Life Around Us
Growing up with nature
Follow a natural dye from a handful of flowers to a coloured cloth, say how a village builds, stores and doctors itself out of what grows nearby, and match three festivals to the living things they honour.
Reena and Amit reached their village at harvest time and stopped at the gate. The trees along the road were covered in bright orange-red flowers. Their father named it for them: Palash, and when it blooms the whole forest looks reddish-orange from far away — which is why people call it the flame of forest.
Built, painted and packed from what grows nearby
The houses in the village are made of clay, hay, cow dung and other natural materials. The paint on the cloth their grandmother works on is made from natural extracts of flowers and leaves, and from coloured stones ground to powder. Almost nothing in the house had to be bought from anywhere else.
Have a play
Two containers for storing grain, standing ready in the corner of the house.
Tap any part of the picture.
Worked example
You want to make a dye at home. Can you use any plant you find?
Rub a leaf hard on a white cloth and look. Most plants leave a faint green smear that washes out.
Being green, or being a plant, is not the same as having colour that will come out and stay.
Try it together
Let us look at three things this village keeps in its cupboard, together.
A container, a medicine and a word — each of them comes straight out of what grows around.
1.The Tumri of Uttarakhand stores grain, and it is not made or fired. It is a round or oval fruit, dried out and hollow. Which fruit?
Have a go
Your turn. The chapter ends with ways to care for the plants and animals around us. Which of these is on its list?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.