राजू टाइटस इंटरव्यू, भाग 1

मेरी जानकारी में भारत में (शायद विश्व में भी) किसी नें मासानोबू फुकुओका की कुदरती खेती तो इनती लगन और इतने समय नहीं किया जितना राजू टाइटस जी  नें। राजू-जी और उनकी पत्नी शालिनी-जी नें कुदरती खेती का अपना सफ़र 27 साल पहले उनके 13 एकड़ के खेत में शुरू किया। समय के साथ उन्होंने कुदरत के बताये हुए तरीकों तो अपने खेतों में ही नहीं, बल्कि अपने जीवन के अन्य पहलुओं में भी उतारा। लेकिन इसकी  कहानी हम सुनेंगे उन्हीं की जबानी।

कुछ समय पहले हम दो दिन राजू-जी के फार्म में रहे। कुदरती खेती की बातचीत की, बीज की गोलियां बनाईं, खेती के लिए एक छोटी जमीन की तैय्यारी की, और इसके अलावा हमने खायीं उनके खेत के कुदरती गेहूं से बनी स्वादिष्ट रोटियां। इसके साथ ही हमें मिला स्वाद राजू-जी के उत्साह, और उदार भावना का जो प्रदर्शित हुआ दो पास के गावों की सैर में -- यहाँ राजू-जी नें अपने कुदरती खेती के अनुभवों तो दूसरे किसानों के सामने रखा।

लौटने पर हमारा मिलना ऐसे लोगों से हुआ जो भी राजू-जी और कुदरती खेती के बारे में जानना चाहते थे। अपने हमारे भी और सवाल थे। बस इसी से इंटरव्यू करने का विचार आया और राजू-जी से पूछने पर हमीं मिली। यह है इंटरव्यू का पहला भाग। इसमे राजू-जी बात करते है अपने फार्म के बारे में, और साथ ही बताते है कुदरती खेती में क्या किया जाता है, या फिर उस से भी ज्यादा ज़रूरी, क्या नहीं किया जाता है। नहीं किया जाना ही कुदरती खेती के फ़लसफ़े का आधार है।
(नोट: इस इंटरव्यू के अंग्रेज़ी अनुवाद की पोस्ट में  कुछ फोटो भी है)



Q: 27 साल पहले, कुदरती खेती करने से पहले, आप किस तरह की खेती में लगे थे? आप क्या क्या उगा रहे थे?

RT: कुदरती खेती करने से पूर्व हम गहरी जुताई, रासायनिक उर्वरक, कीट और खरपतवार नाशक जहरों, हाई ब्रिड बीज़ों, भारी सिंचाई, समतलीकरण आदि पर आधारित खेती, "हरित क्रांति" खेती, कर रहे थे। इस में हम सोयबीन और गेंहू उगाते थे। 15 साल हमने ये खेती की। इस से पूर्व हम देशी खेती करते थे। हम और अधिक के चक्कर में फंस गए थे।

Q: हमारी बातचीत में आपने बताया था की उस समय आपने खेती न करने का मन बना लिया था। क्या कारण था इस सोच के पीछे? आप किस तरह की मुसीबतों का सामना कर रहे थे?

RT: हरित क्रांति के दोरान हमने समतलीकरन करवाया, कांस घास को निकालने का काम करवाया, सिंचाई के लिए कुआ खुदवाया ,बिजली की लाइन लगवाई, मोटर लगवाई, किराये से ट्रेक्टर आदि मशीने लेकर हम खेती करते थे। जैसी भी वैज्ञानिक सलाह देते थे हम वैसा ही करते थे। पहले साल तो हमें अच्छे परिणाम मिले; उसके बाद हमें कभी अच्छे परिणाम नहीं मिले। हम 15 साल तक जोर अजमाते रहे इस से हमारे खेत मरुस्थल में तब्दील हो गए और हम आर्थिक रूप से कंगाल हो गये। हमारे खेत पूरी तरह कांस घास से भर गए थे। ये घांस पनपते रेगिस्थान की निसानी है। इस में खेती करने से खर्च दुगना हो जाता है फसल कम होती है।

आर्थिक तंगी के कारण हमने खेती छोड़ने का मन बना लिया था। मैं उन दिनों नौकरी कर रहा था इस लिए बच गया अन्यथा मेरा भी वही हर्ष होता जो अनेक किसानो का हो रहा है। हमारे माता पिता ने शहर में चार प्लाट खरीदे थे वे भी इस खेती को भेंट चढ़ गए।

Q: आपको कुदरती खेती के बारे में कैसे पता लगा ? और इस जानकारी के बाद आपने अपने खेत में किस प्रकार के परिवर्तन करने शुरू किये ?

