the inspirational ishwarkaka patel

he is affectionately called Mr. Toilet.
since the early 60s he has been toiling over spreading good, simple, decentralised sanitation to each house in the country.

meet ishwarkaka patel (on the left).

photo courtesy - gandhi-king community
we did not meet him, but spent hours with his remarkable son - jayeshbhai patel, aka baby toilet.
very little of him is available online - a true tribute to a man focussed on his grassroots work.

he has created 2 institutions, Safai Vidyalaya and Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI)
the simple act of creating toilets digs deeper over time towards removing manual scavenging, harijan welfare, women's empowerment, children's education, alternate energy via biogas and my favorite - elimination of the sewage grid.
and his genius has been to tie in all these factors in developing and spreading the 'toilet message'.
the innovative and lovely toilet museum adorns the entrance of safai vidyalaya - on the side of the sabarmati ashram. a display of various types of indian style commodes, cattle feed stations, etc.,



we have got back a variety of books/literature from ESI useful for awareness building and technical documents on building biogas units. dont miss it if you ever land up at the sabarmati ashram.

his recent and more swank establishment is the ESI knowledge center in Sugadh on the outskirts of Ahemdabad. we had the privilege of staying there.
pretty, superb design and inspiring messages all around.





displays and real-life models of a variety of toilet models.



even the floor tilings represent toilets :-)

a true architectural design classic which literally practices what it preaches.
a 2 lakh liter rain water storage tank - one wall of which is shared with the 2 conference halls. just imagine the cooling effect.
an operational biogas plant, natural lighting, solar panels and abundant greenery.

the shadow of gandhiji looms strongly on ishwarkaka and ESI.
ishwarkaka's life continues to be a lesson in determination, dedication and selfless devotion.

the legendary bhaskar save

जहाँ ज्ञान का अभाव है, वहां अज्ञान खुद को विज्ञान कहलाता है। (jahan gyaan ka abhaav hai, wahan agyaan khudko vigyaan kehlata hai), i.,e., where knowledge is scarce, ignorance masquerades as science.

and more such delectable quotes from our interaction with the legendary bhaskar save - the main objective of the 4 day trip. and needless to say, my stand out experience from gujarat.
he became a internet phenom and the darling of activists, with his open letter castigating MS Swaminathan on his lead role in destroying the country's agriculture.
in person, he indicates that Nehru was just as culpable.

after 3 years of conventional (chemical intensive) farming in the early 50s, bhaskarbhai quickly comprehended the loss-inducing economics and soil damaging characteristics of this method.
after coming across gandhiji's 4 principles of farming, he transformed his farm using the natural farming approach. the 4 principles:
1. ahimsa - all living beings have an equal right on earth.
2. everything that nature allows to grow is useful.
3. खेती धंदा नहीं, धर्म है - kheti dhanda nahin, dharm hai (agriculture is not a business, but one's duty/religion).
4. we (humans) only have the rights over fruits and seeds. the rest belongs to nature/soil.
gandhiji's remarkable writings on a whole host of topics are easily available here.
gandhiji was one of the earliest environmentalists and his insight and foresight is amazing.

back to bhaskarbhai then.
the shift to natural farming methods quickly made him and his farm - kalpavruksh, an agricultural shrine.
the list of organic farmers in gujarat runs to over 100 pages and the credit rests lightly on his shoulders.
later day natural/organic farming evangelists - palekar, dabholkar, suchde, etc., have learnt at this gurukul.

kalpavruksh was visited in 1997 by the god-awesome fukuoka.
his entries in the visitors' book are captured below.




a forest of a variety of fruit and other trees thickly populate the farm.


trees are vital for agriculture. it is tragic that this simple concept is such an absent sight in today's farmlands.

he grows (along with 2 sons and a grandson), tons of coconuts (a record breaking 300-400 nuts per tree) - which he mostly sells as saplings, chikoos (sapotas), betelnet, custard apple, papayas, bananas, aloe vera, rice, wheat, moong dal and an assortment of herbs and seasonal vegetables.
this list is populated by short life grains/legumes/vegetables, medium life trees and long life trees.
this is the diversity that is critical for each farm.

in each patch, there is a croton, which is a groundwater indicator (its roots reaches down only till 8 inches and if it looks dull, then the top 8 inches lacks necessary moisture). simple and elegant, eh.


here is our group - siddharth, csm, bhaskarbhai and ananthu and karpagam behind the camera.


we had flooded him with a lot of questions over a 3 hour session on day 2 of the visit. he fielded them with the aplomb that azhar displayed against klusener.
bhaskarbhai summarises, "it is all in shraddha (श्रद्धा), saboori (सबूरी) and prayog (प्रयोग) (dedication, patience and experimentation)."

spinning the charkha

the gujarat trip covered umargam and ahemdabad. 2 days at each place.

