I was having a conversation with a friend from Swaraj the other day…and these are a few thoughts –

One of the ideas that came up is that the action to be taken is taken towards insecurity not security.  Now that I think of it, it sounds a lot like the parable of the lilies of the field and the birds of the sky – God cares for all their needs without them having to worry at all.  The lilies are even dressed quite beautifully.  So why do we worry?  Why do we not trust that we too will be cared for?  Here and now what does it mean to take actions toward insecurity and exactly why?  Why first.  This has to do with necessity – how much do I really need?  When I have more then I decide I need more, so by reducing the amount of stuff I secure, also including money, then I also reduce the space for me to decide that I need more.  In this way, I can slowly come to depend on nature and community and my real abilities – not just my ability to secure money and stuff.

And yes!  The need for documentation and reading.  In non-industrial society most knowledge for living and wisdom was passed down orally.  Once such know-how is documented then the need to know by heart and very well is lost and time is freed up for other things (like multi-national corporations?).  Moreover, the whole need to document arises perhaps from a fear of no longer having needs met or maybe from wanting to secure more stuff.  Fear is a motivator but it is the antithesis of trust.  Where is the line between fear and healthy caution?  (Like me wearing my bicycle helmet – am I too afraid of getting in an accident or am I taking proper precaution as I could get injured?)

So this also made me think about reading.  Anything that is documented is documented to be read so that the reader can more easily find a solution.  Does reading keep me from experimenting on my own?  I read out of interest, mostly the interest to get answers like how to grow vegetables?  How to made a deodorant naturally?  What is going on in this life of mine??  At the same time reading a book on medicinal herbs is similar to taking advice from a live person (like oral tradition), except that maybe it doesn’t land up as being so practical – maybe I’ll use it and maybe I’ll just spend the time reading about it.  So what about a year with no reading?  Or maybe I’ll try it for a few months and see how it goes – I’ll let the idea sink in for a few days before I decide.

I think I haven’t exactly explained what Swaraj University is yet.  Basically it’s an alternative university that is now in it’s second year.  I’ll be joining the second batch (class) of khojis (searchers), which is about 15 people I think and the first was also 15.  The idea is to explore whatever you want however you want to and have guidance in doing that and doing it in the context of community and appropriate mentors.  Each khoji makes their own learning plan and the Swaraj team helps finds mentors/work/etc appropriate for that plan so the khoji can learn or experience or experiment as she/he pleases.  For me this means space to explore more concepts and experiences that have to do with, for lack of a better phrase, non-industrial living.  Living within my actual needs and creating space for community, learning, and joy while supporting myself in a less monetary way.  I realized as I looked ahead to my farming dream that once I’ve embarked on that endeavor I will be so busy figuring out how to make it work and earning enough to get by that I won’t have time to see the bigger picture or even be aware of myself adequately.  I want to do work that contributes to society but I do not want to work just to meet my own needs and live in my own world on the farm.  So I’m taking that time in the community I’ve found that seems to inevitably offer concepts and ways that are new to me and make me sit and think – this is good for life and how do I make it a reality my life.  I’m not sure if that clarified or mystified my intentions here!  In addition to this, my focus will be and is learning more about the situation of genetically modified crops in this district and why it is the way it is and how our American companies and economies affect the situation here. 

On a less philosophical level – I went to Ajmer, another city in Rajasthan that’s about 6 hours away on the train with Hira, a woman who works at Shikshantar, for a “Zero Budget Farming” workshop.  We got general tickets for the train and realized that there was a festival going on there as the train was absolutely packed – and general seating means you’re in a car that has no assigned seats and can easily have less seats than people.  We were lucky enough to squeeze onto a bench instead of having to stand or sit on the floor and we were off! 

I imagined the workshop would be 20-30 people and include practical examples – like we would be on a farm doing some work and seeing the techniques.  As it turned out it was about 300-400 people sitting and listening to lectures for 3 days.  Unfortunately my Hindi isn’t good enough to understand full lectures yet, so I mostly understood the basic concepts which I already new about using native breeds of cows and their dung and a little bit about water conservation.  I need to sit down this week with Hira and have her explain to me in more depth what they were teaching.  We didn’t get the time to sit there as in the breaks people would always come and ask her about me as I was the only foreign face there.  I really wish I could have a disguise sometimes :/.  Also it takes some time for her to explain to me also because she only speaks Hindi and my Hindi is good enough to understand but it takes some explaining sometimes when there are new words, etc.  The best part of the trip for me was getting to know Hira better as before I only knew her as a nice woman working at Shikshantar before this trip, not in any depth. 

