Hear the sound of the voyager destroying the face of the planet. Many theories say that humans came from outer planets to take control of earth and destroy nature. It is said that humans were programmed to destroy mother earth. Its the last day of our forest trip and Piyush had a brilliant idea of helping us make a mark on the hills of dharmapuri forest. 

Water is the biggest element that bonds the whole forest together. We humans can contribute to the forest by helping the mountains conserve these forests. So what we did was on every level of land we would make this stone structure shaped like a smiley to obstruct the surface runoff of water and plant a tree in the centre of the smiley. This way every plant gets maximum water and the water continues to recharge the soil in the most efficient manner. As our male hormones were enraged with the idea of digging up rocks, we boys got to the intense task of rock removing and placing them in a smiley, until we landed on to this certain rock that was so huge, we spent over an hour trying to excavate it. While piyush and the girls moved on to build 2 more smiley structures, we males, stood there with our egos at stake, trying to break this nuisance  of a rock. After and hour of hitting smashing breaking and grunting, we were able to conquer the rock. This activity make me realise that anything and everything in life is so hard at first when u=you look at it, but staying focused, taking help from people around you, analysing the situation and growing up from it is the key to to attaining anything in life. A tree for that instance also follows the same principles. The trees after growing so many feet high yield quite literally a fruit. One would question as to what fruit we good after this activity, well were able to take a dip in a stream near the shelter. It was an amazing end to the trip .

Everyone has a basic idea of what the forest looks and feels like in the day, but at night the forest completely changes. When the sun went down and the moon rose to provide us light for our journey, we set out to explore the extraordinary beauty of the forest at night. With no plash lights or torches, we quietly walked thought the dense forest looking at the silent brilliance of the system of nature at night. Fireflies flew above us to give some light. The walk was so beautiful and phenomenal, it almost felt like i was on planet Pandora from the movie Avatar. it is so very interesting to see that insects plants and animal can coexist ant any point of time. Night trek is a definite yes on the checklist next time when i visit this place. 

Its not often that you wake up to the smell of fresh trees and a transient vibe of complete positive energy. The forest atmosphere filled my lungs with air like never before. A feeling of self rejuvenation hit the core of my mental conscience. 
We spent the morning exploring the deepest parts of the forest to completely understand the role of Piyush's stay here. Planting loads of forests was his way of working and he built his little profits from there. He follows a system, not quite clear, but it works. He knows what to expect and how to go about it. 

 The idea of this course is to make us understand the systems of man along with forests. What i learned beyond this is that forests have many systems within itself. All water sources are connected to each other along with plants. The water flowing acres away in a stream recharges the soil strength of many more acres. The question that constantly built up on my mind is that why cant human beings seize to have such connected reliable  systems where one helps the other. The barter system was a so called start to this ideal system but it never worked out. Why ? Because human beings have individuality and ego.Nature has a million learning to give to us, this is one lesson that we have to understand and incorporate within us, no matter how many years it takes to get to it.
THis inspired me to do a simple illustration on what i believed. sitting in a jungle by the sound of a subtle flowing stream, art is  the best catalyst  in reaching enlightenment

Taking two bus rides to dharmapuri to then realise that a roller-coaster ride in a pick up truck awaits me, PRICELESS. We met piyush right outside he bus stop and he took us to his place in the forest in a pick up truck. One of the greatest experiences on a vehicle in my life . We slowly started to enter the forest soon to reach his shelter there. a very simply setup, not so fancy but amazingly designed as per minimal needs. The place has such a direct connection to the jungle's environment which is so refreshing and enriching. The whole area managed by Piyush is a 150 acre cooperative forest, where he and a group of his workers plant and take care of trees of various species. The whole idea of recreating a forest is really a very brave decision. There are so many stories that Piyush had to offer us which are so dramatic in a way, but it really gives you an idea as how hard and a struggle in life it is to be an environmentalist in todays world. there are many views of Piyush that clash with that of mine, one of them being the use of plastics. He strongly is in support of banning the use of plastics all over the country, nevertheless I believe that 1 Kg of plastic was essentially made to replace around 10 Kg of wood which would have been used to replace the same, so its the same consumption of natural resources that is happening in this case. Piyush and i had a long discussion over this and he being an activist was able to counter my points with facts. I look at a sustainable development also, but it is different from that of Piyush's. When one thinks about it the whole world has a different view about sustainable development, the goal of the people of Earth is to come up with a ground zero on this idea.

