Adventures of Raghu - Think before you trash it!

The afternoon rains had just ended and a beautiful cool breeze was blowing through Raghu’s room window.

One could hear a variety of birds chirping, insects buzzing here and there, dogs barking in the vicinity and an occasional vegetable vendor calling out to people to buy his vegetables. Meera had come over to Raghu’s house to work on their school science project on recycling. They had to make 'something useful' out of recycled material and were busy  researching ideas on what they could make.

Meera was on the computer, surfing 'recycled craft' while Raghu was taking a short break to do his favourite activity - look outside his bedroom window. “Raghu did you know the Rock Garden in Chandigarh has been made from recycled material?” said Meera excited as she surfed a site that spoke about the Rock garden. “Hmmm….” said Raghu busy looking at the variety of birds outside busy searching for food and water. There were two pigeons wandering around on the small balcony above his window looking for food to feed their little ones, the crows cawing and drinking water from a little puddle that had formed on the front porch,

two little sparrows that seemed to be fighting over a tiny worm, parrots flying around busily searching for some grains and a tiny hummingbird fluttering around on a nearby branch also seemingly in search of nectar.

“Hey Meera! I’ll be back in a minute.” said Raghu, cutting Meera in between her speech about the Rock garden as he rushed downstairs. Raghu went straight to the kitchen, took out some old bread pieces from the refrigerator, a small bowl full of water and went outside to put these out for the birds to eat.  Meera looked out from the window above a little amused, yet annoyed at Raghu's sudden distraction. “It isn't very good to feed all the birds bread Raghu!" called out Meera as she started walking downstairs to find some grains she could put out.

As she came downstairs she saw Raghu’s mother carrying a box of empty Bisleri and Coke bottles.

“Meera, I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to go throw these outside" said Raghu’s mother. “But aunty, these are plastic and cannot just be thrown with other waste. They need to be recycled” said Meera, revising what she had just read. “Yes, I know Meera, but how should I recycle them?” “Aunty can I please have a look.” Meera, looked at the 6 empty plastic bottles and smiled.

“Aunty, please give me the bottles, I promise to do something useful with them” said Meera excitedly. “Sure dear, go ahead” said Raghu’s mother happy at the thought. Meera went outside to Raghu. “Raghu, I have an idea for our project. Let’s make different types of bird feeders from plastic bottles!”

This idea caught Raghu’s fancy as he stopped and looked at Meera happily. He was not much of an artsy person and was bored with the idea of making art pieces or pen holders out of plastic cans and found this idea truly exciting. “Wow! Meera, you smarty pants! So how do we go about it?” asked Raghu.

"We will make a few feeders where we cut holes in the centre of the bottles big enough for birds to fit in and feed on the grains and others that we fit a wooden spoon through so that little birds can sit on it and eat the grains. Also we'll make a few tiny holes at the bottom so rain water can drain. For the Hummingbirds we'll have to make sweet water and fill it in the bottles. Their feeder will have a small tray with holes from which they can suck the water.

We'll hang some of them on a rope between the two tree branches outside your room and hang the others at different places around your garden. We can also use different kinds of grains in each of the feeders and watch what types of birds get attracted to which feeder. That way we'll get to enjoy watching the birds from your window and take relevant photos for our project!"

Raghu was thrilled. "Come on let's get to work Meera!" said Raghu as he shot upstairs eager to get started. Meera laughed. Inspiring ideas that were useful in the outdoors always worked to get Raghu rolling!

Adventures of Raghu - nature "clicks"

School had just begun. Dev had gone back to his home in Calicut, while Meera and Raghu were back to their usual school routine. Raghu was back to biking to school through the village and forest. He had not met his cobra friend, Rasiya, during the summer and one day saw him lazing on the branch of a tree on his way back from school. “How have you been Rasiya?” said Raghu excited to see his friend after a long time. “I’m fine Raghu, just napping after my lunch. Are you back to school now?” said Rasiya lazily. “Yes Rasiya, and our Science teacher announced a photo contest today.