On a general level I can say the transition back here didn’t exactly even feel like a transition.  Going back to the US last year was really challenging on the flip side.  I think the difference is that life is the US is more processed and material – not to say India is not either of those as it is and it is going more and more in that direction, but simply almost out of compulsion life is materially simpler here.  On maybe an instinctual level that feels good and right to me so I come into it with ease whereas the dominant system in the US is highly processed and petroleum intensive and it just feels wrong and very overwhelming.  So then it takes me time to process how to mentally process the constant input of processed life coming into my vision and life and how to be in such an environment.  And the answer is neither surrender nor escape, so I’m hoping that as I work towards a better awareness of myself and other ways of being I’ll be better equipped for life wherever it takes me. 

I arrived at Shikshantar last Sunday, expecting a calm day to settle in and figure out what my living situation is.  Last time I was here I saw a poster in my friend Vishal’s room and it was a poem that started with “Have No Expectations! They ruin everything!”  I’ve thought about that a lot since then, but in this case it was true =).  I was able to let the expectation of a calm day quickly disappear into a day of projects with a group of 8 American Leap Year students (taking a year off to explore between high school and college).  I actually cannot exactly remember what we did on Sunday sitting here thinking!  I just know lots of people showed up at about 10am and it was on from there =).

Monday and Tuesday I basically just ran around trying to register my visa so I can stay here for its duration if I so desire.  Wednesday and Thursday I got the chance to join Shikshantar staff/volunteers in a mini “Oasis Game” with the students.  The idea of Oasis is to come together, pooling all the fun and energy and accomplishing something good for the community.  Our focus last week was reducing plastic bottle waste of tourists by raising awareness of a filtration system called reverse osmosis (called “RO” water here) so that people know it is safe to refill their bottles.  This meant breaking up into groups and talking to tourists about their opinions and searching for hotels and restaurants in the area that have RO systems and are willing to be “Refill Stations.”  From those experiences we strategized about further steps, which included stickers and signs to post at willing “Refill Stations” so tourists can recognize and an accompanying website so they can google it and see that it is an organized program and we (at Shikshantar) are following up with the Refill Stations to make sure their RO systems are maintained and clean (that will be a task I take on every couple months for the year and then pass on).   The students also organized a short guerilla marketing campaign by making costumes out of bottles and signs and going out and singing on the street and talking to people.  The whole experience was filled with a lot of energy and laid a good foundation for us to follow up on.  We have to go back tomorrow and actually put the stickers up at the hotels as the logistics of getting things printed out was slowed by random electricity cuts.  I learned quickly from this experience how a big group can really build up energy and get something done that would otherwise take a few people much longer.  (Or they can be under utilized!)  I’ve always been a bit skeptical of quick drop-in work even though all my mission trip experiences have been good.  This project, however, will be followed up with and their work was truly wonderful, inspiring, and very helpful.  So the learning has begun…

Being in Udaipur again is wonderful.  I’ve gotten to see a lot of friends, more or less surprising all of them, which is a wonderful feeling.  Nevertheless, I’d have to say my favorite moment so far was with someone new, who I actually don’t know well yet.  She is a girl who is also joining Swaraj University (more on that in a bit).  The person introducing us told her I am also joining and student absolutely threw her hands in the air, squealed a bit, and embraced me full-force.  Now that’s  how I want to welcome people in the future.  I just felt so, well, embraced and valued.  She had to leave that night only, but her welcome I feel ushered me into this new group of people with whom I’ll be exploring myself and living life, and it felt awesome!

Now I have so much more to say, but that’ll suffice for now as there is some painting to be done at my friends’ soon-to-be-opening organic and local food store!

Today was deep brown chocolate soil and dark greens growing above. I did eat deep, mushy chocolate today with Irish cream frosting that pooled in the slightly sunken middle of the dark chocolate cake brimming out of the cast iron skillet. And I ate kale and chard – at least 2 bunches on my own. Then, there was massage time after the cake we ate seated around candles and mutual affirmations. Rain fell all day and between the humidity and the deep chocolate expanding in my body, my body mushed into the massage table. A heavy chocolate soil massaged into deep relaxation. Prepared for deep green prolific growth. Ahhhhwwww.

Today was our holiday. Yes, our holiday. Sarah, Michael, and I were celebrating each other with chocolate cayenne cake with Irish cream frosting that took no flour and 8 eggs, an affirmation circle, and our usual Monday massage time. Our holiday was Sarah’s brilliant idea, a wonderful idea.

