A brief history of Paripoornam 🌕🪷☀️

Brief History – Timelines

How It All Began

Paripoornam was started by a few conscious families as a concept. Before shifting to ground, many families across India and abroad joined the community virtually, who are aligned conceptually. Many online orientation meetings took place. Families visited each other.

Around October 2023, land expeditions were put into action. Around 200 acres of land were identified in Belagavi, another 40 acres near Kadur, and 17 acres of coffee estate near Mudigere. Around 20+ families were ready to contribute financially to secure the land, but members on the ground had existential questions and sought clarification on who was willing to shift to community living immediately and realised that it’s been a retirement plan for most of them, and it may turn into just another real estate project.

Vinay takes a strong stance and offers his wife and brother-in-law’s two-acre land near Madanapalle, AP, to the community so that committed families can come together without making a big investment and make the initiative a success to build a prototype and scale up later.

The real community was established near Madanapalle, AP, by committed families in July 2024.

6 families shift to the community living near Madanapalle by taking a rented home and a separate home for rent to run the school.

Highlights at Madanapalle

Gurukulam has run successfully in a rented home for almost a year.

Community level natural farming was done in the land with the support of an NGO.

Infrastructure development was planned.

Cows were taken care of with community efforts.

Some efforts had been put into infrastructure development.

Few went through the Waldorf teachers’ training.

A few upskilled themselves on natural construction by attending in-person workshops.

Most members attended the Jeevan Vidhya workshop through different facilitators.

Hridayavan Foundation (NGO) has been registered to run day-to-day operations of social services.

The Community Kitchen was established and runs successfully. Breakfast and hot meals made from organic items were served to children at Gurukulam.

Hosted visitors who aspire to join community living.

Most community members on the ground who actively put efforts into making this initiative a success go through a life-transforming journey; at the same time, members experience turmoil from those who joined only to seek service instead of contributing.

Unfortunately, the community faces a water shortage in Madanapalle, but the determined team called geologists to mark new borewell points and found that many borewells are dried up due to excessive pumping by farmers.

Plan B

The team takes a conscious decision and puts Plan B into action.

Identified 10 acres of land in Kadur near Chikkamagaluru.

At Kadur (Jeevashila – 10 acres fully developed farm)

Shifting to a new location starts.

The current owners of the land became our host and supported the community immensely.

8 families find rented homes in the village and shift.

Infrastructure planning and development started.

School space identified on the farm, classroom designed, materials procured.

Mud, wood, and carpentry work done with prototypes for walls, plinth, and flooring; the right ratio of mud, sand, straw, cow dung, and lime identified after trials.

Faced power issues for the carpenter; genset purchased.

Cows shifted, integrated with villagers, now 7 cows graze in the forest with village herds.

One crop of sorghum grown as fodder.

Garden beds created for vegetables.

LLP registration in progress to safeguard community contributions and ideology.

Around July 2025, Gurukulam starts running in a 100-year-old rented home with 3 grades and dedicated teachers.

New teachers attend Waldorf teachers training in Bengaluru.

Some parents start training as Waldorf teachers and life skills facilitators.

Festivals celebrated, and a sense of community living starts to manifest.

First Parichayam (orientation meet-up) conducted in Bangalore; 4 Parichayam programs held at Jeevashila attended by around 50 families.

Monthly Manthan (collective meeting) begins to resolve issues.

Workshops held for harmonious living.

Stone pillars installed for Gaushala and classroom construction.