General Update

This has been a long absence from the blog. When this happens, it is difficult to decide where to start from and inevitably, as it happened yesterday, one postpones writing. I shall try and not stay out for more than 3 days.

The incident of falling in the well in my last blog generated quite some interest. I sometimes wonder what would people reading my blog be expecting. As a generation, we’ve got used to ‘breaking news’ and if events in my life are not sensational enough, I may lose readership! If that is to happen, so be it.

Some non-sensational events since I wrote last: 

1. Our household goods arrived here on 19^th. Unloaded them and stacked it in the room that we’re staying in. The room is approx. 22’ X 12’ and after the stacked goods, there is a double bed, a single bed and about 30-40 sq ft of open space in the room. Since the space outside the room is quite large, and that is where we spend a lot of our time, the room isn’t wanting in space at all. In fact, we’re quite well settled, except the odd rat, which keeps entering the room once or twice in the night.

2. A day before leaving from Mumbai Rekha realized that the backlog of films to watch is quite a lot. We decided to watch one movie on the day she returns (Feb 22), but that wasn’t enough. So, we watched one movie (Special 26) on Feb 21 (the day she left) – she in Mumbai, I in Bhopal. Then after she arrived, we watched Kai Po Che together. One movie (Any Body Can Dance) is still pending. On the same day, we also went to Indira Gandhi Manav Sanghrahalaya in Bhopal, which showcases the lifestyles of many tribes in the country. It was an interesting visit. We plan to re-visit as we could not go around much.

3. We experienced the first sickness at Barkheda. Shreya caught some cough & cold in Mumbai and it worsened after coming here. She had fever going as high as 102^o F and though the doctor insisted that she be given antibiotic, we persisted with the tulsi+honey, saying that if she was not ok by day 3, we will start with the antibiotic. The fever was gone on day 3 and though the cough is still there (today is day 6), the anxiety isn’t.

4. The mason I found is facing some work at home and has said that it will be at least 10-12 days before he can begin work. I’m looking out if I can find someone, who’s as good and can begin soon enough. The house construction is thus still on hold.

5. We decided to start off with our farming. We’d earlier decided to begin after the house, but now it seems better otherwise. As per guidance from Rajesh Gupta, we began with preparing the farming beds. Got some mud, manure and straw, mixed it well and spread it on a large piece of land. By weekend, we should sow the seeds for few summer vegetables. I Spent the last 2 days doing some hard manual labor.  

Learning all the way...everyday !!!

I’m realizing that village life, in a lot of cases, mocks city life. Take the example of building a house. Someone in a village is capable of building a house for one or two people with zero expense, yes ZERO expense. Two of our fellow Sreejan Kartas are doing it. Here’s how. They select a reasonably flat ground (approx. 150-200 sqft), cover it with mud, such that if beaten, it forms a 6-8 inch layer, get a few thick tree trunks from the forest, make a full structure out of the wood, cover the roof with twigs, make walls with the same twigs and then plaster it with mud from inside and outside, plaster the floor and walls from inside with cow dung and mud. No mason, help each other for manual labour and there you are. One might say that this is not zero expense, because they get wood from the forest, but the fact is that even if it is not technically zero, shelter is done at almost no cost.

Now, this is one extreme. If someone like me wants to build a house, I’ll not settle for something as basic, but how much should I spend on building a house for 4 of us to be able to sleep comfortably, cook and manage our bath & toilet within? Mind you, a living room is redundant in a village. There is a large open living space. Even if I spend 50k, it is considered quite high. Now compare that with a city dwelling. I get a feeling that in cities, we’ve magnified so many issues beyond proportion and so much that they acquire the size of a dream. Then we toil ourselves to fulfill the dream and hope to fulfill it in 5 years, sometimes 10 years.

The only saving grace is that the villager respects the ‘educated’ tag with the city folk and considers himself inferior. The city folk capitalize on his inferiority complex and keep fueling it so much so that the poor villager starts to aspire to be an urbanite. The day our poor villager applies his common sense and tears apart what this ‘educated’ tag actually is from inside, …whatever may happen, I will be very happy.

Ironically, when I started my career and we used to talk to clients about financial planning, such were the dreams for which we used spend hours planning, calculating, understanding complex investment products and what not. Now, it almost seems like a game. Win or loss does not matter in the real sense.