Sarah and I also watched Mulan. Good songs, good laughs, good massage, good friends, good cake, good rain, good day. =)

Saturday I got to speak Hindi twice and hear it three times and made a connection to a Hindi partner. Yay! My heart is happy. It also rained, hard, all of the market on Saturday before giving way to a hot, sunny day. That’s why we have so much kale and chard to eat at home now. My heart likes Hindi, it’s exciting to me, it feels good, I like learning, I like the expressions. I like the surprise of knowing some. I like the culture it connects me to, the friends I remember in the language. The reminder that the world is more than where I am right now, however great here is now.

Glad we have that straight.  Funny how life is inevitably integrated, even in something as silly as coincidental names. =)

March 20, 2011

Sarah, a fellow intern here at the Center for Community Empowerment in Jasper, Indiana, noted a day or two ago that it was the 8^th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. Although our country has been at war all of my young adult life, it seems to have had little effect on my life. Perhaps that is exactly the negative effect – that war can be a distant and ignored easily, or so it seems. The Iraq War is a looming example of the general disconnect in our society today. Not to come off to harsh or to give the impression that I don’t think valuable, healthy relationship exists in the US, it does, but it too is often between people and still the people are disconnected from their means of life.

I read the intro to a new high school project in Maine online and the author noted the common experience many Americans have of traveling to more ‘traditional’ societies and falling in love with the places and be impressed by the love of the people. She concluded that we feel we lack such culture and upon coming home feel empty of culture and meaning. I know that to be true in my experience and have shared that with many friends, but was comforted to see someone who has traveled much more and then come back and connected with many people about come to the same conclusion. I’m not happy to be in company with such a negative conclusion as we live in a culture of disconnect, but happy to know people are acknowledging and feel this and working to mend it.

This brings me to my current location on the porch of a old farm house in Jasper, IN at the end of my first whole week as a organic farming apprentice with Michael. We’ve only had one day of hard physical work so far, but I know the weeks to come will be abundant in many ways… And I’m so happy to be here! Sarah, the other apprentice is awesome. From upstate New York, is fun, and has a wealth of knowledge in alternative healing and yoga – along with a lot of general gardening/farming stuff. Menchu is an apprentice who came a month before us and is leaving this week. She is a mid-aged Philipino woman studying metaphysics and spirituality after ending a corporate career. She is also wonderful, insightful, and just plane fun (I was floored and quite delighted when I mentioned Jesus Christ Superstar and she busted out “What’s the Buzz” with complete lyrics beginning to end!) Michael and Sarah (another Sarah) both have given a lot of thought and time to studying natural living, healing, spirituality, and, of course, Micheal knows a lot about farming. I could not have asked for a better place to be. There is so much I am learning here about topics and myself. And so far my body is holding up, so I’m hoping to strengthen, care for, and connect in a deeper way with my body along with my mind/soul/heart.

Thursday night there was a gathering in the house called Third Eye Thursday that I think is generally usually about metaphysics and spirituality. This week there was a Indiana poet in town, so he came and it was a mixed night. I felt a sense of something new…and perhaps healing..to be in a room of young to old white folk really examining life and how to live in a connected and intentional way through thinking about writings of Native Americans. I know the white aspect because I’ve been struggling with my identity as a white, upper-class American – wondering what it means and how to own my identity when it implies many things I do not identify with and often am working against. It felt good to see “me” in the room as so many ages creating and participating in a new wave of culture. I consider culture to spring from a people’s connection with the land and place they live, so I feel that, as I said earlier, at best, we have a culture of disconnect as we have come to live in a way that can be more-or-less replicated across a vast expanse of land with no need to consider the landscape. We live in an industrial culture – and based on my visit to a post-industrial Detroit last week, I’d say we’d do good to start changing sooner than later.

Now I’m rambling. Hmmm..

So far getting into the dirt and the green greeeeen, fresh kale and rainbow chard has been a delight. It feels good and right. Today is my day off and during church I thought about how I can’t wait to get back out into the garden again. I hope that’s true after we really get into the hard work of the season; I think it will be.

Which reminds me. One of the recurring topics here, which is also a common theme in the work of Shikshantar and groups of people working with alternative education, is that each person is innately a creative being and force, that we can learn through experience and create solutions through experience. Create better health through experiencing our bodies, create better food by experiencing our farms, create better character by experiencing and examining our character, etc. Typed here it sounds simple and it is. I’m so used to learning from books and in classes that I lost confidence in that most essential human part of me…maybe not totally, but in large part. I feel that freedom to be the created being we all are re opening in myself. It doesn’t give me the sense of security I’d prefer at this point, but that difference will be made up in my own growth. I think the creative center is the..1^st? Chakra, but I’m not very familiar with that line of thought that is associated with yoga. I’ll be learning as I go through experience and others and books.

