We need volunteers !

We need volunteers !

We are proud to inform you that we have added another location to the buDa Folklore Map. We are setting foot in Angadibail ,Ankola! In addition to our existing centre at Honnavar, the new one at Ankola will offer students and researchers a wider perspective on folk culture, environment and sustainable development.

While we are in the process of making the Folklore Research and Study centre at  Angadi bail functional by June 2012, we would like to have volunteers to help us set-up our new unit.

Location 

buDa folklore have come out with a new  set up @Angadibail 40km from Ankola town spread over in 16 acres of fertile land and surrounded by western Ghats and picturesque of hills.

                                     

                   Water is abundant in the form of streams and natural fountains

                      Angadibail is a perfect blend of malnad and costal weather

1. Green architecture and design - Starts in the month of   May

Existing building requires modification in way that reflects Sustainable architecture with traditional construction methods under the lens of environmental consciousness Infrastructure Building. In the area of engineering, design and architecture - We are looking for enthusiasts, specialists and professionals who can design:  an art & interaction space community kitchen and utility space , rooms / dormitories for visiting students, artisans and facilitators. and eco-friendly toilets and bathrooms.,

We want volunteers who are open to brainstorm ideas, draw-up a blueprint and guide the local folk in implementation of the plan and construction. For the construction, we would like to use locally available material to ensure it is sustainable, conducive for the local environment and cost effective.

Volunteers will be provided,

•             Simple food and basic accommodation during the stay.

•             Support of the locals in the construction activity

•             Construction material 

2. Livelihood programme – Starts in the month of   May

It is the season for kokum fruit and the local villager’s largely ignore the value of this fruit .They dry the fruit in an unhygienic way any sell in the local market for throw away prices They are not equipped with  modern processing methods to preserve the juice and bottling techniques

The seeds were used to make kokum butter which has great medicinal value and we lost this tradition.

In the area of sustainable development, engineering and food science we are looking for enthusiasts, and specialists who can help us preserve the Kokum fruit that is available in plenty in this part of the Western Ghats.

Kokum is used to make a local delicacy called solkadi and is also used to make a great cooling health drink - Kokum juice/Sherbet. These delicacies can be made round the year provided the fruit is dried and preserved in the summer months. We would like volunteers to teach and demonstrate to the local village women - hygienic, simple and cost effective ways to dry and preserve this fruit. In the long run, this could also provide an alternate means of livelihood for the village folk.
Volunteers will be provided,

•             Simple food and basic accommodation during the stay.

•             Support of the locals in the food processing activity

•             Materials required in building a simple drying unit.

The above-mentioned project – “Preserving the kokum fruit” is an urgent requirement. We would like to initiate this project as soon as possible as the fruiting season slows down by end of May.

3. Research and Documentation of the Kare okkalu community.

We are documenting the culture and folklore of kare-okkalu community who live in this belt. Individuals who know both Kannada and English and passionate about indigenous culture may apply. Individuals with a prior fieldwork experience will have an added advantage. 

Volunteers will be provided

·                     Simple food and basic accommodation during the stay.

·                     Local travelling allowance

·                  Local Guide.

4. Upcoming programmes and projects:

We also need volunteers for upcoming programmes such as

-To run community based study tour programmes mainly for schools and gap year students. The volunteers’ roles have included designing and anchoring study programs for the students and various workshops for the community.

Experience sharing

In addition to work, the volunteer will also be expected to produce an article, drawings or photo essay about an aspect of their experience and learning. This is for publication on buda website ,our blogs and publications

Please note that volunteers will have to make their travel arrangements to Ankola. Ankola is very well connected by KSRTC and private buses from Bangalore.

Individuals, who are interested in volunteering for either of the above programs, please contact us folkloreindia@gmail.com

How to reach there

In the Google map search for buD folklore or click the following URL link

http://g.co/maps/fexct

The facility

At present, there is a small outhouse with two rooms; one room is being used as kitchen. There is a siddi family looking after the place. They will cook for us and we need to provide the rations.

