Musings of an Undercover Yogi

In 2015, my then three-year-old daughter’s playschool announced the Best of Waste competition for all students (playschool, two kindergarten batches, and Grade 1).

Those days, Maa looked after our daughter while hubby and I were at work. On the day of the announcement, a Monday, Maa called to inform me about the circular sent by the school. We had a week to submit a creation; submissions were due next Monday. I was miffed. A project of that nature for preschoolers meant 100% parental involvement, from conceptualization to execution. Who knew it was just the beginning of longer, more complex projects to come in the future! 😐

I forgot about the project for a couple of days as I had a deadline to meet at work. On Wednesday night, I Googled for inspiration but found nothing appealing. By Thursday afternoon, I decided to make something out-of-the-box.

As a child, I preserved flowers and leaves between the pages of my favorite fat novels. A heavyweight object was kept on top of the said novel to compress the buried stuff and left untouched for days. Sometimes, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened the book to check progress. After the buried stuff was flattened and dry, it was fun to take it out gingerly using the thumb and the forefinger. And then to inspect the veins against the light while marveling at its papery qualities. Each time, it was amazing to observe how brightly colored, vibrant life forms dried up into lifeless forms with subtle, beautiful shades. 😍

Sometimes, I gingerly sketched something small on such a delicate leaf. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we were blissfully devoid of computers and the Internet. The only way to share our creations was when friends dropped by. Or, to simply carry the book with buried treasures and cycle along to a friend’s house, where you’d end up displaying your collection to the entire family! 🙂

As happy childhood memories flooded my brain like dopamine, I Googled ‘leaf art’ with a smile. Google showed some terrific stuff but implementing those meant zero to minimal involvement from my preschooler. That’s when I stopped looking for inspiration and thought of conceptualizing something that could involve my girl.

Our yearly train travels during summer holidays inculcated a love for the countryside in me since childhood. My love for rural scenes has only grown with time. I decided to create something village-inspired and thought, let’s figure out what to create when we reach that point.

On Friday, I decided to pick some waste materials from work. I brought home 3-4 used beverage stirrers (plastic straws) and a thermocol glass. Beverage stains lingered despite a thorough wash, making the items perfect for use. I asked Maa to look for discarded cartons in the dumping area of the defence canteen in our locality. On finding something reusable, she was to inform the canteen manager and bring a carton home. The intrigued manager asked her what’s it to be used for. Eager to see the outcome, he told her to take whatever she needed, anytime she needed it. 🙂

Armed with a bag on Saturday evening, the three of us (Maa, kiddo, and I) went to the park in our locality. Per my instructions, the kiddo collected green, yellow, and orange leaves freshly fallen beneath the banyan and other trees. She also picked a handful of semi-dry grass from the heap left by the lawnmower. Then she picked dry twigs and semi-dry flowers and dropped all treasures in our bag. We also picked up a couple of long, stray twigs probably cut loose from a coconut-twig broom while the caretaker swept the park.

Collecting everything took quite some time as we were frequently interrupted by curious passersby, who wanted to know what were we doing and why. A couple of experienced mothers asked what could be created from the stuff discarded by Mother Nature. Wouldn’t it be better to use old newspapers, bottles, cans, plates, and the likes? We could always buy glitters, colored papers, and ice-cream sticks from the shop in our locality. That’s what they did for similar school projects. I smiled and thanked these strangers for the unsolicited advice. 🙂

That night after dinner, kiddo and I sat on the floor and emptied our treasure bag. Kiddo became my helper and fetched a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and transparent sticky tape, while I mulled over what to create and how. I started by cutting out the base of the carton. My helper sat nearby and watched her craftsperson live in action. I applied glue at the center of the cardboard and told my helper to stick a large banyan leaf on it. Next, I applied glue on the banyan leaf and set the stage for our craftwork. Kiddo sprinkled grass on the leaf to create the ground. I cut the beverage stirrers into small pieces and asked her to stick those above the grass one by one, forming the front wall of a hut. Similarly, broom twig cuttings formed the roof of the hut. By now, kiddo was yawning so I packed her off for the night, and continued alone.

Next, the dry twigs and semi-dry flowers formed a carefully and artfully arranged flowering tree that looked bent with the weight of the flowers. A small cut-out from an orange leaf became the full moon. The arrangements had to be precise as the items were tiny. Cuttings from the thermocol glass served several purposes. The circular base became the identifier with kiddo’s name on it. A vertical cutout from the wall displayed the project title. The remaining wall became an unusually shaped menu card that proudly listed the discarded ingredients used in the project. I went to bed that night quite pleased with our efforts.

I had the entire Sunday to explain the piece to kiddo, who loved it. We also clicked a couple of pictures. By evening, we had to restick several elements that came off the edges as leaves and flowers dried up further. We must’ve admired our handiwork several times and gotten the rest of the family to do the same! 😉

Thankfully by Monday morning, nothing else had crumpled. The labor of our love was in good shape to be handed over to Bharati Ma’am, the class teacher. Ma’am was delighted to have it and asked what inspired this creation. After a lovely, warm conversation with the gorgeous lady, I went off to work.

In the second half, Maa called to share the results. The judges unanimously declared our craft as the top winner! Bharati Ma’am later shared that each creation was closely inspected to ascertain if they were waste materials or bought from the nearest store in the eleventh hour. Experience speaks! 🤪 The beverage stains and our hard work paid off! 🙂

Fellow parents, feel free to steal copy borrow draw inspiration from our work! Go crazy, think different! Have fun with kids! 🙂