RT: हमने जब खेती को छोड़ देने का मन बना लिया तो मेरे माता पिता बहुत दुखी हो गए। उसी समय उनकी मुलाकात गाँधीवादी क्वेकर मार्जरी साय्क्स और परतापजी अगरवाल से हुई। जिन्होंने One Straw Revolution (एक तिनके से क्रांति) का पहला भारतीय संस्करण छापा था। उन्होंने ये किताब मेरी माताजी को थमा दी। उनके आग्रह पर जब मैने ये किताब पढ़ी तो में बदल गया।

मैने कुदरती खेती को अपना लिया। इस के बाद मेरे माता पिता और मार्जरी बहन और परतापजी को की चिन्ता और अधिक इसलिए बढ़ गयी की कहीं नुक्सान हुआ तो बदनामी हो जाएगी। ये काम सब अनजाने में हो गया। इस के पीछे मेरी फेक्ट्री की नोकरी का बहुत सहयोग रहा -- एक तो उसे मैं छोड़ना चाहता था और उस से मिलने वाले पैसे से हम आमदनी के प्रति निश्चिन्त थे।

शुरू में हमें बस ये मालूम था की जुताई, खाद, रसायन आदि की कोई जरुरत नहीं है। किन्तु कैसे करना हमें नहीं मालूम था। एक दिन मैने कुछ सोयाबीन के दाने बस जमीन पर बिखेर कर उन्हें पुआल से ढँक दिया; बारिश हो रही थी, कुछ दिनों बाद मेने देखा की पुआल के बाहर सोयाबीन के नन्हे-नन्हे पौधे झांक रहे हैं और कोई भी खरपतवार नहीं है। बस मेरी ख़ुशी का ठिकाना नहीं रहा। हम इसी तरीके से खेती करने लगे। पुआल की जगह हम कांस घांस को काटकर उस को बीजों पर ढांक देते थे। ऐसा करने से एक ओरजहाँ हमें अच्छी फसल मिलने लगी वही सबसे कठिन खरपतवार गायब हो गयी। हमारे इस प्रयोग से फुकुओकाजी बहुत खुश हुए। उन्होंने हमें दुनियाभर भर में कुदरती खेती के हो रहे प्रयोगों में न . वन दे दिया। वे 1988 जनवरी में हमारे यहाँ पधारे थे।

Q: शालिनी-जी इस खेती में आपकी बड़ी भागीदार बनी। उन्होंने बताया कि कैसे वे अपने हाथों से कई एकड़ में बीज फैंकती थी और बीज एक-से गिरते थे! उनके योगदान बारे में कुछ बताइये।

RJ: पत्नी के बिना हम कुछ नहीं कर सकते थे। खेती के काम में उनकी असली भागीदारी रही है। कुदरती खेती एक विषय है जिस में एक समय ऐसा आता है जब आप अकेले पड़ जाते हैं, उस समय आपकी पत्नी ही एक मात्र आपका सहारा होती हैं। कुदरती खेती में बहुत काम होते हैं; खेतों की तयारी  करवाना, बीज फेंकना, पानी देना, फसल की कटाई, गहाई आदि सब में उनकी महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका रहती है। किसी भी नए प्रयोग को करने में हम दोनों मिलकर सलाह कर के ही काम करते हैं। कुदरती खेती से हमारा परिवार अनेक परेशानियों के बावजूद एक मत खुश हाल है। ये ऐसी खेती है जिसमे केवल खान, पान, भोजन ही नहीं है इस में पारिवारिक प्रेम और संतोष भी हमें मिलता है।

Q: आज की तारीख में बहुत सी ज़मीनें बिलकुल बंजर पड़ी हैं। इन पर एक पौधा नहीं उगता। इस तरह की ज़मीनों पर NF की शुरुआत करने में बड़ी कठिनाइयाँ आती हैं, और अक्सर लोग हार मानकर जुताई में लग जाते हैं। आपका इस बारे में क्या अनुभव है?