Enough ramblings. The point is I’m so happy to be in place of many dimensions of growth and fun people to laugh and learn with. I am grateful and excited!

this is the kind of sunset a sunset snob likes to see

Last Sunday in India…for now.

Oi!  I am so sentimental.

I took my friend Karmel (who is working at an organization called Arth that works in women’s health) to get lassi and see the sunset at Fateh Sagar, a local hang out spot and beautiful lake.  The sunset was shades of yellow, orange, and red – Karmel was wowed by it.  She thought she was just coming for lassi and instead got to sit on the edge of an over flowing lake and see the sunset.  She kept saying “This is so nice!  I didn’t expect this!”  I felt good I had the luck of showing something truly good.

That sunset involved no clouds and therefore no purple and pinks and streaks of light.  The sky did not seem to melt into the night as I’ve so often seen it do here.  I did not share Karmel’s awe of it and, in fact, was a little disappointed it wasn’t as good as the one a few days before. Then I realized — I’ve become a sunset snob.  This is what living in Udaipur will do to a person.  Truly breath-taking sunsets and sunrises between the mountains seen from a hilltop temple, from a lake shore looking up between the mountains, which also provides an enchanting outline of Monsoon Palace atop the highest mountain, or from a terrace situated with a good view are part and parcel of the Udaipur experience.

Rumor has it that Mission Impossible 4 is starting to be shot here on October 10 this year – and I expect to see a stunning sunset captured on the silver screen as Tom Cruise achieves the impossible.  Can he have a mission more impossible than finding a place with better sun shows than Udaipur?

Speaking of sun.  Udaipur is entering the 9 months of the year in which one forgets that clouds exist.  There is sun, sun, and more sun radiating down heating the streets, terraces, farms, and now my host family’s new solar cooker!  Woohoo!  I used it yesterday to bake some “healthy” cookies (unprocessed sugar called jaggery, ginger, cinnamon, etc).  It worked like a charm, so I’m excited that my host family can use it for daily things like rice and daal – they can put them in when they come home for lunch and it will be cooked by the time they come home to prepare dinner.  Save the gas, harvest the sun.  Economic and eco-friendly, hopefully my host family will use it a lot. 

Speaking of my host family.  They currently have 2 new interns living with them.  One is from FSD and is staying until December, her name is Nicolle and she’s from NYC.  The other is Rani, she’s from Germany and is in Udaipur for just one month as a part of a longer internship in Delhi.  I’ve had a lot of fun orientating them or even just sharing my experience.  A few nights ago I was telling them my 3 or 4 Hindi or Hinglish jokes for fun and to maybe teach Nicolle a few things in Hindi (Rani understands Hindi already).  (I had some trouble explaining a Hinglish knock-knock joke.  Rani and our host mom know Hindi, but aren’t familiar with the concept of knock-knock jokes where Nicolle knows knock-knock jokes but not Hindi.  I think at least Nicolle got the joke in the end.)    My host mom also added to the jokes and we all got some good laughs.  And I explained to my host dad most of the jokes he says fall under the category of “dad jokes” in English.  I really enjoy learning Hindi and wish my Hindi were better by now, but I can keep working on it and hope it’ll come of use some day.

Speaking of Hindi.  There’s a foreign girl in Udaipur I don’t know (yes, probably only 1 I don’t know, haha!)  I see her everywhere there and happen to know a strange amount about her from where I happen to see her.  Last night at the Shikshantar Halchal Café she came!  Since I’d told Rani and Nicolle about this girl I know about but don’t know, I couldn’t help but point her out to them and laugh.  How creepy am I?!  And nooo, I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself, but I did find out she speaks fluent Hindi and I really admire (or rather am jealous!) of that.  Haha.

Speaking of knowing too much.  Or rather not knowing enough.  (My speaking-of string stopped working…)  I started reading The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard about the process of Stuff – from extraction of raw materials, shipping of those materials for processing, processing, shipping again, sale, and finally disposal.  The book is based on an internet video you can watch on youtube.com if you just type in the The Story of Stuff.  I’ve only read the introduction and the first part of the first section and I’m hooked.  She says that after the film became popular, analysts/critics of it said it is a critique of capitalism, which she had not considered it to be while in the making.  However, the capitalist goals of constant growth and increasing profit often result in a loss of health of humans and the environment and higher levels of stress and depression among people.  An economic system ought to do the opposite of this, increasing quality of life, including health and happiness, and ought to be able to function as a sustainable sub-system to the larger ecological system of the earth, the biosphere.[1]

I didn’t know 50,000 species of trees are extinct every year.  Did you?  More than outrageous, this is tragic.  We ought to take care and allow only recycled or sustainably made papers in our lives – and moreover put pressure on the systems that be, like the companies that cut down the virgin forests or the laws that allow for this to change.  Annie Leonard is right and the facts are clear.  Reading such things makes me want to cry, but it’s better to act. 

