A Nice Day

The day had a faaantastic begin. I enjoyed my Yoga asanas like never before. Every time I have a good performance with asanas, I learn something new - about the asana, about my own body. I realised that this inward journey is what I desperately seek and enjoy most. Funny life. One day I feel lonely and the next I enjoy the loneliness thoroughly!

Finally, our house is likely to have doors and windows soon - if all goes well, within 3 days. With that, we should be able to spend the nights also there. We're encountering the fiercest mosquitoes - they bite, rather sting through the clothing! 

Today, I completed the first patch of clearing in the farm. About 2.5 gunthas (approx 2500 sq ft). Around the house, we've prepared some ground for sowing and have also sown some vegetables. The farm is still let on its own since June 24, except this patch. We've got into the discipline of preparing about 15-18 liters of Amrutjal everyday. Amritjal is a mixure of cow dung, cow urine and jaggery fermented for 3 days. It increases the bacterial count and expedites the decomposition of organic matter in the soil. We'll try hard to ensure we have enough vegetables in winter from our farm. Also, hopefully grow wheat and chana for the year. The next 2 weeks will be a bit of hard work on the farm.

Today we completed the first section of the panchatantra. I found Panchatantra, which is supposed to be translated from the Sanskrit texts of Visnu Sharma. The stories are divided in 5 sections, each section has a frame story and there are various stories within. There are lots of verses in every story. It’s our routine for the last 15 days or so that I read it out aloud for half and hour before bed time (mostly 8.30 – 9.00 pm). Siddharth enjoys them. it makes him think as well as us. The preamble says that Visnu Sharma had taken to educate 3 stupid sons of a king. He’d promised the king that in 6 months time he will teach them ‘how to think’ and not ‘what to think’. We’ve finished reading one section and it’s been a very good experience. I hope to find the Sanskrit text and be able to read it out some day. One realisation after reading this Panchatantra is that the single stories available in various books are almost meaningless reading. 

It was a nice day. Looking forward to tomorrow!

What would we like to be ruled by

When Siddharth was very small, we used to have a very stereo-type schedule. Come what may, lights would be off at 7.30 pm and he would be asleep. We noted that he used to anticipate the activities in his schedule even at the age of 4 months. He used to be cranky if anything in his schedule was moved around. Similar was the experience with Shreya, though we were a little less particular. But we learnt something. Routine is natural. It helps to know what lies ahead in the day and it helps tremendously if it is the same everyday. It is magical how small activities done everyday turn out to be life changers.

Both of us are convinced that a daily routine is most important in our new life. Rekha has a knack of following a schedule & discipline. I just have to surrender my right to alter the routine. In the last 3 weeks, we’re happy that we’re able to follow a routine. Variety may be the spice of life, but spice does not have importance in our lives (and also food). Kids intuitively like a routine. Not just our kids.

In our daily routine, we’ve frozen some things. Breakfast everyday is ‘kanji’. Kanji is a mixture of 4-5 grains, soaked, roasted and ground. The mix powder is prepared in advance for a month or so. Everyday it is cooked with water and milk, jaggery added and done. Kids love the taste. Kids practice their English and Maths for about an hour everyday, I do my asanas for an hour before breakfast, rekha washes clothes around that time, lunch at 12.30, fixed amount of farm work, bath at 5 pm, raw & fresh cow milk for kids in the evening, one-pot dinner (poha, upma, khichdi and the like), aloud reading of Panchatantra story for Siddharth, kids & Rekha sleep at 9. I engage in a little more manual work in the farm, while Rekha manages the house and food more than me. I am convinced that the more we reduce variety in food, clothes, work, the more we enjoy and learn. We have to improve on many aspects, but it’s well begun.

Normal Life (2)

Amjad Khan, playing Gabbar Singh in Sholay tells the villagers of Ramgarh that Gabbar Singh is a tyrant. If there is any person, who can save them from the wrath of Gabbar Singh, it is only Gabbar himself. In return, he is entitled to take some grains and other stuff, and it’s absolutely fair. He uses fear in the hearts of people for his personal gain and to justify his existence, probably even to himself.

