Thejaswi

We are often overwhelmed by the sensory overload in our daily lives - traffic on the roads, hand held devices, desktop devices, household sounds, construction, garbage, sewage - human activity in all its glory! Such a daily experience of life often leaves us tired, distracted, and isolated and we look for ways to help us process or go beyond this experience of life. Our senses are heightened in some ways but more often than not, we tune out more of the world since the experience often seems to fatigue us. A whole world escapes our notice.
When was the last time you saw a butterfly emerge from a pupa - not on YouTube or a BBC documentary - or follow ants walking in a line, or peer into a bird’s nest in a bush? None of these experiences demand a performative response from you but can engage you deeply and singularly for those moments where you can truly let go of yourself and your thoughts and cares behind.
Nature can offer the experience of unconditional acceptance when we allow ourselves an opening to explore it fully through our senses. Hearing, Touch, Sight, Taste, Smell - how can we navigate a new space using them, one where we may not know every living creature or non-living object - but to which we imbue fear or hesitation of the unknown? Nature is not unknown in a fundamental sense, but in creating complex structures in response to living and working, we have only alienated ourselves from the natural world. This workshop is intended to explore our senses with an invitation to look at your experience and a further one to take it forward if you discover a new stillness, an acceptance, a reawakening of the connection to the natural world. Perhaps you could call it a way to mindfulness?
This workshop will attempt to open possibilities from where each one of you are, through a series of group exercises exploring your senses, followed by a solo activity that will work towards unifying the sensory exploration and finally a group reflection circle to share your experiences.
The workshop will be outdoors in a morning slot for an hour and a half. You must come prepared with comfortable clothes, water and suitable footwear to walk on uneven ground. It will also require you to carry a writing instrument (ball point pen or pencil) and a notebook. You could get additional colouring material as you need but those are not key to the workshop but could be useful in extending it if you choose to do so later.


About Thejaswi:
Thejaswi Shivanand is an experienced educator who worked with children in an alternative school for over a decade and a half. In this position, he worked with children and adults in bringing together a curriculum for nature education at the school where he developed several approaches and exercises that combine nature and landscape observation with creative exploration in journaling and art. He has extended these approaches to co-create and facilitate introductory multidisciplinary courses in landscape study.
He has also been a naturalist ever since he was a child and has travelled across the country in many habitats - deserts, mountains, oceans - observing birds, butterflies, and plants. Recently, he collaborated with a group of artists in 2022 as part of the Open Invitation Collective, where he supported their artistic exploration of deep time in a landscape in his role as an amateur geologist.
He is currently a curator of books and leads the library initiatives of Champaca Bookstore and Children's Library in Bangalore. He is actively involved in facilitating learning spaces for children and adults in the space of children's literature and libraries where he consults with organizations across the country.
Thejaswi lives in Bangalore. He identifies as queer and is part of the advisory board of QAMRA (Queer Archive for Memory Reflection and Activism), an archive for queer lives that is based at the National Law School in Bangalore.