The Search Story (Part III)

Option 7 : Gudalur

Dr Sunil was out of town, but he told us that his wife Veena would be home and will be happy to help us. We reached Gudalur after an extended bus travel. Veena received us as though we were immediate family members. We’ve encounter so much kindness during our search from first encounters that it’s truly humbling.

We’d intended staying there for a day or so and ended up spending 3 days with Veena. We’re yet to meet Dr Sunil. Hope to meet him sooner than later. It was, nevertheless, a memorable stay for us as well as the kids.

The land option there was quite nice. Macro factors were all fine. The area was frequented by elephants from the adjoining forest (Madhumalai Tiger Reserve). That was one concern, but probably manageable. We liked the place overall and decided to search for a house on rent. We didn’t find an option during the days we were there and returned to Hulekal with intent to return once we find something within the next week or so.

The thinking began at Hulekal again. As I imagined about getting started with work on the land, I was a little concerned about the fact that I would not be able to talk with the people around and the labour who’d come to help us. I don’t speak Tamil. That would surely make it difficult to build a rapport, though over a period of time, we’d be able to communicate. But communicating without talking would not be enough. I’d like to understand what they think, know more about their lifestyle and learn from it.

As I pondered over deeply and spoke with Rekha, we were convinced that Maharashtra or a hindi speaking belt would only suit us. Even during my Satara stay, I felt very much at home talking to locals in Marathi. Then another factor crept in, which we’d ignored thus far. Given the age of our parents, it would be preferred if we’re in reasonable proximity.

Though no one factor was sufficient, together, it seemed better to explore Maharashtra; more particularly around Pune, Satara and Nasik.

We thought over it for a day or so and when the thought and feeling had settled, decided to take this course. We called Veena and informed her of our latest thought process, lest she should go through the trouble of finding a place on rent for us. She appeared a little sad that we’d decided not to choose Gudalur. We could relate to it, but couldn’t think of an option.

I called Reena. She had purchased a 3 acre plot of land near Pune. I asked her if she’d be open to selling an acre to us. She was inclined. We got a decent starting point to our search.

We shared our intention with Vinish and Karuna that we’d like to shift our base to somewhere close to Pune or Mumbai. We’d been based in Hulekal for almost a month. The couple may think that they’d not done anything out of the way. They’d anyway rented the house and no one had been occupying it before they invited us to stay there. But we know that the gesture is uncommon and we truly feel grateful to this family.

We packed the car with our kitchen and bedroom utilities and began the drive from Hulekal to Pune.

Option 8: Velhe

Velhe is a small town about 55 km from Pune. Reena purchased the 3 acre plot on the outskirts of a village in this town few years back.

We parked ourselves with a cousin of mine, who owns a large 3 bedroom flat in Pune. Just the couple of them stay there. We off-loaded our luggage in one of his bedrooms and told him that we’d like to be parked in his house for a few days till we’re able to identify something worthwhile.

After visiting the place, we liked it and decided to live in Velhe for a few days before we move ahead. Fortunately, we found a house on rent quickly and shifted to this place about 10 days back. The initial exploration is quite encouraging and if all goes well, we might be staying in our own new house before the end of summer 2014.

The flashback is over, but the story continues!

The Search Story (Part II)

Option 5 : Satara (Contd.)

One of my father’s cousin had been based in Satara for a few decades. His two sons stay there along with their mother, wives and children. Umesh bhaiyya (my elder cousin) was quite interested in our change in lifestyle and suggested to us that we explore the area around Satara. He took us around the area twice. I liked the area very much. Almost everything was picture perfect in terms of macro factors. The language familiarity was very comforting. Sahyadri Hills all around, ample sunlight, ample rain, dams between mountains making water available, fertile soil, very pleasant climate throughout the year, reasonably equipped with electricity and road access. Also, the area is far less urbanized than Pune (110 km north) or Kolhapur (100 km south). The reason as I understand is that the king of the area (supposed to be the 13^th generation in Shivaji’s lineage) was an active administrator and didn’t allow much ‘development’ and also offered protection to the area. Another factor, which I felt good about was that the area was home to Swami Ramdas, Shivaji’s spiritual guru and the followers of his teachings are very active around there. It’s kind of an ‘enlightened’ area. For me, it quickly became the area of first choice.

However, Rekha was not as excited about the area, for no reason at all. She couldn’t explain it to me. I got bugged with her stance. I had all the logical and illogical factors to be positively inclined and she had none, but she wasn’t inclined. I took her to see the place again another day. She liked the place, but I could not sense the excitement I was hoping to.

In any case, we did not have a concrete option of land we could consider buying. So, after spending 4 days in Satara, we  handed the baton to Umesh bhaiyya to spread the word and check if we get some options. As it were to happen, we have still not had any option our way (after almost 2 months).

