It’s time to build our own campus. Several years ago, we raised enough money to buy land, but, for one reason after another, the time never seemed right to go ahead and construct. Now, I’m not sure why, things have changed. Ravi says it’s the dynamics of organizational growth – there comes a time when stability and presence is critical. At our last Annual General Meeting, I promised the members that this year we would begin. And things are beginning to take shape. Our architect has drawn up the first set of plans and I have been busy writing funding proposals. I have also been looking carefully at every building I see for ideas and designs. Last week I was in Delhi for other work and I visited Step by Step Preschool – a school so wonderful it makes you want to be a kid again yourself, just to have the fun of attending it. Stephane Paumier, our architect, toured it with me, and while we both looked with very different eyes (he was thinking about workmanship and RCC vs brick, while I was looking at the kid-friendly bathrooms and thinking about how inviting the ramp looked as a play space, not just a way into the school), we both liked what we saw. It wasn’t ideal for us (the materials used were too costly and there had been little attention paid to natural ways of keeping the place cool in a very hot climate), but it had a great feeling of curiosity and cheerfulness, the sort of place a child would want to come to. I was particularly drawn to the ramp! Its gentle slope and protected, tunnel-like feeling make it a natural place for kids to use as a place to play, and it made me think about the need for steps at all. Why not just have ramps so that everyone enters the building the same way? I know it uses up more space, but maybe it’s worth thinking about.

The other thing I loved was this wonderful truck made simply of tubular pipes My own children played on a similar one in America when they were small and I had made a mental note (and forgotten) to try and get one made here in India. So now it’s back on the To Do list!