Ploughing, Sowing, Making Spreadsheets

Sridhar’s 4 months at Hubbathalai’s Government School

Sridhar spent a decade as a professor in an engineering college. He stayed in one place. Taught college students. Waited for his weekends. Now, he teaches students sustainable farming practices and builds their connection with nature. His students at the Higher Secondary Boys School at Hubbathalai are just some of the many students whose lives he has impacted. 

Sridhar spent 4 months at Hubbathalai in 2022?, building a Computer Eco-Club. He worked with students from grades 6-9, and together they built and grew a garden in the space around their school. “First we thought that he was calling us to study, and half the class did not come, then he told us we were going to make a garden” said Hariharan, a student of grade nine. “It was romba jolly.” (very jolly) They began with clearing the area and fencing it off, readying the soil for new plants. 

These children, largely coming from farming families, were not new to this work. What Sridhar introduced to them were organic and sustainable practices, designed to not just bring healthy crops but maintain the balance of the soil and the environment that they lived in. They grew varieties of spinach, cauliflower, chillies, radishes, and many others. They also brought in medicinal plants, karpooravalli (Mexican Mint) from Chennai, and a variety of local herbs that the children took the initiative to bring from in and around their neighbourhoods. 

In tandem with ploughing, sowing, and mulching, the students recorded their work and result by learning how to use common computer applications. They learned how to use Word, Excel, and even created designs for their garden on Paint. “Previously, I thought computers were only for gaming,” said Hariharan. “I can now budget for vegetables using Excel sheets, and create presentations with our own pictures on LibreOffice.” Though computer science was a part of their curriculum, the middle school boys did not get to actually use the systems. That was reserved for older students. Through the few months of recording information about their garden, they got to build those skills and understand, in real time, what to be using them for. 

Some design choices came through outside inspiration, namely, Ooty’s Government Botanical Garden. “I was surprised that most of the students had not been there before,” said Sridhar -- the garden was only 30 minutes away from Coonoor. Thirty children went on the trip, and they got to see how the practices they were taught would operate on such a large scale. The botanical garden is beautiful, with neatly trimmed hedges and flowering plants shaped and twisted into intricate designs. Inspired, the children were determined to improve the landscaping of their school’s green space. “This was not in my curriculum,” said Sridhar. “But around five or ten of them were very determined.” Ideas were bounced around, including forming the word Hubbathalai, with plants, to represent their school. “We made a peace symbol,” one of the students said, finally. “So our school would be a calm and soothing place.” The children took charge of the program, set their own goal, and reaped their own results. 

When each district presented the work their schools had done through the year to the State government, after the 2023-24 academic year, the Computer Eco-Club at Hubbathalai found a place on that list.“You can only run a program successfully when there is support on the inside,” Sridhar tells me. And he found that support in the principal, Iarin Reji, and the school’s social science teacher, Siva Guru. “When I travel for school admissions and visit each house, the students call me and show me their gardens,” said Guru. “They tell me that they learned this in school and implemented it over here.” He had accompanied the students to the Botanical Garden. 

Sridhar was a teacher at their school. And yet, he was not. The children and the immense love they had to give were an easy point of comparison to his past life in an engineering college. To Sridhar, college students are weighed down -- by academics, career prospects, and trying to earn money-- and they are just a little more scared and cynical of the world. “Children are fearless,” he added. “When we go to school, they don’t analyse and judge us, they just enjoy [the session].” 

Sridhar’s students at Hubbathalai saw him as an older brother, not a distant and unapproachable figure. “Voluntarily, they would go get a plate for me and bring me lunch, every day,” said Sridhar, with a laugh. “They would not let me leave without eating something.” 

Sridhar Raja was part of the second cohort of the Earth Educators’ Fellowship. Since his time as a fellow, he has worked with YouCAN to design and implement other nature-learning programs, and is currently on the lookout for further projects to practice. 

Nitya Krishnan is a communications intern at YouCAN, and a part-time English teacher. She studied Journalism and Literary and Cultural Studies at FLAME University.