I’m slowly getting convinced that most of our expenses occur because of only one reason – because we have money. If we didn’t have the money, we still would have met our needs (not wants) and chances are that life would have been full of enthusiasm, thrill and more love.

I had a fun experience today. We generally fill drinking water from a stream nearby. The water there has become muddy because there’s a well being built nearby. So I insisted that we get clearer water from a well. Hariom and I went there only to find out that we’ll have to go near water to fill it. There was no rope or pully. I was trying to reach the water with the can and since the ground wasn’t as firm, I slipped into the well! Ooooh! What fun it is to float in a well. Hariom also fell inside, when he tried to fill. Finally we did fill water for drinking (4 cans of 20 litres) and after we were done, jumped in the well for one last round of the experience. Fun! The only thing I forgot before I slipped was that my mobile was in my pocket! I’m drying it…and hope that it works tomorrow, but it didn’t take away from the fun at all!

After this experience, it is fun to even drink the water…its not just water now, it’s the water.

Bhairu Singh

Finally I seem to have found the mason for my house. One of the laborer who comes here suggested that this guy (Bhairu Singh) is known for stone construction, stays in a village about 10 km away, but we didn’t have his contact number. Spent a day trying to get his number, but the one we got was apparently a wrong one. We learnt later that someone stole his phone and was continuing to use the SIM. Then I along with Bhura rode on a bike to his village. We just had to ask one person and reached his house. An old man, apparently quite poor was repairing his bicycle. He happened to be Bhairu Singh. He would be over 65 and moved quite slowly with a slight limp. The thought, which immediately crossed my mind was that someone in this condition, in a city would be confined to his room, surrounded by medicines, would need someone to take care of and here was this guy, almost mocking the city counterpart. I learnt that Bhairu Singh not only actively worked as a mason, but also in his 10 acre farm along with his 2 sons. One son also works as a mason with him. We persuaded him to visit our site and we rode triple seat on extremely bumpy roads. Bhairu Singh approved of the sand and stones I’d got and gave me the task of preparing two pits – one for soaking the lime and the other for making the lime mortar (with sand). Bhairu Singh said that he’d taken another contract, which will take him 15 days. I told him without hesitation that I will wait for him to finish. I hope he comes. Though there is no reason to believe otherwise, when you find exactly what you want, you keep your fingers crossed before getting it.

It is quite interesting and insightful to compare city life here. Bhairu Singh, if in a city, would probably have retired, let his sons earn, led a cautious life, mostly in front of the TV or on bed. Bhairu Singh does what Amitabh Bachchan is doing – keep working unto death. For some reason, in a city, most associate old age with inability to work, medical problems, no need to work and so on. We talk about Amitabh Bachchan with awe. I was (and am still) wondering how he will come here everyday. But Bhairu Singh casually said, “I’ll come, you don’t bother.”

Charges for the mason 350 per day. No charges for the insights & learning.

I wonder, “Don’t we keep feeding our already high egos by listening to, talking about and giving the heavy spiritual gyan, attending courses & discourses and stressing ourselves endlessly to find the meaning of life and THE purpose? I don’t have anything that I can ‘enlighten’ Bhairu Singh with. And he… is just doing his work, simple!”

There’s more, but I’ll wait a while and write it in the next blog.

Update for today

I’m getting into a habit of being effortless in whatever I do i.e. I’m taking lesser and lesser effort.

But that was not how the day started. I was a little concerned about two questions: Where do I get the sand required for the construction? And, is the mason I’ve chosen good enough for building a stone house?  I had two options for the sand. One, scrape off whatever sand is available in the lake nearby, not sure about the legality and second, get very good quality sand from a place 80-90 km away, legally. Of course, the second option was far more expensive given the distance. After close to an hour of thought and discussion, I opted for the second option, though it meant increasing my carbon footprint and reducing my cash balance.

The next question created anxiety for some time, because I didn’t have an answer. I spoke to a Ragu, a good friend now and arrived at a decision that I should progress only after I get a good stone mason. The paradigm shifted. Just because I have the material ready for construction, there is no point in getting anxious. The material can wait till I find a good mason. In any case, there is no hurry! Then I spoke to Ragu for almost 40 min and was a real refreshing chat.