RT: असल में हमारी जमीन खुद हमारी गलत खेती करने के कारण बंजर हो गयी थी। फुकुओका जी ने जब हमें कांस घास में खेती करते देखा, वे उन दिनों अमेरिका से लौटे थे। कह रहे थे ये घास अमेरिका के तीन चौथाई इलाके में गलत खेती करने के कारण फैल गयी है| वहां उन्होंने खेती करना बंद कर दिया है क्योंकी उन्हें नहीं मालूम है की इस घास में खेती कैसे करें। आप इस घास में कुदरती खेती कर रहे हैं इस लिए हम आपको न .वन कह रहे है।

हमारे छेत्र में आज भी ऋषि पंचमी के पर्व में कांस घास की पूजा होती है और कुदरती अनाजो को फलहार के रूप में सेवन किया जाता है। किसानो को इस घास के आ जाने के बाद खेतों में हल चलाने को मना किया जाता है। इस लिए प्राचीन खेती किसानी में किसान खेत में इस घास के आ जाने के बाद जुताई नहीं करते थे, इस कारण घास अपने आप चली जाती थी और खेत पुन: उर्वरक और पानीदार हो जाते थे।

बिना जुताई की कुदरती खेती बंजर खेतों को ठीक करने की विधि है। ऐसी कोई जमीन नहीं रहती जिस पर कुछ नहीं उगता कुदरत पानी में, रेत में, पत्थरों पर भी कुछ न कुछ उगाती रहती है हमें केवल कुदरत को सहयोग करने की जरुरत है।

Q: तो एकदम बर्बाद ज़मीन पर  हम "केवल कुदरत को सहयोग" कैसे करें?

RT: जब हमने कुदरती खेती की शुरुआत की उस समय हमें ये नहीं मालूम था की कैसे करें। बस हमें ये पता चल गया था की क्या ना करें, जैसे जुताई, कम्पोस्ट बनाना, रसायनों का इस्तमाल नहीं करना, पशुओं को नहीं चराना आदि। इस लिए सब से पहले हमने सब पशु हटाये, फिर फेंसिंग पर ही ध्यान दिया, किसी भी बाहरी और अंदरूनी नुक्सान को हमने पूरी तरह रोक दिया। इस से मात्र एक बरसात में हमारे खेत हरियाली से भर गए। हमारी धरती मां जो बीमार होकर बेहोश हो गयी थीं, ऐसा लगा जैसे उन्होंने ऑंखें खोल दीं। बस इसे ही देखने लोग दूर-दूर से आने लगे। हरी-हरी घास, उसके साथ अनेक पेड़-पौधे, जीव-जंतु, कीड़े-मकोड़े, तितलियाँ, मधु-मक्खियाँ वहां आने लगीं। हम बस इन्हें देख खुश होते और लागत बंद हो जाने से हमारा घाटा भी रुक गया। धीरे-धीरे देशी बबूल, सुबबूल, आदि अनेक पेड़ वहां पनप गए। बस हम भी कुदरती तरीके से बीज फेंकने लगे।

असल में कुदरत को किसी की सेवा की जरुरत नहीं है; उसकी असली सेवा उसे बचाने के लिए करनी पड़ती है। मानवीय और पालतू पशु का नुक्सान सबसे अधिक है। उसे रोक भर देने से कुदरत की सेवा हो जाती है।
बर्बाद से बर्बाद जमीन को ठीक करने के लिए भी यही एक मात्र तरीका है। बर्बादी के कारणों से जमीन को बचा भर लेने से जमीन सुधर जाती है। इस में किसी भी मानवीय बुद्धी से काम करने की जरुरत नहीं है। जमीन पर रहने वाली जैव विविधताएँ अपने आप काम करने लगती हैं।

Raju Titus interview Part 1

To my knowledge no one in India -- perhaps even in the world -- has pursued Masanobu Fukuoka's vision of Natural Farming (NF) with such single minded devotion and for so long as Raju Titus. Raju-ji and his wife Shalini-ji started on their NF journey about 27 years ago on their 13 acre farm in Hoshangabad, MP. Over the years they have allowed Nature to tell them what to do with their land -- and indeed to influence all aspects of their lives. But that is getting ahead of the story that we want Raju-ji to tell us instead.