Speaking of action.  Leaving India has my mind moving again about how I should spend my time – what kind of actions I can, want to, and should take in my daily life and in my lifetime.  Going home and farming, raising awareness, being an activist is what is in the agenda of my mind right now.  But then India, before I have left, lingers in my mind.  How can I make connections between here and there?  Support the movements so vital to daily living here in communities that struggle for water and proper nutrition?  That suffer from the agendas of multinational agribusiness inputs into farming?  Help create a situation that does not compel over a thousand farmers in the one state of Maharastra to commit suicide every year?  What are the limits of my reach of action…and how can I reach them? 

Pressure towards what’s good and just has to come from many sides.  From the communities suffering the side-effects of grossly irresponsible business, from the communities that are employed in such business, from the nations that ought to regulate such business.  Not everyone has morals and ethics without being forced to.  I want to figure out how Nebraska and Rajasthan can connect and help each other.  I want to know what we have in common other than lots of rural land and lots of corn and how that can be leveraged for vital action in this critical point in time for the human species.

Other activities –

On Friday I went with my friend Sonali’s brother, Manish, to see a few schools he helps with through a small NGO him and a friend started.  The schools are small government schools – the type in which the teachers teach 5 or 8 grade levels together and many of the kids, say ¾, do not bother coming to school because it’s boring and slow and there’s work to do at home.  Manish and his friend, through the NGO Next Horizon, have paid money out of pocket to build more classrooms, paint the walls with learning-tools like pictures of the ABCs, and build toilets for the girls.  They also try to bring in volunteers to teach the smaller kids for a month or two or more so the teachers can focus on the older kids.  Volunteers often also have more fun and creative ways of teaching, so the kids happily come to school and which their parents appreciate.  He asked me if I’d be interested in helping recruit such volunteers, so I went with him to see the schools.  Anyone interested?  I think this may be a fun Rajasthan-Nebraska connection possibility. 

I also saw a beautiful place with a temple a few days back.  After turning off a road that is already quite narrow and bumpy onto what can only be called a path that is substantially bumpier, we arrived at the 3 foot rock wall where we parked the motorcycle and continued walking down the path.  The path ended in an opening in the aura of enormous old bunyan trees.  The air was cool and the twisting roots and trunks of the trees were even cooler.  The temple dedicated to Lord Shiva marked the spot as the holy place it truly is.  A river flows in this oasis of coolness and water in an otherwise harshly hot land.  The river had thousands of little little fish chilly out which happily cleaned the dead skin off my feet when I dipped them in.  (There are now fish-spas in Delhi with Japanese fish which do this for 500 rupees per half hour or so – these fish weren’t Japanese, in the artificial confines of a mall, or charging for their free lunch.)  The place was simply delightful.  The area around Udaipur has many beautiful places each with a temple, as if it’s understood that someone or something needs to be praised for such beauty.

Maybe 50,000 species of trees wouldn’t be extinct annually if there were natural wonder was more clearly understood to be a miracle worthy of not only conservation, but also praise.

Yesterday was Gandhi ji’s birthday.  I stayed in Udaipur as trekking to Ahmedabad for was not a journey I felt up to alone for only one day.  A common topic in the newspapers here and in conversation around his birthday is if Gandhi’s methods and thoughts are still relevant today.  Some say yes, some say yes with modification.  I say I want to study his thought and methods more closely.  The challenge of Gandhi that came to my mind yesterday is that of technology.  In his Hind Swaraj he wrote about railways questioning them.  He questioned the necessity of people to move and to move their Stuff so quickly.  Does this really make communities better and life happier?  More just?  Railways represent how a people view technology. 

How do we decide if a new technology is good for our society and therefore start using it?  Right now it seems the “market” decides.  If it sells and grows the market it’s good.  His thoughts couldn’t be more relevant.

Speaking of moving fast.  One of my friends started teaching me how to drive a motorcycle last week.  I was probably going very slowly and I wasn’t alone on the bike so if I couldn’t balance the bike, the gears, and speed altogether there would be no problem.  But I felt like I was going way too fast.  I think I’ll stick to my bicycle.