She told us to go to outdoor areas around our house and take photos from nature. The best ones win a prize! I’m so excited and want to take the coolest photo ever! Will you help me Rasiya?”

With half closed eyes, Rasiya looked up towards Raghu – “Sure, what do you want me to do?” “Rasiya, can I take your photo on the tree? It would blow my teachers and classmates minds to see a snap of a cobra lazing on the tree!! I would love to see their faces!” laughed Raghu.

The usually wise Rasiya replied thoughtfully – “Raghu, I feel you should go explore around and see if you find anything intriguing and truly inspiring around your house, rather than just take a photo to show off. Go look around your backyard, the nearby village, you’ll find so many things you’d never have noticed.” Raghu realized what Rasiya was saying was true and biked off home after saying goodbye.

Once home, Raghu went to his backyard. He had to look around more, really see what all there was in his backyard. He found bugs and insects he had never seen before, there was a ladybug perched on the leaf just sitting in the sun,

an ant moving around busily carrying a tiny load like it meant the world to it, leaves lay on the ground in different patterns, coloured in all shades of green and even hints of different colours, twigs with multiple textures, the long and beautiful branches of the banyan tree. He carefully took each photo, kept the ones he liked and deleted the rest. They were good, but he had to explore more.

“Mother, I’ll be back” said Raghu, as he head towards the nearby village and forest.  On his way he found a flock of birds sitting on the tree, a young mother bird was feeding her baby birds in the nest.

There in the little lake was a man giving a herd of buffaloes their bath,

there were the beautiful paddy fields with the farmers singing and working in them, and there were the monkeys jumping around from branch to branch. He had seen all this before, but he had never really taken the time to stand and observe how totally vibrant and alive each animal, insect, tree, plant was.

As evening started to approach, Raghu tiredly walked back home. There was a high boulder near the tiny village pond on which he sat watching the sky. The sun was setting and he still had a lot of work to do for tomorrow. He had taken many photos and now had the task of choosing the best ones among them. As he sat watching the sunset, he was overtaken by the beauty of the setting sun. The shades of reds, oranges and yellows had mapped the entire sky, while the tone had been set by the chirping birds. Had he never paid attention to a sunset before? So fully involved in that moment of watching the sunset he became that he later realized he had forgotten to take its photograph. As Raghu walked back home he smiled, he realized he was taking back much more than just photos with him.

Adventures of Raghu - watch your step!

“Raghu, Meera and Dev! You three come down here right this moment” called out Raghu’s mother from the garden outside. “What is it now mother? We just did so much washing a few days back, now please let us play!” called back Raghu annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of his computer game. “Come down here, I need to show you something.” All three kids got up from their activities to go to the garden downstairs, not too happy with the sudden interruption.

There stood Raghu’s mother, inspecting the grass in the garden. “Look what you three musketeers have done to my lawn with your water fight last week!” said Raghu’s mother as she pointed to big brown patches of grass that lay crushed in the lawn.

“Sorry aunt Megha, we were just playing and running in the grass.” said Dev rather innocently, “none of us realized that we were spoiling the grass.”

While the three of them were talking, Meera had gone off to perform her own inspection of the damage that had been done in the lawn. Suddenly she came back with her eyes twinkling. Raghu knew the look well. Meera always had that look when she had come up with one of her brilliant ideas. “Okay Meera, whats your plan?” said Raghu. “Megha aunti, to ensure that your lawn isn’t trampled upon like this next time we can put stepping stones in your garden!” said Meera. “We just need to figure out how we can make these stepping stones!”

Everyone smiled at the idea in agreement. “Okay so now how do we make these stepping stones miss genius?” said Raghu to Meera. “Let’s get some concrete and water to make a paste, some plastic pans to set the concrete paste into a mould and some items like stones, glass pieces etc that we can decorate the moulds with!” interrupted Raghu’s mother.