Recently we spent two days at their farm. We talked NF, made seed-balls, prepared a small patch of land for seeding and not least, ate delicious rotis made from their naturally grown wheat. We also got a taste of Raju-ji's enthusiasm for connecting with local farmers for no other gain than to spread a good idea. Raju-ji took us on two excursions to nearby villages where he shared his NF experience with local farmers (see pictures).

After we got back, we met people curious about Raju-ji and NF, and also had a growing list of our own questions. This gave birth to the idea of doing an offline interview with him for wider circulation and Raju-ji readily complied to our request for one. Part 1 of the interview is posted below in the translated version. Here Raju-ji talks a bit about the history of his farm, a little about what to do in NF, and more importantly, in keeping with the spirit of Fukuoka's Do-Nothing philosophy, what not to do. 

The original Hindi version is a separate post. 

Raju-ji, Shalini-ji with granddaughter

 


Q: Before you came to Natural Farming 27 years ago, what kind of farming were you engaged in? What were you growing?

RT: Before starting on NF, I was doing the "Green Revolution" style of farming with deep tilling, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hybrid seeds, heavy irrigation and leveling of fields. I was growing soya and wheat. I did this for 15 years. Before that I was engaged in local, indigenous style of farming but then got caught in the cycle of wanting more.

Q: In our conversations you had said you were on the brink of giving up farming altogether. What were the reasons for that? What specific difficulties were you facing?

RT : During the "Green Revolution" years, I got my fields leveled, hired people to get rid of "Kans" grass [a difficult weed], got a well dug for irrigation purposes -- electric pump and all -- and made use of rented tractors. Essentially, whatever the Agricultural Scientists advised, I did. For the first year of doing all this I got good results but never after that. I kept at it for 15 years, and during this time my fields were turning into deserts and I was heading towards bankruptcy. My land was filling up with Kans grass, indicating desertification of the soil.  With this grass in the soil, the expenses increase but yields go down.

Mounting financial difficulties forced me to resolve to giving up farming altogether. I had a job at that time to lean on, otherwise I would have ended up like many farmers of today. My parents had 4 plots of lands in the city -- even these were sacrificed towards the farm.

Q: How did you learn about NF? After discovering NF what kind of changes did you make in your farm?

RT : My decision to quit farming had particularly saddened my parents.  Right around that time they came in contact with the Gandhian Quakers, Marjorie Sykes and Partap Aggarwal. They had just brought out the first Indian edition of One Straw Revolution and handed a copy to my mother. I read the book at my mother's behest, and I was converted.

I adopted NF right away. Now, this had the effect of causing great alarm to my parents, Marjorie-behan and Partap-ji because they were concerned that any failures would bring bad name to NF. What followed was without any pre-meditated design. My factory job came in useful: while I had wanted to quit it, it was instrumental in keeping my mind off matters of making an income.

In the beginning, all I knew was that in NF tilling, fertilizer and chemicals were unnecessary. But I did not know how to go about it. One time, during the rainy season, I spread some soya-bean seeds on the ground and covered them with straw. A few days later I saw little soya-bean plants peeking out of the straw
and not one weed. I was overjoyed and started to farm in this manner. Instead of the straw, I would cover the seeds with Kans grass cuttings. This not only  gave me a yield, it also started defeating this most difficult weed. Incidentally this experiment also impressed Fukuoka-ji during his January 1988 visit to my farm -- he declared it to be the best NF experiment in the world.

Q: From our talks, I know that Shalini-ji has been your great collaborator. For one, I greatly enjoyed listening to her description of how she would go manually broadcasting seeds over several acres, and they would fall evenly. Tell us about her role.