            The countdown in officially on.  10 full days left in India.  I can hardly believe it.  It will be a full 10 days though with no lack of the uncertainty of plans which is mandatory in India.  For example, I planned to go to Ahmedabad, Gujarat this weekend to meet Sumi didi and Mihir bhaiya, 2 people I really admire and respect and I want to see their work, and participate in the festivities for Gandhi ji’s birthday on October 2.  However, a court decision coming out concerning a location called Ayodhaya has disrupted these plans.  Ayodhaya is a disputed location in Gujurat.  A long time ago Ram, a Hindu God, went through there and so there was a Hindu temple.  About 500 years ago (still a long time), the Muslim ruler Akbar had control over this land and destroyed the temple to build a mosque.  (It was a common practice to destroy previous structures and replace them with the structures of the current regime.)  Now, only about half the mosque stands – I believe the roof of it was destroyed by the British at some point.  Now, there is a Supreme Court decision that has been continuously delayed that was supposed to come out last week, then yesterday, and now tomorrow and as such has continuously delayed my travel plans.  Why?  People in politics see this as fit situation to gain popularity and therefore may provoke riots after the decision is announced.  Therefore, the roads between here and Ahmedabad may not be so safe to travel on – in which case, it would make more sense for me to just stay put and skip Gandhi ji’s birthday party.  Thus, my last 10 days in India are as unplannable as usual. 

            Yesterday I arrived early to Nirmal and Manoj’s house for a workshop creating a mosaic on a wall outside of their home.  I got to enjoy some chai and chatting with the family and buy a painting from them as all 3 brothers (and I think also the sisters) are very good artists.  They paint miniature paintings typical of Udaipur.  As I waited for the rest of the group to arrive, I was flipping through a book of old magazines on Osho, a famous philosopher of sorts.  The article I happened upon said that we do ourselves a favor by accepting insecurity as the condition of life.  Really nothing is secure, that is the nature of life.  Even life will end and we don’t know when or what is next.   Once we accept insecurity then we feel secure in that acceptance and, moreover, present to the moment we are in because there is no guarantee of the next. 

            This is not to say planning to create some security in life is a bad idea, but that there needs to be a balance between our attitude towards life (do we need to be positive that everything is in place and will go as we want?) and our actions (we should still be responsible).  Isn’t this what Jesus was talking about with the parable about the lilies of the field and the birds of the sky?  If the lilies are clothed so magnificently without worrying and the birds are provided food without a plan, then how much more would God provide for people?

            Now Osho may not think much of God as I also read an article in which he says we create God and that we ought to touch our own feet (very high sign of respect in India) instead of carving gods or crosses and praying to them.  The point is, there is a strong positive force in the world and within us and we ought to align ourselves with it and the joy it offers. 

            I am choosing to cut this entry a bit short to run out and meet a few friends.  It’s amazing how many wonderful people I’ve met here!  I don’t like that I can count the days I have left on my fingers.  I’m so happy to be here and to go home, but so sad to close this chapter.  Yikessssssss!

The area around Nashik does not feel like India to me.  Nashik is located in northern Maharastra (the state Mumbai is in).  Its black rock and soft green plateaus seem more like they came out of the wild west.  As we rounded curves and crested hills on the motorcycle I almost expected to see a herd of buffaloes being hunted by  Indians (not real Indians, the misnomer ones) — a scene fresh off childhood bedsheets.

I was out on a motorcycle with Praful and Bairav from a small, brand new organization called Earth Care Designs.  They are recently graduated design students who have decided to use their skills for sustainable solutions to everyday needs.  One of their projects is designing a simple, easy to use cashew processing unit since a group of villagers want to process the cashews they grow and therefore retain more profit.  So off we went to a cashew processing plant.  The “plant” was actually one large room with a small boiler, a foot-powered machine one guy was using to crack nuts, another guy sitting on the ground manually removing the nuts, and a drying machine.  I’d never seen a cashew in its shell before — it looks more like a sea creature all curled up, not a nut.  The process is actually quite labor intensive – I didn’t know cashews have two shells.  The manager said the pay off is good though.  Now I will appreciate these nuts more =)

From the plant we went to see a farm.  I came to Nashik to meet a couple, Nitin and Anita.  They used to run an NGO together that works on alternative media and using it to make social work and other NGO work more effective.  I visited the org, Abhivyakta, also.  They have lots of film, puppets, and other mediums of story telling.  Now Nitin and Anita do other work as they thought after 20 years the NGO should be out of their hands, like a child after a certain point.

