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

Contradictions

Some of the inherent contradictions in our everyday modern lives:

• planning for a secured future for our children and not willing to compromise on our personal comforts that cumulatively cause devastation of our planet (thereby robbing the security off their future)
• being concerned about the environment and driving a car (or any motorized private vehicle)
• buying organic foods packed in plastic
• buying organic produce that are not grown locally
• keeping our houses clean and putting out the garbage (after all, the garbage gets somewhere on this planet, it doesn't just magically disappear)
• wanting to stay healthy and not paying attention to the source of the food we eat
• concerned about global warming and using a clothes' dryer, air-conditioner or any such modern convenience

I have personally been through all of these contradictions in my life. Every single time I was aware of the gap between what I wanted to do and what I actually did, I cringed. I carried that pain in my mind and body. I didn't want to continue that way. I am currently exploring options that would reduce, if not eliminate altogether, the contradictions in my life.

- Hema

Inheritance or Loan?

I wrote this article in February, while we were still living in California:

Kids. I brought my kids into this world, whose state is compromised by the choices

I make for them.

My choice to drive them to get "educated",

my choice to drive them to special classes,

my choice to drive them to play dates or field trips etc.

Each one of the above was attempted with a good will but in the process depleted the

very place that they need to survive -- our one and only Planet Earth. After all, oil/gasoline/petrol

is not a renewable resource.

I was constantly torn between being a provider for my children and being an

advocate for this Planet. I realized that convenience was an easy trap for us, the

grown-ups, to fall into; the price is unfortunately paid by the future generations. This

didn't seem quite ethically right to me.

I started questioning every one of our outing:
"is this trip to the grocery store really necessary? can I do something else too and get the most of it?"
"do my kids really need to have this play date that involves driving?"
"can I find something locally that is equally entertaining and avoid driving?"
"why are my kids more special than the kids starving in poor countries?" etc.

Thus we started staying local, walked and biked a lot. For the most part, the kids were not restrained

to their car seats for more than a few minutes.

- Hema

“We do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.”

என் அருமை தமிழே!

We have been living in the US since 1999. Until my first child, Abhinav was born in 2003, Dev and I used to talk in English between us. Dev is from Agra and when we got married in 1998 he did not have any Tamil.

The baby's arrival also brought with it some awakenings in my own mind. The instinct to be protective did not just extend to the baby, it also wanted to reach out and protect other things. Like mother tongues. So we made a decision and followed through with it: I talked to the baby exclusively in Tamil and Dev, in Hindi. We also started to speak to each other in our own languages and only used English if there was misunderstanding of some sort or an argument to be had!

As Abhi was growing up, my urge to preserve the traditions was growing too. I started paying close attention to the Tamil I was speaking to him. I caught myself using many English words in my Tamil sentences, for example, "time illa", "clean pannu", "wait pannu". I didn't like the sound of English and Tamil mixed up in my sentences. I made a conscious attempt to speak unadulterated Tamil as much as I could. So my sentences became: 

"நேரம் இல்ல", "சுத்தம் பண்ணு", "பொறுமையா இரு". 

It was gratifying to feel that I am doing my part to pass on the Tamil that was given to me. I derive immense pleasure when my kids say:

"இது ரொம்ப சுலபமா இருக்கு", "அம்மா, உதவி பண்றியா?", "மனசு ரொம்ப வருத்தமா இருக்கு".

- Hema

A sample of our (homeschooling) days

My kids (Abhi 8 1/2 and Aparna almost 6) don't go to school. I don't follow any curriculum either to "educate" them. I let the kids' interest lead the way; I help them a little every once in a while in ways that I can. This approach is called "unschooling". Some of you have had questions for me about what we do at home all day. Here is a recap of what we did all day today (from 8 AM to 8 PM):

Breakfast (cornmeal, milk, nuts, raisins).

The kids chopped the nuts. We enjoyed the breakfast together. It was past 9 when we were done with eating and talking.

Music (Piano and Tabla).

Aparna plays the piano for about 20 min. She tirelessly plays her song over and over again till she is completely satisfied with her own performance. She changes the tempo, transposes the song and explores the music on her own. Abhi was playing the tabla (Indian percussion instrument). He didn't seem to mind sharing the same room as Aparna where she was playing the piano. They seem to be enjoying their music oblivious of the other one's presence. It was almost 10 when they got tired of the music they were making. Then Abhi wanted to play Monopoly. While they were happily setting up the game, which took some time, I used the opportunity to play the piano myself and joined them only when they were ready.

Monopoly.

