How Moodambailu Government School Turned Aati into a Month-Long Learning Experience

✍Ganesh Prasad Pandelu, Vitla 

What if a school’s Aati celebration could take children from a plate of horse gram laddu to a newly planted tree and teach them about food, farming, nature and self-reliance along the way? That is exactly what happened at Moodambailu Government Higher Primary School, where the entire Aati month became a hands-on learning experience involving students, parents, teachers and the wider community.

Instead of organising just one Aati food gathering, the school turned the month into “Aati Food Awareness – Mane Mane Ruchi”, with one or two families bringing a traditional home-cooked dish to school each day and serving it to the children. Result was a colourful journey through the traditional food culture of the Tulu region, with dishes made from ingredients that are often found in local backyards, farms and surroundings.

One day, one home, one traditional dish

Concept was simple: rather than asking everyone to bring food on a single day, parents took turns. Each day, one or two families prepared a traditional dish at home and brought it to school. This allowed children to taste a much wider variety of Aati preparations while also learning where the ingredients came from and how they were traditionally used.

Menu included dishes prepared with tender bamboo shoots, jackfruit seeds, drumstick leaves, horse gram, salted mango, colocasia leaves, wild and locally available produce and other traditional ingredients.

Among the preparations were drumstick leaf and jackfruit seed palya, bamboo shoot and jackfruit seed palya, horse gram dishes, salted mango gassi, chebu pickle, curry leaf chutney powder, horse gram chutney powder, timmare chutney, bamboo shoot chutney and several traditional snacks and sweets. Horse gram laddu and chebu pickle were among the special preparations this year.

Lesson was bigger than the plate

School says the programme was never intended simply to introduce children to traditional food. It was designed to make them think about the resources available around them and how those resources can be used creatively.

Initiative encouraged children to appreciate home cooking, explore traditional recipes, understand local food habits and learn how to live healthily with what is available locally. It also encouraged parents to involve their children in small tasks related to food preparation.

Every Aati meal came with a green lesson

There was another feature that made the programme different. Alongside the food activities, the school planted a tree every day.

Children were introduced to plants such as curry leaf, dodda patre, drumstick, banana, coconut, custard apple, lemon, punarpuli, papaya, rambutan, jackfruit, cocoa, mango, jamun, guava, grafted jackfruit, teak, hibiscus and several other varieties.

Message was simple: every day can be an environment day. Rather than teaching environmental protection only from textbooks, the school allowed children to put the lesson into practice by planting and caring for trees.

Parents became part of the classroom

Programme also helped bring parents closer to the school. With one or two parents visiting every day, teachers got an opportunity to speak to them about their children, understand their concerns and discuss their learning.

For a rural school, this community participation became one of the most valuable outcomes of the programme. Heavy rain did not stop the participation. In some cases, preparing the food was only half the challenge; bringing it safely to the school was another task.

Enthusiasm extended to the teaching community too. An invited teacher reportedly stayed up until around 2 a.m. preparing different dishes for the children before bringing them to school.

“Their love for the school made us happy”

School-in-charge Head Teacher Aravind Kudla said the involvement of parents, teachers and kitchen staff was particularly encouraging.

Parents participated with great love and care for our children and our school. We are grateful for their affection and support. Teachers and kitchen staff also participated actively and added to the spirit of Aati.

From traditional food to self-reliance

School also wanted children to look beyond commercially available snacks and understand the possibilities of home cooking. Programme demonstrated how ingredients available in the local environment can be transformed into nutritious and tasty dishes. That makes the Moodambailu initiative more than an Aati celebration.

It is a lesson in food heritage, farming, environmental responsibility, self-reliance and community participation - taught not only from a textbook, but through a plate of food and a sapling planted in the school campus.

And when the Aati month ends, the school’s green lessons will remain: the plants will continue to grow, giving children a living reminder of what they learned during the month.

Keywords

Moodambailu Government School, Aati celebration, Aati food, Puttur education, Dakshina Kannada schools, Tulu culture, Vitla Suddi, Vitla News, Citizen News Puttur