Tomato Rice on my plate

By Chaitali Dasgupta – https://my-thoughtful-moments.blogspot.com/2020/07/tomato-rice-on-my-plate-i-have-always.html

I have always been a fan of experiential learning. Real learning happens when we experience- see, feel and do. It brings about practical understanding of the subject. But what I find more intriguing about hands on experiential learning is that besides the subject of enquiry there are other learning that also happen which are quite unpredictable! I am saying this from what I experienced when my older daughter was studying in a progressive school in Bangalore (Aurinko Academy) which believes in hands on learning. 

The kids in their 4^th year were taken on a day long farm trip. Now this is not a farm trip where you get to see cows, goats, sheep, ducks roaming around but an agricultural farm. Here they had first-hand experience of farming and agriculture. They learnt about sowing, irrigation and weeding. They got to know how to learn when the soil is ready for sowing, the different ways of watering the farms and the importance of plucking away the weeds from the plants. Of course all this was along with lots of fun like walking barefoot on wet soil, dipping hands in murky waters to pluck out weeds, getting sprayed by a hose pipe while cleaning up, getting a ride on a bullock cart and playing with the farm dogs!                                             

Besides learning about farm activities, the kids also got a taste of how, farming families in rural areas, still use natural, recyclable things in their daily life. The kids collected leaves from the farm, washed them and laid them down to eat their afternoon meal. Freshly plucked tomatoes cooked with rice- tomato rice- was served to the kids with chutney, dal (pulses).Now coming to my point of the unpredictable learning. My daughter came back from the trip and narrated all the things that they did at the farm. But out of all the things she was most excited about was the tomato rice! She was all praise for the fresh tomatoes and the fresh tangy taste of the tomato rice. She even insisted that I make tomato rice at home! Being a Bengali this is not a very common item on our menu. It was a surprise to me because she was never a fan of vegetables, especially tomatoes! But this was an opportunity for me to introduce some veggie into her diet.

And since then, there has been no turning back! We have tomato rice often and I sneak in other finely cut vegetables into it. My daughter loves it and gobbles it up. A tasty nutritious diet being voluntarily eaten by a kid…what else can a parent ask! Now who would have thought that a trip to a farm would have ended with a love for tomato rice! I must add though…every time she has tomato rice she says “but mamma it does not taste like the one I had at the farm with the fresh juicy tomatoes”. Perhaps one day she will her own farm or grow a kitchen garden and prepare a meal of tomato rice that will taste just like the one she had tasted at the farm…who knows?