We were playing the usual game. There was a lot of mental arithmetic work, permutations and combinations that were being exercised ("Hey Aparna! Try to give me $60 using the $20, $10 and $5 bills"). All this plus a lot of silliness made each player's turn much longer than usual -- I became a kid and enjoyed all that was happening. We had all the time on earth to enjoy the beauty of the moment. All of a sudden, Abhi got this (crazy) idea to take a loan from the bank. I briefly told him that we typically take a loan only when we don't have enough money for a particular thing. He didn't seem to care; he insisted on borrowing money and so I let him. He wanted to borrow $1000 and wanted to pay an interest of 10%. Not willing live in a world with 10% interest rate, I negotiated it down to 1%. So Abhi calculated how much interest he owed. Then he asked me when we pay interest on our house loan. He moved on to figure out when he should pay his interest in this game; he thought and settled on "we pay interest everytime we cross the GO square (square 1)". He was so fascinated with the ideas behind loans, interest and paying back that our Monopoly game turned into some kind of banking game. Only at night (while narrating this to Dev) did I realize that my recent trips to the bank had sowed the seeds for the banking game that we played this morning. The game went on till 1 PM. Since it was a day we had picked to bake our whole wheat bread, the game was frequently interrupted by me as I made trips to the kitchen to take care of the baking.

Vocal Music.

Aparna was humming a tune. Abhi tried to correct her and said that he could teach her that Raga. It

went well for a while, but Abhi being bossy sometimes it didn't last long. This resulted in a fight and tears. They were upset with each other, but they managed to resolve the conflict all by themselves. They were back on track teaching and singing.

Lunch. After this I took my afternoon (15 min) nap.

We went to the park between 3 and 3:45; I did my exercise and they had great fun at the monkey bars.

Music (Piano again).

Abhi played some of his songs on the piano. I heard him transpose "the lion sleeps tonight", which was entirely spontaneous (the teacher hadn't ask for anything like that).

Cooking.

Aparna loves kneading the dough for roti. She started with water and whole wheat flour and transformed it into a beautiful ball in 10-15 min. It is almost meditative to just watch her do that.

"Science".

Abhi found a used microscope at a thrift store yesterday for a few dollars. Having spent all of yesterday with the microscope and the only slide it came with, he wanted to look through more slides. But we didn't have any more. While I was cooking our dinner, he took some sticky tape and cut come of his hair and made a slide! He just loved his invention and made more slides -- one with sugar and another with salt. He spent the next 40 min. at this.

Karate.

Both of them absolutely love karate, thanks to our teacher, Sensei Tony. Abhi took his microscope and his slides to show off to his friends at Karate. I meditated while they were at Karate. It was 7 PM when they got back.

Dinner, bed-time reading (Aparna) and more microscope time (Abhi) concluded the fun-filled day.

Every day has its own flavor. No two days are ever the same. I have always been able to cook, bake, play music, exercise, meditate, nap with them around. I am grateful for this stress-free life and wouldn't trade it for anything.

- Hema

Daily Acts Toward A Waste-Free Life

Early last year (2011) my friend Natasha Juliana passed me an article from the Sunset magazine. The article, titled "Zero-waste family in Marin", described how this family managed to live a pretty normal life with no waste.

The article immediately made a deep impression on me. It reminded me of my childhood in South India. Growing up in the 1980s in the small city of Trichy, I never saw my family throw anything away. Our neighbors were no different -- there simply was no garbage service! "Zero-waste" was just a part of the lifestyle there, at that time. Of course things have changed there now. Back then, we always carried our own bags and baskets to the grocer. We even bought cooking oil in our own steel containers. Milk was measured in liters and delivered at our doorstep, as was butter. We bought grains (paddy and wheat) in huge jute sacks, took them to the mill and brought home the flour. Meals were always made at home. So were snacks, yogurt and sun-dried goods.

Inspired by the zero-waste family in Marin, I started looking closely at my own everyday life, putting garbage that I produce into perspective. It helped a great deal to watch the documentary “No Impact Man” that was suggested by my friend Suzette Stephens. What ensued was a series of small changes towards reducing garbage that have added up over time, with the result that we have put out our municipal trash can only twice in the last twelve months, and the recycling can only a few more times.  I will now take you on a short tour around our household, and talk about the changes we have integrated into our everyday lives.

To begin with a little background is in order. We are a family of four: my husband, a boy (8), a girl (5 ½) and me. We live in a duplex condo in Rohnert Park, California, in a pretty typical American suburb built in the early 1990s.

Grocery Shopping.   

Let's begin with the bags. We have a few bags of bags in our car trunk that we carry for grocery shopping. This includes the transparent plastic bags too. Since we always reuse our bags, we hardly have the need to use new ones provided at the store. Some stores even offer a small discount for bringing one’s own bags! It was such a pleasure to discover the bulk bins at our local stores. We buy most of the organic staples that we need -- including yeast, fig bars, vanilla extract, soba noodles and pasta -- from the bulk bins now. We found that a lot of times it is cheaper to buy organic items from the bulk section. My kids were of course delighted to see ginger cookies, sesame sticks and raspberry bars there. “Mom! Organic snacks in the bulk bins! No chemicals and no plastic! Can we buy these?” A few months into this mode of shopping, we realized that all that we needed was located in the periphery of the stores. By avoiding the center aisles we were reducing the plastic we were throwing away and also probably buying healthier at the same time.