Culinary Trail : Part 2 - The Chronicles

It is the 14^th of March, 6:30 am. Honnavar spring morning at its best. We get a chirpy call from Aditi & Mina, they inform us that their team is waiting at SDM College. Off we go to receive them and first surprise of the day - Team of young chefs – average age being 7 years.

   

Facilitators at team buDa were undoubtedly happy to be amidst children. It was a wonderful experience to see the little ones jus woken up from their sleep trudging with their bag-packs and eyes all observant about the new surroundings and people. At the same time the team was confused, curious and wondered how these children will cope with the culinary challenges lined up for the next couple of days.

Challenge for Day 1:  Confluence at the local market

The task for the day was to visit the local market and source any vegetable or fruit or root or green leafy vegetable or nuts that they haven’t seen in Bangalore!  To start with, everybody did wonder if that is possible as Bangalore and Honnavar are still in the same state – Karnataka.   

The group was split into two teams and each team was given a budget of fifty rupees to complete the task. The teams nominated their respective treasurers to handle the money and it was agreed that everybody in the team would discuss before making the final decision on how to spend the money.

The local market was eye-candy indeed for the little ones. It was interesting to see the group dynamics and the maturity of 7 year olds in curtailing their desires of buying catapults, handmade windmills, ice candies and other colourful toys in the market. It was tough decision making for them – unappealing roots and leaves to eat Vs interesting and colurful hand made toys.

So, what did the teams buy?

Team 1: A bag full of Soppu. They were happy that they got a discount from the store and saved Rs 10 !!

Team 2: 275gms of Kokum for Kokum juice. They fell head over heels seeing the dried and shrivelled purple colour fruit. It was a unanimous decision - The brown and hairy roots lost the battle to kokum. 

Challenge for Day 2 :  –  Master Chef competition. 

3 groups - 3 different dishes – & Master Chef style of tasting. Jus that the panel didn’t have 3 but 20 tasters who would critically review and give feedback on possible changes to the recipe to suit their taste buds.

Team 1:  Was entrusted with the task of making Kai - Hallu - Kadabu.If this dish were to figure on the menu of a upscale restaurant in Bangalore, the menu would read – “Steamed cucumber and rice dumplings cooked in banana leaves and served with the coconut milk” 

With Vijaya-akka and Gowri-akka as their facilitators, the little master chefs were at it in all earnest – from grating the cucumbers and grinding the coconut on the granite stone to making the dumplings, carefully wrapping them in banana leaves and steaming them.

Team 2:  Tambulis and Kashayas.

‘Amma’ was clearly the favourite teacher among the children and this group was over joyous about having her as their facilitator. The hush–hush conversations among the children revealed that ‘Amma’ had magic in her hands. You ask them the rationale and the answer is: How else can one make thirst quencher tambulis to die for, healthy - coloured juices from flowers and bark of trees and kashayas that tasted yummy and have one wanting for more?? !!

Team 3: Soppu and Mango Pickle.

This team’s challenge was to make a side dish with the soppu they sourced from the market the previous day and make an instant mango pickle to ring in the onset of summer.

With all chopping boards and knives hijacked by other teams, this team was given the ‘thuri mane’ to use. There was competition from all in the team not just to use it but animated conversations on how their grannies use it till date in their ancestral homes/native towns.

While Nirmala-akka, the facilitator for this group was wondering her team would fare given the tough task of using the ‘thuri mane’ – they surprised her on how their tiny yet nimble fingers can slowly but steadily get through the task of chopping the greens and the mangoes.

Besides these complex tasks assigned on Day 1 & 2, the children also got a hands on experience in making:

* Huri akki undi -  Multigrain,fat and gluten free ladoos. They thoroughly enjoyed the process of grinding all the ingredients, moulding hot ladoos and popping in the fresh hot ladoos!

* Divshis - Desi version of momos. It was almost a clay-modelling class in session. The shapes and sizes that were moulded from rice flour dough were fascinating!

* Shavige - Rice Noodles. Besides the grinding stone and the ‘Thuriy mane’ the wooden ‘shavige’ maker caught their fancy. The shape of this kitchen tool reminded them of the hand pump and it intrigued them that fine rice noodles were made from the monster like thing.

