The Timbaktu Collective is often compared to a Banyan Tree, like a forest itself, housing so many insects, birds and animals, having multiple roots.
Its origin is also as complex. It needed a woman from Kerala and a man from Bengal to come together in Anantapuramu District of Andhra Pradesh. The man, known as Bablu aka Choitresh Kumar Ganguly, arrived on the 1st of April 1978 and stayed on. The woman, Mary Abraham Vattamattam, arrived on the 15th of May, 1978, stayed a few days at the Rural development Trust (RDT) and then went on to work amongst the tribal people of Srikakulam, in North Andhra Pradesh.
Bablu and Mary actually met only in 1981, in a meeting in Penukonda. It took another five years for Mary to return to Anantapuramu district and continue her journey, with Bablu.