The bulk bins brought to our notice other grains that we have now introduced into our diet. Our breakfasts now include millet, corn meal and steel-cut oats. And I shouldn’t forget to mention the fresh ground peanut butter that my kids simply love. We take our own (empty) glass jar, get it weighed initially (tare weight) and refill our jar. Some of the local stores that have a wide range of items in their bulk bins are Oliver’s in Cotati, Community Market in Santa Rosa and Whole Foods in Petaluma.

We buy our eggs directly from local farms or friends that have chicken coops or the farmers' markets. We return our empty egg cartons to the farmers. We learned about the energy-intensive recycling process involved with the plastic milk containers; we were not entirely happy about the details of it. So we switched to Strauss milk which comes in glass containers; we pay a deposit of $1.50 at the time of purchase and that is credited when we return the container. We buy cheese only if we can find a vendor (at the Farmers' market) who is willing to sell a small unwrapped wedge. This necessarily means going without cheese most of the time. Considering the energy involved in the production and sales of cheese, we have decided to include it only occasionally in our meals as a special treat. The ideal situation would be to become vegan (we have always been vegetarians), then we won’t have to worry about these details.

Kitchen. 

We have a green waste receptacle, next to the sink, where all our vegetable and fruit scraps go. There is no trash can under the sink now. Instead I have reclaimed this space for much needed storage for small appliances like the blender and the jars, the sandwich/waffle maker etc. I noticed that even after making changes to the way we grocery-shopped, our main source of plastic was the bread that came in plastic bags. One option was to switch to breads available in paper bags. Instead, I decided to take up the daunting task of baking, something I had never really done before. I decided to get help and enlisted a dear Petaluma friend, Sarah Hamner, to be my baking teacher. She walked me through a great recipe for a delicious whole wheat loaf. Every week or so, I faithfully follow her recipe make three loaves at a time. The kids love to get involved and the whole process has evolved into a greatly enjoyable culinary ritual. To maximize the use of the oven, I also make granola or baked pasta on the same day. We also make our own yogurt (just add live culture into warm milk), jams during summer and various kinds of simple dips and sauces like hummus and apple sauce.

Refrigerator/Freezer. 

We have a relatively small energy-efficient refrigerator/freezer where we store dairy, veggies, fruit and leftovers. Having just enough space to store meant that we could never over-stock and also ensured that leftovers waiting to be eaten caught our eyes and are not wasted.

Pantry. We have a bag of bags where we put back the grocery bags after transferring everything from the store into their respective containers. This bag is moved to the car once it has enough bags.

Kids' Corner. We use only one-sided paper from the mail and from my husband’s office for arts. The kids have a small basket under their table to discard used paper; when it overflows they take it to the recycling bin in the garage. They have similar baskets in their rooms for recycling paper. The kids mostly use pencils, color pencils, crayons, chalk pastels and water color for their art work. We don’t buy markers, sharpies etc.

Office/Mail. We mostly receive electronic statements and pay our bills online. We signed up at various places to stop junk mail from flooding our mailbox. There is a recycling bin under the table in our home office. We decided not to own a printer just to avoid the unnecessary printing that the convenience offered.  We use scrap paper to write down driving directions off the Internet.

Dining Area. 

At the table, we have a small pile of cloth napkins, for use during meals and also to wipe off spills that are frequent with kids around.

Clothing. 

Thanks to a friend in my town, we almost never buy new clothes or shoes for our kids. We have established a nice network to circulate these hand-me-downs and everybody that participates benefits from it. We buy under garments new and the rest is all from local thrift stores. This includes my clothes too. It took me a while to get comfortable with shopping at the thrift stores; it is looked down upon in India. Now I enjoy the benefits it offers – less expenses, supporting our local economy, reducing garbage, etc.

Cosmetics. 

I have some stick-on bindis (decorative jewels for the forehead) from India and one lipstick (which I have hardly used). I use a rechargeable electric razor. It has lasted many years. Some local stores sell shampoo, soap, detergent etc. in bulk. We take our own containers and get them refilled. I read about people using baking soda as a deodorant and liked that option.

Laundry. 

We buy laundry detergent powder that comes in cardboard boxes; recycling plastic detergent containers needs more energy. We don't use the dryer most of the year; we either sun-dry or air-dry (drying the clothes in the garage out of the sun, especially during the rains) our laundry. We plan our laundry days based on the weather forecast, during the rainy season. This keeps our gas and electricity bill in the $20's during summer and around $50 during winter.