Option 6 : Hulekal and around

On Jan 20^th, we began the last lap of our long drive plan: Satara to Hulekal. Majority of the road was an expressway. We covered the 350 odd km in 6 hours (incl breaks). Hulekal was planned to be the place to settle in, may be for a few months if required.  So we started with other important aspects of life like discipline with food, exercise and other habits. Vinish and Karuna helped us settle and gave us the comfort and space we required. Their landlady, whose house they’d hired was also very kind and her daughters were very friendly with Rekha and the kids. In every sense of the term, we started living with the families. We met a few of their friends, who soon became our friends as well. Our food and exercise regimen started to take shape steadily. We also went for a few outings around.

After a week or so, the moot question of land search raised its head again. We reviewed the option of buying land in or around Hulekal. It had many positives. Physical characteristics were well suited, but with regard to Hulekal, our positions reversed. Rekha was positively inclined and I wasn’t. I don’t have the ability to say, “I can’t explain why, but we cannot choose this place.” After all, there wasn’t any other option waiting for us! So both of us thought deeper and gave ourselves time to evaluate from a neutral standpoint i.e. positives were agreed, now we needed to take a hard look at the negatives as well.

This was a Kannada speaking area. There was no local person we could depend upon to help us build a rapport with the local community. But working with Hindi was possible there, given that there was a large Muslim population. But a village with communities so diverse ways of life also poses the risk of communal tension at some time. The risk is not sufficient to drop the option, but could not be completely ignored.

Hubli (a little over 100 km) was not a very likable city. Sirsi was only good enough to get essentials, not for the occasional recreation. Also, at some point, if we were required to use our professional competency, a good city within reasonable distance would be preferred.

The area received very heavy rainfall (300 inches or 3 times of Mumbai). This meant that at least 8 months are wet / humid, not very pleasant. As we thought more, this was perhaps the reason why this area was scarcely populated.

Land prices were not very low, possibly because it was suitable for Arecanut, coconut and banana plantations. Road access shot up prices further. Most of the land was mountainous, which meant higher expenses for development. Labour availability was not very easy given the scarce population.

Lastly, we did not have any proposal for buying land. Identifying land through brokers, doing the necessary due diligence to make sure we’re not being cheated appeared a daunting and time consuming task. Besides, even if we were to find one, we could not take a final decision before we see through one monsoon. The whole process will take quite some time –least one year. One year before we can get our cows, build our house and get on with life! We should explore an option in hand rather than wait for the ‘best’ option.

After 10 days of stay, both of us were almost certain that Hulekal or around is not an option. As we thought more, Mysore seemed to be the most appropriate option. I contacted them and got to understand that the group is meeting on Feb 2.

It was finalized then. Mysore seemed to be a very good option from all perspectives. We’ll need to learn Kanadda, but that should not be an issue. The price of the land also wouldn’t be high because they wanted to sell the land at a lower price to encourage people like us. I planned to spend a couple of days extra in Mysore to be able to find a house on rent. We would shift to Mysore and live in the city. It will give us the opportunity to experience living there while we buy land, build a house etc.

I went to Mysore (alone) and met up with all the group members and also spent a couple of days as planned. I couldn’t decide on the house on rent. I planned to return to Hulekal to come back with Rekha and the kids. Together we could search for a house on rent.

The Mysore Option : Round 2

Something amusing started happening in Mysore. The evening before I was to leave for Hulekal, I received a call from the member of the group I was to purchase the land from. They said that I need to hurry with the registration. I insisted that we would like to spend a couple of months in the city before we get into any registration formalities. They agreed, reluctantly though. I’m skipping other details here but I sensed that there was quite a lot of fear / lack of trust given that we were ‘outsiders’ to the group.

When I discussed this with Rekha, we created space for the possibility that this option may not work out. But it still made sense to park ourselves in Mysore for a few months. We could either build confidence amongst the same group of people or explore other options.

We went to Mysore with the kids and stayed with Berty. Berty was known to the group for a few years, but he had purchased land from them and so was in the same boat as us. But we felt a little unwelcome there. Something had transpired in two days. We were indirectly informed that the group had decided not to sell the land to us unless we agree to do the registration immediately. It was a very odd situation. We left quite abruptly after staying only for a day. We were stranded. The only option we’d been banking on was no longer there and we were back to square one. Moreover, we were dependent on Berty for developing any rapport with local community. But that seemed quite unlikely now.

We took an early morning train to return from Mysore. We’d almost reached Hasan (60-70 km) when Rekha asked if we could go to Gudalur. Rajinder (one of the land owners at Barkheda) had purchased a 2 acre land in Gudalur few years back. He had invited us to have a look and see if we’d like to purchase it from him. I told Rekha that we were headed in the opposite direction. If we want to go to Gudalur, we need to get off the train and go back to Mysore. We called Dr Sunil and checked if it is ok for us to visit him in Gudalur. The train had just reached Hasan; we quickly grabbed our luggage and de-boarded the train.

