First Moms Club talks to Tiger Momma Katie Bhujwala, an outsider who has not only settled in rural

India but calls it her true home. She runs a wonderful tented camp style resort called Shergarh at Kanha Tiger Reserve, with her husband Jehan Bhujwala.
1) Please tell us a little about your extraordinary journey. How did you land up in India from UK?
In UK, its really common for kids to take a year out to work or travel abroad before settling into a career or further studies. I came to India after my studies, with the aim of combining some work experience with travel. I was fortunate to get a volunteering post helping run a lovely wildlife camp in Kanha Tiger Reserve, for 6 months. During that time I met Jehan, my to-be husband and my life changed! Jehan is from Bombay and had been living in Kanha for a few years, planning his own wildlife camp. Having witnessed the pros and cons of tourism on my travels, Jehans project appealed to me because he was not simply setting up a business, but establishing an entire lifestyle that incorporated all types of responsible and sustainable ethics. At the end of the tourist season, I thought I was going over to Jehans for a few weeks to help out, but I ended up staying a little longer and we created a home and a life together instead!

2) Was the interest in wildlife always there? Or did it intensify after meeting Jehan your husband?
It was my interest in rural communities, and the idea of working alongside people with a completely different language and culture, that originally brought me to Kanha. When I reached, I was awed to be in the company of tribal communities, whose traditional practices I had heard about in anthropology classes, and it continues to fascinate me. During my first days in Kanha, I was fortunate to be in the company of people deeply involved in wildlife conservation, and this had a profound impact on the way I was able to interpret those early experiences. However, it was on forest walks with Jehan that my interest and appreciation was truly nurtured; together we would listen out for calls and signs, identify birds, trees and butterflies, and of course, be enthralled by the fact that we were in big-cat territory! Kanha is an incredibly rich and varied forest, and there is no end to its discovery. For our children, it is home, and their ease and affection towards everything wild. We love the fact that as a family we find bugs and crawlies beautiful and fascinating, while others find them scary and avoidable; its like weve hit on a secret!

3) Whats it like raising kids in rural/ small town India?

Its the most incredible gift. The tribal communities that we live among are deeply connected with the forest around them, and very dependent on nature to survive, which offer all of us a rich and living cultural context to tap in to. A simple walk through a village here is as inspiring or enchanting as experiencing a fabulous cultural event: here its all real, and Kai and Ella are most at home weaving through a host of mud dwellings after baby goats and pigs, and clambering our neighbours fruit trees for seasonal pickings. The community has liberal attitudes; women are given high status, and children have the space and freedom to roam and explore. People here may not be exposed to opportunities, but they have dignity and confidence, and they are very gentle. When we are here, we feel free from the pressures and expectations that can restrain you in places where materialistic values and social norms prevail. Our work in Kanha is seasonal, so we spend 4 months of the year living between our respective families in UK and Mumbai, and exploring other regions. This offers Kai and Ella the opportunity to interact and integrate with a good mix of children and develop life skills for the modern world. Of course, in Kanha we lack good health and education services. There is always a compromise.

4) How do you take care of their education since you live on the reserve and dont live close to any good regular school?
We home-school them. We hadnt envisaged this when they were babies, but it naturally led in that direction as they grew, mostly because there was no other option. Friends started giving us learning material, and we found all sorts of fun stuff on the net. We have never followed a particular curriculum, but research the main targets for their age groups, and tailor material to their interests. We also send them for an hour a day to the village school so that they interact and integrate with children their age and feel part of the community. They learn to read and write Hindi there. It is tough to commit disciplined time to their education when camp is running, so we now hire a tutor during the busy months. So far the tutors have come from UK, which is a great work/travel abroad experience for them, and a fabulous interim solution for us. The only trouble is now Kai and Ella have had the taste of fun teachers, going back to me and Jehan in the off-season is just tooooo boring!!

5) Since you home-school them for now, do you plan to send them to a hostel later?
We would really like Kai and Ella to go to a school at a later point. There are certain life skills that we feel can only happen in a shared setting, and we value the exposure and stimulation that comes from having a variety of teachers and subjects. Neither Jehan nor I boarded; we enjoyed upbringings that enabled us daily contact with our families, so the thought of sending them away is a bit scary just now. However we increasingly feel that the natural progression would be a school that can build on their life experiences so far, one based on holistic principles

that nurtures their interests and prepares them for a future where self-sustainability is going to be increasingly necessary. If that means they have to board, then we are pretty open to it.

6) As a mother what do you think are the advantages of home schooling your children? And also if you feel there are any disadvantages to it, please share them with us.
Home-schooling has been a wonderful experience for us, and so far, we feel that Kai and Ella are doing well on it. We went into it through lack of options rather than as a choice, so weve HAD to make it work, and we feel so grateful for the opportunity. Not only do you feel the sense of reward and accomplishment, it opens doors to a new world of people, places and ideas that inspire you. I really admire parents who choose to home-school because they are unhappy with the school environment/ teaching methods of schools around them. Its an incredibly positive and empowering resolution to a situation that, in itself, teaches a very important message to the child. One-to-one learning allows a child to go at their own pace, discovering more easily what they like/dislike and finding out what theyre good at. Youre able to control what they are learning, tailoring it to their interests, stretching them when theyre ready and holding back where necessary. On the flip-side, a home-schooled child misses the exposure to classroom dynamics, shared experiences and team spirit. Also, as a child advances in years, it becomes increasingly harder for one person to deliver a varied and stimulating curriculum across the sciences and arts; people are generally academic or creative, not both, but a child needs each subject to be well presented. For the parent its a massive, full-time commitment you have to spend the whole day with your child! The toughest part is getting your child to sit down and take you seriously. I used to try and get my kids to see me as a teacher at work time and a mother at home time, and I thought that reward/punishment schemes should be dealt with within their respective home and school situations, and not cross over. The simple fact is I am their mother and they are learning at home, and when lessons are through, you carry on hanging out together until bedtime: its nothing like school! So you have to adapt in your own way to make it work for you and your kids. I guess its important to remember that any decision you make about your childs education is reversible, and resolvable, and that ultimately, there is no perfect scenario. Life is what you make it.

You can visit their website http://shergarh.com/index.html or check out their FB page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shergarh-at-Kanha-Tiger-Reserve/108398509224122