Then the day restarted and I got to activities, which are unavoidable – cooked the simplest lunch, walked to the lake for a bath (The bath process took almost an hour), shaved, washed clothes, dried them, cleaned the car, chatted with Rajesh Gupta (he comes here every weekend) on various subjects like the house construction, farming, the need to act on the issue of global warming. I am now convinced that it is better to prepare for the inevitable vagaries of nature rather than boil blood over trying to reverse the damage. Having said that, it is important, not to contribute to further degeneration. If everyone does that, may be the damage may get reversed, but if most people don’t, those living may have to suffer or strive harder. Suffering and striving hard have some definite benefits!

Another day has passed. Not very happening, if one has to justify his existence, but I don’t feel the need to.

Now, I need to work for another unavoidable activity – dinner. Let us see how effort-less can I make it.

Interesting Days

These are interesting and eventful days. Life is brand new and most of the ‘learning’ from the prior life turns out to be a baggage than an asset. Some interesting incidences narrated below.

My way of dealing with people involves straight talk. I like to develop a good rapport with people I work with, but I don’t attempt to sugar coat words. Often, my first interaction leaves sour taste, so much so, that I appear arrogant, selfish, rude. 3 manual laborers, who worked with me on our first day, about a month back did not return for work the next day, due to my behavior. I’d promptly paid their wages next day through another labor. Now, about a month later, when I required labor, the same guys turned up with 2 more fellow villagers, this time our bonding much stronger and high trust level. I had similar experience with a mason as well. My bonding with the Sreejan Kartas has also deepened over the last few days. I think the key is to puncture the city – village divide, which exists in almost every villager’s mind. The way to do it is by working alongside them and treating them with dignity. Many urbanites often exert their power of financial strength or personal charisma or position to win over villagers and it works instantly. But in my opinion, it results in adverse selection (of people). Quality of work suffers and the cost of exerting the power increases. I prefer being myself and accept whoever gets drawn. I’ve never felt the need to change.

The house construction project has caught some pace. I considered building a stone house, then considered a sun-dried mud brick house with a large roof to protect from rain, then a sun-dried mud brick house with a burnt brick outside wall and finally settled for a stone house with a thick mud plaster from the inside. Almost everyone is unable to digest the aversion to cement and burnt brick, but all of them give up arguing with my craziness. Hopefully by day after tomorrow morning, the work will pick more pace and will get completed in 10-15 days. It will be quite an achievement to have an eco-friendly house within one month of shifting into a brand new life!

I bought for myself some basic farm equipment and a big drum for makingamrut jal. The farming also needs to progress. The farm allotted to me has a crop of turmeric, which is due to be harvested in April 1^st week. By then I plan to have a cow or two, leave them untied in a 3-4 guntas (approx. 3-4 thousand sq ft) and allow them to feed and roam in the area. The gomutra and the dung will enrich the soil in 2 months time, and then their home can be shifted to the next 4 guntas. Maximum impact with almost no effort! Need to look out for error in plan though.

The discipline in daily life has yet not come in. The weather continues to be quite cold and it has been raining as well occasionally. The effort will continue. There is ground to cover, but I’m not unhappy with the progress at all.

Don't Move from city to village

I don’t advise anyone to move from a city to a village. Moving physically comes much later. One has to first mentally move to a village; and that, in my opinion, is very tough for people with the best intentions. First reason is that in cities, people are too used to being served; servants and maids in house, drivers, plumbers, electricians, cook (may be wife or mother), laundry, milkman, grocer…the list just goes on. Village life is a lot about independence and being able to take up any role, when required. Secondly, the physical strength and stamina required is much more than in a city. Thirdly, the notions of cleanliness, security, education and many more aspects need fundamental questioning; these are not as in cities, but they don’t seem to compromise on the quality of life at all. Fourthly, the notion of being ‘so and so’, which is applicable in a city, almost always is irrelevant in a village. This is a big blow to one’s ego. Fifthly, one’s self assessment of his capabilities is also not relevant. A village unveils many facets of one’s own personality and abilities, but only and only if one is willing to give it a shot. Lastly (as I can think of now), most people (including villagers) tend to think that urbanites are intellectually superior to villagers. That I think is a very big myth. But since both sides are absolutely convinced about this one, the journey often takes a wrong route. This is clearly reflected in lot of urbanites regarding the village lifestyle as primitive and lot of villagers aping the lifestyle of their urban counterparts, without giving it an objective thought. I think an average villager is intellectually significantly ahead of an average urbanite, simply because of the fact that his level of alertness is far higher. Once someone has made the move mentally, advice is not required.