ahemdabad is dear for many reasons, the key one will be the sabarmati ashram.
the beauty of this ashram is that few of the works initiated by gandhiji still continues, albeit under different trusts and diluted in pace and principles...
there is no entrance fee and anyone can take a tour of hrudaykunj - gandhiji's kutir - with no nagging security.
it simply reflects the same spirit of openness and transparency of the original ashram times.

we spun the charkha (again free for visitors to try).
it is so simple, elegant and enthralling. it will take more than 5 minutes to master.
but each of us (karpagam, ananthu and myself) were left shivering with a sense of wonderment and amazement.
simply put, it was watching an amazing transformation in front of your eyes and it is not just the cotton to yarn which i am talking about.

i reiterate my earlier position on making this a compulsory part of primary education.
we certainly aim to master this, install one at pR and positively move to weaving the yarn and wearing hand spun organic non-BT cotton.

inspirational gujaratis

spent 4 days in gujarat.
visited farms, met mega inspiring people.
absolutely some of the best experiences in life.
details shortly.

Meri Jaan Meri Jaan – Cycling on Sunday

Sunday is a day off for us too. We had the time to ourselves and we decided to take a cycle trip (our preferred mode of local transport) around the neighbourhood.

The route we took was a full circle with pR as a point on the circumference.

pR -> Kaatudevadoor -> Chittamoor ->Mudukarai -> Jamin Endathur -> pR (the names roll off the tongue with so much vigour, doesn't it).

The country-side is just a splendid place. Small villages, tons of greenery, low traffic roads (hence low noise), colourful temples by the dozen and lovely birds.

The 3 hours we spent (including stops for chai, etc) saw us cover over 22 kms and make us the current endurance champions of Jamin Endathur. We had met a couple of locals on the way and when we indicated the route we took, incredulous looks met us and mental calculators whirred away (to arrive at the 22 kms figure).

So what started out as a simple Sunday morning stroll has made us popular in the neighbourhood.

More cycling the in the coming Sundays.

honey drenched trip

we spent 3 days at sengottai and it was memorable.
the beauty of the place left me in little doubt on kerala's claim as God's own country.
the village we went to was around 6 kms westwards towards the kerala border and at the foot of the western ghats. spellbinding natural beauty.
it was certainly more kerala than tamilnadu in its geography.










and one of the key moments was honey drenched.
to see a hive at extreme close up and to eat the honey fresh of the comb was ultra-sweet!
bees do sting, but we were a bit lucky. we did not even realise (the bee-box looks like a harmless post box until we got a closer dekko. by then the honey and curiosity had lulled our normally sharp senses :-)

on a short trip

we are off to sengottai (in tamil it means red fort).
it is close to the TN-Kerala border in southern TN.

we will stay with an old friend, who has been farming for the last 3 years.

will be like a trial run of sorts. will be nicely out of the reach of all technologies except phones :-)

more when we are back.

dams of maharashtra - bhandardara and vaitarna

spent 2 days at the picturesque bhandardara MTDC resort. it is famous for a 90 year old dam on the pravara river for provision of water to ahmednagar city.







while we were there, we also managed to drive through the just as picturesque vaitarna dam.
a lot of mumbai's water supply is from here - over 150 kms away.



and the lake levels looked low (with no earlier standard for comparison, i am surely biased by the reports which indicate low levels).

in short, it was a nice exploration into the small/medium dams of maharashtra.
recommend to readers.
stay at the MTDC resort - book in advance either in the monsoon season or in the winters.
there are a couple of other resorts, but MTDC (for all its other faults) has the best location and excellent food.

king long

warped minds will warp their minds over this title.
king long is a famous name in mumbai as they have invaded the city over the last 2 years like no one.

ok, ok...
the fleet of the new AC buses used by BEST (as part of the Bus Rapid Transit System-BRTS) and of late by MSRTC (mumbai pune route) is king long buses. (on the mumbai-pune AC bus route aka Volvo, the king longs are improving their market share)


pic courtesy: Sharmeen Sahibole

these chinese-make buses are an attempt to woo the car-based travellers from the suburbs to the town-side. and from the initial looks of it, they are making an attempt.
currently BEST operates 10 routes.
we have taken 2 of them.
they are obviously very comfortable and all that. and tickets are in the range of Rs 15 (min) - 100 (max). pretty reasonable.

but if you are in a taxi/auto/2-wheeler and are behind the king longs, the heat/noise from the AC and engine is quite unbearable.

take it the next time you are in the city.

last flight

i think i have taken my last flight of my life.
i do not see why and how i shall be able to take one again knowing its carbon footprint and also that i shall be mostly a drive away from family emergencies.

i shall miss looking at the cities and all sundry views from the top.
i will be happy to pass the claustrophobia, awful food, high pressure ramming you ears, etc.

the indian airports (can speak for mumbai and chennai) are nothing like how they were when i used to frequent them 7 years ago.
they are all sparkling and shiny all over the place.

we did something, which we reckon, that must rank as unique. from the airport exit, we took BEST to reach home. this is a stellar feature of the mumbai airport which allows public transport into the main airport exit area. all other cities fail miserably on this count.