Chennai & Mahabalipuram – Monday 23 September to Friday 27 September
Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India, population over 7 million, was our 'home' for the next 4 nights. Another big city, another sea of colour, another opportunity to experience India in so many ways, another chance to see more 'Montessori'.
More selections from delicious buffet breakfasts and ‘Indian milk coffee please’. We never tired of the choices nor of the coffee.
Our first full day in Chennai (Tuesday 24 September) was an orientation/sight-seeing day, visiting the very impressive and busy Kapaleshwar Temple (Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva), Fort St George (the first English fortress in India founded in 1644), and some narrow and interesting laneways. Within the Fort are churches. One has a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, wrapped in a sari. Every day she is dressed in different cloth and at the end of the month, the saris are blessed and auctioned.
We also saw the international cricket grounds! (MT&T caters for many interests.)
It was interesting to drive along the Bay of Bengal with its wide beaches (unsuitable for swimming). Fish sellers and fishing boats were in abundance on the foreshore.
After our big morning of sight-seeing, we met up with Viday Shankar at the Relief Foundation / Cascade Family Learning Society to hear how she is providing Montessori education for not only children in Chennai, but also in two rural villages.
When we arrived at the Patasala Montessori School on Wednesday morning, we witnessed the preparations for celebrations relating to the upcoming festival. The young children were beautifully dressed to perform for their parents and the older children were excited and happy to practice their traditional dance for us.
Having known AMI 3-6 Trainers, Ruby Lau and Rukmini Ramachandran for many, many years, it was a thrill to visit the AMI Training Centre in which both work. Rukmini invited us to sit in on her afternoon lecture, 'The Silence Game' and then meet with the students. We were later treated to tea and snacks and stories about the history of Montessori in India. Ruki showed us the quadranomial cube, mentioned in the historical book, ‘Montessori in India’.
The Kalakshetra Foundation, one of the top traditional dance schools in India, was a great outing on Thursday 26 September. This school is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in Bharatanatyam dance and Gandharvaveda music. It is on 100 acres in the middle of Chennai. Originally all sand, it is now a wonderful oasis of gardens and trees. We joined the students at morning prayers, then walked the grounds with our interesting guide, Dr D.R Devika. We sat in on two classes of dance, visit the Montessori school on the grounds (though the children were on holidays) and saw first-hand the craftsmanship and skill of the hand weavers and hand fabric printers. This is certainly a spot to visit in Chennai. Back in the day, the Theosophical Society and the Kalakshetra Foundation were one.
Lunch and an afternoon visit was at the centre where Montessori in India began, The Theological Society in Chennai. Dr Montessori and son Mario arrived in Chennai in 1939, and lived and conducting courses in the grounds of The Theosophical Society headquarters. We viewed a small display of historic materials relating to the Montessoris in India, enjoyed a walk around the grounds, talked with some of the staff, and sat under THE banyan tree under which Dr Montessori sat and wrote so many years ago. Just as this banyan tree has grown and spread, so too has 'Montessori' spread across India, and in fact the world.
Our last day in Chennai, Friday 27 September, was the start of the school holidays (unknown to me when planning the itinerary). Imagine our surprise and delight when we heard that the teachers and children at the Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust had made their way to school, on their holiday, to welcome us and let us observe in the classroom. The children we observed, all belong to a community established for orphaned, abandoned and destitute children. It was a sobering experience to see these children working with such concentration and peacefulness.
The wonderful Revathy Ashok was our local guide in Chennai who took a great interest in our Montessori visits and came with us to each school and training centre to learn more. She helped us with material shopping and sightseeing and once we had finished our visit to The Monuments at Mahabalipuram on Friday 27 September, she returned home via public bus back to Chennai, 2 hours away.
After our visit to the Bala Mandire Kamaraj Trust on Friday morning, we headed out of town, following the coast line to Mahabalipuramn (or Mamallapuram), a coastal temple town on a strip of land between the Bay of Bengal and the Great Salt Lake in the state of Tamil Nadu, dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries. There we saw impressive granite in many shapes and sizes and beautifully carved. They were part of the ancient rock monuments which date back to the 6th century. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We saw evidence of ancient methods of cutting the granite, enormous animals carved from rock and many temples, including one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world, the ‘Descent of the Ganges’.
