These letters bring good feelings ...!

Amma and Savi

                                                        Photo: Varsha Samuel Rajkumar




Sam, Varsha and their daughter Joe visited Honnavar last month.  Varsha writes from the heart.. and so.. it means a lot to me..


 Savi's Amma and Appa came to Honnavara about 40 years back to study the folk culture of the place for their doctorate degrees. 
The research became a passion and even after getting their mandatory degrees, they continued their work with the tribals and have settled there since.
Over the years they have documented possibly every facet of tribal life at Honnavara and the nearby villages. They have set up a small museum of folk art and crafts and everyday implements. Ironically, when we visited a Halakki tribal home, Savi carried along musical instruments and ornaments from her collection to take along! The jewelery the Halakkis wear today and the instruments they play are not authentic but improvised versions.

Amma has a thriving herb and medicinal plant garden in her back yard that she has tended with care over the years. Her knowledge of the same is impressive! Show her a leaf, a flower or a berry and she's quick to tell you the common name, the botanical name, whether it's edible or not, it's medicinal uses... and all with an utterly charming smile


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Amma's bustling kitchen is simple to the core yet filled with love and warmth. The food that she churns out is simply delicious! The aromas wafting out of her little culinary kingdom tantalize your senses even before they tickle your taste buds and you're captivated. Once you've sat down cross legged on a local grass mat with an array of tempting local delicacies (aesthetic appeal nowhere forgotten), lovingly served on a fresh green banana leaf before you... it's the start of a divine journey with no signs of a destination anywhere on the horizon...

Chai Chat - an invitation to pursue your passion

Chai Chat - an invitation to pursue your passion

 Posted by jaya narayan  http://nohrgyanblogspot.com

We all work for a living BUT do we truly, deeply, passionately love what we do? Very few amongst us actually do.
Most of us have resigned to the fact that enjoying what we do and making money are mutually exclusive.

Now meet Savita, a dear friend and a fellow co traveler in the journey of personal growth. Savita to me represents someone who has nurtured a unique dream and has been able to make it commercially viable.

I hope her story can help us review our strengths, passions and avenues to bring them to life.
Me: Tell me something about what you do?
Savita: I have created “Buda Folklore” that is located in Honnavur in the Uttara Kannada region of Karnataka. Buda Folklores' vision is to emerge as a focal knowledge center for folk culture and heritage. We plan to create a folklore research center with an extensive database on various tribes and indigenous communities thereby ensuring public access and awareness about folklore.

We do the following -

• Education
• Publication
• Research and Documentation
• Production
• Community development
• Conservation

Our focus is on -

• Propagating the knowledge of folklore of Uttara Kannada to the world
• Making folklore traditions relevant to current world scenarios across various application
• Creating a learning community that explore folklore knowledge and its application in contemporary situation.
• Exploring connections and commonalities with folklore traditions across India and the world.
• Sharing knowledge-online
• Enabling continuity of folklore

Me : How did you discover your love for this area of work ? What about you (as a person) makes this area special?

Savita: I grew up in a context where village life was valued and we had close relationships with indigenous communities. Their dark kitchens, open bathrooms, the festivals, the village fair, the sound of folk music, the smell of firewood, and the kerosene lamps stayed with me in my early childhood memories.

I interacted closely with the tribals who were affectionate, content and happy people. I saw them transforming into scholars of great knowledge. They could recognize hundreds of medicinal plants, make tools and toys on the go. They would sing songs based on epics and their perspective on these epics was so different from what we read in books. I experienced community living with their rituals and festivals. They enjoyed an intimate connection with nature. Every part of their life involved nature. There was simplicity and wisdom in their way of living.

When I went to the city to work as a teacher. I missed that part of me. I realized that this unique context provided me a perspective that others who were city bred lacked. I also found a lot of ignorance about tribes / tribal living.

I realized there was immense scope to explore new avenues, revisit documented knowledge at field level, and showcase their work. I painted the canvas to create “Buda folklore”. Building on our existing relationship with the local communities I started examining ways of facilitating small scale low impact cultural tourism to the area. I involved the local communities to help diminish the negative cultural impacts that tourism has especially on the young people of the communities.

Today, we have been embraced by everyone who values our wisdom and traditions.

Me: How do you make your passion earn money?
Savita: I have combined my passion with education and community development. Honnavar the place itself was a great advantage for me to attract people. The geographical landscape of Honnavar with the Western Ghats on one side and the Sharavathi River and the Arabian sea on the other side is unique in its location.

At first, I took my friends on a holiday to stay with my parents and enjoy the local cuisine. Then I invited a group of my students to experience Honnavar .Then I invited schools with nominal fee. Then I invited students from Mount Carmel College for internships for a month to documentation work.

