We Are Now Becoming VaanaVizha

A new name. The same roots. VaanaVizha A celebration of everything under the sky : and of all the lives that make it possible. “Keeping you and the earth, happy!” Local   ·   Organic   ·   Pure THE NAME A Word Big Enough for Everything We Do I started Vivasayee’s Life as a blog, a documentation initiative….

Summer VaanaVizha Immersion 2026 – A Farm Experience for Families

This summer, we are opening Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest to families with children aged 8–15 for a very special 4-day farm experience. 📅 Friday morning to Monday evening · 4 days, 3 nights 👨‍👩‍👧 2 families per batch · Maximum 8 participants, Minimum 6 participants🌈 Hosted at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli…

Vaanavil Diaries : February 2026

Happenings and thoughts from Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli District I will let the photos do rest of the talking for our February story. Regards Sudhakar

Vaanavil Diaries : January 2026

January was a difficult month for us. A lot of positives happened last month too: We have not been regular with posts as much as we would like to be. Hosting guests, homeschooling Vanya, and running our small organic groceries business has been taking up much of our time. So here is a photo dump…

“Plastic Arisi”

Have you heard people say the rice from PDS (ration shop) is “plastic rice” or adulterated with floating grains? Recently, I heard Dinesh tell Esakki akka to sort out the plastic rice while washing it. Turns out, they were not joking… there’s a story behind it. Okay, lets back up. What’s going on? India eats…

Karuppu Kavuni Aapam

By now most of us know the history of Karuppu Kavuni – the fragrant black rice that was brought from Burma to Tamil Nadu by the Chettiar community. The first time I learnt about Karuppu Kavuni was a few months after we moved to Tirunelveli in 2018. It looked so exotic and I decided to…

Karuppu Kavuni Sakkarai Pongal Recipe

Deepa Reddy of Paticheri fame, a few years back, featured in and shared with us the beautiful short film Thirunel by Bigshortfilms. From that documentary, I gathered that the word Kavuni is adopted from the Burmese word Kao Hynin, which means Sticky Rice. Karuppu, in Tamil, means black. I love how the language of our food…

Karunkuruvai Idiyappam Recipe

In Tirunelveli, we share more than just a border with Kerala — we share a love for breakfast dishes like idiyappam, appam, and puttu. Most restaurants here in Southern Tamil Nadu serve Idiyappam for Dinner only. At Vaanavil Farm Stay, Noushadya has been offering it for both breakfast as well as dinner to our guests….