Feature in Citizen Matters

I was interviewed by Vinita last month and her article on Citizen Matters, Bangalore is out!

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/4435-meet-the-gastronaut

Planting an Edible Garden at Galleryske

I recently hosted my second "Planting an Edible Garden" workshop with around 15 kids at Galleryske, Bangalore. The age group ranged from 3-8 years and I began with a story telling session of "A Garrulous Gastronauts' Guide". My audience was quite engaged and interactive during the book reading, giving their inputs and opinions about the meanings of words and the characters. While explaining the concept of food miles (the distance our food travels from farm to plate) I was correctly informed about travel routes from Bangalore to America, right down to where I might have to take a connecting flight!

 

We then broke for a delicious brownie break (chocolate and beetroot whole wheat brownies courtesy Aashti) before starting on our planting session. I had pre-soaked coriander and fenugreek / methi seeds for the participants to plant. Everyone got a big terra-cotta pot for the coriander and a smaller one for the methi. We dug into a large pile of red soil with our bare hands to ready the pots for planting. I remember as a child I loved playing in sand pits, gardening with my grand uncle and splashing around in puddles. It's unfortunate to see how so many kids now days shy away from getting a little dirty. Is it parents who are encouraging their children to become germ-phobes or TV commercials going on about kitanos that cause so much damage? I hope the present and future generation of children reach for a pile of mud instead of a bottle of hand sanitizer every now and then. 

After planting the seeds everyone watered and hand drew labels for their pots with much gusto. I hope everyone is watering their pots regularly…

 

Before the parents came we all sat down for a light lunch of pasta, lime juice and fruit salad. I was quite disheartened when some of the previously eager participants refused to eat. When I reminded them that to be food explorers like Cheeku they would have to try out all types of food with enthusiasm instead of being encouraged, I was clearly told what their food preferences were and how they know exactly what they liked and disliked. 

I think it's our responsibility as adults, whether parents, older siblings, aunts, uncles to be more open minded and enthusiastic about the world around us, especially around the children in our lives. In the mean time I'll definitely try and work on my workshop to make Cheeku's ideals have a bit more of an impact! 

Photographs by Revati Pandya

Children's Workshop

Cheeku goes to School

I recently had the opportunity to visit my alma mater- SahyadriSchool, KFI based outside Pune placed atop a three pointed hill! I studied there from the 5^th to 10^th grade and basically grew up among friends and caring teachers. While in Sahyadri I did a book reading of “A Garrulous Gastronaut’s Guide” with the class 4 and 5 students- and my feelings may be biased but they were the liveliest and most enthusiastic bunch I ever read to!

The kids loved Cheeku and were excited about the prospect of starting gastronaut clubs of their own. They said they would try planting seeds from the oranges they were going to get at tea time and try convincing their house parents and class teachers to let them try their hand at cooking. These kids were pretty used to activities like gardening and the school campus even has its own vermiculture hut and bio-gas station!

Since this was also the oldest batch I’ve ever read to they were familiar with terms like organic and eco-friendly. 

The students also liked the illustrations and wished me the best of luck with trying to get the book published. Some even signed the Gastronaut Manifesto at the end of the book to prove their commitment to me. The overall experience was wonderful and made me want to visit again to facilitate Gastronaut activities with the junior school students... perhaps sometime soon! 

Shopping in Kolkatta

For my first official post of the New Year (yes I know it’s very late!) I want to share one of my favourite experiences from Kolkatta. Though I was born there, I don’t have much of an attachment to the city and try my best to limit my visits there as the weather doesn’t agree with me at all! However, there is one thing that Kolkatta is renowned for- and that is cheap and delicious food, and while its fantastic to savour all the gastronomic delights (phuchka and egg rolls anyone?), I find it even more fun to shop at the local markets there. 

Fish that is so fresh it still wriggles around in the metal tank like trays... tiger prawns so big I mistook them for lobsters at first, and my absolute favourite- hilsa. Pronounced ilish in Bengali, this fish is very hard to come by, quite expensive and full of teeny tiny bones that you have to expertly remove or suffer. This sea fish that lays its eggs in large rivers is usually caught in the Padma river and imported from Bangladesh. It tastes best when cooked in a light mustard sauce.