* Toda Devu - Hot Crepes.  These are thin crepes made from rice flour and jaggery. The minute the thin batter is spread on the pan, folded neatly and placed on the plate in vanishes into thin air. There was stiff competition between Vijaya- akka and the chefs (who by now transformed into food tasters) on the skill front: Skill of making these crepes Vs the skill of deftly whacking away the yummy crepes from the plate. 

The remark from one such food taster, felt like an award for Vijaya-akka and Gowri-akka, ‘….these crepes are better than the ones you get in U.B.City in Bangalore.’ It also got the food tasters wondering if the chefs got the original recipe from their Portuguese or British ancestors??!!

We didn’t really conduct a survey on what are the top 10 foods they enjoyed, but purely going by the taste meter and a rough estimate of the number of units consumed per head, the Top 10 would look like:

1) Lemon grass tambuli

2) Instant Mango pickle

3) Kokum juice

4) Holige

5) Toda Devu

6) Divshi

7) Kotte Idlis

8) Bay leaf sweet

9) Plain Shavige

10)Kai Halu Kadabu

The absolute NO- NO on the school kitchen menu would be Ragi Ambli. While they had good fun and competition using the grinding stone to grind ragi, the taste of the ambli didn’t win their taste buds.  

“All work and no play can make Jack a dull boy” – To keep the spirits high the chefs were entertained with folk games, folk art form – Shedi Kale, mat weaving, leaf craft, interaction with the village school children and some fun at the beach.

Some moments captured during their playtime. 

The Culinary Trail :Part 1 - The Genesis

Write up by Bhargavi from team buDa

It was business as usual at buDa folklore with study tours, quilting workshops and brain storming on new ideas. It was during one of our quilting workshops that our resource person, Nirmala-akka dished out an interesting dish – literally hand crafted a dish from steamed rice flour and filled the open dumplings with scrambled eggs and mixed vegetables. She does this in flat 30 minutes and serves it with a beaming smile and says, ‘Divishi’ – tasted divine indeed!

That’s when we realised that besides art and craft that is slowing vanishing with the village to city migration and people taking to mainstream jobs, traditional culinary practices too are fading out. Our objective for initiating a culinary workshop was to bring to the city audience aromas from the kitchens of Uttara Kannada, re-discover tasty and nutritious recipes before they die a natural death in the competition with instant ready-mixes and fast foods, rekindle memories of the yore with community cooking, tickle the grey cells of the elders and village folk for heirloom recipes and showcase traditional kitchen gadgets and their superb engineering in comparison to the electric gadgets that have flooded the market.

When we started floating around the idea of a culinary workshop, we expected responses from people interested in culinary art, nutrition enthusiasts, food connoisseurs, experimental chefs, fans and addicts of HOMP (Highway on My Plate) and the likes. But well, we received the maximum response from schools! The first school we had on board for the culinary workshop was ‘Genie Kids’. The children at Genie kids were involved on a project – they were to plan and design their new school campus. The project also involved planning for the kitchen at school and the kind of food that they’d like to eat on a regular day at school.

Interesting project indeed! When we at buDa folklore heard about this project, we were certain that students would be from class 11 & 12. Needless to say we were excited about the workshop too as this was the first of its kind for our team. Hectic preparations started a fortnight prior to the workshop - calling resource folk (facilitators) from towns in and around Honnavar, choosing traditional recipes that we’d like to showcase from the scores of books our founders have researched and documented on folk drinks, steamed sweets and edible roots & leaves. As we tried hard to narrow our list to the top 20 that we’d like to showcase, our enthusiastic facilitators added on. This did have us wondering on, Why didn’t we organise a workshop of this kind earlier? 

                   

Cheerful - Gowri Akka

Our facilitators from far and near:

Patient 'Amma'

Ever green Nugli

Ever smiling Kalpana

Confident Mngala

                                             

         

                            

                        Silent Mangala - Akka 

 

Perfectionist Vijayakka - Behind the scenes 

             

           

             Nirmala Akka - Divshi specialist
               Deviyani & Co - Shavige specialist

                            Watch out for the updates of the tour in Part 2. 