Life today!

I’ve decided to blog as and when I feel like rather than compulsively write everyday. If I end up writing everyday, so be it, as long as it is meaningful.

Rekha and the kids have gone to Mumbai for 10 days or so. She’ll have the household goods transported to Barkheda. I noticed that I felt quite sad for some time to be left alone. Generally, I enjoy being all by myself, but this was different.

Today is the 14^th day in Barkheda. 2 weeks and no significant progress on the house, farming (except that we sowed a few seeds day before) or anything else! What’s a little surprising is that I’m not much bothered with the pace of progress! I don’t know if this state of being is alright, but I don’t see myself as being able to do much. May be I’m not trying enough, but I don’t know why should I!

I’m feeling like talking to someone, listening to their lives. I’m a little bored of talking about us - our decision to move to this lifestyle, how gutsy it is or how foolish, what might await us in future, how we should be careful and all that. But I don’t know whom to talk to. Called an old friend from Kotak, spoke her, but almost nothing about her. I don’t know how to call someone and say, “You speak. I’d like to listen to you.” I’d like to tell some of them that I’m there, should they need me. Maybe, I should watch a good movie!

I’m going to try and be as disciplined as possible over the next 10 days. I hope the chill in the weather reduces now. I realized I don’t like cold climate too much. I’m ok if it is 35 or even 40 degrees Celsius, but anything below 20, I don’t like it these days.

Its Sunday! How does it matter?

Quite a decent Sunday, although nowadays its quite irrelevant which day of the week it is. The work of making water available at our farm moved ahead. The last step pending, which should be completed tomorrow. No progress on the house yet, but it seems to worry less and that is good. 

What was good about the day was that the three Sreejan Kartas made a beginning to their earning (Sree Ganesh). This requires a bit of an explanation. The founders of Sreejan believe that in a community every member should be able to integrate 3 Ls viz Living, Learning and Livelihood. While the Kartas are living here and therefore learning also, but unless they earn their livelihood from here, they will be unable stay here. However, the livelihood should be earned in a non-exploitative or fair manner. Since what they primarily do is farming, an effort is being made to enable them to earn their livelihood through farming. The Kartas have been growing a few vegetables in their farms for some time. We have been purchasing vegetables from their farms since the time we started staying. Today was the day when we made the payment for our purchases till date. Today another revenue stream was also created. Guests often visit this place. Since they end up spending a day, they have lunch here. A system was started today, where the guest pays whatever he deems fit for the lunch. (Idea, courtesy Rekha) God willing, this should be the beginning to their financial independence. Rekha made some yummy suji ka halva to celebrate the milestone.

It was nice talking to one of the guest, Mr. C B Malpani, who is also the neighbour of Rajesh Gupta. Mr Malpani belongs to a family, which owns in excess of 200 acres of farm in Rajasthan and does chemical farming, despite the fact that he understands the flipside well. I was able to make a reference of Mr Baheti from Bajwada, who, under the guidance of Deepak Suchde has begun the process of moving away from chemical farming on a sizable farm (125 acres).

Today, we also had bath in the open in stream water (which we also use for drinking). The water, which comes in the bathroom here is quite muddy. This bath was quite refreshing.

What we're upto and why

Everyone tries to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today. Continuing to work with Kotak Bank or any other bank as a product manager or in any other role, living in Mumbai or any other city, bringing up children in what seems to be a dead (rather deadly) environment (physically and culturally) did not seem to be able to make tomorrow better. Nothing seemed to be right and almost everyone seemed to agree that this is not leading to a better life.