possum cheese velvet . I guess  in the forest, our thoughts would be as random as that. I always believed that  heading towards the forest would bring this brilliant  surge of new energy within me and i am now all ready to head for an amazing adventure to the jungle. some interesting theories i had n my mind were the existence of higher intellegence in all kinds or bugs in the jungle. We humans do not understand or observe the nature of forest insects but what if these insects are actually intellectually far superior than us homosapians ? Is that why we cannot under understand the depts of nature while these insects can ? Natures environment has the largest network system on the planet. The amount of interaction insect have with this system on an internal to external basis is mindblowing. Maybe we humans are really not the most dominent on earth, maybe were not so intellectual as we think. Insects may be the future . All that said , the bottom line is that we need to go back to our roots often. why ? Because thats how u reach your inner human self, its as if you travel thousands of years back and feel like theres so much more to life.

the world of forests is as mythical as a fiction novel could get. Unparalleled systems and the laws that govern the forest are phenomenal in every aspect. What i believe is that nature is one sentinel being far more advanced than any species on the planet, nature, the redeemer.

Looking at each others perspective is one of the worlds most difficult task, once accomplished its believed to create a complete utopian setup in any country.

The activity that was done in class was brilliant in so many ways. We were provided a detailed background of an imaginary country Latasica, where a hotel company names Airtravel wants to start a major business by building 3 hotels and an airport along with a wildlife sanctuary, the idea of this exercise discussing a serious economic problem with more than 40 classmates role playing as different people of the economic sector. Some were government officials, fisherman, businessmen, coffee producers, nomads, world environment activists and much more. The exercise was designed beautifully, with every group given a detail brief of what their situation in the country is and how the arrival of Airtravel could affect them in all aspects. Being in an atmosphere of art and design, it became easier for me as an individual to connect to my character and so was the case with the rest of the class.We would continuously put  ourselves in our roles situation and keep on switching from 2 different thought processes, one being our own ration view and one of our character. Staying in character was one of the most difficult challenges of this activity, it happens at times that I was not able to pass on my ideas and views in the discussion due to a constant conflict of my thinking to that of my characters mindset. After and hour of  separate group discussions, a trial at the court was held between the government and Airtravel, joined by the different people of the society, all of which were role played by us. The heat of the situation was felt immediately when airtravel was trying to convince that their arrival was beneficial to the government and the government would question this taking views from all members in court. It was a 2 hour long intense drama filled court session, one of a kind. I was amazed, because everyone including me payed complete justice to their role and situation. It was one of the most brilliant session in college  experiences

 The problems and issues were imaginary, and were limited to just 2-3 . To imagine how our country’s government has to tackle millions of  issues daily in a limited amount of time is mind boggling . What we as the youth should try to understand is that a change is definitely required, but we have to step into the shoes of every person involved in the change and constantly question as to , is it really needed ?

A drinking straw is a short tube intended for transferring a beverage from its container to the mouth of the drinker. A thin tube of plastic or other material, straight or with an angle-adjustable bellow segment, it is employed by being held with one end in the mouth and another end in the drink. No one could have ever imagined that straws could have been used to create 18 foot structures, but Narendra always believed so.
Creating upright and tall structures using only straws and pins requires a set amount of planning and intricate execution. the idea of this activity was to understand how trees as tall structures organise their stem structure so as to balance the whole tree and stay upright. Drawing inspiration from nature is the key to this activity and we did so from the very beginning. the task was fun and went over 5 hours, i felt like as a group we could never complete it even though i continued to motivate the group from time to time, maybe it was a method of reassuring myself that things looked good at every stage.There was a brilliant feeling when we reached around 9 feet and the structure looked fantastic but suddenly i collapsed. Narendra came to the rescue and i swear to got he added ONE straw to the structure and BAM ! the whole installation was standing there like a boss. This made me realise that its always those little issues in life that lead to the big ones, tackle those problems and one can always be satisfied in any aspect of life. The later part of the structure could only be have build by me, for i have been blessed with a really tall height. It felt like i was closing a year long case trial in court like Harvery Specter from 'Suits'.
The installation all in all lots aesthetically phenomenal but the real learning from the activity and its process for me is that there is always a system or a structure to anything and everything on earth, if we deviate from the system then we have to do something so as to come back to the normal position.