Now we have expanded - have a multitude of offerings

• Workshops on medicinal plants, folk art, mat weaving, folk drinks, uncultivated plants.

• Honoring folk artisans

My next plan is to initiate a pilot project in the region to develop artisan community centers that would act as culture center for the community as well as a place for visitors to go and come away with a better understanding of the community and the local culture.

I am able to recover all my costs and invest the money back to the communities. We invite schools, environmentalists, designers, historians, botanists, food technologists, culture travelers, architects through our various programs. We provide them an opportunity to interact, observe, and learn by living with the tribes in Uttara Karnataka.

Me: What gives you the determination to work around challenges / obstacles?
Savita : Working with the community is not an easy task. For them visualizing the long term benefits is not easy May be its our need to conserve or to preserve. I have several limitations. The biggest challenge is working without appropriate communication medium -brochure, website, blogs, posters etc. Communication plays an important role in this kind of work. But what helps me is so many people joining hands, I see friends helping me in writing proposals for funds etc. I see more and more educational institutions sending in their students here.

Me : What is your message to others who are waiting at the threshold?
Savita : If you are really passionate about something and if you truely believe in it then take a deep dive. Until then your soul will be restless until you take that decision.

This path gives you strength.

It becomes your identity.

It becomes your life and soul.

Money follows.
Posted by Jaya narayan at 4:17 AM 4 comments

Honnavar trip

A write up from the student participant Phagun Bhatla 

from Srishti School Of Art and Design who visited  Honnavar from buDa folklore .

DAY 1
We reached Honnavar around 6.30 in the morning. We went to the Folklore Study Centre where we were placed . We then discussed our focus points, as to who will focus mainly on which area of research. At around 10 am an old lady called Hanumi came. She was a crafts woman and was good at an art called "Shedi Kale". It is done with maximum 4 colours (white,red, yellow and black) all of which are obtained naturally. The brush is made by beetle nut with 3 or 4 teeth. It consists of 14 motifs each having its own meaning. This kind of art is done during festivals, weddings. Hanumi showed us some motifs and then she depicted her life through the art. In the evening we went to Marvinkurve Island and visited the Gowda Community(Hanumi's Community) there. They had a big house with 14 people living under the same roof. Their source of income was from selling the mats they make with grass. Around 100 mats are sold in a year at Rs. 60-Rs. 70 which is not enough for them. So the younger ones who are more interested in jobs work in other people's houses to earn a livelihood. They taught each one of us how to weave a mat. Initially weaving it was difficult and confusing, but gradually we became aware of the technique.

DAY 2

Early in the morning we went to Salvador Mane(island) which was resident to the Fishermen Community. The Portuguese settled here who have now converted into Christians. Their main work is to make ropes. The ropes are made of coconut husks which are decayed in water for a minimum period of 9 months. After which the husk becomes soft and is easy to remove from the coconut. The husk is then beaten to make it smooth and is put on the machine to make the rope. If the coconuts are not decayed for 9 months the husk is green and hard and has a foul smell. By digging a stick, they have a record of where the coconuts are decayed. This process continues throughout the year. Later that day, in the afternoon we again went to the Marvinkurve Island to visit the people of Gowda Community. All the houses in that area have a particular structure with pavements and tulsi plants outside the houses, kitchens on the right(usually at the backside of the house) and attics.

In the evening 2 women from the Halakki Tribes called Sukri and Nubli came where we staying. They introduced us with their culture, rituals and the daily life routine. They have a unique style of wearing their sarees without their blouses. Heavy jewellery covers their neck. The jewellery is passed on from the mother to her daughter, and if she doesn't want it, it is donated in Tirupathi. Singing and dancing are their main hobbies. They have songs for every little thing or situation from their daily lives. A while later, we asked them to pick any of us and ask whatever they wanted to. Also some of us dressed as the Halakki women and danced with them. They also showed us how to make the thread from the cactus leaves. It was a very informative interaction.

DAY 3

We went to Duggur which is the residence of the Honnavar Halakki Tribes. It is a forest area with mud houses which have low roofs. We couldn't meet many people as all of them were out on the farms for work. We visited like 5-6 houses in that area most of which were made of mud. We visited a house where we saw Suggi dance. The males of that house used to play on the pots and sing for hours and hours. We also sang and danced with them. It was a wonderful experience.

DAY 4

This was the last day of our trip so we decided just to chill around. So we to a nearby beach. I was really excited as this was my first visit to a beach. It was not a commercial beach so it was only us on the beach. It was raining heavily and all of us were on happily playing on the beach. So on the last day we had fun and relaxed as we the bus to catch the same night.