Culinary Tour of Uttara Kannada

Food is always given utmost importance in any culture and every community has its unique cuisine. A closer observation reveals that the local environment has a strong relation to these food practices. While there is science involved in knowing the right measure of ingredients and when to add to what - like in a chemistry lab; there is creativity and craft involved in using things the nature/environment has to offer and making food look appealing on that banana leaf. 

Buda folklore looks to revive the dying culinary art of this region which is slowly fading out with the advent of kitchen gadgets,instant ready mixes and the fast-food culture. Through this workshop we look to give participants an overview of the diversity of local preparations, rediscover age old recipes and the lost art of local traditional cooking from the kitchens of Uttara Kannada. We believe that understanding the food culture would serve as a good means to understand the local history and folk culture. 

This culinary journey is across 3 days. The day would be spent with visits to local markets, a leisurely afternoon tour around the village that will give participants an insight into cooking practices (tools, skills and techniques) in these homes and a hands-on experience in cooking some of these unusual local recipes.

At the end of the workshop, we would like to put together a photo journal & CD. The workshop will therefore also involve documenting these recipes, skills & techniques with respect to the cooking methodology, the associated local wisdom, history & folk culture and the nutritive value of these foods.

If you'd like to experience this culinary journey, join us between the 21^st and the 23rd @ the Buda Folklore Research Centre, Honnavar.

Our Master Artisan - Nirmala

-Bharagavi Shankar-Voulanteer@Team buDa

We’d like to introduce you to another key team member at Buda Folklore,

Nirmala-akka.

The very mention of Nirmala-akka and one would picture the smiling lady, clad in bright earthy colours, brass bead chains, the big kumkum adorning her forehead and tirelessly working on a quilt. When she isn’t at the fields, she is at the front yard of her house patching a quilt and ensuring every small piece of thread and cloth is used judiciously.

Nirmala-akka is a master craftsman at Buda folklore. She is amongst the few women folk in Haliyal village who keep the art of crafting a Khaudi alive. For women folk in the village, Nirmalakka is a craftsman par excellence. They seek her help in giving finishing touches to their quilts, setting right a few erroneous stitches, for new ideas on patterns et al. They believe that the needle that she uses and the place where she sits are bestowed with magical powers. There is invariably a tussle amongst them to use her needle or hijack her seat! To return her favour, these women folk work on her fields for a day.

To her students in Bangalore, she is a fine teacher and an epitome of patience. On Day 1 of the quilting workshop she surprises her students with the ease with which she measures the six yard saree, makes a small cut and then with a neat motion of her hands, tears it into two, folding it into layers that forms the base of the quilt. She repeats the exercise for every participant and the size of each one of them almost identical – she doesn’t juggle with measuring tapes, rulers and cutting boards; just pure sense of judgement!

She then rations out a ball of thread and ‘suji’ (needle) to every participant and then cautions them not to waste the thread or loose the suji. To drive home the point, she repeats her instructions couple more times. But well, understanding instructions is one part of the game and the other is following it. All participants try hard, but unfortunately Murphy’s Law kicks in at all the right moments. The first signs of someone losing their needle, she would shake her head in despair. She would also pick up small bits of thread and fabric lying around and pile it all up in a basket to reuse.

 She is a true – blue perfectionist too! When it is time to fix the gubbis (Tassels at the corners) to the quilt, she inspects the colour and size. If one were to choose the pale, pastel colours she would give a wry smile and hand out her bright shocking pink gubbi to be fixed. The size of these ‘gubbis’ moreover ought to be a perfect square; no trapezium and rectangular shapes are accepted. If she does come across one, she would give a quizzical look and laugh mockingly at your sense of geometry.

Most often her students do not speak or understand the dialect she is speaking but everybody gets it spot-on on what she is trying to convey. She largely believes in the “observe – implement - practice” concept.  Whether it is running her needle on her scalp to grease it or her sitting posture while she is sewing or the way she handles the needle and cloth - students observe, quip to themselves sometimes  but later realise that it is a tried and tested formula and therefore slowly start to implement it.
Nirmala-akka hasn’t had any formal education in art, but the manner in which she puts together colours and patterns in a jiffy is remarkable. She has kept pace with modern trends and has creatively used the patterns used on Khudhis(quilts) while designing mobile(cell-phone) pouches and hand bags. She even reels off names of these colourful patterns – Krishnar thottil, Ramar Thottil, Balli,Ther etc. 