RJ : Without my wife's support nothing would have been possible. She has been my real partner in farming. In NF there comes a time when your wife is your only support. In NF, there are many tasks -- getting the fields readied, broadcasting seeds, irrigation, harvesting and threshing -- and she is a key contributor in each of these. We consult together whenever there is a new experiment to be carried out. Because of NF, our family has been able to be happy despite facing many difficulties. This kind farming does not just provide us with food and water, but also brings the family closer.

Raju-ji explains NF to farmers near Hoshangabad

Later, Raju-ji surveys a chemically farmed field for changing over to NF

Q: Today, a lot of farm lands in India have become wasted -- not a blade of grass seems to grow on these. Starting NF in this kind of fields is difficult and people that try it soon give up and turn to tilling. What has been your experience?


RT: My land had become lifeless due to my own mistakes. When Fukuoka-ji saw me farming with Kans grass, he was delighted. He had just returned from his America trip and had said that this kind of grass had become rampant in the US and where it had spread, farming had been stopped. He said that they (the American farmers) don't know how to deal with this and here you are doing NF in the presence of this very grass.

In this region, on Rishi Panchami [a local festival] day, people still perform pooja of Kans grass and consume natural food grains. If this grass appears in the fields, farmers are advised to stop plowing the land. In the indigenous method of farming, people would follow this practice and then the grass would naturally disappear and the fields would return to fertility.

No-till NF is a method to restore fertility to the fields. In Nature there is no land where absolutely nothing grows. Something or the other grows even in water, in sand, and on stones; all we have to do is to help Nature along.

Q: So how does one "help Nature along" on a barren piece of land?

RT : When I had started on NF, I had no idea what to do. Basically I understood what not to do, like tilling, preparing compost, using chemicals and grazing etc. So first I got rid of the animals, then paid attention to the fencing. I completely stopped any kind of harm caused by outsiders or insiders. By merely these actions, my fields were filled with green cover at the end of a single rainy season. I felt as if Mother Nature, who had lost all vigor through sickness, had come back to life. Lush-green grass, countless trees and shrubs, animals, insects, butterflies and bees started to come back. Then people started to come to see this transformation. All this gave me deep satisfaction. Because my inputs were now minimal, financial losses also stopped. Over time, native Babool (Acacia nilotica), Subabool (Leucaena leucocephala) and other trees started flourishing there. And then I started throwing seeds following Nature's example.

Really, Nature does not need our help; what it needs is protection. Humans and farm animals cause maximum damage and all you have to do to help Nature is to stop this damage. Even complete wastelands can be restored by this technique. Just get rid of the forces of destruction and multitudes of life forms start working on their own. There is no need for applying great human intelligence.

"Gift Culture" left me itching to give

We were traveling in Tamil Nadu with a large group of people that included extended family and acquaintances. The last leg of our journey was to last four hours and it necessitated certain preparations on my part. Aparna had just recovered from bouts of diarrhea and her body, as if to make up for lost time, was frequently wanting to be fed. So before boarding the bus I wanted to pack some food for her. Keeping in mind the heat and humidity here, which shortens the life of cooked vegetables or lentils, I picked up some plain boiled (white) rice wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper from a nearby restaurant.

We made a stop at at the temple town of Thiruvidaimarudur, not too far from the entrance to the temple and by the side of a large water tank that often accompanies temples of antiquity in South India. On three sides, the tank was surrounded by ordinary houses.

As expected Aparna was quite hungry when we got off the bus. I opened my little banana leaf packet and started feeding her morsels of not very nutritious white rice. My distant aunt, who was traveling with us, walked towards us and was appalled to see what Aparna was eating. With a certain firmness, she said, "Hema! Don't feed this to your child. This is not nutritious. I can knock at someone's door and ask for some sambar. I don't mind asking a stranger just so Aparna can eat well." She didn't wait for my reply. She dashed towards a nearby house and the next moment I saw her knocking at the door. The door was opened by a slightly puzzled middle aged man and a little boy. The man silently listened to the unusual request, sent word to his wife through the little boy and then disappeared inside.