Rekha and I felt that we had reasons enough to quit the life we were living in order to experiment with a different lifestyle. So, we drove (in our i20) out of Mumbai on Jan 30 2013 and reached Barkheda, a village 40 km from Bhopal, inhabited by 5 people, before 4 of us joined them. This place has a forest adjoining, from where we hear wild animals every night. There is no state electricity yet at the place we stay. The nearest village, inhabited by approx 1500 people is connected by a 3 km kachha road, on which we’d like to drive our car as less as we can. If we need to buy some grocery or medicine, we have to wait for someone to visit Sehore (20 km away) or Bhopal. But, and it is an important ‘but’ for us, we enjoy the sight of millions of stars every night, we breath oxygen unadulterated by any amount of carbon monoxide, soot or any other pollutant, we eat organic vegetables plucked from plants nearby, our kids explore the farms and forest almost the entire day and learn bountifully, we’re stressed about almost nothing, we don’t look at our watches with anxiety and we hope that one day, we will be able to satisfy almost all our needs without depending on the world we left behind or without harming or ill-treating fellow organisms.

The 5 other people, who stay here are Hariom, Mukul, Santosh, Bhopali and Bhura. The last 3 are poor people from adjoining villages, who, like us, decided to experiment, in order to improve their life. Mukul is Santosh’s 5 yr old son and Hariom is a 15 yr old employee, who’s supposed to take care of cooking and house keeping. We eat food cooked on firewood in a chulha, drink water from a  small open stream nearby. We, along with the three others are Sreejan Kartas. Sreejan is a dream community of people living in harmony with nature’s laws and Sreejan Kartas are people, who’ve decided to give the dream a shot.

A few people are supporting us morally, financially, emotionally and physically depending on the support required. These include Rajesh Gupta, an ace IPS officer and a near encyclopedia on farming, forest and sustainable living, Monica Gupta, his wife and a professor in allopathic medicine, Rajinder Raina, an early retired corporate big-wig. These three, apart from money have also invested significant time, effort and hope in making this dream come true. Some more share this dream, but are unable to contribute more than money or a little time. Many others share the same or a similar dream and contribute through their experiments, wishes and money. Many others watch us experiment from sidelines, an experiment, which they wish someone should attempt.

My motive (and Rekha shares this) is to experiment. I don’t wish to educate the world, influence it to change for better or save it from the inevitable degeneration and destruction. We don’t fear the outcome, because we’re not hoping for any particular outcome. We believe that we haven’t paid any price by giving up our cozy city life, because, we were anyway headed nowhere great. We can feel the support and wishes of all our loved ones. We’re aware that many others are watching our progress directly or from the corner of their eyes. We’re on course for a Normal Life - a life with norms, we will do our best to adhere to.

My First Blog Post

The start of an online post is an important development. The purpose of doing it online is to enable multiple people keep track of our life i.e. parts of life, we’d like to share. I’ll separately post a historical snapshot so that anyone following has a context.

The 10th day of the new lifestyle began rather late (7 am) given the continuing cold weather. The indiscipline in exercise continued. The house building endeavor continued languishing. No progress made on the ground on that front. In thought, we’re now clear that all we need to do immediately is to get any mason and have the walls of the two rooms constructed so that we can get staying before April sets in. One mason and a couple of laborers expected to come tomorrow. On another front, farming, I collected some more top soil from the forest, making it 6 ghamelas, which appears to be enough to sow the seeds. Spoke to Prithvi and felt nice. He made yet another appropriate observation that if the effort is too much, its worthwhile questioning if it is necessary. Suits me very well. Consequently, no more top soil collection. Will sow the seeds in whatever soil is available. But water is not available at the site of the house. Bhura (the Sreejan Karta) was to help me get a 2000 litre tank shifted to the site, but that hasn’t happened yet. Our effort to get 1 litre of cow urine also did not fructify today. It is quite some task to collect the urine if there is no auto-collection mechanism. No one seemed kind enough to help us. Our pathetic interpersonal skills yet again ensure that we’re unable to get help for ourselves.

What was good about the day was that there was some discipline with regard to food. Timely, nutritious and sufficient. All credit to Rekha. Another moment of enjoyment was to watch Siddharth, Shreya and Mukul (son of Santosh, another Sreejan Karta) enjoy getting wet in the sprinkler water. Kids seem to be spending quite some energy playing and roaming around the place. The appetite is showing up. Happy for them.

Despite not a very encouraging day, I felt it most appropriate not to force the pace on anything. Just sow the seeds for a solution by talking to everyone possible and wait for something to happen. It surely will. We’ve moved into this lifestyle to ‘be happy’. No point in creating anxiety and stress by trying to force pace. So what if another day has passed without moving forward as planned! Unplanned (not planned by our brains) progress is what I’d like. So what if we get late…big deal!