Back to the farm.  They have 4 acres about 1 hour outside of Nashik (just long enough for me to turn a nice pink shade on a motorcycle).  The peanuts were the highlight of this small tour.  First because I can recognize their plants.  I get little bits of joy inside each time I can identify a plant.  I know it’s a small feat, but I’m excited to be learning.  I did not remember, however, that peanuts grow on the roots of the plants.  (Still a lot to learn..)  I guess this is why Indians call them “ground nuts” in English.  Why is Indian English so much more sensible than American English?  So, I was fascinated to see the peanuts dangling from the dirty roots, but I was more fascinated by the interior of these shells caked in soil.  It is a pristine white, the likes of which you may expect on the robe of Jesus after his ascension.

In contrast to the heavenly flesh of ground nuts, the soil here is jet black.  I couldn’t believe the color of the soil when I saw if from the road, but I was surprised to feel how hard it was to touch.  I couldn’t sit on it for fear of my bum becoming black with bruises.  Nonethesless, the soil is healthy and produces good plants: onions, tomatoes, beans, sunflowers, coriander, bottle gourds, and, of course, peanuts.

Their well also surprised me with clear blue, bubbly water meeting my gaze hardly 20 feet down.  After carefully leaning over the edges of wells dug 200 feet deep to search for a glimpse of water in Rajasthan, a 70 feet-deep well with water rising to my eyes instead of beckoning them into depths was stunning.

Back to Nashik.

A 12 day festival devoted to Lord Ganesh, the elephant god, is underway right now – and Maharastra is the place to be.  In every home a temporary altar to Ganesh and featuring a small statue of him is constructed.  Apartment complexes have a bigger one in addition to the personal ones, and each neighborhood has even bigger ones.  They are all over the city, colorful, and huge.  Covered during the day by currents and revealed at night to receive worship.  I went to my friend Sakhi’s apartment complex’s arthi (worship) last night.  Everyone came to the community Ganesh and sang songs and prayed.  At the end everyone eats a bit of Prasad, food offered to God and then we did the same thing in 2 homes.  They rotate the homes worshipped in and who provides Prasad.  Each night there is a special color or theme for clothing.  Reminded me a lot of Christmas caroling, even that it is 12 days =).

The color pink makes me laugh in India.  Yesterday a Marathi (local language) TV drama showed a community celebration giving way to fear and chaos by the appearance of a gangster and his goonies.  He was wearing an Easter-pink, plastic suit with a crisp white shirt.  Ha!

I also saw 3 cows and 1 dog that were hot pink on the way to the farm yesterday.  How they got pink?

Happy Birthday Grandmama Toni!

Happy Janmaashtami! (Lord Krishna’s Birthday)

I helped my host mom prepare a picnic spread for our family outing a few nights back.  The sizzling of aloo ki sabzi frying in oil reminded me of the down pour the night before.  For our outing, we luckily only had a pleasant drizzle and could comfortably admire the beauty of a full and flowing Lake Pichola.  People go to the lakes and rivers these days and only to stand and stare.  The water is stunning after such a harsh summer and 4 years without good rains.  My host mom and I joined a crowd to see a river near our house flowing enough to flood a bit onto the street.  There was actually not enough water for it to overflow naturally, but the gate for the neighboring lake had just been opened to the river as the lake had had its fill.  The rush of water is captivating. 

Despite the plodding pace of life in India, the date of my departure seems to be rushing up upon faster than the water these days.  I leave Udaipur “officially” this Monday to head south to see friends and farms, a great combination =).  Calling my grandma today I could remember exactly how I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest on Kritika’s porch to call and wish her on September 2, 2009.  Has a year already gone by?  I don’t believe it, but it’s proven to me as I struggle to stop by and see all the people and favorite spots in Udaipur before I head out.  In a blink of an eye, I’ve become accustomed to and attached to the people and rhythm of life here.  Upon going home, my time here will seem to me like a good friend that I haven’t met in much too long.  It will always feel like it’s been much too long.

The sentimental side of me will miss happenings like getting charged by a cow while I rode my bicycle last week.  I’ll only miss it because I escaped!  I already miss learning Hindi even though I haven’t stopped yet.  The anticipation of seeing family and friends at home – and surfing the options of organic farms to live and learn on at home, is enough for me to muster out a see-ya-later to India.  I’m generally ok with leaving…ready to go home, but really not ready to leave.  I know I’m going to start crying at some inappropriate time soon.