Sanitary Needs. 

My good friend and piano teacher Jane Fosgreen surprised me when she said that she could count the number of instances she had used a commercial feminine sanitary product. She said that she had always used good quality cloth. I was guilty of the fact that after moving to the U.S., I had conveniently forgotten the norms in India and had transitioned seamlessly to the disposable-ways of living that is prevalent here. I switched back to cloth and found it to be very easy and natural. Recently I heard from a friend about the Diva cup. It certainly is an equally good, sustainable and comfortable alternative.

Parties and Gifts. 

I have a set of about 2 dozen plastic plates and silverware just for party needs. We share this party set with local friends. We invite a small group of friends and families to the birthdays of our children. We serve homemade food and snacks or local fruit and veggies. We have inconvenienced some of our friends by asking them not to bring any gift; so we now request them to bring in any used book, toy or game that their child has outgrown. That works very well. The best birthday gift so far has been the farm-fresh eggs from my friend's backyard!! Our birthday gifts to my kids' friends have been books, homemade desserts, homemade jam, handmade crafts and gift cards to local stores.

Eating-out. 

We choose places that have reusable china and silverware. Also we have one or two of our small containers handy (in the car) just in case we have leftovers.

Car. 

We have a steel water bottle and a coffee mug in the car along with the bags of bags in the trunk.  We have a couple of spoons and forks that have come in handy many times.

Purse. 

My kids asked me if I could carry two little spoons for tasting the samples at the grocery stores. It was quite rewarding to observe that they have taken the zero-waste lifestyle seriously.

House Cleaning. 

We use a rag or sponge to clean the kitchen counter thereby easily eliminating our need for paper towels. We have laminated floor downstairs which are swept with a broom and the dirt is put back into the garden or compost. We mop the floor with a mop that uses a cloth pad. Our bedrooms are carpeted which are vacuumed once in a while. We do throw away the bags. We have separate rags to clean the bathroom floors.

Trash Cans. 

We do have a trash can in the garage and toilet for emergency reasons and also for the convenience of our guests. We discard our old toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes (only some brands have recyclable tubes) and vacuum cleaner bags.

Recycling. 

It was a shock for us to realize that recycling was only marginally better than dumping something into the landfill. The Internet has all the details, if you are interested. Basically, we realized that recycling is a good beginning but clearly not sustainable and does not come close to reducing waste.

Now, you may think this is a lot of hard work. Well, it actually isn't. It is a different way of perceiving and planning so we can simply reduce our impact on this beautiful Earth. I shop once a week at Oliver's. During the summer, we buy our produce from the Farmers' market, so we go to Oliver's once every 10 days to 2 weeks. I cook once a day for a maximum of 30 minutes; there are days when we eat out too.

Our family life is fun-filled.  We enjoy a wide variety of activities with the children – including gardening, cooking, vocal music, instrumental music, arts & crafts, board games. Our almost-waste-free philosophy doesn’t stop us from having fun, not one bit.

By treading gently and serving as the role models, we hope our children may take it up too. By involving the next generation we hope to preserve the nature of this only Planet we have. Also, every once in a while some of the following thoughts and questions arise in my mind and they help me stay on track:

- My mom and grandma certainly raised their kids in a more eco-friendly way than me. When I have conflicts in my mind - whether to do something in a certain way - I look up to their ways and that helps me choose the right course, which always takes the environment into consideration.

- If I spend a little bit of extra time shopping, planning and organizing, I can save Mother Earth thousands of years that she will need to decompose the waste I would have produced otherwise.

- When something seems very convenient or very cheap for an unknown reason, I stop to think “Who is actually paying the price here?” That helps me not fall into the trap.

- Years ago, I was disturbed to read a news article that said the U.S. shipped garbage to poor, developing countries. Since I am from one, it bothered me deeply. I have seen both the worlds - America that ships garbage and Indian slums that sit on mounds of garbage. America certainly "looks" clean. The garbage does go away from our houses. But where is “away”?

- Hema

Mangoes and Bananas

After living for 13 long years in the US, we recently have decided to move to India and explore the possibilities of living a simple life by practicing organic farming methods. We won't get to enjoy California grapes and strawberries anymore, but will relish locally grown mangoes and bananas.

Both my kids absolutely love mangoes and bananas. But I have always steered them away from the produce section that has those two fruits; I would read the sticker on the fruit and tell them how far that fruit had traveled and how much resource might have been used in that process. After hearing this a few times, my kids stopped asking me for mangoes and bananas. Sometimes I felt bad about depriving them of these simple pleasures, but still it was important for me to tell them about the impact of our choices.


- Hema