest, sapling by sapling, year after year.
The members of Kaigal Trust and FEEL have been part of this sacred event, ever since the first bottle of honey we put up for sale in 2003. Working with the land in a drought prone area, restoring its biodiversity, strengthening the tribal communities with our fair trade practices for forest produce and supporting livelihoods for the local people through a small scale enterprise for value added forest produce and tending to a nursery for forest biodiversity and medicinal plants, our work was the physical manifestation of the same sacredness, connecting the nature with the lives of people.
The virus seemed to have halted all this. As the Valley School closed its doors for the first time in 42 years.
But how can you stop the heart? And suppress the connection? The team members working at the Kaigal conservation centre decided to celebrate the land at Kaigal. Made happy with the bountiful rains this season, the Kaigal Valley was vibrant and welcoming, teeming with all kinds of life forms. To express our reverence for the land that sustains us and to stand in solidarity with an institution that supports us, the team planted many varieties of saplings in and around our Kaigal Conservation Centre. It was an act of worship, almost as if it was our own festival at home, complete with a celebratory lunch.
And with a prayer for the well-being of all life on Earth.