“Why, you had already thought of this idea Megha aunti!?” laughed out Meera. “Yes dear, I am always one step ahead of you guys, otherwise how would I be able to manage three intelligent kids like you!” They all laughed.

On the terrace, Raghu’s mother had brought all the material. The three kids went to find materials they would decorate their stepping stones with, after which they returned to the terrace. Raghu’s mother had made the concrete paste and the three kids sat facing a big round plastic tray that served as a mould. As the concrete paste was poured, they got busy decorating their moulds, Raghu used some old glass beads he had lying around from some time ago, Meera used pieces of mosaic that she had collected and Dev used his hands and fingers to make hand and finger prints in the mould.

Two hours later, they had made 9 stepping stones.

“Let these dry today, we’ll come pick them up tomorrow.” Said Raghu’s mother as dusk set in.  

The next morning, the three excited children came to check their stepping stones and carried them to the garden downstairs. After placing them on the path, the three children began hopping and playing on their newly built path. Raghu’s mother stood watching them from the window upstairs. She laughed and clapped her hands -  “My three brilliant musketeers! There’s always a solution to every problem when you three are around!”

Want to try making your own stepping stones? 

Click here - http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/06/30/how-to-make-stepping-stones-lowes-giveaway/

Adventures of Raghu - the joys of water!!!

“Raghu, Meera and Dev, all of you come out here into the driveway and lawn to help me with some washing!” shouted Raghu’s mother from the lawn outside Raghu's window. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and the three kids were lazing around in Raghu’s room, busy on the computer and playstation. Raghu and Meera ran outside with Dev trotting along behind them slowly. “I don’t know why aunt Megha always has to call us to do chores around the house when we’re busy playing” complained Dev to himself grumpily.

The picture that lay outside was different from what they had expected though.

There were 3 buckets of water with a little bit of soap water in them, sponges, some cleaning brushes, water guns which were laying around from Holi  and the water pipe was placed on the side. “What are we supposed to do?” asked Raghu from his mother. “I want you all to clean the cars, driveway, water the lawn and clean the windows of the house. I know you guys will love this because it’s all water work, but be careful not to waste water” said his mother as she walked into the house. "This is gonna be fun!" called out Meera as she went to pick up a bucket of soap water and sponge.

The three of them were immediately down to work. They all loved getting wet in water in the summer and just needed a reason. Raghu’s mother knew that and had found just the right way to get these kids outside, do some work and have fun!

Sponge in hands, Raghu got to work cleaning up his bike and scrubbing the two cars in the driveway with the soap water.

Meera began scrubbing the window panes outside the house, while Dev began watering the plants in the lawn with the water pipe. Every now and then Dev would sprinkle a little water on himself and laugh in the sheer joy of it!

Everyone was thoroughly busy and didn’t know how time flew by. “Hey Dev, I need the pipe now to wash off the soap from the cars!” called out Raghu.

“Coming!” said Dev as he turned the pipe towards the driveway, straight onto the car where Raghu was standing. Raghu was completely drenched and charging towards Dev. “I’m gonna get you guy!”  “Okay guys, Let’s first finish the work then we’ll play” called out Meera responsibly. Both boys laughing came back to the driveway and started cleaning the soap off the cars and bike with the water pipe, playing with the water as they did so!

“Now the window panes!” said Meera as she took the pipe and cleaned the soap off the window panes outside the house. As she was finishing, she didn’t notice, both Raghu and Dev steal up behind her with water guns in hands.

Shouting, running in the lawn, playing, screaming, laughing, all three of them took turns to get each other wet with the remaining soap water in the buckets and the water pipe.

A little later Raghu’s mother came outside with popsicles in bowls for the three kids.

“Okay kids you deserve this after all the work you’ve gotten done!” she said as she handed each of them a rainbow colored popsicle. “This was so much fun aunt Megha!” cried out Dev as he hugged his aunt. They all laughed and enjoyed their popsicles. What better way to spend a hot summer evening!