We waited for a few minutes wondering what might happen next. I could hear my aunt mutter impatiently, "I don't understand what is taking them so long. I would have cooked a feast for someone who knocks at my door with a child in her arms". In another few minutes, to my pleasant surprise, the lady of the house showed up with a bowl full of hot sambar. She went on to say that she can get more food for us if we wanted. The sambar was delicious and Aparna quickly ate what she could and then Abhinav ate the leftover. Filled with gratitude, we thanked this wonderful lady and boarded the bus again. Still reeling under the unexpected generosity of this stranger, I gushed about the incident to my aunt. But my aunt didn't think it was significant. "We do this all the time, dear. This is nothing special." was what she said.

I noticed that I was now itching to reach out and give to others more than ever. Maybe "Gift Culture" is contagious.

-- Hema

Writing Tamil. No, wait, Hindi really.

Now that we are in Tamil Nadu, I feel the need to learn to read/write Tamil. I talk about this to my kids as well -- I ask them if they want to learn to read Tamil too. Aparna shows no interest but Abhi says he wants to write Hindi. Okay. That doesn't quite follow from the earlier conversation but nature has no straight lines and I have learned to not be surprised with this child.
Abhi says, "First, teach me the Hindi alphabet."

I reply, "I don't know the full alphabet but I can show you how to write words."

Perhaps because the older brother is interested, Aparna is now interested as well.  So I sit down, flanked on either side by a kid, and start to write some words they know. Since both of them speak Hindi we are not attempting to read/write it while at the same time trying to learn the language, which is a different order of beast altogether.
I write, "आम" and "Aam", "अभिनव " and "Abhinav", "कुत्ता" and "kutta", "भूत" and "bhooth", and so on. Along the way we make frequent stops to talk about "matras" (diacritics) or the process of attaching vowels to the consonants. Soon we have a small collection of words, with a significant number of vowels, consonants and matras. We now begin to construct new words from old. Either one of them volunteers a word, or I suggest one to write. One of them suggests "shit", so we write "टट्टी" and "tatti", and as I sound it out they both laugh. No surprises there, scatological explorations are always funny. We continue like this for about forty minutes and then it is time for bed.

The next day Abhi wakes up with an idea. He has been working on a comic strip, and now he wants to write it in two languages. As he constructs the strip, his new idea is to leave all the speech bubbles blank. He wants to make a xerox copy of the strip and come back and fill in the speech bubbles, English in one copy and Hindi in the other. The copying will come later. For now he numbers the speech bubbles and on a separate piece of paper writes his dialog, first in English and then keeps coming to me for help with writing the Hindi version.
Some of the things he writes:
"Meanwhile..." and "इस बीच...",
"Ha! I am here." and "हा!, मैं आ गया ।",
and so on.

So now he has another reason to learn to write Hindi.


- Dev

After the bull was butchered

By August 2011, we had made up our minds to move back to India and live off the land. To get a first-hand experience of such a living, I started volunteering at a local organic farm in Cotati in Northern California. This farm had some vegetable beds, chickens, horses and pasture fed cows and bulls. I was working 5 hours every week, doing all kinds of odd jobs in the farm. Since my kids (8 and 5 years old then) were being homeschooled, this was a part of the learning experience. Their "learning" involved picking veggies when they were ready, eating tree-ripe fruit, enjoying time with the farm animals, collecting eggs from the chicken coop, relishing fresh butter and occasionally listening to parts of intense discussions about global economy, climate change, fossil fuel etc.

One day, the owner of the farm told us that he was expecting the local butcher. They had decided to get rid of the 2 year old bull that had contracted an infection. Being vegetarians, we dashed out as soon as we could. We got a glimpse of the big red truck that the butcher had come in. On the way back home, my kids and I discussed the options that the farm owner had, given the current scenario. It was interesting to observe the insights they had about this incident.

Two days later we returned to the farm. The bull was obviously gone and I was asked to clean the fenced open space (roughly 30' X 60') he had lived in. The ground there had caked cow dung. I was to scrape a few inches of the rich deposits and add it to the new compost pile. It took me two hours to finish the job. I had never done this kind of manual labor before. Something about this seemingly mundane job touched me deeply. 