She hasn’t had any formal education in teaching or psychology either, but she very rightly senses the mood of her students – she gives a stern look when she senses distraction or is unhappy with the stitching, coaxes students and eggs them on to sew faster when spirits are low and also offers to sew a few lines on their behalf.

Nirmala-akka also dons the chief chef’s hat at Buda Folklore for our culinary workshops and tours. She is a great cook and dishes out local coastal recipes with great love and finesse. It is a treat to watch her artfully handle the dough and role out chappatis.

                     

If you’d like to learn about traditional hand made quilts and some delectable receipes from Nirmalakka, join us for one our workshops.

Quilting Workshop @Bangalore

Quilts and other cloth-based narrative art are part of many cultures. Quilts serve as both personal and communal objects and are a form of artistic expression too. These are often made by hand collaboratively using materials such as scraps of cloth.

When these scraps of cloth are put together, there is much more than gross geometrical patterns .... they tell a story about their creator, the historical and cultural context of their creation through the choices made in design, material and content.

In North karnataka  In each house you will find women making quilts for the monsoon season. After a tiring day's work,the women settle down in the verandah to work on their quilts. An old sari is used as a backing for the pattern created from pieces of used cloth. The colorful bits of cloth are often lovingly gathered from family and friends over a period of time.The quilting practice also helps understand how women in villages / small towns always found use for scrap or the smallest of things. It is also interesting to observe how they find creative use for it :) To gift a quilt, sewn with old clothes of the family, for the daughter who gets married, often carries fond memories of the maternal home.

Nirmalakka from buDa folklore  stitches quilts. Her needlecraft shows a remarkable expertise and originality. She will be sharing the techniques and patterns involved in the process of stitching a quilt. It is an opportunity to work under the guidance of a traditional quilt maker. 

The details are given below. Do come along if you are interested and do pass it around as well.

Thanks

3 days Workshop on: The Art of Quilt making
Date: Jan26th to Jan28th
Time: 10am - 5pm
Venue: #117, Vakil Garden City, Near Talagattapura Police Station, Kanakpura Road, Bangalore 
Contact: 08026968117
Email: folkloreindia@gmail.com
Pl Note: Participants will get to create a mini quilt and will learn traditional quilt making stitches. 

Please write to us if you are interested for further details.

More links:

http://buda-honnavar.blogspot.com/2010/09/art-of-quilt-making.html

http://buda-honnavar.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-quilt-traditional-way.html

Participants write:

Carol Shatananda

Hey Savita, 

:) Nice to see that there is another workshop on! All the best. 

Is Nirmala akka doing it again? Please give her my love and tell her that I think of her with much fondness. How are you doing? 

I'm not sure if I told you but we've moved to Toronto so I am going to miss this. 

Well, I hope it goes very well. And I hope this time the participants will do more of the write-ups. 

Love,

Carol

Meetali Mukherjee

I had the most fulfilling 3 days of my life attending the last workshop. That mini quilt started off as our dining table centre piece and now functions as Rahul's laptop coaster and doubles as a mousepad too! Nirmalakka is a champ and Savita Uday's commitment is inspiring.

Herb Garden Project

The 'Herb Garden' is a unique project being offered by buDa. The objective of this workshop is to create a  garden of useful herbs and and understand the wealth from weeds.

In a time when unseen by our very own eyes, pesticides find their way into our bodies through food we eat, an inevitable cycle of unhealthy consumption and resultant ailments begins. Have we traded our health and that of our children to the convenience of ready made, processed and often junk food? It is with a will to find and share simple inexpensive solutions to this problem, that we have devised a workshop for children

The workshop will be a hands on experience to learn and keep alive a dying knowledge system.

Would you like to be part of the problem or the solution?

Would you like to equip yourself with natural and easy ways to better health?

Would you like to truly enrich your children’s lives?

If yes is your answer to any or all of the above, then this workshop is for you.

What is special about this workshop?