The Search Story (Part I)

We started with our search for a new place to live in the moment we came to a conclusion that we need to do so. Though there was no pressing reason to move out, there was no point in delaying the process. Co-incidentally, Shashi had decided to visit us for a few hours. On learning our intention to re-locate, he suggested that we might consider Mysore. He knew of a group of people, who’d tried and given up on a community building effort and would like to sell land to people, who’d like to live by similar principles. There was no direct train to Mysore. So, we decided to get started and planned to begin our search at Palakkad and travel north to Mysore.

Option 1: Palakkad

On Dec 9, 2013, we reached Palakkad. Last time we visited the place few years back, it looked like a culturally rich, slow paced town with the useful urban amenities. This time, we started with a feeling that we should be lucky to find a decent option here. We lived with Rekha’s relatives, who were curiously watching our moves and were very kind to us. Nandan, based in Palakkad was introduced to my blog by another friend. He came forward to guide us through Palakkad. He spent good 2 days with us and our first interaction with him seemed like we’d been friends for years.

Palakkad, we realized, was too urbanized for our liking, far too hot even in the winter month and market prices of land were much higher than what we were ok with. A group of friends had purchased a 21 acre plot with the idea of ‘living in harmony with nature’, but could not work on it beyond 2 years for various reasons. They could have agreed to sell a small part of the land to us at a discount (to the market price). But after the Barkheda experience, we learnt that a discount is an illusion. In exchange for the discount, we’d have to probably live their idea of ‘in harmony with nature’.

Taking Nandan’s suggestion, we decided to explore Wayanad. It was supposed to be endowed with more fertile soil, better climate and lower prices.

Option 2 : Wayanad

We took a train to Calicut and then a bus to Mananthvady (in Wayanad district). During the drive itself, we were amazed at the level of ‘development’ in Kerala. There are no open areas in between towns here! Wayanad, which is supposed to be a hill station, is as commercially developed as a large town. Nandan had referred us to Roy in Wayanad. Roy was so helpful and courteous. He showed us around the place, we visited the land he’d purchased a year back and spent good time discussing a numerous issues of common interest. We could not bring ourselves to choose Wayanad as our place of stay given the level and the reach of commercialization; also the land prices high (though lower than Palakkad).

This visit closed Kerala as an option given the development in the state. But the visit was worth it because of new friends made in Nandan, Roy and a couple of more people of common interest.

Option 3 : Mysore

Wayanad to Mysore was a nice, brief bus journey through a forest. We reached there at about 8 in the evening. Mysore is a pleasant city as compared to others. There are areas, especially a little away from the hub, which are spaced out, where one can breathe. We were hosted by Guru and family, quite warmly, though they were less conversant in Hindi and English. The following day, we visited the land they’d (the group) purchased 17-18 years back and were now planning to sell.

We quite liked to land the moment we stepped on it. Along with Guru and his wife, Berty had also come with us. Berty had purchased 2 acres land from the group recently. Another 2 acres was purchased by a friend of his – Sanjeev. Both of them had plans of agro-forestry in the area.

We would have liked to discuss the details, but Guru did not seem inclined to reveal much about the plans of the group, the price, etc. He said that the group will have to take a decision together and he will let us know later. We’d liked the option. However, there were two distinct areas of concern. One was that the rainfall was a little less than what we’d have liked. Secondly, this was a failed community effort. Two couples had stayed on the land for 5 years before they’d decided to move elsewhere. 5 years is a long time! The relationship with at least one couple was quite strained and this was the couple, which was being blamed for the failed effort. This made us a little uncomfortable. But we felt that we should give ourselves the time to understand the dynamics better. After all, we didn’t have many options.

Since there was nothing conclusive being taken up, we decided to return from Mysore. But before we left, some friends of Guru showed tremendous interest in meeting us and showing us a farm, which they’d developed. This was a 4 acre farm, where they’d built two eco-houses, couple of tree houses, a nice and big farm of vegetables and fruits. Quite a beautiful place! We were amazed that 6 families could stick together for such a long time and develop something. The saddest part, however, was that not a single family was staying there. They were struggling to find a care taker for the farm. We felt, they might have tried to lure us to live there, but we were clear that we would not stay in a place, which we don’t own. Besides, water was a problem there. Bore wells in that area had also dried up.

On Dec 15, we left from Mysore to Mumbai. The kids had been waiting for us for 8 days.

Mumbai – the base by default

Back in Mumbai, we were still without any concrete option. We had planned to return to Barkheda on Dec 19, tickets were booked. We spent the three days with family. No call from Mysore during these days, which meant the option of Mysore was still not open.