After bidding our guide farewell, we headed to our hotel by the ocean and enjoyed another array of local dishes followed by a restful night.
More selections from delicious buffet breakfasts and ‘Indian milk coffee please’. We never tired of the choices nor of the coffee.
Our first full day in Chennai (Tuesday 24 September) was an orientation/sight-seeing day, visiting the very impressive and busy Kapaleshwar Temple (Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva), Fort St George (the first English fortress in India founded in 1644), and some narrow and interesting laneways. Within the Fort are churches. One has a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, wrapped in a sari. Every day she is dressed in different cloth and at the end of the month, the saris are blessed and auctioned.
We also saw the international cricket grounds! (MT&T caters for many interests.)
It was interesting to drive along the Bay of Bengal with its wide beaches (unsuitable for swimming). Fish sellers and fishing boats were in abundance on the foreshore.
After our big morning of sight-seeing, we met up with Viday Shankar at the Relief Foundation / Cascade Family Learning Society to hear how she is providing Montessori education for not only children in Chennai, but also in two rural villages.
When we arrived at the Patasala Montessori School on Wednesday morning, we witnessed the preparations for celebrations relating to the upcoming festival. The young children were beautifully dressed to perform for their parents and the older children were excited and happy to practice their traditional dance for us.
Having known AMI 3-6 Trainers, Ruby Lau and Rukmini Ramachandran for many, many years, it was a thrill to visit the AMI Training Centre in which both work. Rukmini invited us to sit in on her afternoon lecture, 'The Silence Game' and then meet with the students. We were later treated to tea and snacks and stories about the history of Montessori in India. Ruki showed us the quadranomial cube, mentioned in the historical book, ‘Montessori in India’.
The Kalakshetra Foundation, one of the top traditional dance schools in India, was a great outing on Thursday 26 September. This school is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in Bharatanatyam dance and Gandharvaveda music. It is on 100 acres in the middle of Chennai. Originally all sand, it is now a wonderful oasis of gardens and trees. We joined the students at morning prayers, then walked the grounds with our interesting guide, Dr D.R Devika. We sat in on two classes of dance, visit the Montessori school on the grounds (though the children were on holidays) and saw first-hand the craftsmanship and skill of the hand weavers and hand fabric printers. This is certainly a spot to visit in Chennai. Back in the day, the Theosophical Society and the Kalakshetra Foundation were one.
Lunch and an afternoon visit was at the centre where Montessori in India began, The Theological Society in Chennai. Dr Montessori and son Mario arrived in Chennai in 1939, and lived and conducting courses in the grounds of The Theosophical Society headquarters. We viewed a small display of historic materials relating to the Montessoris in India, enjoyed a walk around the grounds, talked with some of the staff, and sat under THE banyan tree under which Dr Montessori sat and wrote so many years ago. Just as this banyan tree has grown and spread, so too has 'Montessori' spread across India, and in fact the world.
Our last day in Chennai, Friday 27 September, was the start of the school holidays (unknown to me when planning the itinerary). Imagine our surprise and delight when we heard that the teachers and children at the Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust had made their way to school, on their holiday, to welcome us and let us observe in the classroom. The children we observed, all belong to a community established for orphaned, abandoned and destitute children. It was a sobering experience to see these children working with such concentration and peacefulness.
The wonderful Revathy Ashok was our local guide in Chennai who took a great interest in our Montessori visits and came with us to each school and training centre to learn more. She helped us with material shopping and sightseeing and once we had finished our visit to The Monuments at Mahabalipuram on Friday 27 September, she returned home via public bus back to Chennai, 2 hours away.
After our visit to the Bala Mandire Kamaraj Trust on Friday morning, we headed out of town, following the coast line to Mahabalipuramn (or Mamallapuram), a coastal temple town on a strip of land between the Bay of Bengal and the Great Salt Lake in the state of Tamil Nadu, dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries. There we saw impressive granite in many shapes and sizes and beautifully carved. They were part of the ancient rock monuments which date back to the 6th century. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We saw evidence of ancient methods of cutting the granite, enormous animals carved from rock and many temples, including one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world, the ‘Descent of the Ganges’.
After bidding our guide farewell, we headed to our hotel by the ocean and enjoyed another array of local dishes followed by a restful night.
