I haven’t yet visited Forest Spirit Learning, a nature-based learning space created by Jyoti Raghavan (48), that finds its residence in Haryana’s Sector 79. But when Aarush Gupta (13) shows me his painting, I’m instantly transported to the spot. His sketch, with its colour scheme and shading, beautifully captures the essence of the place.
As I compliment him on his work of art, his mother Meenakshi shares how this is one of the rare times her neurodivergent son hasn’t struggled to find the right words to express himself — his visual vocabulary has done it for him.
Meenakshi recalls her son’s birthday outing this year — a trip to Forest Spirit Learning. Right from the minute he set foot on the land, his imagination ran riot. “He wanted to draw the vegetables, the trees, the flowers; everything that he saw. He began to name all the shades of green that he spotted in the leaves. He wanted his painting to reflect them,” his mother explains. It was the same with the textures of the fruits, the walls and the soil.
Ever since then, when Aarush visits the nature school, it is with intent. He wants to use his palette to breathe life into his surroundings. Nature tends to have that effect, Jyoti interjects. It helps you make sense of the world, no matter who you are.
Forest Spirit Learning: where life skills are taught
As I scroll through the school’s Instagram page, a certain picture catches my eye. It is of a barbet being cradled. The bird was brought to Jyoti a few days ago after it crashed into a glass window. “Barbets feed on the fruit of peepal (sacred fig) and banyan. The locals wanted it re-homed on the nearby peepal tree,” Jyoti explains.
A period of recovery, rest and food nursed the bird back to health. I’m amazed at this act. But as I learn, for years, Jyoti has extended this kindness to snakes, barn owls, mongooses, squirrels and garden lizards. Her aim has remained constant — to make nature a mainstay in conversation. And today, as students from across the schools of Delhi and Gurugram revel in the greenery she has nurtured, she can’t help but smile at this full-circle moment.
When the children aren’t learning about organic farming methods, they’re harvesting vegetables, and when that’s done, they’re feasting on these precious picks. But more than just a farm-to-fork experience, Jyoti says, it’s a lesson in reconnecting with their roots.
To date, the school has played host to over 200 children who’ve visited for different purposes. “Some for a picnic, others are homeschoolers who head here to learn different activities, and there are some who come to stargaze.” Yes, you heard it right. If you’re in Gurugram and looking to stargaze, Forest Spirit Learning is where you should head.
On 25 January, the ‘school’ saw 150 attendees — both adults and children — clamber to get their shot at the telescope to view the coveted planetary parade, as six planets aligned in the night sky in what was described as a ‘once in a lifetime’ event by astronomers.
But even when the stars aren’t aligning, the land sees hustle.
A typical student tour begins with Jyoti introducing the school’s architecture, a space she built with the help of volunteers from Nepal, Italy, the UK, the US, South Africa, and Australia. The structure is crafted using three key materials — mud, bamboo, and beer bottles (the last sourced from Gurugram’s off-licences) — paying homage to traditional building techniques.
“I envisioned this as a space that would cause minimum damage to the land. So, we followed the water construction method, which means building the structure using mud and bamboo and then coating it with clay. This last step lends strength to the walls.” Using mud has a dual vantage. Not only is it sustainable, but it also makes the place feel warm during winters and cool during summers, she explains.
As for the beer bottles, they lend an aesthetic sensibility. Plastered on the walls, they filter the Sun’s rays, casting a lovely, colourful shadow on the floor. “Most of these children have only seen concrete and cement constructions in the cities,” she points out. And, as she guides them around the campus, she can be heard emphasising the importance of sustainable architecture. “The only way to go forward is to go backwards.”
Then follows the ‘plant identification tour’. “My generation grew up climbing trees. Back then, we didn’t have an apartment system, instead, our single-storied houses had huge verandas where we could see guava, mango, jamun (Indian blackberry) and banana trees. We grew up being able to identify them.” Jyoti adds that this is a skill she wants to impart.
“Smell the leaves,” she urges the students. “The smell will help you distinguish the toxic ones from the edible ones.” Reasoning the importance, she points out, “Many of these children eat basil in their pasta and bay leaves in their biryani but are unable to identify it when it’s on a tree.” When she’s certain the children know what’s going into their food, she heads to the kitchen with them, where they can see the life cycle of organic waste. At Forest Spirit Learning, composting is taken seriously. As is the making of bio-enzymes.
Sustainable life lessons coalesce at this nature school. And, there is a lot more in the pipeline. Jyoti plans on introducing life skill training — cooking, sewing, mending, carpentry, electrical and plumbing. The children seem to love these hands-on experiences, she shares, elaborating on the very successful ‘insect hotel building workshop’.
“Since pollinators have just started coming out of hibernation, we had children build a home for the insects. The set-up was almost like a little hotel for the pollinators to stay in,” she explains. The concept of an ecosystem is not only evident in the garden, but also in the pond that Jyoti has created.
“Dragonflies are my favourite insect, and I wanted them on the campus. So, I dug a pond. The stagnant water drew mosquitoes, whose larvae drew dragonflies. Soon, frogs came to the pond, attracted to the dragonflies. Then, the Kingfisher bird came, followed by other birds.”
Don’t just pluck your greens; eat them too
Needless to say, tours through the land make one hungry. The proposition of being able to harvest their own veggies makes the children “go berserk”. But Jyoti cautions them on self-control. “Take only as much as you will be able to finish eating,” she urges. “Little things like these teach them the value of what they are consuming; about how everything is a resource that cannot be wasted.”
The harvesting is done from the vegetable patch where cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, onions, potatoes, garlic, methi (fenugreek), radish, brinjal, lettuce, tomatoes and chillies thrive. The salads are accompanied by a meal of bajra rotis (Indian flatbread), chutneys, chaas (buttermilk), sarson ka saag (a dish made from the leaves and stems of mustard) and lentils, put together by a team of locals.
Having nurtured the land to its current stage, there have been many learnings for Jyoti. But above all, she has come to enjoy her reciprocal relationship with nature. “Nature just needs one little chance to bounce back. You give it to her and you see the magic.” This learning is evidenced by her past. Growing up, she found herself surrounded by more trees than people. It instilled in her a fierce love for forests.
Soon after her move from Delhi to Gurugram seven years ago, she began advocating for the protection of the Aravalli range — a mountainous range in northwest India threatened by unchecked mining — followed by awareness sessions on Gurugram’s declining green cover. But while building ecological literacy across schools, Jyoti spotted the gaping hole. “How can children be taught to save the forest when they don’t even know what the forest is? Every time I went to schools as a mother, an activist, and a volunteer, I realised that kids were not prepared to handle any of the food and land crises that might unfold.”
The solution would demand more than a textbook. This thought soon segued into creating Forest Spirit Learning.
As Jyoti wraps up this tale, the tour is almost complete. Aarush has paid close attention. All along, he’s been hard at work, his hands grazing deftly over the paper. He reveals his work of art. Today, Aarush has painted his version of the world he wishes to live in. And, as you’ve guessed, it’s filled with shades of green.
Edited by Megha Chowdhury, Images courtesy Jyoti Raghavan