This is a project that will keep students engaged round the year. This workshop will give students a hands on experience in gardening and will not only highlight the indigenous herbs but also foreign/alien herbs as well. It is a complete cycle of - soil testing,making a soil bed,identifying herbs,designing and creating/cultivating a herb garden,harvesting,drying & storing these herbs and experimenting with recipes to prepare food and refreshing drinks using this herbs. 
As children are involved in the complete cycle, they find it more applicable,useful and interesting. This project is also an excellent vehicles for getting children interested in nature and enhancing their awareness of the link between plants in the landscape and our clothing, food, shelter, and well-being. Once students build a connection with the natural world around them, they are more likely to become more conscious of their choices/actions and how their choices may affect the world that they live in.These herb gardens also serve as attractive learning labs. This exercise also gives students a hands on approach of seeking information, observing changes,drawing inferences and learning.

 

The workshop will involve :

• Plant identification (including weeds which has got medicinal and food value)
• Herbarium /scrapbook 
• Slide presentation
• Field visits
• Foraging (depending on the surrounding  field)
• Designing and preparing  a Herb Garden 
• Naming the herbs 
• Preparing a herb-guide handbook with recipies and home remedies 
• Cooking and preparing refreshing drinks from the herb

During the course of the workshop we will deal with 3 kinds of herbs: 

• Medicinal Herbs
• Culinary herbs
• Desi(Native) herbs and greens (Including weeds that have medicinal and nutritional value )

Native herbs and greens

This is an area that I am particularly interested and keen to pass on the native knowledge to the future generations .I don't want to miss out this aspect in my herb garden project.
Our  urban, suburban and rural ecosystems are loaded with unnoticed wild foods and herbs. Overlooked as "weeds" these are the same shoots, greens, roots, fruits, berries and flowers that nourished and healed our ancestors for centuries. We can gradually learn to recognize them, harvest them ecologically and use them as supplements in our everyday meal to improve our health.

Plant identification 

Very few of us are familiar with common wild plants, their name, natural history, food and medicinal uses or the folklore associated with them. Because we live in an age where there is rapid degradation of the environment, we must do more than just provide our children with textual information if we expect them to understand and appreciate the natural world and  play a more responsible role in conservation.

                                   Students identifying the desi  herbs  in the field visits.-Shibumi School

Foraging

When I asked the traditional forager what she was collecting I was amazed to see the green wealth growing all over. I joined her and came home with a bag full of ganke soppu and anne soppu.This was my first opportunity to experiment with this exotic leafy food. I came up with a very interesting recipe, which I shall share during the workshop. :)    
This experience prompted me to offer the students a powerful tool for changing attitudes and hearts. The earth is overflowing with common plant species that people have been gathering for centuries — medicinal herbs, greens, shoots, fruits, berries, roots and seeds.We only need to be alive to our surroundings.

In this exercise we are going to forage for a green meal ! Students will be asked to explore vacant plots and uncultivated areas in early spring. It is interesting to observe that the group always comes back with an abundance of greens which has medicinal and food value.

These herbs are so common and prolific that they are denigrated as “weeds”.  These wild foods are fun to collect and use — and they’re 

The Valley School, Bangalore

Children enjoy this activity - identifying the edible greens in the wild and then collecting and preparing a green meal!

                                                              

                                Designing and preparing  a Herb Garden, Shibumi school, Bangalore

Studying medicinal herbs - Folklore Research Center, Honnavar

Preparing refreshing drinks from herbs - lemon grass tambuli
buDafolklore Research Center, Honnavar

Preparing salad using  herbs from school herb garden -  -Shibumi school,Bangalore

                                  

                         Cooking and preparing refreshing drinks from the herb -Shibumi school, Bangalore

Please do not treat this as "yet another activity". Before you join please make sure you are committed and ready to give time every day to learn.The success of the  workshop will depend on the involvement,interest,and creativity of the group.The workshop will gets its credit when you apply these learnings in your daily life.

Thanks to The Valley School, Bangalore, Shibumi School, Bangalore,

Lata,Sharad,Shalini, Apoorva and the participants of my first herb Garden project Ankit, Yanik, Sanjay, Ravi, Varun and Rajat.