We had not been positive about staying in my native place in Vidarbha. But with no option in hand, we felt it incorrect that we should reject this option without exploring it. Afterall, the place offered a sense of security. There might be a possibility of interference from relatives, but we felt quite adept at managing this risk. More importantly, Rekha was quite inclined that we should explore this option. So, on Dec 19, instead of returning to Barkheda, I booked a ticket for Amravati. I’d travel there, while Rekha and kids stayed in Mumbai.

Option 4: Vidarbha

The family of my father’s sister had been a farmer’s family for a few generations and owned land. I decided to begin my search from there. I spent two days with a cousin, with whom I hadn’t conversed for even 5 minutes in so many years. It felt nice. We saw the land options there.

I visited other places as well. I was visiting there after years. It was a multi-purpose visit. The land options I saw there were quite good, purely from the farming perspective. But the area is very fast developing. Land prices are shooting up, agricultural land is being converted to residential land at a brisk pace. Urbanisation was accepted as the undisputed route to progress.

The interactions there renewed my relationship with my own relatives – my individual relationship, without being the son of so and so. I spent close to a week there. The two options of land, which I had seen were not too great. Some relatives said that they will look out for options and get back. Market price of land was higher than what I’d have liked to and there weren’t any options to choose from.

On the whole I returned with mixed feelings. Not very excited, but open if something comes up.

Back in Mumbai

Nothing much to do, we found ourselves back in Mumbai. We didn’t like staying there much. Kids were watching TV for most part of the day, the schedule for the day had almost gone for a toss, eating habits disturbed and no one to meet up with. We wanted to go back to Barkheda, kids wanted to even more than us. But tickets were not available before Jan 9, 2014. Shashi, during his visit to Barkheda, had told us a little about Vinish, who stays in a village near Hubli and that we must meet him. We thought that instead of dragging along here, let us visit him…who knows what turn awaits us!

Hulekal (Hubli)

On Jan 1, we reached Hulekal, a village about 3 hours south of Hubli. Vinish and Karuna welcomed us very warmly and almost instantaneously, the families got along quite well. Their 4 yr old son was happy to play with Siddharth and Shreya. We stayed there for 2 days. They’ve rented a separate house to be able to host guests and friends, who visit them.

It was a nice, short and sweet visit. Vinish mentioned that they’ve been staying in Hulekal for 3 years and are now quite happy to stay there. They would also like to stay on land and are planning to begin the land search soon. Hulekal is a nice place. Sparcely populated, basic facilities available, it rains very heavily, dug wells are common and land should not be very expensive. Sirsi, a town 13 km away could provide us with the necessary occasional shopping.

Solapur & Pandharpur : Jan 4,5,6

Instead of taking a direct train from Hubli to Mumbai, we decided to break the journey at Solapur, my childhood town I hadn’t visited since 1994. It was a long overdue visit and the journey break made it possible for us to travel second class and save the cost and inconvenience of AC travel.

Barkheda

On Jan 10, we reached Barkheda as planned. Uncertain and confused about what to do next! This Barkheda visit was more for nostalgic value and also because we were longing to stay on our own. But within 2 days, we felt that it makes no sense base ourselves in Barkheda. We were not interested in exploring MP. South India seemed a better option. Travelling to and fro from Barkheda will be both very expensive and inconvenient. We could not do any farming given our uncertain stay.

Instead of making Mumbai our base, we thought it better to make Hulekal the base. There was a separate house to stay in temporarily, it would be closer to the places we’d like to explore and it will be possible for Rekha to stay with kids for a few days if I need to travel. Most importantly, we could get back to some disciplined lifestyle. We could also explore land options in and around Hulekal. We didn’t know how long this phase will last. We would also require our own household stuff to live separately, also the car. So, we packed enough household goods in the car, so that we can live comfortably for a few months and on Jan 13, began our 1300+ km long drive from Barkheda to Hulekal.

The long drive plan

I’d driven 750 km from Mumbai to Barkheda a year back, which was the longest stretch. This time it was much more. We started off after breakfast. The plan was to halt at Indore (200 km) on day 1, Nasik (600+) on day 2, Satara (950+) on day 3 and Hulekal (1300+) on day 4. We had relatives at all the locations. The halt would make it possible for us to catch up with them afresh.

Option 5 : Satara

The drive went as planned till the end of day 3. We reached Satara on the evening of Jan 15. I had it in mind that the area near Mahableshwar was quite nice and we should explore this area if possible. My cousin in Satara was in sync with this notion. He said that this part of the state was the best place for people like us. Climatically very pleasant, adequate rainfall, good soil, endowed with scenic beauty, not much urbanization and reasonable land prices. We decided to extend our stay there and check out options there.