Even the vegetables in Kolkatta are more vibrant and I always discover something new during my jaunts to buy special produce that you don’t get in Bangalore- large lemons that have the most delicious fragrance, kind of like keffir limes, or jaggery made of palm sugar. This time I came across fat chillies that were dark purple and looked quite similar to aubergines.

Another favourite are these tiny shops that sell all sorts of candy like condiments,- I visited one in Lake Market. They also sold puffed rice balls coated with jaggery and other sweet assortments. These stores are tiny and hard to navigate but so much fun.

Well, for me anyway! 

Hunting & Gathering

The second article for Pratham is out... I love working on these articles as it keeps me in touch with the Garrulous Gastronaut!

http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/10/hunting-and-gathering.html

Femina- August 24th, 2011

The project got me on  Femina... :D

I know I'm a little late in posting about it, but better late than never! I was interviewed by the Bangalore editor of Femina in March and the article was finally out in the August, Power issue.

Blogging for Pratham Books...

I will be doing a series of articles based on the food related topics that the Garrulous Gastronaut explores for Pratham Books. The first article is out and you read it here: http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/09/from-farm-to-plate.html


Pratham Books is a non-profit trust that publishes high quality books for children at affordable prices and in multiple Indian languages.

Article in Gaia Magazine

I was recently approached my Bhoomi Network to write an article about the project for their magazine- Gaia. 

Bhoomi Network is a not-for-profit organisation which is committed to education and training for sustainable living. You can visit their website at http://www.bhoominetwork.org/

If you're interested in subscribing to their magazine, you can find the details here http://www.bhoomimagazine.org/join-us-now

Core77 Design Awards

I had entered the Garrulous Gastronaut for a design competition a while back... Unfortunately I didn't win but it was worth a shot! However my video testimonial was chosen among many as a good one- which was a REAL surprise to me! You can see it on the link below.

http://www.core77designawards.com/2011/submission-videos/

Postcarden

A wonderful idea for growing a herb garden by Postcardem that can even inspire people to re-look at their balconies- window sills... etc.. to make them into little green islands! 

"Leagues beyond just-add-water trinkets, this vegetable ink-based greeting card sends sentiments - with seeds. Just pop open the card, water the base, and sprinkle its packet over the diorama. In just a few days, you'll have unruly sprouts of "Lepidium sativum" (that's watercress) furling through the paper arches of your mini botanical garden. "


Instead of watercress for those of us in India, we can try growing Coriander - Dhaniyaa, or Fenugreek - Methi as they grow pretty fast! You can also check out the Postcarden website at http://www.postcarden.com/shop/

Planting an Edible Garden

My workshop at iLeap got over yesterday and I had two participants- Tejas and Ishan. The enthusiastic duo were a LOT of fun to work with and I'm glad to have added two more members to the Gastronauts Club!

Day 1:
I started with a book reading of "A Garrulous Gastronaut's Guide" after which we discussed the different activities Cheeku does in the story. This was followed by an activity where the aspiring Gastronauts made their own table mats by sticking character cut outs on A3 sheets of paper which was later laminated.

 

Day 2:

We began work on our "Edible Garden Guide Books"... Each plastic container that was used as a planting pot was labeled with different coloured papers and the book had a corresponding coloured tab that made an easy navigation system in the book. The Guide Books had information on how to grow a few basic herbs and plants at home using seeds from the kitchen. We were going to plant coriander, fenugreek or methi, and chilli. We also soaked all our seeds and loosely packed our planters with soil.

Day 3: Continued our Edible Garden Guides and planted our seeds...

Day 4:

Our last action packed day we watered the planted seeds, made a home made insect spray to ward off any bugs that might bother the future seedlings and made a tangy mixed salad with watermelon, grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers with a lemon, salt and pepper dressing.

DELICIOUS!

Bees and Earthworms are good for plants... so no bug spray on them!

Gastronaut's in the DNA paper :)

Article in the DNA newspaper

View more documents from PushpiBagchi.