            One of the best and most common past times here is lounging on the floor with my host parents after eating dinner.  We eat our meals on a blanketed mat on the floor and then recline on the mat and chat after words.  Often talk of no consequence, occasionally mixed in with more serious conversations.  This time of hanging around and inadvertent language exchange ends when my host dad gets up, heats two glass of milk, and gives them to my host mom and me.  

After our picnic of puris and aloo sabzi (fried tortillas and potatoes) a few days ago, we stopped at shop so my host mom could help me purchase a small array of spices to take home.  When we got home Golu was saying I should get a sweet called gulkand, which is made from rose petals and sugar.  It is good for the stomach.  I am going to get it since the rose-flavor has rocked my world since I first tasted it here, but this got me thinking.  Indians often say, about a variety of foods, “…is good for the stomach or good for digestion,” so I started wondering why everyone seems to know many digestive remedies.  And I think it’s because for every fried puri, there need be a relieving gulkand.  That is to say, half of Indian food makes your stomach bad, half makes it better.  India is all about balance. 

My last day at KVK was officially yesterday.  And I’m officially done. We had a nice little party.  I gave a short presentation on our Organic Bigha project and an extra couple slides based on an article that outlines how the government could implement a scheme for organic farming that provides both enough food and at the same time enough income for farmers.  That got some discussion going, but my host dad’s comment got straight to the point – they are all saying how they will promote organic farming and how great it is because I am leaving, they won’t talk about it again after I go.  I am really thankful for the comment, whether or not people listen, at least there is a witness.  The party was fine, whoever wanted to say something to me said and they gave me flowers, a nice gift, and snacks.  I only got sad before the party though, when I gave sweets to the guys would work in the nursery and do odd jobs around KVK.  I liked their company when I had the pleasure of being in it – simple people who work hard and enjoy.  I was sad to say goodbye to them.  I hope they see the organic field grow successfully and remember the foreign girl who used to come around and dig in the dirt.

            How sentimental am I being??!  I still have over a month in India!

August 30, 2010

Hakimuddin ji, KVK’s agriculture engineer invited me to have dinner with his family on Saturday night.  His wife made amazing pav bhaji (a mixed vegetable mush eaten with white rolls) and we chatted about KVK, farming, and home farming – enough that his wife escaped to the kitchen after dinner to make coffee.  Hakimuddin ji ripped all the grass out of his yard with his son earlier this year and is growing vegetables in it – and ready to get a vegetable garden set up on his terrace.  Good people =).

            The electricity went out just as I was leaving dinner, but I know the neighborhood so well that biking home in complete darkness was easy.  It’s strange getting ready to say goodbye to my new home, but I’m ready to go home and live somewhere I will stay long term.  I’m glad I stayed a full year here and see the full cycle of seasons.  The monsoon this year has been the best rain since 2006.  In fact, it’s the first time the river bed behind our house has flowed with water since then.  30 years ago the river flowed the whole year, now it’s so rare that the bridge the water flows underneath was clogged with people staring at the flowing water yesterday for the first time in 4 years.

            I had a good 2 weeks of debating whether I should stay in India until March or stick to my original plans of heading home.  Since I already have a good network here and know the rules to the game, I’m in a good position to continuing working on projects with Shikshanter or with other people I know doing good things.  Staying is very tempting, but I think it’s time to go home and start networking and learning so I can become a active, positive member of the food system in the US.  I’m at a place in life where I want to learn more practical skills so I can be an effective community organizing, food growing person.  And, not to mention, I miss people at home and being able to sing along with every song on the radio since I can understand all the words.  Feeling good with that decision now and free from the nagging debate in my mind of what to do. 

            Our organic crop at KVK is fighting to stay alive and I think it’ll make it, but it’s not all that it could be.  We’ve had so much rain this year that it has been hard to get into the field to clean the weeds out.  Not to mention the soil is totally compacted and isn’t in good shape from 26 years of chemicals.  With 3 years of care and attention, it’ll all work out.  My host dad showed me a piece of land by the dairy which the dairy workers had sown of seeds in about a month ago.  It’s a totally organic space and an area the cows used to hang out – the vegetables there are absolutely thriving.  The leaves are bigger than dinner plates and the soil it spongy, moist, and a rich black with a fresh smell.  This is the goal for our organic field: after 3 years the dry, dull, compact soil should transform into a vibrant, living soil.  I’m going to bring a handful of soil from both places for my final presentation at KVK tomorrow.  I hope they take care of this project – it’s the most beneficial one they have in service of farmers since it addresses sustainability and water conservation.