I was thinking of this wonderful gift that the animal had left behind and how this gift will enrich the soil on the farm. Two years of life-span and no trace of waste that would pollute the place where the animal lived!! This seemed phenomenal to me. I began wondering about the amount of waste a human in its place would have generated. 

Thoughts and emotions were racing in my mind: "we, humans, are much smarter than this bull that had died
(at least we like to think so). But our intelligence seems to be detrimental to the state of the Planet. With all our intelligence, we have caused irreversible problems like global warming. Are we really smart? Or is the bull that died smarter than us?"

Interestingly, the farm owners started using the phrase "the bull in the deep freezer" when they had to refer to the bull that died. I was left wondering if this dead animal was now consuming more resources than it ever did when it was alive.

- Hema

Today's Schools, Deforestation and Global Warming

Deforestation and Global Warming are closely coupled and we all know that. But what about our schools of today? How do they relate to these?

Well, today's schools are quite resource-intensive. They are one of the biggest consumers of paper. I have observed pre-schools and alternative charter schools in America for a period of 9 collective years (I have two kids that went to pres-school and elementary school). Also, I know the state of affairs at schools in India. The picture is not much different.

Do you know how much paper was wasted over your child learning ABC's? And how much was wasted over 1,2,3's? I say "wasting" because, if the learning process is different the consumption and medium would be very different.

My grandmother in India remembers using sand as a medium to learn to write. Students were asked to use their index fingers to trace a letter or number on sand that was spread over the floor. This approach is used by some Montessori schools even now. The next generation (my parents, in 1950's) was introduced to slate and chalk. Paper made its way into kindergarten when I was in school in late 70's. Each generation has seen a overlap in the medium used -- as kids at school, my parents used both sand and slate; I have used both slate and paper.

The current generation primarily uses paper. The increasing workload at schools can only mean increasing demand for paper. Now add population growth to this picture and you can see why and how today's schools contribute toward deforestation and global warming.

Does the current generation of children know that they are using up their oxygen-giving, rain-giving trees? Do they know that the previous generation (i.e.we, their parents) is still busy deforesting and can never undo the damage done? How can we continue doing this injustice to our children? How can resources be exploited in the name of learning and education?

- Hema

Soapnuts to Summation

It has become customary for my daughter (6 years) to play with soapnuts everytime we visit my friend's place in Adyar. That evening, as we were getting ready to leave my friend's place, my daughter was busy decorating their stairs and said that she needed some more time to finish the decorations. I got curious about what she was doing. She showed me her idea behind the decoration -- one soapnut on the first step, two on the second step and so on till the tenth step. She was quite pleased with herself when she got to the tenth step and was ready to leave.

On the way back, during our bus ride, I was still pondering over the soapnuts decorations. I didn't quite know, until a day later, what was fascinating me about it. The next day I woke up with the formula (n * (n+1))/2 in my head. I must have remembered from my school days (thanks to all the memory work!) that this formula is used to sum a series of 'n' consecutive numbers ranging from 1 thru 'n'. But I didn't know how to arrive at this solution. At school, I was good at remembering stuff that was needed to score well. I didn't understand any concept deeply, neither did I need to! 

For the first time in my life I really wanted to solve a math problem. The urge was so strong that I couldn't sleep that night. I was getting increasingly frustrated about my inability to solve this seemingly simple math problem. The next morning I was still at the problem while half-interestedly working in the kitchen. Later in the afternoon, we were preparing a garden bed. That's when it occurred to me that each pair of numbers (1,10), (2, 9), (3, 8), (4, 7) etc. in this series added up to 11 !! The rest followed fairly effortlessly. This gave me tremendous satisfaction, which I had never experienced before at school -- even when I scored 100% in Mathematics exams.

I was enthusiastic to share this experience with my children and started out with a picture of stairs with 10 steps and decorated it just the way my daughter had done before. I asked them to see how many soapnuts were used in that decoration. Later I asked them to imagine a staircase with 100 steps and asked them to see if they can figure out how many would be needed in this case. They both got interested in the problem and I left it at that.

- Hema