Jamie Oliver's fruit gyan!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/news/the-world-of-fruit

Claudia Pearson

I came across the work of this fantastic Illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY who has done a lot of work in the area of getting kids interested in food and food in general!
Check out this wonderful "Buy Local" coloring book that is on Sale online on Etsy, its just one of the many examples of her simple, but charming illustration style.
Below is another sample of her work, a poster on the different types of Squash available during the winter:

You can view all her work at http://www.claudiapearson.com/

The Garrulous Gastronaut's Summer Workshop

I will be holding a Gastronaut Workshop at iLeap Academy in Bangalore in April. The 4 day workshop is open for all children who are interested and in the age group of 7-10 years. For details please contact S Singhal at singhal@ileap.in or you can call her at +91 9945804444. 

I designed the workshop based on the activities Cheeku and his gregarious gang of Gastronauts get up to and along with a bunch of new activities... HOPE YOU CAN MAKE IT!!! :)

Book Reading at Trio World School

I got the opportunity to do a book reading of A Garrulous Gastronaut’s Guide at Trio World School, Bangalore today. I was invited by their librarian Miss Nisha. They were celebrating the Common Wealth countries and students were dressed up in outfits that showed their nationalities so it was an interesting and colourful audience! The group that I read out consisted of young readers in nursery aged 4 up to Grade 6 students. It was a bit intimidating to read out to such a large group but the students were attentive and enthusiastic which was great.

I projected the book on a screen so that everyone could see the book as I read and could read along with me.

After the book reading I asked the students and teachers present if they wanted to ask me anything about the book or anything else.

The most memorable questions were:

Q) Do you like books? – By a nursery student.

A) Yes I most certainly do! I love books... you can get lost in a completely different world between two pages of a book!

Q) Why did you use those quirky names for your characters? – By one of the teachers.

A) In my family and even among a lot of my friends we always use pet names or nick names when we talk to each other. I think pet names added a bit of humour to the characters and made them more personal.

Q) Why did you write a book about food? –By one of the grade 4 or 5 students

A) I feel that now days we don’t think much about or really appreciate the value of the food we eat because everything is so easily available to us. But we really should think about the story of where our food comes from, starting from the farmer who grows fruits and vegetables on his farm to the cooked meal on our plates. There is so much value to our food beyond the price we pay at a super market- and I wanted to share this thought so I decided to write a book about it so that when people read it, they think about their food too.

Q) How old are you? – By a cheeky grade 1 or 3 student

A) 22... Yes, I know I don’t look much like an author- but I did write this book!

Q) How did you put the book in the computer?- By one of the really young Grade 1 or 2 students
A) To make my book I first typed the story in the computer and then made the drawings by hand which I then put in the computer by using a scanner. I then put the story and the illustrations together on the computer so that I can make lots of copies of the book by printing them rather than having to draw the pictures and writing the story  again and again each time I want a new copy.

Q) Will you write more books? - don’t remember who asked me this?!!

A) I certainly hope to!

We ended the session with a planting party just like how Bobo suggests in the book! Miss Nisha had soaked some coriander seeds overnight and each class got 3 pots to plant the seeds. It felt good to do the planting session after the book reading because coriander planting is Cheeku’s first activity as a Gatsronaut!

Unfortunately it was a very hurried affair as the students had to meet their principal after that for a prize distribution session for people who had come with the best national outfits!

I hope the students take good care of their coriander! 

Cheeku's spreading his food knowledge!

I've been in touch with the people who work for a fantastic publication house called Pratham Books. They've put up a post about the Time Out magazine's feature on A Garrulous Gastronaut's Guide. You can check out the Pratham Books blog and the post here:
http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/03/book-to-get-kids-to-think-about-food.html

Gastronaut's in Time Out Magazine!

The project has been featured in Time Out magazine- Bengaluru edition. Pick up a copy if you can!

Gastronaut's in Time Out

View more documents from PushpiBagchi.

At the Exhibition in Freedom Park, Bangalore

Just finished setting up before the inauguration. 

Had a good response on the first day. Hope the remaining 2 days go well too!
*fingers crossed*