Most children walk into a science exhibition carrying models they have built in classrooms; robots, rockets, circuits and colourful working machines.
Twelve-year-old Aarushi Nirmal walked in carrying something very different: jars of leaf extracts, neem leaves, cow dung, cow urine and herbs. Her project had begun long before the exhibition, in the fields of Buldhana, Maharashtra.
Aarushi often accompanied her mother, Alka Nirmal, to meetings with farmers participating in Paani Foundation’s Farmer Cup. Alka works with Maharashtra’s Agriculture Department and mentors farmer groups taking part in the competition. For Aarushi, those visits were initially just a chance to accompany her mother. But as she watched the farmers prepare natural farming inputs, curiosity took over.
She began asking questions:
What goes into the mixture?
Why is neem used?
How much of each ingredient is needed?
What happens during fermentation? How long does it take?
The farmers were using things that might seem ordinary or even unpleasant to many people, cow dung, cow urine, neem leaves and locally available herbs; to prepare natural inputs for their fields. Aarushi began observing closely and recording the ingredients, ratios and methods. The farm slowly became her classroom.
Instead of merely memorising what she saw, she began trying to understand the science behind it. Fermentation, mixtures, proportions and the role of different natural ingredients became part of her learning. Then her school announced its science exhibition.
Aarushi could have chosen a conventional project. Instead, she decided to take what she had been observing in the farmers’ fields and turn it into a live demonstration.
At her stall, she explained how natural farming inputs were prepared and the science she had understood behind the process. Her project wasn’t just something assembled for an exhibition; it came from conversations, observation and repeated questions.
There were nearly 250 students participating. Aarushi won first prize. What makes her story interesting isn’t simply that a 12-year-old won a science competition. It is where her idea came from.
Her mother’s work took her into farming communities, and instead of seeing those visits as something unrelated to her own world, Aarushi looked at what was happening around her and asked why. That curiosity turned everyday farming practices into a science experiment.
Her project also shows how learning can happen outside textbooks. A field, a farmer’s meeting and a conversation can become a laboratory when a child is willing to observe closely.
Aarushi didn’t need a complicated machine to make her project stand out. She took something happening quietly in farmers’ fields, looked at it scientifically and brought it into her classroom. And among nearly 250 projects, it was that simple act of curiosity that earned her the first prize.