Without exception, the audience agrees that this is an unfair means to earn. Gabbar is an undisputed villain. If the person, who creates the problem, also creates the solution, it is not fair, but if these tasks are performed by different people, then is it fair business?

Let’s look at our lives. Dark skin was never a problem, till the makers of Fair & Lovely highlighted it. Nutrition and taste of milk was never an issue till the ads of Bournvita, Complan and the like brought it to our notice. It is acceptable that one creates a need and then offers a solution, in fact it is held as a matter of pride, a testimony of intelligence. People who do it are highly paid and respected! There are thousands of genuine ways to serve the customer, but a respected business is not the one, which serves the costumer the best. It is the one, which earns a handsome profit by intelligently fooling the customer. In some sense, which I can’t explain in words, this way of earning one’s livelihood is not normal. It does not adhere to any norm. 

Life with Norms

Amitabh Bachchan, in the movie Sarkar says, “Every person views me from his perspective, and forms an opinion about me. I do whatever my I feel right. It may then be against the law, the gods or the society.”

Is this character leading a life with norms? Yes. The point to be noted is not that he does whatever he feels right, but that he doeswhatever he feels right. It is not about the whim, but about the courage to take action, about the commitment to his sense of right.

I don’t think I can ever make a list of norms, which I live by, but I’m proud of living with norms. Words have limitations and thus aren’t able to capture the essence of these norms. Most people, however, understand them intuitively, without the use of words. 

Life's Good!

Finally, the long wait comes to an end! I’ve been waiting to write.

The long vacation (a little over 2 months) came to an end about 3 weeks back. All of us, more so the children were desperate to return to Barkheda. We ended up spending more than a month in Mumbai. With nothing to do, no one to meet, it turned out a bit more than we’d have liked. I bought  a battery for my laptop, something I badly wanted. But I’d left back the laptop in Barkheda. On returning, we found that rats had turned our room into their home and had laid their teeth on almost everything they could, including my laptop adapter. I managed to buy a new one just a couple of days back and was thus out of action on blog and mails for almost 3 weeks.

I spent the first full week cleaning up, while Rekha took care that we were fed and taken care of. Rats are a menace – far more than what I’d imagined. The stink was such that the kids and I developed allergic cold in one day! That experience, among others I’ve mentioned in a blog earlier, should serve as a statutory warning to those, who think they’d like to move from a city to a village. Our farm and the house had become a jungle. Tall grass had grown everywhere starting from the wall of the house. There were thousands of insects, reptiles and some jungle animal (possible a jackal), who had delivered a few babies under a tree in the farm. It was a full eco-system and I felt guilty of encroachment. All trees I’d planted, before I left had grown well except one (jackfruit). Banana, papaya, drumstick, jamun, chickoo, custard apple, mulberry, guava, all had grown. The bottleguard, which had grown, but did not fruit through the entire summer, had crept all over the fence and gave us a 2 kg plus desi bottleguard. It was very tasty. The pleasure of eating self-grown vegetable was phenomenal.

After cleaning our room (in common area), I spent almost the next week making our house habitable. Fortunately, there was no damage inside the house due to rains. We’ve been staying in our house for almost a week and we love it. Rekha is at peak excitement. Kids seem to be in their own world throughout the day and don’t feel the need to go anywhere or miss any company. Currently, we stay only during the day. Hopefully from tomorrow, we’ll spend the nights also there. We’ve decided to take it very easy with regard to the work in the house and the farm. We have to prepare the beds for sowing a few vegetables around the house and cut the grass in the fields and use them for mulching. No stress, though, neither physical nor mental.

Rekha and I are very happy about having been quite disciplined during the last 2-3 weeks. Waking up at regular time, exercises for Siddharth, Rekha and I, all meals, one hour of academic activity for the kids, work in the house and farm.

The vacation was a good break. We enjoyed parts of it and did not enjoy a few parts, but what we’re sure of now is that we feel at home in Barkheda and don’t long to visit a city too often. The kids are so involved with the cows and dogs that they almost hate going out.

Life is good.