Palghar's Warli artist Madhukar Vadu has been eating the rice bhakri with gusto - to make up for what he missed for the last three months while in Andhra Pradesh. Camping in the mountainous Palkonda region- as a part of a unique talent exchange with the Savara tribe - his daily nourishment came from tangy uttappas and tamarind-rich sambar cooked in unglazed earthen pots. Apart from the C-vitamin overdose, integral to his residency programme, Vadu literally had a colourful time in an art class designed for Savara households settled in Palkonda, which means 'Milk Hills' in Telugu.

He fondly sums up his project as "an open-air relaxed tutorial" not bound by a curriculum. He sat with a motley student mix of 20-odd art college apprentices and infant-holding mothers in the Addakulguda village green — a scene which was close to his growing up days in the similarly remote Kondhan village (Palghar taluka of Maharashtra). He was reminded of his first painting lessons that came from the frescoes depicting Warli life - mostly hunting, fishing, farming and dancing to the tarpa (trumpet) — which resemble the Eedhi Seengh (painted home) designs on Savara hut walls in regions of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where Vadu has been invited to hold a similar class.