Farm excursion to Sohna for middle school.

On 6 December 2014, fifty nine students from classes VI to VIII accompanied by seven teachers visited the School Farm near Sohna. Expectedly the students were extremely excited to set foot in the countryside and that too, one not far from home!

The bus journey was filled with animated chatter as the children shared their curiosity about the what they were expecting to see and do. Most of them, city children, had never quite seen any farm activity or even had a conversation with people who grow the food that is so easily accessible to us in the markets near home. Their wondrous eyes took in the panorama of the lush fields as they stretched before us through our bus windows.

The children were delighted to alight at the farm and stood in awe of the fresh and bracing surroundings. What a refreshing change from the madding crowd it seemed! Neatly laid bed after bed of tender vegetables still stuck on their stems, waited for us, as in anticipation! The children were captivated by row upon row of brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, radish, sweet potato, mint and coriander!

The children took a lap of the area surveying the rich offerings! Clutching their baskets, they eagerly entered the fields to pick the inviting produce for their moms to convert into yummy fare for the dining table! They bent and learnt to harvest in skill, both with the tools provided and with their fingers, careful to pick, without hurting themselves or what they picked,

The children spent more than an hour on the farm, receiving a hands'-on about sowing, manuring, irrigating, protecting from pests and harvesting. They worked, walked around and worked again, with no time to waste.

The teachers and children returned to School with their 'little loads' of what they had harvested. Delighted at the bounty of their efforts. They beamed in happy fatigue as they assimilated their novel exercise of 'edutainment'!